What doors does Batman close.

First, this is not a Bat-Bash thread. I have no doubt some of that will happen (us being us), but I do not pose my question to run down DC's most successful property (at least over the last 35 years or so).

What might DC be willing to try if (for whatever reason) they devoted a smaller percentage of their output to The Bat-Brand?

There are only so many books DC can reliably crank in a month. What's more, there are only so many stories to go around in a year, and a certain amount of the Noir/Bond-esque stuff gets soaked up by The Bats. Are there genres and themes The Batfam owns for which other characters might be a fit?

I find myself thinking The Creeper; he could fill a lot of the plots given to Bat-People.

Who else?

The Creeper is a great choice. But I would also love to see The Question get his own book. Maybe replace Harley Quinn with another female hero. Does Robin really need a book where he fights in a tournament to prove he is the best fighter in the DC Universe? Could that mini have gone to anther teen hero?

Just a couple thoughts.

But no matter how many books you think could replace a Bat-book, who the hell will buy them?

DC grinds out Bat-books because Batman sells. We may want other books, but those don't necessarily bring in enough readers / enough $'s to justify the replacement of a Bat-title.

Batman also attracts top tier talent. Because it's Batman, so more readers/eyes on your work, and because it sells Batman numbers, you get paid Batman money.

It's hard to invest the big name money in big names on books that probably won't sell big name numbers.

And finally, unfortunately, The Creeper, like say Vision, would be a proving ground book and once it did well, you'd get promoted to Batman.

Most people only care about other superheroes as supporting characters rather than main ones. Even if they stopped with Batman, they wouldn't care about the other characters.

Acknowledging the Batman sells point and moving on from it...:

Even as a Batman fan (which I am) I get tired his overexposure.
I once did a thread asking what it would look like if Captain America were pushed as much as Batman. The result was a ridiculously long list of WTF titles.
Batman and his family have co-opted DC’s street level scene. No non Bat affiliated character gets much of a chance. I don’t particularly like that, because characters like The Question, The Creeper, Wildcat, Green Arrow/Black Canary, Lady Blackhawk, Richard Dragon ... these characters interest me, too.

Oh and don’t even get me started on the whole Batman Who Laughs thing.