Batman Is Already DC’s Greatest Scientific Threat & These Iconic Stories Prove It

Batman is regarded as one of the smartest characters in the DC Universe, but few fans realize just how dangerous that makes him as an inventor. While no one denies that he’s a brilliant fighter and detective, with a keen mind for contingency plans, his mechanical inventions are also truly next-level and make him DC’s most dangerous scientist.

Originally, Batman was a skilled enough inventor to take care of his own equipment and create things like the Batarangs or Batmobile, but over time, DC tried to scale back Batman’s personal responsibility by having other characters help him.

For many years, Lucius Fox was responsible for all of Batman’s inventions. For the Batmobile, it was often taken care of by Harold Allnut, Batman’s mechanic. But as these characters have left the spotlight, Batman’s inventor skills have skyrocketed, making him extremely dangerous.

Brother Eye Was One of Batman’s First Major Creations

Countdown to Infinite Crisis #1 by Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka, Judd Winick, Ed Benes, Phil Jimenez, Rags Morales, Ivan Reis, Jesus Saiz, and Michael Bair

Brother Eye was a satellite that Batman created after the events of Identity Crisis by Brad Meltzer and Rags Morales. When Zatanna used her magic to mind-wipe Batman, the effect didn’t last forever. Eventually, Batman regained the memories she had suppressed, and Batman found himself unable to trust the Justice League. Fearing what the League was capable of, Batman constructed Brother Eye to spy on the entire superhero community — not just the Justice League, but everyone in the DCU.

As often happens, Batman’s creation didn’t stay altruistic for long. While Batman simply wanted to spy on everyone to satisfy his paranoia, Brother Eye, under the influence of Maxwell Lord, gained sentience. Brother Eye then decided that the best way to keep the world safe was to eliminate all superheroes, and the plan very nearly succeeded. Brother Eye used an OMAC army to force the Amazons to leave Earth, and the sentient being nearly killed Martian Manhunter, Shazam, and other powerful heroes — which is pretty impressive for a machine that Batman designed for surveillance only.

Batman Doesn’t Need His Wealth to Be a Skilled Inventor

Batman: Off-World by Jason Aaron, Doug Mahnke, Jaime Mendoza, David Baron, and Troy Peteri

In Batman: Off-World, Bruce proved that while having billions of dollars makes inventing things easier, he certainly doesn’t need his money to create weaponry. Despite being separated from his wealth and resources, he manages to create a brand new Batsuit in outer space using scraps. This feat is especially impressive considering that he’s on an alien ship, which means he’d be using both tools and materials he’d never seen on Earth. Despite this major handicap, he still constructs a Batsuit that is better than his original, and he’s even capable of using it in the vacuum of space.

While building a brand-new Batsuit with materials and tools he’s never seen before is certainly impressive, it’s nothing compared to the other things Batman has created. During the events of the Batman: Endgame storyline during the New 52, the Joker manages to infect the Justice League with his famous Joker Venom. This causes the League to go temporarily insane and try to murder Batman. Thankfully, Batman was prepared and had a massive mech built known as the Justice Buster. This suit helped him defeat the Justice League and is one of the greatest examples of his ability to create dangerous inventions.

Batman’s Mech Suits Are Legendary – Especially the Justice Buster

Batman #35 by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, Danny Miki, FCO Plascencia, and Steve Wands

While Batman has built mech suits in a number of different stories, Batman #35’s Justice Buster was built specifically to defeat each member of the Justice League, and it excelled at this. Batman had a supercomputer built specifically to track Flash’s movement to interrupt his speed, and it could also trap Wonder Woman in an illusion, suck the moisture out of Aquaman, and deploy miniature red suns built into the knuckles of the suit to fight Superman.

While the debut of the Justice Buster suit is an amazing moment that shows off Batman’s brilliant planning, it’s also rather terrifying. For all the giant mechs that Lex Luthor has built, they’ve never been centered around defeating the entire Justice League. Usually, they’re just focused on Superman. It’s a pretty horrifying look at just what Batman could accomplish as a mad scientist if he wanted to.

Batman’s Greatest Invention Has Become A Worldwide Threat

Batman #125 by Chip Zdarsky, Jorge Jiménez, Tomeu Morey, and Clayton Cowles

The most dangerous thing that Batman has ever created is the Android Failsafe. Created to be a “failsafe” in case Batman ever went rogue, Failsafe was programmed to take down anyone who might help Batman. This was proven when Failsafe defeated the entire Bat-Family and then the Justice League shortly after. While the Justice Buster was impressive, it was torn apart by Superman after a point. Failsafe managed to beat Superman twice with no problems. While this seems as dangerous as it can get, this was just the beginning of Failsafe’s danger.

After the Zur-En-Arrh personality was separated from Batman, using a machine that Batman had also created, Zur-En-Arrh’s personality was housed in Failsafe. This merging is implied to be one of Batman’s plans to continue protecting Gotham City forever. This new Failsafe body is also far more dangerous. While this double-up monster was technically invented by Zur-En-Arrh and not Bruce himself, since Zur is an offshoot of Bruce’s personality, it’s still perfectly feasible that Bruce could have done this himself.

Failsafe Has Become a Major Threat to the DC Universe

Failsafe Will Play a Major Role in July 2024’s Absolute Power by Mark Waid and Dan Mora

Batman is an incredible fighter and detective, but his invention skills aren’t given nearly as much credit as they deserve. Combining Batman’s propensity for contingency plans with his ability to invent incredibly dangerous machines makes Batman one of the most fearsome inventors on Earth. Thankfully, Batman is devoted to the idea of justice and stopping crime. If Batman ever decided to fully go evil, there’s no doubt that he’d be one of the most dangerous mad scientists that DC has ever seen.

Countdown to Infinite Crisis #1, Batman: Off-World, Batman #35, and Batman #125 are all available now from DC Comics!