10 Times Batman Outsmarted Everyone

[Music] even to those who aren't huge DC fans it's pretty obvious that Batman is one of the smartest superheroes in the universe if not arguably the single smartest superhero out there limited human capabilities aside there are pretty much zero characters within DC that haven't come up against Batman's incredible intellect and the practically paranoid level of playing that he carries out whether it proves that Batman has god tier intellect and tactical knowledge or just that he's really really bad at trusting anyone but himself is unclear but what is clear is if you spend more than three minutes in a room with the mass vigilante chances are he's going to own a plan to destroy you and it's surprisingly one of the most endearing qualities The Dark Knight has so I'm ewin this is what culture Comics there are 10 times Batman outsmarted everyone number 10 JLA New World Order with the first issue of the 1997-2006 Justice League of America comic there was truly no better way to kick off the new run than by highlighting all the hero's new abilities while this was done for the whole team Batman unmistakably gets the best moments within the New World Order storyline as the plot seems focused on showing just how terrifying the targeted planning of Batman can be after the white martians that are targeting the league write Batman off as just a human who boy the Knight begins doing what he does best as he strikes fear first Into the Heart of aliens by sneakily taking out one of their number and then single-handedly defeats four more by using their fear of fire to force them to concede it's all enough that one the Martians begins to genuinely try and figure out what Batman's superpower actually is completely missing the most intimidating part about the hero that even without powers he can do absolutely anything now I don't know about you but this moment was rendered in potentially traumatizing detail during the Justice League cartoon of the early noughties I know I know it's not a beat for beat adaptation of Morrison's Justice League but just picture five-year-old Ewan looking on in horror as Batman is seemingly blasted to death by those pesky white martians I'll leave him to jump out the Raptors and spoil that big brain squid things plan my hero 9. The Dark Knight Returns the Dark Knight Returns is probably one of the best examples of how an aged Batman would behave namely in that he would not and would try to do heroics dance Way Beyond that which his body could manage although it initially appears that his cause of death was a fight with Superman gone wrong it is later revealed that his fires actually gone very very right and that Batman has faked his death in order to disappear from the public eye and Trail the next generation of Vigilantes while the plan is ever so slightly ruthless as it appears to bank on not telling many people who were close to him such as Selena shown grieving at his funeral this is perhaps what makes it work best as aside from Superman and Robin there is nobody who can spread the secret of the dark Knight's continued existence having Batman's final public moment be part of an elaborate scheme to convince everyone who's died it's perhaps the most in character way to have the character retire even if it is a little bit sad number eight defeating Prometheus of the many enemies Batman has faced in his years Prometheus has to be up there in the villains that have genuinely posed a proper threat to him with the helmet that program's insane martial arts skills and reflexes into his nervous system Prometheus has the advantage literally programmed into himself being able to learn skills that took Batman years to master in literal minutes and yet this doesn't stop Batman absolutely destroying the villain upon their second encounter when Oracle damages prometheus's newest helmet he reversed to his old backup which Batman had been able to study and uses his Newfound knowledge to hack into it from this The Dark Knight carries out the single most Innovative takeout possible reprogramming all the prometheus's fighting prowess into the limited physical capabilities of talented scientist Stephen Hawking who is Afflicted with motor neuron disease elaborate takedowns are not unusual for Batman to dish out but managing to completely flip a situation from something unwillable to almost easy will always remind us of just how smart Batman is and just how scary that he can be at that number 7. no man's land while Batman is placed in a position of trying to retake Gotham for most of No Man's Land the series did make it evident that the hero can outsmart just about everyone he needs to without any plan whatsoever from ventriloquist poison ivy scarecrow and pretty much any villain he can lay his hands on Batman slowly extracts their control over the city I'm beginning to slowly replace it with his own Law and Order albeit a rudimentary sword given the limited capabilities and supplies Gotham has throughout the series the level of playing this requires shows us the intense amount of thought but I'm put into every aspect of his hero identity as everything from building the Mythos of Batman to working out how to build a society that still functions when he's not directly present is explained on the page a lot of comics require you to already assume that Batman is intelligent to believe he is capable of his Feats in no man's land you can begin reading thinking Batman was a complete and you'd still think he was capable of outsmarting anyone by the time you got to the end number six Batman hush given that you can't really prepare for someone using their considerable Surge and skill to make their face the perfect mirror of your own it's pretty impressive that Batman practically managed to do just that in Batman hush more impressive however is the way that the hero slowly pieces together the mystery of who hush is over the course of the comic in a way that feels very believable while still being about the extravagant cast of Batman's Rogues Gallery it's by far one of the best detective stories of the world's greatest detective and the genuine mystery hush's identity see crate only serves to reinforce the actual cognitive skills The Dark Knight has worked so tirelessly to attain as if to emphasize this just a little further the comic also contains Batman interrogating The Riddler on how he learns his true identity and manages to ensure that his secret will never be leaked by Enigma by reminding him that should it be leaked the Riddler would no longer be special for knowing it adding that fun and clever moment to a series chock full of him number 5. JLA Avengers aside from Iron Man Captain America is perhaps the one Avenger that people like to imagine in theoretical fights against Batman and so when the JLA Avengers crossover was announced many presume that this climatic battle would finally go from theoretical to on the pages of a real comic but of course as impressive as an all-out fight between the two could have been what actually occurs is a small grapple that is over in the space of a few panels somehow this doesn't feel like a letdown as instead of fighting Batman tells Captain America that while either of them could win the fight the true enemy is whoever put them up against each other in the first place in a move that manages to take the two of them from fighting to the superhero equivalent of Buddy cops to the rest of the series sometimes bam being smart isn't him taking down an enemy but rather recruiting them instead number four final crisis there's something naturally soothing to the brain to see Batman encounter smug villains with superiority complexes and then watch him mercilessly dunk on them with elaborate intelligent plans and of all the DC Villains Darkseid is undeniably the smuggished and thus the most satisfying to see taken down by Batman himself upon learning that Orion and dark side have roughly the same genetic makeup Batman analyzes the bullet that took Orion out until he finds its most important components Radeon building a Radeon bullet and a gun specially made for it the Dark Knight hunts dark side down and straight up shoots him with it breaking his one rule this time to save the world while this scheme only works with some later temporal Shenanigans with the help of The Flash it's still mind-blowingly impressive that Batman should take down Darkseid in a way that was still somehow totally in character try me indeed number three JLA Tower of Babel with the vast majority of Batman's outsmarting moans aimed at undermining supervillains it's particular really interesting to see one of the few times that Batman's skills were aimed against his fellow Justice League members the most brutal example here is Tower of Babel where it was revealed that Batman has contingency plans prepare to take out any and all members of the Justice League something they find out when race al Ghul steals these plans and actively uses them against them the rest of the team are justifiably not best pleased and this serves to highlight one particularly important part of Batman's ability to outsmart everyone in that it sometimes returns to bite him in the kevlar-clad ass although the heroes do eventually stop rage the final was The Dark Knight scheme in the first place sets his teammates totally against him and results in him being kicked out of the Justice League in the same issue in a move that neither party can be quite blamed for number 2. Batman Rock of Ages true to the badass name that is Rock of Ages the series sees maybe one of Batman's finest moments yet as the hero manages to outsmart Metron who is supposed to be one of the smartest characters in the DC Universe due to his 12th level intellect however the comic proves that a 12 level intellect isn't enough to dodge getting a mean left hook to the face as Batman manages to convince match want to drop its more mobility in order to be able to empathize with the Mortal Heroes the minute Metron does Batman knocks him out cold and then injects him with a hypnotic agent into his bloodstream meaning the heroes now have him as a somewhat reluctant Ally given how much Metron is built up as a new gold with power equatable to Dark Side having Batman outsmart him is a perfect way to highlight the dark Knight's intelligence number one Batman rip if anyone were to tell you that one of the smartest Batman plans of all time involved him repressing a secret Alter Ego in his own psyche that only ever came out in emergencies you would presume they were completely insane yet this exact plot points which is unveiled in all its glory and Bowen rip it's allowed to downwardly cleverest ways Batman has ever outsmarted anyone to date in full entirely surreal Technicolor The Dark Knight occurs from the systematic assault the black love have launched upon Him by becoming something entirely other as his training kicks in and reboots the repressed Alter Ego to take over the story is undeniably incredibly weird with bass might at one point stating that Bruce created the zero Nar Alter Ego after having a hallucination of an powerful alternate universe Batman during our hero going through a space isolation experiment which is somehow infinitely weirder than the grown man wearing a skin type spandex suit to punch people in and yet somehow despite that it contains one of the most classic Batman moments to date Long Live zorena and that was our list do you know of any other occasions of the world's greatest detective outsmart of the competition let us know in the comments below and don't forget to like share and subscribe as it really does help us out as always I've been doing catch mine and Zoe's articles over on whatculture.com forward slash comics and I'll see you next time bye foreign

Channel: WhatCulture Comics

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Length: 10min 0sec (600 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 06 2019