Why doesn’t DC Comics focus on the OTHER HEROES from Detective Comics ?

[Cmbmool]

I said it for Action Comics #1000 and I’ll do it again here... Just this once I wish to see DC focus on the OTHER HEROES of Detective Comics besides Batman and his family. Who’s with me on this ?

[Timothy Hunter]

DC somewhat paid homage to some of the non-Batman protagonists in Scott Snyder's story the Detective Guild, wherein Elongated Man, Martian Manhunter, and Slam Bradley appear.

Oh and to answer your question, those aforementioned characters are not nearly the cash cows that Batman is, so they don't get represented as much. Simple as that.

[jb681131]

I said it for Action Comics #1000 and I’ll do it again here... Just this once I wish to see DC focus on the OTHER HEROES of Detective Comics besides Batman and his family. Who’s with me on this ?

Well you've had Spoiler, Orphan, and Clayface recently.

[ngroove]

Would be at least pretty nice, to have Detective Comics return to what it once was; Batman with another hero backup story feature. Could be Question, could be Green Arrow, Vic Sage or Renee Montoya, could be Elongated Man, could be Human Target, Roy Raymond, or Pow-Wow Smith!

I loved cracking into an old Action Comics / Detective Comics, to not only thrill to the exploits of Superman and Batman, but also Atom, Aquaman, Green Arrow & Black Canary, and best to me, those World's Finest Comics, with Captain Marvel!

[jb681131]

Would be at least pretty nice, to have Detective Comics return to what it once was; Batman with another hero backup story feature. Could be Question, could be Green Arrow, Vic Sage or Renee Montoya, could be Elongated Man, could be Human Target, Roy Raymond, or Pow-Wow Smith!

Yes ! I remember the Manhunter backup by Archie Goodwin in Detective Comics #437-443. An awsome story.

[MajorHoy]

Would be at least pretty nice, to have Detective Comics return to what it once was; Batman with another hero backup story feature.

It might seem nice, but how many pages would that take away from the main feature? (And with current writing style for comic books, that means an arc would take another 3-6 issues to complete a story!)

Back in the old days, they could tell a pretty complete story in maybe 12 pages.
Now it takes a character at least four pages to open a door and enter a room.

[jb681131]

It might seem nice, but how many pages would that take away from the main feature? (And with current writing style for comic books, that means an arc would take another 3-6 issues to complete a story!)

Back in the old days, they could tell a pretty complete story in maybe 12 pages.
Now it takes a character at least four pages to open a door and enter a room.

They managed a Shazam! backstory in Justice League New52 so, that's not the problem.

[MajorHoy]

They managed a Shazam! backstory in Justice League New52 so, that's not the problem.

Well, for that book they charged an extra buck ($3.99 cover price vs. typical $2.99 cover price for DC comics with +/-20 pages of story), while these days they're charging $3.99 cover price for 20 pages of story.
(Besides, I hated Geoff Johns' Justice League and gave up on that title after issue #12. Wasn't all that impressed by his "Shazam!" back-up feature, either.)

[SixSpeedSamurai]

There is no a single DC character you could put on there that would sell like Batman, that is why.

[K. Jones]

It does happen sporadically. Ed Brubaker famously used a heck of a lot of Slam Bradley and Sam Bradley Junior, first in his Batman run (or was it Detective back-ups?) and then in Catwoman. Slam is obviously the big one - the headliner of Detective Comics # 1, and the only person who can really contend with Batman's ownership over Detective.

James Robinson utilized Jason Bard a lot during the One Year Later "Face the Face" storyline. Bard wasn't seen a bunch after that and turned up tweaked a fair amount in the New 52 but is still a recurring Batgirl side character.

Martian Manhunter is obviously tending to be more of a centerpiece to various Justice League stories and has his own solo right now. Aquaman was only temporarily at home in Detective, as was Green Arrow and Hawkman, they sort of floated around as strong backups over the years. Elongated Man definitely deserves some spotlight - his last good run was a tricksy take in Gail Simone's Secret Six.

It'd be nice to see Speed Saunders. It'd be nice to see a new take on the Crimson Avenger. Roy Raymond (Jr) got a lot of play in the pre-Flashpoint Outsiders series as a riff on Owlman.

Bart Regan could be drafted into a DC spy group like Spyral. Gumshoe Gus, Buck Marshal, Bret Lawton, Cosmo, or Bruce Nelson? Larry Steele? Airwave? The Boy Commandos? Golden Age Robotman? Hoo boy.

Then there's that other character from Detective ... what's his name there ... Dick Grayson. They ought to do something cool with him one of these days.

[Pohzee]

Then there's that other character from Detective ... what's his name there ... Dick Grayson. They ought to do something cool with him one of these days.

The 12th Greatest Detective?