It's tough to come up with current villains for Batman who can compare with the Joker,Riddler, Two-Face, or Poison Ivy,Mr. Freeze, and some of the other best bad guys in comics. But in 2011, or Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo pulled off that trick when they introduced the Court of Owls in the current 52 reboot of Batman. A secret society of wealthy families were controlling Gotham for centuries,and they were so good at it that not even Batman suspected they were genuine until it was nearly too late.
Source: blastr.com