Despite being a mortal man, Batman has shown time and time again that he can outfight, outwit, and generally outdo any superhero – from living gods like Superman to Amazonian warriors like Wonder Woman. Even a spacefaring hero like Green Lantern has learned to be on his guard when facing the Dark Knight, as Batman has shown he can easily steal Green Lantern’s ring from his finger whenever he wants to.
Still, Batman is always updating his strategies, which is probably why he developed a plan to defeat Green Lantern using the incredible power of his ring. While Batman never actually employed this plan himself, the effects were quite devastating and a strong reminder of why nobody should underestimate Batman.
During the events of the storyline “Tower of Babel,” Batman’s enemy Ra’s al Ghul launched another one of his plans to thin the world’s population so that he could dominate the survivors and lead them to his vision of an idealized planet. To keep the Justice League from interfering, Ra’s stole secret files and plans Batman had developed to neutralize his teammates if they ever went rogue. Modifying the plans for his own ends, Ra’s used Batman’s tactics against the League. At the time, the Green Lantern serving on the Justice League was Kyle Rayner, a graphic artist. Realizing that, as a visual artist, Kyle relied on his eyes to both draw and focus the energies of his ring, Batman decided the best way to neutralize Green Lantern was to blind him. As Kyle was too powerful to blind through conventional means, however, Batman came up with a plan to use his own ring against him.
First, Batman planned to introduce a post-hypnotic suggestion into Kyle’s mind while he slept, making him believe he was blind. He would then slip Kyle’s ring on him. Since the power ring responded to Kyle’s will and thoughts, by believing he was blind, Kyle would unconsciously use the ring to make himself physically blind. Ra’s used his own men to execute the plan – and it worked with horrible efficiency. Kyle was traumatized over the loss of his sight and while he could still access the energies of his ring, he could no longer focus them in any useful way.
Fortunately, once Batman admitted what he had done, the Martian Manhunter came up with a fairly simple solution to allow Kyle to regain his sight – just take off the ring. Since Kyle’s blindness was a manifestation of his ring’s power, by removing the ring, Kyle instantly regained his sight. As he now knew why he had lost it in the first place, the hypnotic suggestion no longer affected him, and he was able to retain his sight when he put the ring back on.
As devastating as Batman’s attack was on Green Lantern, however, it should be noted that this attack was specifically geared toward a Green Lantern who relied on his vision more than other Green Lanterns. The Green Lantern Rot Lop Fan (aka “The F-Sharp Bell”) comes from a race of aliens who never developed sight since they evolved in a sector of space that was completely devoid of light. As a result, Rot does not use his ring to create constructs of hard light but manifests structures of sound as he perceives the world primarily through his sense of hearing.
Thus, Batman’s tactic would not work on all Green Lanterns – and Kyle might even make himself immune to later forms of this attack by training with Rot Lop Fan and learning to focus his will through sound rather than sight. Even so, this was one devastating tactic that effectively took down a hero with the power of a god – and shows that Batman is one strategist few can outthink.