Batman’s Coolest Gadgets, Ranked

The Caped Crusader doesn’t leave the comfort of the Bat-Cave without his trusty utility belt, as it holds so many wonderful toys—a near-equivalent to Sport Billy’s Omni-Sack.

The Utility Belt holds all the things Batman might use in the field and is used to store smoke pellets and other smaller items, as well as providing an attachment for his Bat-Grapple, and storage for his Batarangs and other Batman gadget.

In some instances, the belt was even used to store a Batman version of a lightsaber—as seen in Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Batman also happens to be known to carry cash in his utility belt, though we can’t possibly imagine the Caped Crusader bribing crooks for information.  

Given the massive access to financial resources and the accompanying engineering ingenuity those resources afford, we’re not actually surprised that Batman has access to tasers. However, what’s most surprising is that he isn’t using them as typical Batman gadgets; instead, he has them incorporated inside his Bat-Suit.

The tasers serve several different purposes. Not only are they capable of delivering an incapacitating electric shock to his opponents, but they also serve to electrocute anyone (non-lethally, of course) who tries to remove his mask, especially in those rare cases when our hero is knocked out.

Martial arts are based on deception and distraction, and smoke pellets actually provide both—they were historically used by shinobi (ninjas) in feudal Japan. They’re not capable of providing the means of magical instantaneous escape as portrayed by Hollywood, but they’re great for misdirection and obscuring vision.

And that’s precisely how Batman uses his smoke pellets; he’ll throw the pellets early, drop in the middle of a large group of disoriented baddies, and rely on his ultra-advanced martial arts to take them down. He also uses smoke pellets to cover his escape.

We’ve all seen our fair share of grapple hooks in different media, from Assassin’s Creed video games to the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animation and Batman: The Animated Series. The Bat-Grapple allows our masked billionaire to quickly scale buildings, launch himself upwards and into a glide, and tie up some of Gotham’s baddies, letting them hang for interrogation purposes.

In fact, Batman has used his Grapple as means of transportation, tactical engagement, interrogation, and sometimes, just for show. It’s interesting to see Batman reaching for his Utility Belt, and disappearing in a flash and smoke provided by the Smoke Pellets, relying on his Bat-Grapple as means of escape.

Next to the Bat-Grapple, Batarangs are probably the most iconic and versatile Batman gadgets. If Commissioner Gordon happened to stumble upon one on a crime scene, he knew Batman was visiting. They’re as much a calling card as they are a weapon.

Mimicking a shuriken used by the Japanese ninjas, Batarangs were a tool of deception, a weapon in combat, and an overall great tactical asset, especially when they’re equipped with a taser, remote controls, sonic blasts, or even explosives.

As seen from the very unclear ending of Arkham Knight, Batman’s main weapons aren’t his batarangs, grappling gun, or smoke pellets. People don’t fear weapons, they fear monsters, and Batman’s main weapon is fear.

And what better way to instill dread in your opponents than simulate a connection with other creatures of darkness—hundreds of live, swirling bats that fly around causing all sorts of chaos.

This is where the Bat Call, a high-pitched sonar-emitting Batman gadget, comes into play, as it allows Batman to call upon a swarm of bats to confuse and frighten his opponents or cover his escape.

This is a specialty weapon, rather than a typical Batman gadget, considering that Batman didn’t invent or fund the invention of Kryptonite, nor the means to mold it into a Klark Kent-slapping jewelry—those credits go to Lex Luthor.

The ring is usually secured inside the Bat Cave or kept inside a famous lead-lined pouch on Batman’s Utility Belt as means of leveling the playing field in case he and Superman don’t see eye-to-eye and things escalate quickly.

The Batmobile has been a staple in Batman comics, film, animation, live-action, and video games; basically, where there’s a Batman, there’s a Batmobile. Its iterations ranged from bat-adorned speedsters to the nicest of all Batmobile iterations—the high-tech tank we all saw in Christopher Nolan‘s The Dark Knight Trilogy.

And it’s more than just a mere mode of transportation. It’s a tank with plenty of weaponry, a tow truck, field Batman gadget storage, and this thing has a massive grapple attached to it, which it can use to scale buildings. Pretty neat.