5 Smartest Batman Moments in Comics

Contrary to what many villains say, Batman is just a man. He’s an impossibly skilled man, sure, but in a world with people who can run faster than light or benchpress planets, Bruce is about as close to normal as it gets. Despite that, he goes out to battle crime every night and even stands alongside veritable gods like Superman. Batman has spent a lifetime mastering every discipline he could get his hands on, but at the end of the day, it’s not the Tibetan monk techniques or power armor that let him fight alongside the Justice League. Batman’s greatest strength has always been and will always be his mind.

Bruce isn’t called the World’s Greatest Detective for nothing. He’s one of the smartest men in the world. If he’s not second, then he is a very close third. Batman uses his intelligence to even the playing field against even the most insane opponents. His plans to take down the Justice League are the most obvious example, but anyone can plan to take down someone eventually. What sets Batman apart is how he can think on the fly, adapt, and plan intricate, layered traps that nobody can see coming. Bruce internalizes and learns like nobody else, and today, we’re celebrating Batman’s biggest strength by looking at five of his smartest comic-book moments.

5) Taking Back Gotham During “No Man’s Land”

When an unprecedented earthquake ripped Gotham apart, it was declared a no-man’s land and cordoned off from the United States. It descended into chaos, with villains dividing the land into territories ruled by their gangs. After months, Batman dropped into this new hellscape and immediately adapted. He marched right in and pieced together the new currency was bullets, then made the most public announcement of his return imaginable by taking Scarface’s turf. Batman proceeded to reclaim Gotham City, block by block. 

Along the way, Bruce founded a new incarnation of the Batman Family, which helped him organize the disparate citizens into a city once again. Batman united Gotham under him and restored the people’s faith, all while becoming a new type of hero. He combined his insane preparation, such as safe houses stored all over Gotham, with his ability to read the situation and carve order out of the most intense chaos. This was one of Batman’s longest, most thorough plans of all, and he constantly made the right choices to save his home. He even foresaw Luthor’s plan to buy Gotham out from under the people’s noses and returned it to the people. 

4) Answering the Riddler’s Questions Before He Asks

This is a more recent example of Batman’s insane intellect, taken from the pages of Batman (2016) #92. The Riddler erected barriers across the entire city, turning it into one massive crossword puzzle. He challenged Batman to solve it, and if he got even one question wrong, bombs all over the city would go off. A normal person would need a pencil and paper, but Batman has never done anything normally. He rattled off answers to each of Riddler’s questions immediately, all while figuring out where he was hiding, even while cut off from communications.

Bruce hopped into his Bat-Train, barreling towards Riddler’s location, which he figured out was his office in Wayne Enterprises. Riddler demanded that he play fairly, and Batman answered by filling in lines before he was even asked the questions. He solved the crossword in his head with nothing but his memory of Gotham’s grid and about three words filled out. Even Riddler, Batman’s smartest villain, thought he was cheating, but Batman was just that smart. This is an insane feat of memory, general knowledge, and deduction, all of which are Batman’s bread and butter.

3) Creating a Backup Personality

Batman’s plans are downright legendary. He plans for every possible contingency and thing that could go wrong, and that’s shown no better than when he created the backup personality, Zur-En-Arrh. The villainous Dr. Hurt spent years laying a trap to break Batman’s mind. He subtly implanted messages and events to push Batman to psychologically shatter, and when it finally worked, he thought he won, but all he did was reveal Batman’s most insane contingency. When his mind was compromised, the backup personality, going by Zur-En-Arrh, took over, acting as a psychotic version of Batman. 

Zur-En-Arrh protected Bruce and continued the mission to buy the real mind time to heal, which he did in full. Creating an entire extra personality to subconsciously take over should his mind ever become compromised is utterly insane, because who would even consider something like that? Batman, apparently, and he was rewarded for his paranoid preparedness, as Zur-En-Arrh was instrumental in saving the day.

2) Threatening Darkseid With His Own Bombs

In the pages of Superman/Batman, the post-Crisis version of the original Supergirl landed on Earth, and Darkseid set his eyes on making her his newest servant. He kidnapped Kara and brainwashed her to become one of his Female Furies, setting her against Superman, who he knew would never hurt his cousin. Batman, knowing they couldn’t beat Darkseid and save Supergirl in any way that mattered with just a fight, took a different approach.

Batman marched into Darkseid’s throne room and announced that he had overwritten all of Darkseid’s Hellspores, enough to destroy Apokalips, and armed them to explode. He used Big Barda’s Mother Box to hack them and reprogram them, then read out the old launch codes to Darkseid as the New God beat his butt. Batman stared down the God of Evil, knowing that he won before he even entered the room. This is one of Batman’s ballsiest moves, and easily one of his smartest, having overwritten New God technology and outwitted Darkseid himself.

1) Discovering the Hyperclan are White Martians

Batman is smart in nearly every field, but his area of expertise is, without a doubt, detection. He’s the World’s Greatest Detective, and he can solve any mystery as long as he gets any clues. He showed that best in JLA (1997) #3. The villainous Hyperclan was a group of seemingly unstoppable super-berings who tore apart the world’s greatest heroes. They captured every member of the Justice League except Batman, but even though they thought he was the farthest thing from a threat, he proved them all wrong.

He broke into their base and strung their one member up in minutes. When the others confronted him, he revealed that he figured out they were White Martians from their powers and how they avoided inspecting the burning wreckage of his Batplane. Three Martians attacked him, but Batman had coated the room in gasoline and easily knocked them all down. Never underestimate Batman, and never give him anything. If he even has an inch, he can take the whole darn mile with a smile. 

Batman has all kinds of incredibly smart moments, but which one is your favorite?  Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts on the ComicBook Forum!

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