10 Times Batman Got It Wrong

While many elite athletes start training at a young age, the idea of sending a twelve-year-old out into the night to fight actual people with guns, is something I think we would all agree is not the best idea.

This line of thinking however seems to have eluded our Caped Crusader on numerous occasions over the decades, given his countless child sidekicks. Some of these circumstances are more understandable, though – for example, Damian Wayne was already trained to be insanely skilled at fighting and bloodthirsty before he ever met his father and mentor - but this doesn't totally justify it even then.

We could argue that in joining forces with the pint-sized vigilantes Batman serves as a mentor and protector, that without him they would likely still put themselves at risk and it’s better they do it with him than without. But if that is truly the case, he's made some weird decisions in the meanwhile, like the less-than-intuitive choice to dress them in bright, distracting colours, and his tendency to punish them quite harshly when they inevitably make mistakes.

This is where we come to one of Batman’s self-proclaimed failures, the death of his second Robin, Jason Todd, after the Dark Knight failed to rescue him from one of the Joker's plots in time.

You would think after our Caped Crusader retired his first Robin, Dick Grayson, for getting knocked off a roof by a gun shot, he might have learned his lesson. Could it be as simple as misery loves company, and that anyone older would tell Bruce where to stick his batarang pretty early on into training? I’ll leave that one with you folks.