One of Batman The most defining character trait is how difficult it is for him to trust anyone. Batman is deeply paranoid, which makes it difficult for him to work as a team. He plotted against his allies countless times and even created contingency plans to defeat them, and DC once revealed the source of this paranoia.
The root of Batman’s inability to trust his teams was revealed in Batman Secrets No. 54 by Marc Guggenheim and Jerry Bingham. In this story, Bruce Wayne is still traveling the world trying to learn the skills he will need to become the Dark Knight. Batman ends up in China, where he encounters the warlord Huairen, who is destroying the countryside. Unable to defeat Huairen alone, Bruce teams up with Zhuguan.
Zhuguan is a group of heroes whose name roughly translates to “League.“ Batman tries to work together with this “first league” for the first time, but, unfortunately, it does not end well for him. This terrible first experience with the teams is a big reason why Batman has such a hard time trusting the Justice League later on.
Batman’s first League was a traumatic experience
Batman: Secret No. 54 by Marc Guggenheim, Jerry Bingham, David Baron and Ken Lopez.
Zhuguan was not the best team for Batman. These were men fighting a war, and they intended to win that war with lethal force. One of the ways they fought this war was by using a special drug that gave them strength, which they also offered to Batman. Not knowing any better, Bruce accepted it and briefly gained superpowers. During the final confrontation with Huairen Zhuguan manipulates Batman to near-lethal forcepromising that they would subsequently use their powers to revive Huairen. When they almost break their promise, Batman realizes how foolish it is to trust people with powers.
Batman prefers to be alone because then there are no uncontrollable variables.
Batman often craves control considering his parents died during the chaos. It is not unusual for Bruce to feel extremely uncomfortable in situations where he has no control, and this is especially true when facing god-like beings such as Superman. Batman prefers to be alone because then there are no uncontrollable variables. Even Robin is someone he personally trained and knows as well as he does. But after the Zhuguan tried to get Batman addicted to the opium that powered their superpower drug and tried to get him to break his only rule, it’s understandable that he’d want to avoid commands.
Batman did not trust the Justice League for many years after this first team experience
And some stories prove he was right
Batman finds it extremely difficult to trust people he cannot control. While it cannot be denied that Batman wanted to trust the Justice League, just like he wanted to trust Zhuguang, he has been betrayed before. Zhuguan tried to get Batman addicted to opium and trick him into breaking his only rule, and the Justice League once erased Batman’s memory to cover up their crime in Identity crisis Brad Meltzer and Rags Morales. Bye Batman tried to believe in the goodness of people, but several key events made it understandably difficult for him to ever trust his teammates.
Batman Secrets #54 Available now from DC Comics!