Obeah Man (Character)

Created by: Alan Grant · Norm Breyfogle

First Appearance: Detective Comics #618 (July, 1990)

Abilities

• Occultism: The Obeah Man is a voodoo expert and black magician. The Obeah Man is also expertly trained in the Leidenfrost effect, which allows him to form a barrier of perspiration between his feet and hot coals, which allows him to participate in fire-walking voodoo rituals.
• The Obeah Man is an expert manipulator. He mostly relies on his two right-hand gunmen to do his dirty jobs, Louis Dange and Malicien.
• Hand-to-Hand Combat (Basic): The Obeah Man is also an average hand-to-hand combatant and is skilled with a knife he keeps with him at all times, being able to hold his own against Batman with the weapon.

Biography

The Obeah Man was a mighty Haitian criminal and alleged black magician (“obeah” is a voodoo word meaning, approximately, “black magic”) who kidnapped the parents of Tim Drake and demanded a ransom from Drake Industries for the couple’s safe return.

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He brutally murdered one of the Drake’s friends with a knife on tape to prove he meant business, sending the tape to the Drake Industries branch in Gotham City.

Batman soon got a call from Commissioner James Gordon, explaining the situation. Together, they reviewed the execution tape mailed in by the Obeah Man and after exhaustive investigation, Batman deduced the Drakes’ location. Batman traveled quickly to Haiti and intervened in a horrifying fire-walking voodoo ritual known as the Fire Ceremony held on a full moon to sacrifice the Drakes. Even though Drake Industries paid the ransom, the Obeah Man was still bent on killing Jack and Janet Drake, offering them as sacrifices to the spirits of Baron Samedi and Papa Legbra. Janet Drake was killed by the Obeah Man’s poison, which contained a powerful nerve toxin made from a Jimson root extract, while his father, Jack was left a cripple. In the ensuing battle between an enraged Batman and the Obeah Man, the latter was savagely beaten by Batman, overcome with grief and failure. The Obeah Man’s followers were beaten in a similar fashion, while others burned to death, falling on the fire-walking coals while fighting Batman. Batman later told Tim Drake that the Obeah Man would spend the rest of his life in a prison hospital.

The Obeah Man later bribed his way out of prison and returned to Haiti. Robin followed him and was forced to confront illusions of his dead parents. Robin wasn’t fooled, however, and defeated the Obeah Man. He then returned him to Gotham so he could be properly prosecuted.^[1]