If You Wrote Comics: Batman

[lemonpeace]

In order for this to work, the Justice League isn't the small 7 man team. It's a big Justice League Unlimited type of deal.

I would make Batman bi-monthly, every two months we get a Batman centric story and I would stack the deck with our best creative team. Quality > Quantity. Outside of his book and the big ticket items (big events, trinity, justice league, etc) batman will only pop in and out of other books. He should never draw too much attention because he's a goddamn ninja and needs to act like it. I'd drop Nightwing's solo and keep him on Titans and occassionally the Justice League. RHATO keeps being the gift to the earth that it is. I would have Barbara stay in a solo book, have her leave the batgirl title behind for good, and promote her up to the Justice League's rank. All of Batman's early sidekicks (Dick, Barbara, and Jason) should join Justice League ranks. Bryan Hill's possible doing an Outsiders book, I would double down on that; it'd have Black Lightning, Katana, Orphan and Signal and I'd put Gotham Girl and Clayface on the team too. They would focus on conspiracies, black-ops missions and exploring the esoteric side of DC's landscape. I have a lot I'd want to do with David Zavimbe so I'll just say I would give him a solo. He would be completely separate from the rest of the Batfamily except Batman and the Outsiders. Detective Comics will continue to function as the auxiliary batfam book but I would focus on the detective side. I should be street level and somewhat gritty. Robin continues on the Teen Titans, I like him there.

[godisawesome]

Overall idea: two year-long books (possibility for expansion to three or four) with a dozen+ overlapping miniseries treated as "seasons" like with a TV show, with the goal being to build an elite roster of writers who are shared by multiple properties. They overlap so that they can advertise for each other but not monopolize creators:

-If you have Tim Seeley firing on all cylinders on, say, an Azrael book, and he has a plan for an Outsiders book, he writes Azrael for, say 7 issues, and the seventh month also features the premier of his Outsiders book with a giant advertisement attached to Azrael (plus maybe one free starter issue if you buy Azrael) and then writes Outsiders exclusively for 7 issues, announcing Azrael in the seventh again. Miniseries-lengths can vary as well; basically, the writer paces one great arc at a time, and that determines the length of the miniseries. Successful miniseries get expansion, but you always include two or three experimental ones.

-Batman (Year Round): the solo series for the man himself. Other characters can appear if the writer wants to, but Bats is the clear, undisputed main protagonist, and Bruce Wayne's daytime activities should be covered as well.
-Detective Comics (Year Round) : ensemble series, but with no set-in stone cast. The only requirement is that more than one Gotham character stars in each story arc. Bruce and Damian? Sure. Selina, Bruce, and Kate? Sure. Every single Batfamily member minus Bruce? Yep. An Outlaws and Birds team up? Go ahead. Cassandra and Harvey Bullock. Go ahead, make my day.
-Outsiders (6+ months): Nightwing led team with a chemistry and format based off the Young Justice "Team", especially in regards to the unknown aspect. Group includes the characters from the original line-up, plus the occasional reformed villain, guest star hero, or other Batfamily member. Kobra, Qurac, Santa Prisca, Secret Society, and other such organizational evils are their opponents.
-Birds of Prey (6+ months): Babs acts as both Batgirl and as Oracle herself, teamed with Dinah, Huntress, Powergirl, Cassandra Cain, Misfit, and Black Alice. Kind of a "vanguard" superhero team, Babs, Dinah, and Helena acts as investigators and scouts, with Powergirl and the two kids as heavy hitters. Roles are occasionally mixed, for fun, especially in regards to Babs acting as a mentor to the girls, Huntress having belligerent best buds tension with Dinah, and Huntress and Powergirl being adult BFFs.
-The Outlaws (6+ months): Jason continues to lead misfit teams with surprising competence. They're louder and more ostentatious than the Outsiders, and act more as alliances of friends against specific villains as Jason tries to "fix" persistent problems, though not always via killing. I'd maybe have a running gag being that they killed one evil organization, but groups keep rushing into the vacuum, causing Jaosn a headache.
- Nightwing (6+ months): focusing on Nightiwng when not leading Outsiders and teamed with his Titan buddies. Takes after his Spiral story arcs, albeit perhaps he tends to focus on activities in the United States. Guest star is Damian Wayne at times, with the implication that Damian has realized he has a better mentor/student relationship with Dick, even though Bruce is a pretty good father.
- Batgirl (6+ months): Babs... Plus Cass, if for no other reason than their opposed strengths and weaknesses and histories should make for fascinating reading. Babs *is* the main focus, with Cass as a supporting character, but they have a counterpart relationship to Damian and Dick that's a bit more cute in a sisterly way, but perhaps a bit more fraught because of their differences.
- Red Robin (3+ months): Spinning alongside the Young Justice book that I'll mention with Teen Titans in a bit, Tim's new schtick is a time travel/inter-dimensional mystery book, as Tim tries to use his own memories of competing timelines and signs of changing destinies to help people. Hypertime, Earth-3 refugee crises, and other in-the-know villains color an otherwise familiar theme; Tim goes to college, hangs out with Ives, tries to use Chessmaster skills, and has a dry humor to the book, but occasionally finds himself realizing that Ultraboy is trying to hide out in LA, or that a Central City cop has had her husband erased from time thanks to his acquaintanceship with Wally West.
- Azrael (3+ months): Az encounters a deserter from the League of Assassins and tries to help him avoid the conditioning Ra's puts on his ninjas and deals with faith, ideals, and doubt.
- Red Hood (3+ months): Jason decides to give a little undercover work the try. Someone slaughtered a town on the border between the US and Mexico on behalf of a meta-human cartel, probably using members of a private security company. Jason assumes an identity and joins the company in San Antonio to suss out who knew what and when, and ends up in a one-half noir mystery, and one-half Neo-Western with plenty of gunfire.
- Other options: Spoiler, Cassandra Cain, Batwing, Robin, etc.

Addendum: this same format (anchor monthlies with "season" miniseries) applies to all other franchises. The Green Lanterns share a Corps book with individual minis, the Flash's share a book and even rotate the lead, Wonder Woman has the Amazon, etc. for other major Batman books that technically rent under their control:

- Young Justice (6+ months): Our YK teens are allied with other disappeared members of the 90's and 00's because it turns out they're timelines got thrown into havoc by Harvest on top of Flashpoint, while Harvest is revamped into a *better character* by revealing he's a former assistant to the Time Trapper, but he himself is subject to his own timeline changes, resulting in him decaying into the Superboy villain, Scavenger as he loses memories and gains new ones moment to moment. The Legion of Superheroes is in contact with our heroes, because a new threat has emerged after they beat Harvest/Scavenger and some 90's and 00's villains (Harm, Replicant, Inertia, Etc.) also regain their memories and form a group that eventually becomes an even greater threat than the Legion of Supervillains in their time. Bart has to learn a timeline he was removed from, Superboy has to deal with a horribly fractured memory from timeline changes before and after Flashpoint, Cassie has fluctuating powers, and Tim acts as planner, with Damage (90's), Argent, and Lorena Marquez as other members.
- Teen Titans (6+ months): Damian gets Steph for a babysitter, forms the team. Etc.

[Mr. White]

Batman - Classic solo Batman with mainly self contained stories
Detective Comics - Batman using his detective skills more to solve crimes
Batman & Robin - The Dynamic Duo (Damian Wayne)
Batman Family - A giant-size comic with 1 classic Batman reprint and various other new stories focusing on Batwoman, various solo Robin(s) stories, any other related Bat or Bat villain. NOT every Bat character needs their own solo title IMO!
Nightwing - Dick Grayson
Batgirl - Barbara Gordon

Catwoman needs to be a villain again and does NOT need her own solo series, just like Batwoman does NOT. Downsize the Bat titles to 6 main books, use the Batman Family to tell stories for all the other Bat characters.

I like your style; can really get behind this.
Few tweaks - will merge Batman & Robin and Batgirl in the Batman Family book. Also add classic-style Bird's of Prey in there.

[macroblaster1999]

If I were to make my own take on the Batman family of books, here are my ideas-

BATMAN- tackles semi real-world issues. One of the new antagonists in the first arc or so would be a villain called Peace, a woman from the poor Narrows neighborhood whose abilities would allow her to amplify people's desire to make the city a better palce. The struggle for Batman, who is needed less and less because of this, is what to do when not crime-fighting or if what she's doing is right. Peace would be just as devloped as Batman is, not just a one-dimensional bad guy but somewhat of a tragic one.

NIGHTWING- Still takes place in Bludhaven. Potentially introduce other vigilantes into Dick's lifestyles and new as well as old villains.

OUTSIDERS- Team consists of Nightwing, Lightning, Katana, Metamorpho, Creeper, Man-Bat, and Black Bat. Tackles missions or black-ops for Batman while also going on their own adventures.

BATGIRL- Barbara would still be in Burnside and keep most of what made the Fletcher/Stewart run great.

BIRDS OF PREY- Batgirl, Huntress (in actual old costume), Black Canary, Spoiler, Hawk and Dove, Question (Renee Montoya).

ROBIN, SON OF BATMAN - Damian and Goliath traveling around the world, helping deal with threats in a semi-lethal way that defines his character. Nobody, Superboy, and Abuse would be the supporting cast.

DETECTIVE COMICS - Detective would focus on the Batman villains, creating new and memorable stories for these characters. Joker could be the first arc star, followed by Ivy, Freeze, and so on.

BATWOMAN - Tackles threats related to terror and the military. A bit of espionage and force in this book, as well as clashing with Batman sometimes.

RED ROBIN - Tim is back and solving crimes in New York City, while also trying to find his missing friends (Connor, Bart, and Cassie). Spoiler would pop up now and then.

RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS - Red Hood gathers together misfits and anti-heroes to take care of problems that nobody is willing to fight - generally without lethal force, but something more permanent than jail.

CLAYFACE - Clayface is out of Gotham and looking to help people as part of his continuing redemption. Dr. Victoria October would be a supporting character.

GCPD - A procedural comic showing the police inside the department including Gordan, Renee Montoya, The Spectre, Bullock, and some new faces. Topics would include corruption, politics, police brutality, psychology, supernatural and powered issues, and Batman himself. Gritty and real.

ARKHAM - a book centered in Arkham, the main protagonist being a young man with mental issues sent to the asylum. He ends up having to learn the rules of both the prison and mental ward, interacting with several characters along the way. Gangs, escapes, prison romace, shaking, and villains like Freeze, Ivy, and Joker would be in volved.

BATMAN: ONE BAD DAY - Elseworlds story. The Joker dies in a hostage situation when a cop makes a judgment call. Batman and the officer both examine themselves as a massive power struggle grips the city, and citizens begin to question lethal force.

[dietrich]

If I were to make my own take on the Batman family of books, here are my ideas-

BATMAN- tackles semi real-world issues. One of the new antagonists in the first arc or so would be a villain called Peace, a woman from the poor Narrows neighborhood whose abilities would allow her to amplify people's desire to make the city a better palce. The struggle for Batman, who is needed less and less because of this, is what to do when not crime-fighting or if what she's doing is right. Peace would be just as devloped as Batman is, not just a one-dimensional bad guy but somewhat of a tragic one.

NIGHTWING- Still takes place in Bludhaven. Potentially introduce other vigilantes into Dick's lifestyles and new as well as old villains.

OUTSIDERS- Team consists of Nightwing, Lightning, Katana, Metamorpho, Creeper, Man-Bat, and Black Bat. Tackles missions or black-ops for Batman while also going on their own adventures.

BATGIRL- Barbara would still be in Burnside and keep most of what made the Fletcher/Stewart run great.

BIRDS OF PREY- Batgirl, Huntress (in actual old costume), Black Canary, Spoiler, Hawk and Dove, Question (Renee Montoya).

ROBIN, SON OF BATMAN - Damian and Goliath traveling around the world, helping deal with threats in a semi-lethal way that defines his character. Nobody, Superboy, and Abuse would be the supporting cast.

DETECTIVE COMICS - Detective would focus on the Batman villains, creating new and memorable stories for these characters. Joker could be the first arc star, followed by Ivy, Freeze, and so on.

BATWOMAN - Tackles threats related to terror and the military. A bit of espionage and force in this book, as well as clashing with Batman sometimes.

RED ROBIN - Tim is back and solving crimes in New York City, while also trying to find his missing friends (Connor, Bart, and Cassie). Spoiler would pop up now and then.

RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS - Red Hood gathers together misfits and anti-heroes to take care of problems that nobody is willing to fight - generally without lethal force, but something more permanent than jail.

CLAYFACE - Clayface is out of Gotham and looking to help people as part of his continuing redemption. Dr. Victoria October would be a supporting character.

GCPD - A procedural comic showing the police inside the department including Gordan, Renee Montoya, The Spectre, Bullock, and some new faces. Topics would include corruption, politics, police brutality, psychology, supernatural and powered issues, and Batman himself. Gritty and real.

ARKHAM - a book centered in Arkham, the main protagonist being a young man with mental issues sent to the asylum. He ends up having to learn the rules of both the prison and mental ward, interacting with several characters along the way. Gangs, escapes, prison romace, shaking, and villains like Freeze, Ivy, and Joker would be in volved.

BATMAN: ONE BAD DAY - Elseworlds story. The Joker dies in a hostage situation when a cop makes a judgment call. Batman and the officer both examine themselves as a massive power struggle grips the city, and citizens begin to question lethal force.

I like the sound of Arkham Asylum. The most disappointing thing about King's run is that his much promised exploration of Bruce's human side.

A Protagonist [Batman] with mental issues.

The mental and emotional side of Batman has only been touched on briefly.
I expected King to drive into Bruce's mental health and maybe even write Bruce taking steps to address his problems and get better the proper way. Instead we got the same old self medication of punching things in the face really hard

[The Dying Detective]

Here's some things I would do with Batman

-Keep his appearances to Detective Comics and Batman and the Justice League to see Batman running around everywhere just really sounds ridiculous.

-Going back to my plan to give Tim Drake his own agency I will be including Tai D'arshan who would be an associate of Ulysses Armstrong and acts on his behalf albeit reluctantly and for the good of his country. Tai D'arshan will be Cassandra Cain's primary nemesis.

[daBronzeBomma]

Oh, I finally thought of a Batverse story I'd write that would NEED to be in-continuity.

A multipart story arc across all the Bat titles whose ramifications would have to stay as permanent as possible for it to have any effect.

"The Greatest Joke Ever Told"

After the Joker's latest escape from Arkham results in yet another entire innocent family (parents and little children) being murdered, a new outrage arises in Gotham. But this time it's not just against the Joker (who is a natural and well - known sociopath), not just against the police and judicial system (which were already viewed as either overwhelmed, incompetent, and/ or corrupt), but also against Batman, who is basically a violent celebrity at this point and not at all the urban legend he once was.

Bats is called soft, and worse, complicit in the Joker's crimes for not killing him. It turns into a PR fiasco that Bruce has not seen before. Even his friends in the media (Clark and Lois) can't spin this positively. Bats is being publicly questioned like never before.

Bats then runs into the Joker, who taunts him about all the murders he's committed, and doesn't it make Bats furious enough ... to finally kill the Joker?

Bats refuses, even though he really wants to. Joker strangely starts getting frantic, demanding and goading Bats into trying to kill him. Batman snaps a weird gadget the Joker secretly had on him, and the Joker freaks out.

Bruce senses something is now more amiss than usual. Joker keeps glancing at the time and tries his best to get Bats to kill him now.

Bats just knocks him out and delivers him to GCPD, where a crowd of civilians is gathered to protest his "bleeding heart soft on crime" methods. Bats gets pelted with rotten food as he delivered Joker. Joker wakes up, realizes he is still alive and begins to weep how Bats ruined everything.

Bats is still wondering what he is talking about when the next next day, the city gets the biggest shock of its existence:

The dead are returning to life.

The plots of the various cemeteries are suddenly propelling upward and bursting open, with very - much - alive perfectly persevered people stumbling out very confused.

At first, it seems Apocalyptic, with hundreds of civilians coming back to life. But the common thread is quickly discovered and then the whole thing becomes joyous as the unbelievable truth comes to light:

The Joker never, ever actually killed a single innocent person in his life.

It was all part of his long con, terrorizing families and faking their deaths until he could get Batman to murder the Joker, and then, Batman would finally be a damned murderer. And the Joker ultimately failed.

A broken Joker confesses while he definitely murdered many people, they were all criminal murderers themselves. All the innocents "deaths" were just a long - term gag because really the Joker is mainly a merry prankster.

Batman is very conflicted about all this: on the one hand, he technically revived those people by breaking that gadget, but all his anger toward the Joker feels a bit misplaced now.

The public, reunited with its lost loved ones, regain its trust in Batman and the Joker gets a good last laugh even if his ultimate joke didn't quite stick the landing (i.e. Bats didn't murder him).

Basically, this would be how I would resolve Batman 's no - kill policy in the face of his most "murderous" foe "killing" all those innocents time and time again.

[The Dying Detective]

Oh, I finally thought of a Batverse story I'd write that would NEED to be in-continuity.

A multipart story arc across all the Bat titles whose ramifications would have to stay as permanent as possible for it to have any effect.

"The Greatest Joke Ever Told"

After the Joker's latest escape from Arkham results in yet another entire innocent family (parents and little children) being murdered, a new outrage arises in Gotham. But this time it's not just against the Joker (who is a natural and well - known sociopath), not just against the police and judicial system (which were already viewed as either overwhelmed, incompetent, and/ or corrupt), but also against Batman, who is basically a violent celebrity at this point and not at all the urban legend he once was.

Bats is called soft, and worse, complicit in the Joker's crimes for not killing him. It turns into a PR fiasco that Bruce has not seen before. Even his friends in the media (Clark and Lois) can't spin this positively. Bats is being publicly questioned like never before.

Bats then runs into the Joker, who taunts him about all the murders he's committed, and doesn't it make Bats furious enough ... to finally kill the Joker?

Bats refuses, even though he really wants to. Joker strangely starts getting frantic, demanding and goading Bats into trying to kill him. Batman snaps a weird gadget the Joker secretly had on him, and the Joker freaks out.

Bruce senses something is now more amiss than usual. Joker keeps glancing at the time and tries his best to get Bats to kill him now.

Bats just knocks him out and delivers him to GCPD, where a crowd of civilians is gathered to protest his "bleeding heart soft on crime" methods. Bats gets pelted with rotten food as he delivered Joker. Joker wakes up, realizes he is still alive and begins to weep how Bats ruined everything.

Bats is still wondering what he is talking about when the next next day, the city gets the biggest shock of its existence:

The dead are returning to life.

The plots of the various cemeteries are suddenly propelling upward and bursting open, with very - much - alive perfectly persevered people stumbling out very confused.

At first, it seems Apocalyptic, with hundreds of civilians coming back to life. But the common thread is quickly discovered and then the whole thing becomes joyous as the unbelievable truth comes to light:

The Joker never, ever actually killed a single innocent person in his life.

It was all part of his long con, terrorizing families and faking their deaths until he could get Batman to murder the Joker, and then, Batman would finally be a damned murderer. And the Joker ultimately failed.

A broken Joker confesses while he definitely murdered many people, they were all criminal murderers themselves. All the innocents "deaths" were just a long - term gag because really the Joker is mainly a merry prankster.

Batman is very conflicted about all this: on the one hand, he technically revived those people by breaking that gadget, but all his anger toward the Joker feels a bit misplaced now.

The public, reunited with its lost loved ones, regain its trust in Batman and the Joker gets a good last laugh even if his ultimate joke didn't quite stick the landing (i.e. Bats didn't murder him).

Basically, this would be how I would resolve Batman 's no - kill policy in the face of his most "murderous" foe "killing" all those innocents time and time again.

Hmm interesting story and I'm more amazed that anyone want to resolve (remove?) Batman's no kill policy btu to stick into continuity is kind of tricky.

[brer rabbit]

Not my idea this would make a great Batman Elseworld story

"It is of no consequence. Now, you were saying about the Wayne case?"

"Yeah. Sorry, well, I think we've got a shot at this thing now if you're still as sharp as you were back in Central. Lemme pull out what we've got on him." With that, O'Brien began pulling files and papers from underneath more papers which seemed to correspond to a mad filing system that only he knew.

"Normally for something like this, we'd have a whole task force, but I was lucky to get assigned to it at all. There's hardly even a hint of a whisper of a suspicion on this guy, but it's too-- I dunno. Weird, to not have some sort of stink all over it." He passed the files over to Jones who flipped open the first page.

"Bruce Wayne," Eel continued, leaning back in his chair and propping his legs on the desk. He pulled out a a paddleball from the mess on his desk and began to play with it, counterpointing his briefing with the repeated plonkaplonkaplonka of the toy. "Gotham City's favorite son. Billionaire industrialist, playboy, head of one of the top Fortune 500 companies in the country, philantrophist, humanitarian, extreme sports enthusiast, yadda-yadda-yadda. You've probably heard most of this." He turned to Jones, stopping the paddleball in his hand.

"It would be difficult to find someone in this country who hasn't." Jones replied cautiously.

"Yep. Exactly. Turn the page over, tho. The side of our Mr. Wayne the rest of the country doesn't know. He lost his parents at age 8. The kid watched them get gunned down in the street. Saw the whole thing. There was a big foofraw over it, especially after how the Gotham cops messed up."

"I think I remember that. Something about the police missing a crucial piece of evidence?"

"The murder weapon vanished from lockup. Then the creep's lawyer got them to throw out little Brucie's testimony after practically ripping the kid up on the stand. I got the trial transcripts in there, it's no wonder Shakespere wanted the lawyers hanged." He gave an exagerated shudder.

"How exactly does this relate to your investigation?"

"I'm getting to that, this is necessary background."

"Alright. What happened then?"

"No one's really sure, except that our mugger, one Joe Chill is found dead a week later. Shot through the head. Execution style."

"The mob?"

"Yep. Near as I've been able to piece together, and mind you, there's a bit of healthy speculation here, but I think this theory bears out the facts... Bruce's dad, Thomas Wayne was a big time surgeon. Best in the city. One night a few months before the Waynes died, one of the live in servants at Wayne Manor remembered men coming in late at night. One of whom had been shot. I still haven't quite figured who, so obviously it was some wiseguy who needed medical treatment, but couldn't show up at a hospital. Unidentified mob guy in question probably felt he owed Dr. Wayne one, and decided when the time came that the best way he could pay the guy back was to plug the guy that killed him."

"That seems to be quite a stretch given the limited information on hand, Eel."

"Well, Jones, if there's anything I'm good at is stretching my imagination. But that ain't all I got. Little Brucie starts visiting some of Gotham's big name mob guys just a month or two after Chill dies. Two in particular that he spends time with are 'Roman' Falcone and Franco Bertinelli."

"Got it in one, but that's getting ahead of the story. In any case, Bruce pretty much vanishes from the face of the Earth for a couple of years, coming back to the Gotham on his twenty first birthday nine years ago to take over his father's company. Now the surprise bit is that fifteen year old who's with him." O'Brien paused significantly to allow Jones to look over the photo of the handsome young man in a dark suit and a lovely teen-aged girl in a long skirt and an expensive blouse, making their way past airport security.

"Helena Bertinelli."

"Exactly. Franco Bertinelli's daughter. It looks like the two of 'em met in Italy, or so I've been told."

"You're telling me that the entire basis for the Wayne investigation is his involvement with Helena Bertinelli?"

"You tell me. Mr. Moneybags hooks up with the mob princess, both of 'em have a beef with how the city's run?" He gave an eloquent shrug. "Not two weeks after they blow into town there's a sudden explosion of mob violence that quiets down within three weeks. Then after that... nothing. It's like all the families decide at the same time they want to lie low. Does that make sense to you? It smelled like trouble to some other guys. The guy they had assigned to this before me, Allen, figured that somehow, between 'em, Wayne and Bertinelli took control of the Gotham mobs and now run the whole show."

"This still seems somewhat far fetched. A young man with no criminal experience and a teen-aged girl took over Gotham City." John's incredulous look spoke volumes.

Eel grinned broadly as though his point had been made. "Ah! But we're talking an incredibly wealthy young man, with oodles of cash to throw around and a fabulously well connected young woman. Helena's godparents include the heads of over half the Gotham families. Wayne's rich enough to buy all the outside muscle they'd've needed."

"It still doesn't ring true."

"Well, be that as it may, our job's to try and figure out what's actually going on over there. It's weird. Gotham's got the lowest crime rate on the Eastern Seaboard, yet it's mobbed up to the gills."

"It seems to me that if the city operates smoothly and peacefully, what is the point of stirring things up?"

"The point, John, is that if these two are running the city without benefit of being elected, well..." he paused and gave another eloquent shrug, "That's federal business, ain't it?"

"Is it still the case?"

"Well, here we are nine years later and Gotham's still got the lowest crime rate ever, Wayne's still CEO of WayneCorp and looks squeaky clean and above-board most of the time, but there's all sorts of weird stuff that's ended up getting connected to him, but nothing we can pin down."

"Do we actually have anything to go on?"

"Very little. We know he's still mobbed up to his eyeballs, but nobody can prove anything."

"What else can you tell me about Wayne?"

"Well, he lives with some live in staff, including bodyguards and a couple of kids in addition to Helena."

"He has children with her?"

"Nah, he's kinda got a soft spot for kids. Adopted four so far." Eel ducked his hand into the pile once more and spread out several folders, each opened to show a photo of the children, and in some cases, men, in question.

"First, Richard Wayne. The favorite son. Formerly Richard Grayson of the Flying Graysons, circus aerialists. At age twelve, the kid's parents buy it one night while performing and Wayne was in the audience. He offered to take care of the kid and a couple weeks later adopted him. Raised the kid like his own. He and Helena are pretty close. About three years ago, something happened, nobody's sure what exactly and the two wind up estranged from each other up until last year. He's twenty one now and kinda lives in Bludhaven in Jersey and works as... get this... a beat cop. But he comes home to visit pretty regularly. Rumor has it that the kid's being groomed to take over his old man's spot when the time comes."

"Next up, Jason Wayne, their wild child. Formerly Jason Todd. The kid was living on the streets for a couple of years until he tried to rip off the tires on the Wayne limo. Wayne instead of sending the kid to juvie adopts him. Seems to have some kind of rivalry with Richard. Kid's eighteen now, with an attitude and a couple charges of assault that vanished after some of the Wayne money greased the right palms. Nothing mob related, just the usual high-jinx the rich and bored get into. Paparazzi love this kid and he shows up on the gossip rags about as often as Paris Hilton does."

"The runt of the litter, Timothy Drake, although there's paperwork going through that'll have him changing his name to Tim Wayne soon enough. The kid's actually Wayne's neighbor, but apparrently his parents died overseas and Wayne offered to take care of him. The real quiet one of the bunch, he's only been with Wayne about three years now. Fifteen, always manages to not be around when the media comes around. Wayne's got him on an accelerated home-schooling program and the kid's actually going to get a Computer Science degree in another year or so. Really bright."

"The one girl he's adopted is her." He said, pointing to the photograph, "Cassandra Wayne. Formerly homeless, believed to be about sixteen or so and believed to be a runaway. She's had some sort of brain damage that makes it difficult for her to interact with anybody verbally. Wayne's got her in some speech therapy and remedial reading. She's been living with them for about two years now. Rumor has it that she's been sleeping with Wayne, but nobody's been able to sustatiate that one. She's about as skittish around cameras as Timmy is."

"He's also got a butler by the name of Alfred Pennyworth. A real honest to goodness English butler who's been with the family since Wayne's parents' time. Tried to do a background check on him and we keep getting these weird blank spots. All we really know about him is he used to be an actor and also did some time with British Army Intelligence. Runs the household, manages Wayne's schedule, acts as his personal vallet and chaufer."

"The other regular staff is Jean Paul Valley, weird combination of bodyguard, all around handyman and live-in computer geek. Doesn't get along real well with Dick, might have something to do with Flirting with Bertinelli. Tremendously loyal to Wayne, but I haven't gotten around to figuring out why yet."

Eel shrugged, "The whole merry Wayne crew. No one can pin anything on 'em, no one can connect them to anything, but somehow the entire damn town just... works."

[The Dying Detective]

I have this idea for a Spoiler or Batgirl solo pitch where Stephanie has to deal with her father who is gathering the lesser villains of Gotham and organising them into a more formidable force. Will be taking some ideas from Bryan Q. Miller's run and use the DCAU villains like Condiment King, Roxy Rocket, Livewire, Calendar Man who's henchwomen consists of Calendar Girls, etc. But I could alter it so that it's part of Tim Drake: White Knight pitch where Cluemaster is under the employ of Ulysses Armstrong.

[Fergus]

Reads like bad fan fiction

[The Dying Detective]

ALso aside from Tai'Darshan being Cassandra Cain's nemesis he will also be a student of Lady Shiva who he learned how to fight from in order to learn how to defend his country. And While he and Cass will clash there will be a growing romantic tension between them that forces Tai'Darshan to reconsider how he is acting as he realises that being a terrorist is doing more harm than good for his country. While Cass finds herself upset when she learns of his past association with her mother. Not sure what I would really do with that but I need time. And also instead of Luke Fox I will make Tamara Fox Batwing sorry but Luke is just too bland a character.

[bat39]

I think the one thing I'd aim for is a bit more diversity in storytelling and style. There are so many Batman books, and ideally there should be a book for every Batman story.

BATMAN would be the flagship title - the 'Batman as superhero' book. This is about Batman taking on the major villains, being Gotham's savior, teaming up with other heroes on occasion etc.

DETECTIVE COMICS would be an anthology book - with 2-3 issue story arcs featuring various Bat-family members, either in solo stories or teaming up with Batman. It would also be a great place for Batman to have team-ups with other more street-based characters, like Green Arrow, Black Canary, the Question etc.

BATMAN AND ROBIN would be brought back. This would be an LOTDK style series focusing on the history and legacy of the Dynamic Duo. There would be stories with Bruce and Damien in the present. But also Silver Age/Batman '66-esq stories of Bruce and Dick in the past. Bruce and Jason stories. Bruce and Tim stories. Hell, even Dick and Damien stories! In relative terms, this will be a more light-hearted series compared to the other ones, though the tone will vary based on the era.

The NIGHTWING, BATGIRL and BATWOMAN books would carry on and do their own thing. But Nightwing would be based in Bludhaven. While he would semi-regularly show up in Gotham and interact with those characters, his role as a solo crime-fighter and Titans leader would be focused on more than him being an ex-sidekick of Batman. Instead, Tim, as Red Robin, would fulfill the 'former sidekick turned equal partner' to Batman role in Gotham.

[DarthNeo]

I would write a story where someone kill Alfred (and he STAYS dead forever!), Batman has a mental breakdown and goes on a rampage, it takes the entire JL to reel him back in, SOMEONE on the team gets severely injured by Batman before they can get him under control. Man, I would LOVE to see that story (even if I say so myself)...

[nonsense man]

That would suck I like alfred but that is what would happen and be a good story too maybe as an elseworlds