While most fans can agree that a Batman with enough prep time is almost infallible and can overcome any odds, the fact of the matter is that Batman has made quite a few mistakes over the years in his neverending war on crime.
Batman is a human being, and making mistakes is what we do, but what's important is that we learn from those mistakes or else we will be doomed to repeat them. So today we are going to take a look at a few of Batman's biggest mistakes and the lessons they taught us.
10 DON'T ENDANGER CHILDREN
We're huge fans of Robin, but the fact of the matter is that it was a mistake to bring a child into Batman's life of crime. While he has always felt he brought Dick Grayson onto the team after the death of Dick's parents in order to give him the drive he needed to not fall into the dark pit of despair that Bruce had, but really, he has set every single Robin up for a life of misery.
You would think that Bruce would have learned the lesson about child endangerment after losing one soldier in his war, but even after losing a few over the years, he's still quick to bring another youth into his war on crime, even if he doesn't call them Robin anymore.
9 MIND YOUR SURROUNDINGS
While the actual origins of the Joker have been clouded by non-canon stories and unreliable narrators for years, the most commonly accepted origin was reimagined in the pages of Batman: The Killing Joke, which revealed that Joker was formerly a regular guy wearing a silly Red Hood costume caught up with some bad people at a failed heist.
When Batman and the police arrived on the scene, the criminals scattered and (depending on the story) the Red Hood tripped while fleeing or was knocked into the vat by Batman (or in some cases, he dived into the chemicals himself to escape). Regardless, a lesson learned by both Batman and the Joker during that moment was to be mindful of your surroundings at all times.
8 KEEP YOUR FAMILY CLOSE
Dick and Bruce worked alongside each other as the dynamic duo for years, but as Dick grew older his priorities changed, and he began to work more with the Teen Titans while he was also going to college, which didn't leave a lot of time for his work as Batman's partner.
This led to Bruce firing Grayson which drove a lasting wedge between the two heroes, even though the separation would be exactly what Dick needed to grow into his own man. Still, Bruce pushed away a member of his family because of his unattainable standards, and while he eventually learned how important it was to keep your family beside you, it took him years to figure out.
7 PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE
When Jason Todd took on the role of Robin, he was quickly put into action alongside Batman, though it was clear he wasn't quite ready for his new responsibilities as the Boy Wonder. Todd's inexperience coupled with his rebellious attitude led him to strike off on his own while looking for his mother, which would lead to his death at the hands of the Joker.
The death of Todd left Batman in a dark place that was only brightened when Tim Drake joined the team as the new Robin, but Batman had learned his lesson, and Tim was put into rigorous training from not only Batman but other teachers around the world before he was allowed to officially join Batman on a mission.
6 THE EASY WAY ISN'T ALWAYS THE RIGHT WAY
Batman is a character who is continually haunted by his failures, dating all the way back to the death of his parents which he wasn't able to stop. That set him on his path of training that would lead him to become the Batman, but after he failed to save a little girl from drowning because he wasn't strong enough to lift a boulder, her death haunted him.
This led him to take the enhancement drug known as Venom (later used by Bane), but he soon fell into an addiction that threatened to consume him, which also allowed him to be manipulated by the creators of Venom. Batman took a dangerous shortcut at a weak point in his life, but he learned the value of real strength when he overcame his addiction.
5 TRUST YOUR FRIENDS
Batman has always been paranoid in the sense that it allows him to prepare for attacks because he is always expecting them, but his paranoia at times has threatened to consume him and led him to make a number of bad decisions that have at times put his closest friends in great danger.
One of those decisions involved creating contingency plans against the JLA which were stolen by Ra's Al Ghul during the "Tower of Babel" storyline. While the team survived and Batman would eventually regain their trust, he should have trusted his friends and the team in the first place, or at least upgraded his security system.
4 BE CAREFUL WHO YOU LOVE
The life of a vigilante like Batman is more often than not a lonely one, and while he has had a few relationships over the years that were healthier than others, like his current love Catwoman, his past is filled with troubled relationships that almost always come back to haunt him.
After falling in love with the daughter of his greatest enemy, Ra's al Ghul, he was forced to leave Talia and fight against her father, creating a lifelong enemy in Talia that would continue to affect his life for years, especially when their son Damian Wayne showed up years later. Lesson learned? Use protection.
3 MAKE GOOD DECISIONS
After Bruce Wayne's complete and utter defeat at the hands of Bane during the Knightfall storyline, he decided to pass the mantle of the Bat onto someone else while he recovered, though he decided against asking his long-time partner and usual successor, Dick Grayson/Nightwing and opted to instead give it to Jean-Paul Valley/Azrael, a new recruit into Gotham's war.
Valley had been trained using brainwashing techniques by a secret holy order which prepared him for battle but left him mentally unstable, and his time as Batman was filled with mayhem and death. Bruce should have trusted his instincts and made a better decision, regardless of his feelings about Dick and his new life as Nightwing.
2 DON'T USE PEOPLE
We've mentioned some of the issues involved with bringing children into Batman's lifelong mission, and while the death of Jason Todd taught Batman and us many things, it wasn't until we saw the death of Stephanie Brown/Spoiler/Robin IV during War Games that we learned how low Bats could go in his war on crime.
Not only was Stephanie used by Batman in order to make his former Robin (Tim Drake) rethink his decision to leave the role, but his decision to fire her, coupled with the secretive nature of his plans led Stephanie to attempt to regain his favor. She did this by trying to carry out one of his secret plans, but it resulted in her death and Batman lost yet another soldier.
1 THE ROAD TO HELL IS PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS
We've also already discussed some of the problems that Batman's paranoia has brought him over the years, which was perfectly showcased during the Infinite Crisis and his creation of the Brother Eye satellite. Brother Eye was tasked with watching over the superpowered characters of the DC Universe, though it gained sentience and launched the OMAC project.
While Batman likely couldn't have foreseen the problems Brother Eye would cause, his satellite would result in the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians who were taken over by the OMAC nanotech, again proving that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.