It almost seems impossible for readers of Batman to escape tragic storylines. The origin of the Caped Crusader is arguably the most traumatizing and depressing origin story of any superhero. Bruce Wayne witnessing his parents viciously gunned down in the decaying crime infested streets of Gotham laid out a brutal reality that has captivated fans. These stories won't allow bat-fans to turn away from the dark attraction of this area in the DC Universe.
Tragedy not only fuels Batman but it sadly follows him. Death and violence is all to common in the life of the Dark Knight. In certain cases, even despite his best efforts, Batman may be liable for his own follies and causes more harm than good. While he's one of the best crime fighters ever, he's still only human.
10 Batman Failed To Convince Andrea Beaumont To Take A New Path
Andrea Beaumont is one of Batman's most notable relationships, as seen in the critically acclaimed animated movie Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. It's a heartbreaking story in which Bruce Wayne falls in love with the wealthy daughter of Carl Beaumont, who tragically gets involved with Gotham's underworld.
Both Bruce and Andrea share a sense of avenging the death of their parents but Batman pleas with Andrea to give up her murderous rampage and take a higher path, ultimately failing to convince her. While Alfred tells Bruce "no one could save her," Batman's lack of persuasion is at fault for not saving their relationship and essentially leaving Andrea to end up alone.
9 Batman Takes Venom After He's Unable To Save A Victim
Bane is not the only one in Gotham City to use the Super Soldier drug called Venom. After Batman fails to save a little girl from drowning, he decides to take Venom to compensate for his guilt and insecurities around his strength. Taking the drug has disastrous consequences that nearly costs Bruce Wayne his own life.
Bruce becomes violent, manic, and hooked on the drug, driving Alfred away. Bruce can only kick the habit by withdrawing from the drug cold turkey in the Bat Cave. Bruce's self doubt and remorse led him to make a hasty decision that he normally wouldn't make.
8 Batman Couldn't Put Jordan Rich Behind Bars
The story arc of Batman: Officer Down does not show Batman at his finest moments. After Commissioner Gordon is shot and in critical condition, Batman becomes a selfish emotional wreck. Instead of putting his feelings aside and searching for the shooter of Gordon, he leaves it up to his Bat Family to find the culprit (including Gordon's daughter Barbara).
The team figures out the shooter is Jordan Rich, a mobster disguised as a cop with a vendetta against Gordon. However, there's not enough judicial evidence and despite Batman's last minute attempts to intimidate Rich, he ultimately walks free. If Batman helped from the start, maybe they could've found more evidence to convict Rich.
7 Azrael's Corruption & Downfall
The storyline Knightfall has multiple notable appearances. Bane makes his first appearance as a villain who breaks Batman's back and Azrael makes his appearance as a vigilante who will take Bruce's place. However, Azrael has no regard to Batman's one rule and descends into violence.
Bruce realized Azrael going down a destructive path was partly his fault, and that recognition also makes Batman an inspirational leader. It should be noted that Batman should've put his personal feelings aside about Dick Grayson and made Nightwing the protector of Gotham. After he defeats Azrael, Bruce doesn't take him to the police because he feels guilty, owning up to the responsibility.
6 Young Bruce Wayne Needing To Leave A Show Early Set The Stage For His Parents' Murder
It feels truly heartless to blame young Bruce Wayne for the death of his parents. Joe Chill, the original killer in the comics and in the movie Batman Begins, is really the sole one to blame for pulling the trigger. However, the fact of the matter is that Bruce became scared of the play and asked if his parents could leave the play early.
Had they left the play when it ended, the Waynes would've left in a crowd and possibly would've returned home safely. Bruce blaming himself fuels the need to be Batman although Alfred keeps assuring young Bruce "it's not your fault." No, the murder of his parents wasn't technically his fault, but his actions definitely played a part in the sequence of events that led to it.
5 Batman Loses Rachel Dawes & Inadvertently Creates Two-Face
This is another sad failure on the Dark Knight's attempts to stop The Joker. In The Dark Knight, The Joker kidnaps Harvey Dent and Rachel Dawes and put them in separate warehouses with bombs in them. Batman is left with the impossible choice of saving only one of them. Batman saves Harvey Dent, sadly leaving Rachel to be blown to bits. Just as Batman gets Harvey out of the warehouse, it blows up and burns half of Harvey's face.
Batman (unknowingly) choosing to save Harvey creates a domino effect because the guilt over losing Rachel turns a reputable district attorney into a psychotic villain. Harvey dies anyway and Batman and Gordon decided to lie to preserve his legacy. If Batman had intentionally chosen to save Dent (as he arguably should've for the greater good), he would've ended up saving Rachel, and they could've skipped the whole Two-Face debacle.
4 Ra's Al Ghul Uses Batman's Plans Against The Justice League
Batman's greatest strength is his ability to think two steps ahead. But that paranoia can also lead to his weakness. In the JLA series Tower of Babel, Ra's Al Ghul attacks the Justice League in effort to carry out his plan of disabling humanity's ability to recognize languages with the aim of causing chaos.
During the fight to defeat Ra's, Batman revealed he created plans against each JLA member in case one of them went rouge. This causes severe distrust among the league and ultimately leads to Batman's expulsion. Batman's trust issues are at fault for causing the JLA to oust him.
3 The Joker's Origin Is Inadvertently Batman's Fault
There have been different takes on the Joker's origin story, but the common interpretation is that Joker broke into a chemical warehouse as a part of a crime heist and fell into a chemical vat that turns him into the hysterical maniac fans know. Most of these stories have to do with Batman intervening in the crime heist that led to a chain of events where the Joker fell to his ghoulish fate.
This is shown in the animated short Death In The Family, the 1989 Tim Burton movie Batman, and The Killing Joke where the Joker's original guise is The Red Hood (before Jason Todd of course). By trying to stop one crime, Batman inadvertently created an ongoing monster.
2 The Death Of Stefanie Brown
One would think that Batman would learn from pushing a young Robin into fighting crime before they're ready. But in one of Batman's worst moments, he decided to replace Tim Drake with Stephanie as Robin. One of the biggest transgressions is that Batman used Stephanie to make Tim question his choice to leave fighting crime.
But after Stephanie disobeys Batman, he fires her, and she sets off on her own to impress Batman. In an effort to show Batman her merit, Stephanie gets tortured and killed by the Black Mask. Batman made the same mistakes he did with previous Robins and paid dearly with the blood of Stephanie Brown at least partially on his hands.
1 The Death Of Jason Todd
The death of Jason Todd is probably the most traumatic thing to happen to Batman since the death of his parents. Jason Todd, the second Robin to follow after Dick Grayson, was Bruce's responsibility. Of course it was The Joker that actually brutally murdered him, by beating Todd with a crowbar and blowing up the warehouse Todd was left in.
Unfortunately, Batman nevertheless took on the guilt of losing Todd the same way he took on the guilt of losing his parents in an alleyway. In the animated film version of Death in the Family, Bruce lamented that he should've never pushed Todd into fighting crime as he was not ready and it was too dangerous. Unfortunately, Bruce turned out to be right.