In general, the heroes of the DC Universe are pretty smart. Aside from the definitive geniuses like Mister Terrific and Ray Palmer, even the heroes with average intelligence have learned a whole lot during their time fighting all forms of evil. Still, for all the brains these heroes have, they tend to make the same mistakes over and over again.
Some of these mistakes are a little hard to get around, so it's kind of understandable why the heroes keep doing them— but others are so foreseeable that it is pretty embarrassing that the heroes haven't found solutions for them yet. Maybe some of the heroes are too busy dealing with the latest Crisis-level event or alien invasion to really sit down and think these problems out, but that doesn't excuse all of them.
10 Trusting Lex Luthor
In general, superheroes are a trusting group. These are people who, for the most part, want to see the best in everyone, and that is a commendable trait to have. But when even the most pessimistic and paranoid of them keeps thinking that they can work with someone as evil as Lex Luthor, it's time to reassess a few things.
Luthor is constantly doing evil things and then quickly switching to being a hero when things get really bad, and Superman and the other heroes always let him slide. This is a guy who has committed a number of murders— and been caught doing them— but still he is welcomed to join the Justice League, only to later stab the heroes in the back yet again.
9 Trusting Batman
While it is Luthor's nature to do evil stuff, Batman is a totally different animal. On multiple occasions, the Dark Knight has been caught by his allies doing things that are not great. First, he created files on how to defeat every hero in the DCU, and after those files were used by Ra's al Ghul to destroy the Justice League. The heroes were upset but soon forgave their cowled friend.
Learning nothing from that, Batman then went on to create Brother Eye, a satellite system that spied on the heroes of the DCU and nearly got them all killed. Again, they forgave him. Even now, they all know that Batman spends his free time figuring out how to kill them, but the heroes still work with him. At some point, it's on them, not him.
8 Messing With Time
Time is a fragile thing in the DC Universe, and every hero knows it, but that doesn't stop many of them from traveling through the timestream and messing things up. Flash is the best-known hero to do this, as seen in Flashpoint, but he is far from the only one.
Booster Gold traveled to the present from the 25th century so he could become famous and recently messed with time so that Batman could see what his life would have been like if his parents never died. Armageddon 2001 was all about a hero from the future coming back in time to stop a horrific event, only to actually cause worse things to happen. Heroes need to stay in their own time period.
7 Thinking Regular People Can Guard Supervillains
Super-criminals are great at two things: Getting beat up by superheroes, and breaking out of prisons. Be it Arkham or Iron Heights, there's no doubt that the vilest people locked up in those buildings will be free well before they should be.
One big reason for this is because the people who guard the evil prisoners are regular men and women who are little more than entry-level security guards. How are such people supposed to stop Reverse-Flash or Parasite from breaking out? The heroes need to stop leaving incarceration to regular humans and start using superpowered prison guards.
6 Letting People Know Where Their Bases Are
The Teen Titans live in a giant tower shaped like a 'T' in San Francisco. The Justice League invite people to the Hall of Justice for hourly tours while they have their meetings inside. The Justice Society meet up in a well-known brownstone in New York.
Not surprisingly, these places are often attacked by villains. Telling your enemies where it is you go to relax and strategize is not a great idea unless you want them to come and attack you. Superheroes would be better off keeping their bases out of the public eye.
5 Keeping Secrets From The World
While superheroes should keep the locations of their bases secret from the general public, there are some things they should be more open about. The world is just now learning about the multiverse, which seems like something that should be well known to the average person. And that's just the tip of knowledge that heroes keep to themselves.
The technology heroes like Atom and Batman use could change the world for the better. Things like hunger and energy scarcity could be overcome in a night if the heroes used their tech for more than just beating up the Injustice League again.
4 Ignoring The Biggest Problems
The heroes of the DCU could bring an end to most of the things that cause pain to mankind without even overstepping their own lines. Through the companies owned by Batman, Mister Terrific, and Blue Beetle, things like homelessness and hunger could vanish. Magic-powered heroes could put an end to the danger of climate change with little thought.
The jumps in technology and human resources are endless if the heroes took more of a part in everyday lives. Perhaps readers are about to see that with the creation of the United Planets and the new Tom Taylor and John Timms series Superman: Son of Kal-El, but only time will tell.
3 Bringing Kids Into The Action
Quite a few heroes should be brought up on child endangerment abuses for the number of sidekicks and teen heroes they have let run around and get killed. How many times does a Robin have to be seriously injured or killed in action before everyone agrees that Batman shouldn't have teenagers fighting Two-Face?
These are people who are too young to get drive alone at night, but none of the heroes have any issue with them fighting demons and monsters at two in the morning when they should be sleeping before the big history exam they have the following morning.
2 Infighting Leads To Bigger Problems
While the fighting between the heroes of the DCU has never been as bad as it is for the Marvel Universe, it has come up from time to time and led to some serious problems. Much of what happened during Infinite Crisis could have been prevented if the big heroes of the DCU hadn't been angry with one another at the time. The Flash Family's inner squabbling has led to a number of problems for Central City— and the superhero community in general— in recent years.
If the heroes of the DCU learned to better communicate with each other, and use that communication not to just talk about supervillains and alien invasions but personal issues as well, the world would be better off.
1 Leaving Amanda Waller Completely Unchecked
Amanda Waller is a government agent who spends her time implanting bombs in the bodies of criminals and forcing them to do her bidding. Now, while the people she does this to are murderers and psychotic madmen, they still have rights guaranteed by the laws of the United States, and Waller is breaking a great number of them.
Many, if not all, of the heroes of the DCU know all about Waller's Suicide Squad and they do nothing about it. Even now, when Waller has Superboy running around as a member of Taskforce X and is breaking criminals out of Arkham, none of the heroes see a need to shut it all down and bring her crimes to light.