A-List Books Adopting C-List Characters as Supporting Cast.....

[pageturner]

Batman has often had some

Azreal
Gotham
Bat Girl
Batwoman
Various robins.

Now some of them grew beyond C list but he has many supporting characters

Come to think of it he has had an army of support and yet crime still runs rampart.

[Darkseid Is]

Batman has often had some

Azreal
Gotham
Bat Girl
Batwoman
Various robins.

Now some of them grew beyond C list but he has many supporting characters

Come to think of it he has had an army of support and yet crime still runs rampart.

If crime didn't run rampant we wouldn't have Batman comics...

[Agent Z]

Batman has often had some

Azreal
Gotham
Bat Girl
Batwoman
Various robins.

Now some of them grew beyond C list but he has many supporting characters

Come to think of it he has had an army of support and yet crime still runs rampart.

Well it might help if he decided to train and equip the GCPD instead of just a handful of people.

[Timothy Hunter]

As I put in the description, I'd be going in a darker direction akin to the 52 maxi-series.

I remember Will Magnus being a dark and troubled character, but I' never seen the Metal Men themselves as characters being taken into a darker direction. Maybe I shouldn't have described the Metal Men as bright, but I think they are too innocent and cartoonish to fit the tone of a traditional Batman comic. The only way I could see the Metal Men as viable supporting characters in a Batman comics, is if there was a huge tonal shift in the Batman comic franchise, like Mark Waid's Daredevil.

[scribbleMind]

Super-Sons: Superman, Superwoman and Batman are going off world for League stuff and hire a babysitter capable of keeping their kids in check and saving them when neccesary. best dad Animal Man is on the case.

Now I really want to see Maxine interact with Jon and Damian. Oh, she's so innocent, and now she's talking to a bunch of dead animals. What?

[Timothy Hunter]

Plus the solo Batman comics, as far as I know, usually tend to not regulatory feature non-Batman related characters from the wider DC Universe, sure maybe in one issue, there will be a guest appearance from Superman, but Batman comics tend to focus on their own mythology.

While I stand by my point about the Metal Men not tonally fitting with the Batman mythos, what I said as detailed in the quote above, was admittedly stupid, in retrospect. Zatanna, whom is not affiliated with Batman, most of the time, was essentially a supporting character in Paul Dini's Detective Comics, and it worked out very well.

[Outside_85]

Follow-up to my previous ramblings.

While I do maintain a connection or theme between A and C is the smoothest path to a good partnership, that is not to say a stranger pairing cannot work if it's eased into a permanent thing.

Example:
The Church of Blood starts to operate within Gotham City, a weird demon-worshipping deathcult operating there isn't that out of place considering whatever else Gotham has seen. Naturally Batsy starts putting the boot down on cultist faces once the fear and bodies start to ramp up, during the early encounters he discovers that Raven (ok she could be considered a B character) has also been working on the case, or gotten captured. Important thing is that the pair make a retreat so some ground rules can be established.
First of all Batman is going to insist she leaves the area, it's his city and so on and so on. Raven is going to hold her ground because the dealings of the Church is personal to her and they part ways. Days later and Batman is making another attempt at the cult, but runs into unexpected and overwhelming opposition. Lucky for him Raven appears and pulls his buns out of the fire. Now comes the bonding part where Raven tells Batman about what they are really up against and why they are both having their problems with it. If this is an earlier setting than the one currently in comics, this is the place where Raven either reveals she knows Batman is Bruce Wayne or Bruce shows up at Raven's doorstep.
Team-up ensures as both have to rely on the other to make it through the last trip to the Church before facing off against Brother Blood, Belial and slamming the door in Trigons face with confetti falling from the ceiling.

Victory assured the heroes part ways thinking it was the end of that. Days later a 'chance' encounter between the two leads to a more permanent arrangement with Bruce wanting to find out what else Raven can do and to be able to keep an eye on her.
This ofc works best, in my mind, if the premise is that Batman has his perception of Raven as dangerously unstable and of limited power/talent, because thats when you can start abusing some notions... kinda like Wonder Woman did with Batman in BvS.
From then on it could play out with Raven making regular appearances in whatever book this is taking place in, sometimes only as a glimpse, sometimes more involved as support and maybe once or twice getting called into sort something out on Batman's behalf.

[Red obin]

Super-Sons: Superman, Superwoman and Batman are going off world for League stuff and hire a babysitter capable of keeping their kids in check and saving them when neccesary. best dad Animal Man is on the case.

I would read the hell out of this.

[Assam]

Now I really want to see Maxine interact with Jon and Damian. Oh, she's so innocent, and now she's talking to a bunch of dead animals. What?

I didn't read the Nu52 Animal Man book, but what I've heard has really turned me off. Especially concerning Cliff...

[scribbleMind]

It's as good as any of the other Animal Man stuff. Although it has horror leanings, it certainly isn't as depressing as the Vertigo run, and Cliff's arc was well done and impactful.

[scary harpy]

Will Magnus and the Metal Men join Batman.

Magnus Robotics is bought out by Wayne Enterprises and is folded into WayneTech R&D, with Magnus moving to Gotham and taking a really good job as the AI-Robotics department Head. The Metal Men mainly work as security at the lab, but also do some hazardous environment work when the need arises. Magnus becomes one of Batman's primary "tech guys" in a role similar to what Lucius Fox and Batwing have served, as well as that guy who lived in the cave during the 90's (I forget his name because I'm tired and it's late). Magnus' narrow focus on robotics means that Batman's other tech guys still have plenty to do so no one gets sidelined.

Of course, Chemo would have to attack Gotham at some point, as well as the Gas Gang. T.O. Morrow would be set up as the puppet master, a threat lurking in the shadows.

I think I'd push the Metal Men franchise in a more cerebral, indie think-piece direction. Take the approach from "52" and run with it. Magnus struggles with his mental illness, and the addiction to the pills that keep him balanced. He's a mad scientist who happens to work for the good guys, but under that thin blanket of pharmaceutical sanity he's batsh*t crazy. I'd write Magnus and Platinum as a couple, no more one-sided love stuff. With insinuations that Magnus built her for the purpose. The moral and ethical implications of a human-robot love affair would be explored (is Platinum just a sex robot? Could Magnus and Platinum get married?) as well as the legal rights of the Metal Men themselves.

I think I'd launch the book with a story where Magnus learns that Morrow has been behind all of Will's troubles, and Magnus vows to put an end to it, thus providing the Metal Men book a solid arc to start off on.

Several of the Global Guardians seem like they'd make good junior partners to bigger name superheroes.

Batman could work with Bushmaster, on a mission to Venezuela that upends that heroes life in that country, and gives him a reason to go back to Gotham with Batman, and get some ducks in a row (and some advanced training and re-equipping) before eventually returning home to turn the tables on his enemies in Venezuela, who have been led to believe that they killed him (thanks to some duplicity he picks up from the Bat). [Yes, Bushmaster's dead, but I don't even care. Characters with far less potential have been resurrected for far lesser reasons. ]

Owlwoman could similarly partner up with the Birds of Prey, as her powerset is appropriately 'low-level' enough to fit on a team with Black Canary, the Huntress, etc. Some sort of mission involving native youth being recruited to come to the big city, and then disappearing (gang recruitment? a cult? slavers? who knows) could draw her to the big city on the hunt, and it could start with the usual 'misunderstanding leads to heroic fight' before she joins with the others to bust a ring that's far larger than they would have expected (the Cherokee kids have some special DNA that makes them good subjects to be turned into para-demon trackers, and it's a plot by Granny Goodness or something wild like that).

Both sound good to me.

I really liked Bushmaster and Owlwoman. She may need a new name now.

[pageturner]

If crime didn't run rampant we wouldn't have Batman comics...

snarky response here...

Still you would think he could have some impact after a number of years and almost unlimited resources. You can't blame the police since Gordon is usually portrayed as an effective leader and cop who runs a tight ship.

The flashpoint time crunch at least made it so he had not been doing it for 20 years with no progress. Given how he draws other super villains to the town he has probably had a negative outcome.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

I think having Hal Jordan's nephew/niece become the new Air Wave would have been a good way to test his character and try out a new way to build a legacy character. I was inspired by YJ's use of Bumblebee as Atom's protege so i wanted to build more partnerships like that.

I had a pitch for Renee Montoya as Question making her rounds in Hub City taking over for Vic. She would have been joined by Anarky and Traci 13 as Anarky hopes to test if his philosophies could rehabiltate a failed Hub City and Traci tutors Renee to use City Magic so she can have a connection to the city like Vic had(?)

I wanted to use Peek-a-boo as Barry's temporary partner where he tries to rehabilitate her after a crime spree gone wrong.

Siracca was WW's half sister through Zeus in issues 13/14. She was born in the middle east during the 1940s(?) and suffered at the hands of Hera. Diana tries to give her a second chance at life and she becomes a modern day take on Wonder-girl as well as a contemporary of jon/damian. The Super friends analogue would end up joining them down the road.

I'm fond of Tim becoming a plainclothes detective balancing superheroing and a college life so pairing him up with Detective Chimp sounds like a good way to go.

Not really a long term story but i wanted Simon to ask Vixen out on a date and Jess/Diana/Clark tries to give him advice on how to approach dating a superhero.

[Sutekh]

I think having Hal Jordan's nephew/niece become the new Air Wave would have been a good way to test his character and try out a new way to build a legacy character. I was inspired by YJ's use of Bumblebee as Atom's protege so i wanted to build more partnerships like that.

Ooh, that's a neat one. I love Air Wave, and I love the idea that a Hal Jordan legacy has absolutely nothing to do with rainbow rings of power. (I love the idea of non-linear legacies. A Superman legacy that uses Kryptonian tech, but has no Kryptonian powers. A Wonder Woman legacy who isn't an Amazon, but has other connections to Greek mythology, such as being a satyr, minotaur, siren, etc. A Batman legacy that has actual super-powers, because they are a vampire. Stuff like that.)

Air Wave (and Amazing Man and Nightshade and Kole) were among the C-listers I was thinking of when I first read this post, but I'd failed to come up with any good ideas for them, so go you with your superior creativity!

[manduck37]

Super-Sons: Superman, Superwoman and Batman are going off world for League stuff and hire a babysitter capable of keeping their kids in check and saving them when neccesary. best dad Animal Man is on the case.

This idea is so awesome that I'm actually kind of sad it's just a fun idea and not really happening. Could you imagine Animal Man finally getting a call from the League and it turns out to be a babysitting job? Man, the possibilities are just endless.