The Black Bat was the name of two unrelated pulp heroes featured in different pulp magazine series in the 1930s, most well known because of their similarity to DC Comics hero, Batman.
The first Black Bat
He appeared in Black Bat Detective Mysteries (published by The Berryman Press), a short-lived pulp which saw six issues, all written by Murray Leinster (a pen-name of William Fitzgerald Jenkins), between 1933 and 1934. The character was called Black Bat in the way Simon Templar was called the Saint; unlike the Simon Templar books, however, none of the Black Bat stories ever mentioned the character's real name.
The second Black Bat
In July 1939, Thrilling Publications (also known as Standard or Better) introduced a new Black Bat in a series called Black Book Detective. Written mainly by Norman A. Daniels under the house name G. Wayman Jones, the stories describe the crime-fighting career of former District Attorney Anthony Quinn. In a clear departure from most pulp characters and heroes, this Black Bat actually has an origin story. It describes how Quinn became the Black Bat after being blinded and disfigured by acid when trying to save evidence against Oliver Snate in court, an idea borrowed a few years later by DC Comics for the creation of both the hero Doctor Mid-Nite and the Batman villain Two-Face (when D.A. Harvey Kent is disfigured by having acid thrown in his face in Detective Comics #66, August 1942; his surname was later changed to Dent). (Marvel Comics later created Matt Murdock, the blind lawyer who gained "super senses" and became Daredevil.) The Black Bat left paper stickers of a bat stuck to his victims, so like The Spider before him (who stamped a blood-red spider stencil on the criminals' foreheads), innocent people would not be blamed for their deaths, and other criminals would come to fear him.
The Black Bat and Batman
Both the Black Bat and Batman hit the newsstands around the same time, and both claimed that the other was a copy. The threat of lawsuits ended when DC editor Whitney Ellsworth intervened. Ellsworth had once worked for the Black Bat's publishers and brokered a deal that allowed both characters to co-exist peacefully. It is probable that the costumes of both characters were copied from the 1933/34 Black Bat series which featured costumed illustrations of the Black Bat inside the pulps, although in reality, the "Black Bat" in the stories wore ordinary street clothes. Batman creator Bob Kane always contended that the only bat-like man he had seen was the villain from the 1930 film, The Bat Whispers. However, the Black Bat did have a permanent influence on the Batman: chief Batman scribe Bill Finger called Kane's attention to the wrist flaps, which appeared to be gauntlets the rival character was wearing. Subsequently, similar "fins" were added to Batman's gloves which remain to this day.
How the Black Bat got his abilities
In the first issue, DA Tony Quinn is blinded by acid thrown by a thug working for Oliver Snate, a crime lord, and believes his career is over until a mysterious woman arrives (Carol Baldwin). She tells him that her father is a small town policeman who is dying from a gangster's bullet and that a surgeon is willing to perform an operation to graft his corneas onto Tony Quinn's eyes so that he can see again. The operation is done in secret and when the bandages are removed four months later, Quinn finds that he can not only see normally but can even see perfectly in darkness too. While blind, Quinn had developed the necessary skills of the blind; sharper hearing, more sensitive touch, a better sense of smell, etc.
The other characters
Like many other crime fighters, Quinn is unhappy about all the criminals who slip through the law's net on legal technicalities, etc. and decides to work outside the law in another persona to bring them to justice, and so the Black Bat is born, with Quinn deciding to keep the role of a blind man and later acquires the title of "Special District Attorney". Con man, Norton "Silk" Kirby, a small-time crook who had tried to rob Tony Quinn (when sighted) one night and had been persuaded to stay on as "officially" a valet and this continued after Quinn was blinded. His many criminal skills are a valuable asset to the Black Bat. Carol, a "resourceful and intelligent girl" who is already working undercover in a gang decides to work with Quinn on his secret crusade and last comes Jack "Butch" O'Leary who risked his life to save a crowd from machine gun fire. None too intelligent but completely loyal and "a hulking giant of a man who was never happier than when his fists were flying in defense of the law and in the aid of the Black Bat".