When comic book geeks wax rhapsodic about the Dark Knight (oh, and they do!), it’s usually because he’s bad-ass enough to pull a stunt like the one below, wherein he discovers that a Random Hood has come to town claiming to be able to bump off Batman. So rather than take down said Random Hood, Batman instead decides to let the guy think he’s succeeded, knowing that Random Hood will decide to show off the Bat-corpse to a whole bunch of local crimelords. At which point…
…Bats bursts from his coffin and takes down a whole slew o’ bad guys at once. Remember: It’s not just efficient use of his time; it’s dramatic and efficient use of his time!
(From Detective Comics #552, July 1985. Written by Doug Moench. Art by Pat Broderick and Bob Smith.)