DC Comics' heroes are often overwhelmingly powerful, so some villains use their brains rather than their brawn. They are masterminds, making plans to enmesh their foes to make up for the power differential between hero and villain. They think that their plans are completely airtight, but that has proven not to be the case. These intelligent villains have been outsmarted in numerous ways over the years.
As smart as they are, even villains like Lex Luthor and the Riddler can't make a plan for every eventuality. They've been caught off guard many times, leading to their eventual downfall, teaching them a lesson about making plans and underestimating their foes.
10 The Batman Who Laughs Never Thought Wonder Woman Would Go Off Script
There are many versions of Batman, but none were as dangerous as the Batman Who Laughs. After taking his place at Perpetua's side and being her enforcer on the remnant of Earth, the Batman Who Laughs was used to lording over everyone and watching them play to his tune. However, he never thought Wonder Woman would be the one to beat him.
The Batman Who Laughs never expected her to be rebelling under his nose the entire time, working to create a weapon and a plan that could defeat him once and for all. He never expected that the heroes would go along with her plan to stop him, and he definitely wasn't planning on her beating him. He made a classic mistake: he underestimated Wonder Woman.
9 In JLA: The Nail, Jimmy Olsen Never Expected To Find Kal-El
JLA: The Nail took place in a universe where the Kents got a nail in their tire and never found baby Kal-El. However, his ship was found and Kryptonian genetic material was isolated. Lex Luthor used this to experiment on Jimmy Olsen, enhancing his intelligence and giving him Kryptonian powers. Olsen then worked behind the scenes to destroy the superhuman community in order to create a new Krypton.
When he finally made himself known, he and the Justice League had a massive battle that eventually saw him discovering Kal-El on an Amish farm. He had always assumed Kal-El was long dead, and the fact that he didn't team up with Olsen immediately shocked the villain to his core.
8 Alexander Luthor Never Thought The Heroes Would Overcome His Plans
In the run-up to Infinite Crisis, Alexander Luthor made what he thought was a foolproof plan. It took advantage of the schism between the heroes, involved him posing as Lex Luthor and re-creating the Secret Society of Super Villains, having Superboy-Prime move planets to shift the center of the universe, and creating a machine to create the perfect Earth.
Luthor's plan seemed completely foolproof and would have been, but the unexpected happened. The Trinity came back together alongside Earth-2 Superman and Superboy, Wonder Girl, and Nightwing brought the fight to his home. He was completely caught off guard by these developments, and they led to his downfall.
7 The Batman Who Laughs Killed Perpetua
Perpetua was the greatest threat the Justice League ever faced. She empowered the Legion of Doom and defeated the League every time she faced them. Perpetua was a Hand, a being with multiverse-creating power that knew the secrets of creation, and she had as much intelligence as she did power. Her mistake was trusting the Batman Who Laughs.
She decided to pit the Batman Who Laughs against Lex Luthor to see who should serve her. The Batman Who Laughs won. After Perpetua defeated the League, the two ruled together, but the BWL eventually hatched a plan that gave him godlike power. This allowed him to kill Perpetua, something she never predicted.
6 Arnold Wesker And Flashpoint Batman Betrayed Bane
Batman faces many violent enemies, but some of them are more multi-faceted. Bane has always combined his capacity for violence with his planning skills to take the Dark Knight down. His last plan against Batman involved every villain in Batman's rogues gallery, controlled by the Psycho-Pirate. It even pulled in the Batman of the Flashpoint universe.
However, that was the problem with the plan. Bane and Flashpoint Batman had two different goals in mind. Working with Arnold Wesker, Flashpoint Batman surprised Bane and helped his son from another world defeat the villain.
5 Prometheus Never Expected The JLA To Have An Ace In The Hole
DC villains often exceed their parents' evil, with Prometheus transforming himself into anti-Justice League machine to get revenge for his dead criminal parents. Using the JLA's media day to sneak into the Watchtower, he defeated every member of the team in short order, using plans he had come up with and technology he created specifically for that purpose.
Prometheus was about to triumph when Metropolis reporter Cat Grant stepped up. However, it was Catwoman the whole time, asked to sneak onto the Watchtower in disguise as an insurance policy. She used her whip to hit Prometheus in a vulnerable below the belt area, foiling his carefully thought out plan.
4 Anti-Monitor Didn't Expect Anyone To See Through His Final Ruse
Anti-Monitor is DC's deadliest villain, and he proved it by destroying countless universes. Crisis on Infinite Earths saw the heroes of the multiverse foil his destruction of their universes several times, with the last one involving heroes and villains uniting in a plan that sent them to other points in time. This one seemingly brought the heroes victory, but it was all a trick.
The problem was that Anti-Monitor's sham Earth didn't take into account duplicate heroes like Earth-2 Superman and Dick Grayson or ones like Helena Wayne that could only exist on their Earth. This allowed the heroes to figure out they were being tricked before he could destroy them all, giving them a fighting chance.
3 Darkseid Underestimated The Greatest Heroes On Earth
Final Crisis saw Darkseid enact his most foolproof plan yet. In the early stages, he took four of Earth's greatest heroes off the board. Lois Lane was grievously injured in a bomb blast and Superman left the Orrery of Worlds to find a way to heal her. Batman was captured by Darkseid's minions and imprisoned in Command D. Wally West was pulled into the Speed Force trying to find Barry Allen. Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps were manipulated into inaction by Granny Goodness.
Darkseid rode roughshod over the heroes, never expecting those four to return and disrupt his plans. However, they all did, each one shattering another part of his carefully orchestrated scheme.
2 Batman Showed The Riddler Why Learning His Identity Was Useless
The Riddler has outsmarted Batman several times, proving why he's Gotham's smartest villain. During Batman: Hush, the Riddler worked with Tommy Elliot behind the scenes, setting up all of Hush's manipulations of Batman and Gotham's villains. In the end, Riddler learned the one thing he always wanted to know: Batman's secret identity.
As Riddler lorded it over Batman, the Caped Crusader realized why it was futile: the Riddler loved knowing things no one else did, so if he used Batman's secret identity to attack him, everyone else would learn it as well. This moment caught Riddler completely off guard as he realized just how useless this new information was.
1 Lex Luthor Never Imagined Perpetua Bringing In The Batman Who Laughs
Lex Luthor is DC's biggest villainous role model, which is why Perpetua made him her second in command when she began her plan to use the power of Doom to remake the multiverse. Luthor did everything Perpetua needed him to, leading the Legion of Doom and outsmarting the Justice League. Then she brought in competition.
Perpetua brought in the Batman Who Laughs and had the two fight it out for who would get to serve her. Luthor never expected this curveball and lost his place at Perpetua's side right as the plan the two of them had created reached fruition.