Character Analysis - Kite Man (DC) Info
Kite Man
Background
Debut: Batman Vol 1 #133 (August 1960)
Full Name: Charles “Chuck” Brown Sr.
Age: Unknown
Gender: Male
Height: 5’11” | 180 cm
Weight: 155 lbs | 70 kg
Backstory:
There’s not much to say about Charles in terms of his Post-Crisis rendition; just a simple guy who likes kites. He likes kites so much in fact he decided: “Y’know, I should commit crimes with these because why not” and so he did, becoming the famous (or infamous in this case) Kite Man! Facing the Dynamic Duo a couple of times and even Hawk Duo and Zatanna before getting reduced to a fodder punching bag. He later became a soldier and citizen of the supervillain-populated country: Zandia…where he didn’t do that much aside from getting his arm chopped off and uhh yeah that’s about it. After the fall of Zandia, he returned back to his status quo of being a joke cameo in the background before his untimely demise at the hands of Bruno Mannheim after he refused to join his gang.
Luckily, his entire canon got completely rebooted during Rebirth and made him a much better character, literally and figuratively. Now being a simple aerodynamics engineer… Who just so happened to work on the aerodynamics of the Jokermobile, Riddler would involve him as one of the central pieces in the War of Jokes and Riddlers with a terribly convoluted plan in an attempt to make the Joker laugh (long story). How convoluted? Well, he first got Joker to kill all the other people who worked on Jokermobile so Batman would go to him in an attempt to find the Joker’s location. Then when the meeting point was set, Riddler got his men to face the Joker’s men as well as Batman, where the Joker would successfully get Chuck out of the war zone before hitting him with a LowTierGod. Oh and if that wasn’t bad enough, Riddler killed his son by poisoning the rope of his favourite kite. Like the Joker once said: “All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy”, and calling this day bad would be a terrible understatement. Driving into grief, Chuck would build himself a costume and a new persona along with it: Kite Man. Hell Yeah.
Joining the side of the Joker in the war, Chuck soon found himself fighting a losing war, especially after Batman joined the side of the Riddler. Eventually, he became the last soldier left in Joker’s army and reluctantly gave up Joker’s location after being beaten down by the Bat until he lost consciousness. However, during the final confrontation in the war, Kite Man turned out to be allying with Batman and tricked Riddler’s special forces into wearing special kites that sent them up into the death zone. Buuuuuut that turned out to be Riddler’s grand scheme in the first place, to create the joke of Kite Man through the death of his son and then have him humiliatingly defeat him and his army, all to make Joker laugh. And worst of all, it didn’t even work! Nevertheless, Chuck got his requisite revenge over Riddler and in a way, both Batman and Joker as well.
The ballad of Kite Man doesn’t just stop there, he has appeared several times in different comics over the years, even gaining actual superpowers and help save the world one time despite him being reduced to canon fodder most of the time. All in all, despite being treated as a joke all his life, his sheer resolve, drive and possible naivety are something to be respected.
“There’s an old story. I ever tell you this? Like a guy is pushing a boulder to the top of this hill. And he’s cursed. So, like, every time he gets it right at the top, it rolls down. That’s the curse. He never makes it. But he has to get it up, so he goes back down and gets it and does it over. Pushing it up again. Watching it fall. Over and over. Forever. That’s a joke, right? It’s funny. Right at the top, he’s happy, and… whoops! And that’s me. That’s all of us. We’re all just pushing a boulder. Whatever we are trying, we’re going to watch it fall, we’re going to hear them laugh. Right at the top of the hill. All of us. We’re all jokes. But the thing is, right, you got to laugh, too. It’s the only way. I mean, you got to laugh with them. Only I’m a joke. I’m a joke and I’m funny! Then you’re laughing with them. And if you’re laughing with them. Then at least you’re laughing.”
Equipment
Pre-Flashpoint
Kites: As by the namesake, Kite Man’s preferred weapon of choice is… Kites!
Backpack Kite: The most iconic kite in his lineup of kites. With a tug of a string the backpack on his back springs open to form a kite filled with compressed air as well as twin jets that allows him to fly.
Box-Kite: A big red box kite that can drop tear gas and nerve gas bombs with a simple click of a button as well as be strong enough to carry Batman.
Colossal Kite: A giant kite ship thing that’s powered by a wind turbine, used to help a bunch of prisoners escape.
Flash-Bulb Kite: A kite with a flashbulb strap on it that can produce a glaring light to blind opponents.
Net Kite: A kite that can shoot out a net from the top that’s big enough to trap three people.
Glider Kite: A kite that doubles as a glider… which just makes it a glider. Used for emergencies and quick getaways.
Dragon Kite: A kite that’s usually flown during Chinese festivals which also can be used parachute.
Remote-Controlled Kites: As the name implies, these are smaller kites that can be remotely controlled with a small remote and can self-detonate like fireworks.
Miscellaneous Kites: Other kites that he has used over the years that he never gave a name for;
Hang Glider: A big yellow hang glider he used to commit various crimes; can carry him along with bags of money.
Guns: A couple of firearms he has used in his schemes;
Pistol: A simple pistol that can fire 6 shots.
Nerve Gas Gun: A gun that can nerve gas whenever he wants to double-cross anyone.
Pterodactyl-Controlling Device: A device when struck onto a Pterodactyl can control its flight and movement; can be preprogrammed to fly in a certain path and swoop down on civilians.
Binoculars: A pair of binoculars to spy upon people from afar. Later had an upgraded pair that had a 150x magnification.
Post-Flashpoint
Kite Man Suit: A special suit created by Chuck himself for his schemes, it has strings from his backpack connected to his gloves to allow for quick and easy deployment and redeployment of his kite, and can offer minor protection as well from things like Batarangs. The backpack can be removed.
Kites: As again, per his namesake, Kateman has various kites at his disposal.
Transport Kites: Simple kites designed for transport and that’s it.
Jet-Propelled Inverse Parachutes: Chuck’s own invention, parachutes that quicken your ascent instead of slowing your fall, sending opponents to an attitude where they pass out from oxygen deficiency.
Powers & Abilities
Kite Flying and Hang Gliding Skills: Kite Man has an extremely keen sense of balance and, is extremely proficient at flying kites and hang gliding as excepted by a man with that kind of name. He’s seasoned enough that Batman admits that he has far more experience in manoeuvring a glider.
Engineering Skills: In both Pre and Post-Flashpoint, Chuck has shown to be a competent engineer able to build the vast majority of his meticulous kites; being good enough that he got hired forced to work on the aerodynamics of the Jokermobile and built his own invention such as the Jet-Propelled Inverse Parachutes.
Project Cadmus (Formely): Experiments done on prisoners that gave them the DNA of the Titans, Chuck was one of the successful subjects, giving the powers of;
Restraining Hex: One of Raven’s powers, could restrain Dove with magical circles.
Beast Boy's Animal Transformations: Beast Boy’s power, turned into a tiger with this.
Super/Freeze Breath: One of Superboy’s powers, could blow back the Titans and freeze Red Hood’s shoes as well as guns with this.
Starfire's Bolts: Gained Starfire’s ability to shoot out ‘Starbolts’ and absorb energy from others.
Raven's Soul-Self: Can manifest his soul as an astral projection of a raven to project onto his opponents, could blow back Nightwing and Wonder Girl with this.
Flight: With Project Cadmus, he no longer needs kites to fly, now he’s able to do so all by himself. Being able to fly in space means he also has resistance to cosmic radiation and extreme temperatures as well as self-substance.
Telekinesis: One of Raven’s power, is used to destroy two spaceships.
While not shown should have the other powers of Superboy, Raven, Wonder Girl, Beast Boy, Starfire, Nightwing, Red Hood, Hawk and Dove as well as the powers seen here.
Eventually, like all good things in comics, Chuck returned to his status quo after his DNA got permanently reversed back to its original state by the Tamaranean sisters.
Feats
Strength
Pre-Flashpoint
Knocked out Batman with... a kite.
Was able to kick Robin off his kite.
Could scuffle with Bug-Eyed Bandit II.
Post-Flashpoint
Could briefly carry both one of the Tweedle brothers and Scarecrow.
Project Cadmus Chuck could:
Speed
Pre-Flashpoint
Outmanoeuvres Batman who's in his Bat-Glider with his own glider.
Able to escape before he’s able to be captured by his own Net Kite.
Post-Flashpoint
Project Cadmus Chuck could:
Durability
Pre-Flashpoint
Post-Flashpoint
Unfazed from crashing through a skyscraper window and out of one.
Pushed through being brutally beat up by the Batman (twice, thrice), Joker and Two-Face.
Endured a kick to the face from Flashpoint Batman but got knocked out.
Tanks a punch from Calendar Man and briefly endured getting slashed in the eyes.
Project Cadmus Chuck could:
Training, Intelligence & Experience
Pre-Flashpoint
Implied to have experienced engineering knowledge as seen by his various special kites.
Is an experienced hang glider.
Most of his plans have some sort of preparation.
Post-Flashpoint
Built his own secret headquarters; the Kitequarters.
Overall
Pre-Flashpoint
Is Kite Man
Successfully stole some blueprints
Was able to defeat Batman and Robin one time
Had the balls to face off against Hawkman, Hawkgirl and Zatanna
Post-Flashpoint
Is Kite Man
Made Batman say his catchphrase
A major player in the War of Jokes and Riddles
Ended up outsmarting the Riddler and getting his revenger with help from Batman
Helped save the world from a Citadel invasion along with the Titans
Scaling
Should downscale from both Batman and Robin in the stat trinity Pre-Flashpoint as he has shown to knock Batman out and take a kick from him as well as briefly keep pace with the Dynamic Duo.
In turn, should downscale from other Pre-Flashpoint DC street-tier feats such as;
Adam Strange without his forcefield being able to survive being launched to a sun.
Harley survived enough compressed gravity to create a crater.
Green Arrow, Speedy and Black Canary survived a building-busting bomb with no visible injuries.
Ray Palmer somehow being able to carry fragments from white dwarf stars.
In terms of Post-Flashpoint, I’m definitely iffy on scaling him to any of the usual DC street tier feats as he’s been a punching bag for 98% of his appearances and his major feats are him surviving being beaten to a pulp by characters who are most somewhat holding back. However, Project Cadmus Chuck should scale (see feats above for why he should scale) to DC street tier feat bare minimum in terms of durability and herald feats for AP & speed.
Weaknesses
Has poor leadership and is even poorer at hand-to-hand combat.
Cowardly and easy to give information when faced with death.
As Project Cadmus Chuck could be distracted or preoccupied with something else and lower his guard down and seemingly can only use one power at a time.
Somehow ended up on the cover of Heroes in Crisis.
Extra Trivia
Matt Oberg 👍
Is a joke and he knows it
Loved to double-cross people Pre-Flashpoint
Tom King gave him one of the best comeback story arcs
Final Statistics
Recommended Opponents
Mumen Rider
Stilt Man
The obligatory Marvel vs DC matchup. Probably the best one I've seen for him is Wilbur Day. Just simple D-Lister high-rising (literally) villains who always been on people's top 10 lamest superhero lists. Stilts vs Kites. What more could you ask honestly.
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