WARNING: The following article contains spoilers from Detective Comics #1055, on sale now.
The reason Batman is so successful as a hero is because of his ability to plan ahead. In terms of tactical preparation, there are few who surpass him. Acknowledging that, his overpreparation can be a weakness at times. A prime example of this is Detective Comics #1055 (by Mariko Tamaki, Amancay Nahuelpan, Jordie Bellaire, Ariana Maher), where his strategy to infiltrate the new Arkham Tower with multiple members of the Bat-Family has quickly gone awry. In fact, based on the way his teammates are handling the situation in the tower, there is a good chance that they will fail to stop its patients from causing even more harm.
To summarize, every member or ally of the Bat-Family is in dire straits at the moment. Nightwing has been captured by a resurfaced Scarecrow, Huntress has been stabbed and can’t find any medical help, Spoiler is trapped indoors with the patients and party crashers running amok, and Dr. Meridian has been tied up in her office with a number of sadists on the loose. This isn’t even factoring in the multiple times the group was subjected to the Psycho Pirate’s mental manipulations, a possible scenario that Batman did not seem to take into account.
He knew that the facility would be more tightly guarded than the old Arkham Asylum, so rather than try to skulk its halls in costume he had his allies infiltrate it in various roles. Janitorial, medical, and patient, no level of the tower’s infrastructure was left untouched. It was a sound strategy, one based around the idea of finding the tower’s mystery “treatment” but it did not consider the possibility that all those involved in the operation might be subjected to the treatment rather than reporting back on their findings. If the motives had been more sinister, there’s a chance that the infiltrators could have been brainwashed by whatever Dr.Wear was secretly up. As it stands, it is only pure luck that has prevented them from suffering more lasting mental harm.
As such, the Bat-Family was continually thrown into confusion as they couldn’t seem to find or even recall any odd occurrences. By the time they did, it was already too late. Had Batman thought this through, the machinations of Dr. Wear might have been exposed long before things got out of hand. Instead, reckless overpreparation for a mission has left the Bat-Family injured and divided. Even worse, none of them saw the reemergence of Scarecrow coming. Now he’s poised to take advantage of Gotham’s recent crisis and his revenge upon the Bat-Family for their interference in his plans with the fear state.
This isn’t the first time Batman’s overpreparation has come back to haunt him. He is infamous for having contingency plans for all of his allies and it has more than once alienated him from them, often splitting apart teams at crucial moments in the history of the DC Universe. Now his overplanning might get one of his proteges murdered and given a madman near-total control of a situation where the city will have no choice but to comply with his demands.
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