American Original
The story of Lord Death Man is a retelling of an earlier story in the American Batman comics. In it, Death-Man appears as a man in a skeleton costume wearing a baggy skull mask over his face. His most notable power is the apparent ability to come back from the dead.
He first appears robbing a gem dealer that Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson are attending with a gang of armed hoods dressed similarly. Batman and Robin are able to apprehend him following the robbery.
Later, at his sentencing, he is sentenced to death only to apparently suffer a fatal heart attack whilst mocking the judge for believing he can sentence Death-Man to death. Batman and Robin attend his funeral. In fact, they are the only people attending aside from the grave digger. That night, Bruce has a nightmare of Death-Man mocking him for trying to prosecute a dead man. Thinking a change of scenery is needed, Bruce and Dick vacation in Jamaica. While they are vacationing, they hear news that Death-Man has killed again, despite being dead.
The Dynamic Duo hunt down Death-Man in the Batcopter and chase him to a junkyard. While Robin takes down Death-Man’s gang, Batman confronts Death-Man again, only for him to fall dead once more, still grinning “like a vulture that had the last laugh”. Once again, Death-Man is buried.
While attending a side show of a magician being buried alive, Batman realizes that Death-Man has been faking his deaths using yoga. Batman digs up his coffin only to find a note mocking him. Death-Man confronts Batman once more in the graveyard while a lightning storm is going on. During his battle with Batman, he is able to successfully shoot Batman in the arm before being struck dead by lightning attracted by the gun.
Batman Incorporated
The Death Man Batman and Robin fought years ago has traveled to Japan as “Lord Death Man” to kill all of the Japanese super heros and take the country for his own. One of his earliest targets is the original Mr. Unknown who he murders by breaking pouring acid all over him. When Mr. Unknown’s body double Jiro Osamu sees the crime, Lord Death Man sends his henchmen after him, but Jiro gets away.
Lord Death Man then captures Jiro’s girlfriend, which leads Jiro to shoot him multiple times, causing Lord Death Man to plumet out a three story window. When Batman and Catwoman come to break up the fight, Batman concludes Lord Death Man has received some “upgrades.” Those upgrades include being able to come back from the dead, as he wakes up mid autopsy, and murders many civilians in a hospital.
Lord Death Man races towards his next target, Aquazon of the Super Young Team, but is eventually defeated for good by Batman, Catwoman and Jiro (dressed as Mr. Unknown.) Knowing that Lord Death Man will never be able to die, thus will do anything he can to escape capture, Batman decides to give him a fate “worse than death” and launches Lord Death Man into deep space, never to be seen again.
However, during the Outsiders infiltration of Leviathan Orbital HQ, they come across Lord Death Man (who has seemed to off escaped Batman’s deep-space
containment capsule). He laughs and exclaims, “Welcome to the Dead Heroes Club!” (referencing Grant Morrison’s earlier Club of Heroes story in Batman: The Black Glove) as the entire space station is blown up from the inside.
Both Lord Death Man and the Outsiders survived the explosion. Metamorpho used his elemental abilities to shield the others from the explosion while Lord Death Man’s body jettisoned to Earth. His unconscious body was recovered by Ra’s al Ghul and his servants. Ra’s has Lord Death Man placed in a siphoning device in order to drain the Lazarus Pit fluids from his body. Ra’s intends to restore the pits and give life to his new League of Assassins who have been dubbed the Sons of Batman.
Powers and Abilities
Lord Death Man’s primary ability is coming back from the dead. He’s been able to survive multiple events that would lead to any ordinary human’s demise including gun wounds and the vacuum of space. This power is partially biological (his blood can be used to create the substance found in Lazarus Pits) and skill based (he has been able to slow down his own heart rate using yoga-style techniques).
Along with his healing ability comes some superhuman durability and stamina. He has continued fighting when Talon attempted to use pressure points on him as well as staying conscious after being shot by two tranquiliser darts to the face. Lord Death Man has stated he doesn’t have to sleep either.
Lord Death Man has some proficiency in hand-to-hand combat and has been able to kill a room-full of scientist without aid.
He also claims to remember everything he’s learnt “from the Dim Mak technique to the name of every single Pokémon and their evolved forms”. Along with his memory, he appears to have some knowledge in mechanics as he has created death-traps in the past.
Other Media
Batman: Brave and the Bold
In the episode “Bat-Mite Presents Batman’s Strangest Cases!”, Lord Death Man appears in an adaptation of the manga story. The story is mostly faithful to the original, save for the implication that he parachuted to safety following a collision with power lines. Bat-Mite implicates this was a change in “the American dub”, lamp-shading the segment being done in the style of early anime.