Batman Shows Why He’ll Never Be A Better Detective Than [SPOILER]

Warning! Spoilers for Justice League #61

Batman may be known as the world’s greatest detective, but believe it or not, there is someone else in the DC Universe more worthy of that title. Detective Chimp has proven on a number of occasions that he has a slight edge over the Caped Crusader, and DC just gave a hint as to why that is.

Bobo T. Chimpanzee actually has quite a long history in DC comics, having debuted all the way back in 1952 in Adventures of Rex the Wonder Dog #4. While Detective Chimp’s origins have changed a few times over the years, the most current iteration obtained his abilities after being exposed to the Fountain of Youth, granting him superhuman intelligence and the ability to speak to all living creatures. Bobo eventually became a renowned detective and member of Justice League Dark, a group of DC heroes and anti-heroes that deal with more supernatural threats. In fact, it’s Chimp’s experience in that field that puts him a step above the Dark Knight.

The back-pages story of Justice League #61 has Justice League Dark trying to find the wizard Merlin. Thanks to Chimp’s detective work and John Constantine’s magic power, the group manages to track Merlin to a mystical library – but there’s a catch. The library is “structured as an infinite sphere made up of hexagonal rooms, expanding ever outward.” In other words, the library is unfathomably large, meaning Merlin will be all but impossible to find – impossible for everyone, except Detective Chimp. “There is no logical way for us to find Merlin in this infinite maze,” Chimp says, “but there is someone who could tell us how to find Merlin in here.” The group then seeks help from the librarians who oversee the place, but as simple as that solution may seem, it’s not something Batman would have done.

In the past, Batman tried to learn magic as part of his training, but failed. Even with a teacher as skilled as Zatanna, the mystic arts eluded the Dark Knight. This is because magic doesn’t operate under the rules of logic that Batman has spent his entire career learning to master. Despite all the bizarre entities he’s faced over the years, Bruce always looks for scientific explanations, so while he can acknowledge that magic exists, he can never truly understand it. In contrast, Detective Chimp deals with magic and the supernatural on a regular basis, and has learned how to adapt to its unpredictability. Batman wouldn’t be trusting enough to ask the librarians for help, and would likely try to figure out a way to track Merlin himself, but Chimp knows that the most effective way to navigate a magical space is with the help of a magical being.

Considering Detective Chimp inducted Batman into the Guild of Detection, DC’s secret detective society, it seems Chimp undeniably has some seniority over Bruce. Couple that with the fact that, in the Injustice universe, John Constantine cast a spell to bring him to the world’s greatest detective and he wound up on Detective Chimp’s doorstep, Batman is going to have to settle for second place.