10 Villains Who Outsmarted Batman

While the Court of Owls have been taken down massively by the big bad Bat anytime he happens upon them, they have hugely outsmarted him in one very major way: he literally didn't know they existed until years into his superhero career.

Now, that might at first sound like nothing, but think about it. Both Batman and the Court of Owls primarily reside in Gotham, and the Court had been operating since Bruce was a child, meaning that they've operated underneath his nose the whole time he's been a vigilante.

Given Batman is the supposed 'World's Greatest Detective', the fact that an entire organisation managed to hide from him so well that he didn't even have an inkling they existed is pretty damn embarrassing. It's also pretty impressive, as the Talon assassins that the Court employ must have been especially sneaky in order to not raise suspicion in any of the countless murders they were involved in while Batman was operating in Gotham.