Quite. I forget if he was supposed to find that clue he found when he used that trowel in The Riddler's apartment? But even if he wasn't, by that point in the story, Bruce finally accomplishing a legit feat of detection was too little, too late.
Gaith I can't remember the last time this happened but I
completely agree with everything you wrote! lol Regarding the trowel: yes, when Batman talks to Riddler, the latter is actually disappointed when he realizes Batman missed a crucial clue he was supposed to find. So he gives him an
extra hint and Batman then goes back and finds the whole thing in the crime scene that he completely overlooked.
Batman isn't even good at detecting what he's being deliberately directed to find.
It's honestly like when a child is on an Easter Egg hunt, and the parents are watching them gleefully to see how excited they get when they find an egg that was basically just like set on top of a plant pot.
Then the kid keeps walking right past an egg that's like, sitting on a chair, and the parents are like 'HOW can he be walking right past the egg?! It's right there, doesn't he see it!?' so they're like "Hmm, I wonder if the Easter Bunny got tired and had to sit down...?" and the kid just ignores them and keeps looking around, and then they're like "boy, I think
I might need to sit down, can you find me a good chair to sit in?...no, not that one. Yeah, another chair. A comfy chair. A big, plush,
comfy chair....
What is the comfiest chair we have!??? Oh, wow, great, you found another egg! What a good job you did, Batman!"