Batman and Detective Comics: Should they be like Avengers/New Avengers?

[Serd]

I thought today about the way, the Batman titles work. And Even through we had some really good writers on Detective, i think Snyder's run was the last time the title made big waves. Today it is clearly the little, secondary Batman comic.

How could DC increase the status of the book? Perhaps one way could be the Avengers-model. Since Bendis every main writer usually wrought two book. Often Avengers and New Avengers.

Perhaps the next writer of Batman could also write Detective? He could do what he wants to tell his big story? Batman in the main book, the GCPD in Detective? Crossovers or scenes from two Perspectives? Everything could ne possible.

What do you think?

[Panfoot]

So something like Superman/Action comics are right now?

[Serd]

So something like Superman/Action comics are right now?

AC and Superman have different writers at the Moment. But it is the right direction of thought.

[MajorHoy]

. . . Perhaps the next writer of Batman could also write Detective? He could do what he wants to tell his big story? Batman in the main book, the GCPD in Detective? Crossovers or scenes from two Perspectives? Everything could ne possible.

What do you think?

I don't think it makes much sense. How many comic book writers would want to write two monthly titles with the same character? How many writers could / would want to coordinate tales for the exact same character with two different artist teams every month? What if the writer given both Batman and Detective Comics isn't as popular as previous writers . . . wouldn't that hurt the sales on BOTH titles at the same time? Personally, I had given up on Snyder's New 52 Batman in monthly issues for a while, but at least there was usually a writer on Detective Comics who was an acceptable alternative (until they gave that book to Tomasi).

[Cowtools]

I like this idea in principle, because it allows the writer to really dig in and build an epic story, like Hickman did with Avengers.
I'm not sure that Batman & Detective are the best comics to do this with though, as they're generally pretty similar books.
I'd prefer that the same writer wrote the Batman solo book, and a Batfamily book to supplement it.
Then Detective could be by a different writer, and focus on tales of Batman's past, filling in the gaps in Batman's history.

[Stormcrow]

I don't know if it'd work out like that, given how Detective always seems to get sidelined in favor of Batman. I'd prefer it if they found an approach for Detective that was different to "that other Batman book".

Maybe keep the focus on Jim Gordon after the whole being Batman thing blows over and do something closer to Gotham Central or the Gotham tv series. I believe it does need to star a different character other than Batman in order to be relevant at this point.

[HeWhoSlapsAll]

I think this could only work, IF said writer was building an epic cohesive story between the two titles.

To be honest, I wouldn't mind if Detective starred Jim Gordon, but he still had access to his Batman gear. Now, this only works if the threat Gotham is dealing with is too big for just Bruce (and Duke, ;P), and the other members of the Bat Family are preoccupied. Remember that time Bruce was stuck in that maze for weeks in the Court of Owls story? I think that if a similar situation happened again, that'd be a perfect opportunity for Jim to once again become Officer Batman as he dealt with the protection of Gotham, as Batman dealt with his predicament. Even when Bruce comes back, he acknowledges that he needs Jim's assistance. So while the Batman solo focuses on the macro, Jim, in 'Tec, deals with micro; they end up attacking the problem at two different fronts.

It doesn't need to be a 3 year thing, like Hickman's awesome run, but I feel it could work for about a year, or so.

Another way it could go, is if 'Tec is headed by the Earth-3's Owlman, and both the main Batman title, and 'Tec, are building to major confrontation between Batman and Owlman. That'd mean that the 'Tec book would be pretty dark and eff'd up.

[Panfoot]

I think it would work better if the main Batman book stayed as it does while Tec' becomes more like an gotham anthology book with characters that don't have their own book like Gordan, Cass, Stephanie, Batwoman and Jim Corrigan/the rest of the gotham by midnight team.

[batnbreakfast]

Two books different in tone. One for the superhero tales. One for a rotating cast solving cases doing actual police/detective work. Gotham's atmosphere,
interesting Gothamites less of an action title. Maybe Batman's POV in Batman, a different detective's POV in Detectice but the same case/problem.

[Kurtzberg]

I think you need a rare writer like a Hickman or Morrison who has plans for a truly byzantine and sprawling story for both books to work like that. I think those kinds of stories are rare and probably should be, people would get tired of that kind of thing on a regular basis. Hickman made it work (although some would argue that probably) because it led into something as massive as Secret Wars, while Morrison made his sprawling Bat epic work largely because, well... He's Morrison, and it rolled into Final Crisis and an eventual DC universe reboot. I guess something like that has to culminate in something suitably epic?

[HsssH]

I'd prefer if Detective focused more on crime stories, it even could take place at various time's in Batman's history, while Batman was this big bombastic stuff. So no, I wouldn't like Avenger/New Avenger model.

[napolid]

Unless its Hickman writing both books then no, could you image if most batman readers didn't have an alternative to the main bat title, they'd go nuts.

God imagine the filler.

[batnbreakfast]

I think you need a rare writer like a Hickman or Morrison who has plans for a truly byzantine and sprawling story for both books to work like that. I think those kinds of stories are rare and probably should be, people would get tired of that kind of thing on a regular basis. Hickman made it work (although some would argue that probably) because it led into something as massive as Secret Wars, while Morrison made his sprawling Bat epic work largely because, well... He's Morrison, and it rolled into Final Crisis and an eventual DC universe reboot. I guess something like that has to culminate in something suitably epic?

Actually I was thinking of something less epic than the stories in Batman. A strange murder case in small arcs. Modelled after Gotham Central but not exclusively cops. Agents Batman uses during the daylight like Jason Bard or Matches Malone. Something like Legends of the Dark Knight
(the present LOTDK doesn't need to be around). The creative talen is stretched too thin over multiple books. Detective Comics should be
an important brand not another Batbook. A book about Gotham City. Hmmm... maybe Riddler could be a private eye again.

[MajorHoy]

. . . I'd prefer it if they found an approach for Detective that was different to "that other Batman book".

Maybe keep the focus on Jim Gordon after the whole being Batman thing blows over and do something closer to Gotham Central or the Gotham tv series. I believe it does need to star a different character other than Batman in order to be relevant at this point.

Even though this was posted back in late 2015 (before the Rebirth changes to the entire DC line), I still wish DC was using Detective Comics to focus on Batman's detecting skills (without all the computerized Bat-gizmos) and to showcase the GCPD more.

[Adset]

i don't really care about the direction of the book per se, but over the years i've found i add/drop detective quite a bit (i recently dropped it when tynion left, but i plan on picking it back up when tomasi takes over) whereas batman has always been a near-constant buy. i wouldn't mind if the two books were under a unified creative umbrella (as the OP asks) so long as the stories were good, but i guess more than anything i wish DC would treat detective as the equal to batman and always strive for top-notch creative talent on it. it's been my experience -- obviously this is a subjective take -- that they do not.