8 Smartest Decisions In DC Villain History

3. Using Batman's Paranoia Against The JLA - Tower of Babel

Truth be told, there's not much Ra's al Ghul really has to do in Tower of Babel. In fact it's really just Batman's own hubris that proves to be the most decisive asset to his old enemy in this Mark Waid-helmed Justice League tale, but no villain had ever thought to use it before.

Tower of Babel is famous for all the wrong reasons in that it tends to get used by Bat-fans as an excuse to wheel out the ol' 'Batman can beat anyone with prep-time' spiel, but it's still an interesting tale. Dig deeper, and it's actually one of the smartest JL books of the last two decades, as it sees the Dark Knight's own distrust for the Justice League exploited in the worst possible manner.

Although the Dark Knight has never really been a team player (he says, fully aware of the fact he's led multiple teams and has his own family - but whatever, I'm beholden to the cliche in this particular instance), none suspected he'd actively analysed and prepared countermeasures to incapacitate his comrades in the event they ever went rogue.

Through some trickery, and as a means of keeping the League occupied while he executes his latest scheme to 'defend' the earth, Ra's steals Batman's League countermeasures and deploys them against his teammates, leading to all sorts of gruesome scenarios. The League of course prevail in the end, but their trust in Batman is completely shattered, forcing the Caped Crusader to abandon them by the arc's close.