5 Batman Stories That Make No Sense

With a nearly 90-year history, Batman has lots of stories. From individual adventures to team-ups to even crossovers with Marvel Comics, the Dark Knight has been a major player in stories that have done it all. Many of those stories are great, going on to be notable tales that help to shape and define the character’s lore. Then there are stories that are that. Some of these stories are just average tales, others are weird, some are bad, and then there are those that, for whatever reason have elements that simply don’t make sense. After all, not every story in that long of a history can be a winner.

These five Batman stories fall into the category of not making sense. While some of them are still good stories, aspects of them leave us scratching our heads or wondering exactly how it was all supposed to work. There’s also one that is arguably the worst Batman story ever and its lack of making sense is only the tip of the iceberg.

5) “Joker War”

Overall, the “Joker War” story isn’t bad. There’s a citywide battle in which the Joker seeks to destroy Bruce Wayne and everyone in his orbit and given the Joker’s long history with Batman, that actually makes a lot of sense. The Joker stealing Bruce’s fortune as a part of this even makes a lot of sense because it’s exactly the kind of chaos the Clown Prince of Crime would carry out. It’s what comes after that doesn’t really makes sense.

While Batman inevitably regains his wealth — DC isn’t going to let Bruce Wayne be broke for long — we never really see the loss of his fortune have much of a real impact on the hero. We get a lot of performative discussion about Bruce having less, but he still seems to have everything he had before and operates exactly the same way. He moves out of Wayne Manor, sure, but his vigilante operation is certainly done on any kind of actual budget. It’s the lack of execution of Bruce actually being “broke” that makes “Joker War” nonsensical. If you’re going to financially devastate Batman, you should actually probably do something with that.

4) Detective Comics #241

Sometimes a story that doesn’t make sense is also one of those weird stories from the Silver Age and this is one such story. Detective Comics #241 gave readers “Rainbow Batman” and the story of why Batman was suddenly decked out in brightly covered costumes is what just makes absolutely no sense. In the story, Batman starts to grow increasingly concerned that the public will figure out that Dick Grayson is Robin after Dick injures his arm. Somehow, Batman’s idea to throw people off the trail is to start wearing brightly colored costumes in the various colors of the rainbow. His logic is that they’re a distraction from the injury.

Batman eventually puts on a costume that is multi-colored in the story and then, once Dick’s arm is healed, just goes back to his normal costume. The concern about being accidentally outed disappears at that point. The entire thing just makes no sense, which is even more hilarious when you realize that even Dick felt this way in-story, asking Batman why he was changing out his suits.

3) “I Am Gotham”

Another case of a good story that has an element that doesn’t make any sense is “I Am Gotham”. The first arc in Tom King’s Batman run, the story saw Batman encounter a brother and sister with super powers, Gotham and Gotham Girl. He takes them under his wing but they end up being driven insane by Psycho-Pirate. Batman has to stop them and that’s where things become a bit of a head-scratcher.

You see, Gotham is incredibly powerful. He’s depicted as being able to take down the Justice League entirely on his own. Despite the fact that using his powers eventually burn him out and he dies, he’s still insanely powerful and does not weaknesses like more heroes and villains that Batman fights. There’s no way that Batman should have been able to take him down and yet, he was able to.

2) Batman: Hush

Batman: Hush is an absolutely iconic Batman story. It’s not only a classic Batman tale and a classic DC story over all, but it is also an all-time great. The story sees the arrival of a mysterious figure known as Hush who turns out to be Thomas Elliot, one of Bruce Wayne’s oldest friends who is now seeking revenge on him because Bruce’s father saved his parents when young Thomas tried to kill them in an attempt to gain their inheritance.  It’s a really interesting story with a very personal villain, at least until the point it makes no sense.

That point? It’s revealed that the Riddler is the real mastermind behind the whole plot. As for why, that’s what doesn’t really make a lot of sense. It’s revealed that Riddler figured out Bruce Wayne is Batman, but there’s not any real explanation of what Riddler’s overall scheme here is. Hush’s motivations made sense but the Riddler’s less so. It’s still something that we’re trying to unpack years later.

1) All-Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder

File this one under a story that is just not good but also doesn’t make any sense at all. Frank Miller’s infamous All-Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder is just not great and that’s being kind. While the story is supposed to be about Batman taking in Dick Grayson and turning him into Robin, it’s more a story in which Batman is aggressive, abusive, violent, and overall just horrible. There is nothing heroic about Batman in this story whatsoever. He uses slurs, he does things that are so far outside of character for Batman in any situation that nothing about the book makes sense at all.

The peak of what doesn’t make sense about this story is honestly Batman’s treatment of young Dick. While there’s no doubt that training him to become Robin would have to be a little tough, the book sees Batman locking him in the Batcave and forcing the kid to survive by eating rats for a month, even going so far as the threaten Alfred when the kind butler tries to intervene. The only way anything about that makes sense is if Batman is the bad guy, and that’s not the case so this one just perplexes.

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