So there are 3 titles dedicated to Batman currently: Batman, Detective Comics and The Dark Knight. I was just thinking about what I would do if I was given a editorial role over the Batbooks and one of the things I thought about was giving each of the aforementioned titles their own distinct feel/theme.

Detective Comics would be focused on Bruce's exploits as the World's Greatest Detective...straight up hire a crime novel guy or gal to come up with mysteries that really challenge from week to week but are also "realistic" and solvable (Encyclopedia Brown for adults????). Over the top villains would rarely show up here.

The Dark Knight would focus more on the mythos of the Bat as established in Gotham, the image that he has with criminals, etc. It would focus a lot more on the smaller, day-to-day battles. So more things like taking on organized crime and the mob as opposed to big bads.

Batman would be the book where the grander adventures occur. The big villains would feature more often here. The scope of the stories would be much more grander and story arcs would be much longer. this is where you'd see a lot of Death of the Family and Court of Owls type stuff.

So....does anybody agree that this would be a good idea (or at least an interesting one?) Can anyone say why this setup would suck? Admittedly I only read Batman so I'd also appreciate it if someone would tell me if this is already how things work between the 3 titles. The basic aim would be to entice readers to buy all 3 titles by giving them a sense that they are really getting something different from the 3 books.

I'm all for this, sounds great. Especially the part about hiring a crime novelist to write for Detective comics that'd be amazing. I dunno though, my idea is that they just condense it all down into one comic really and have a very diverse set of adventures. But like you I only really read Batman not really sure how the others go either.

I think that having 3 allows them to expand his world a bit but I only think it makes sense as long as it shows different aspects in each book (or rather, that it highlights different aspects in each one. I don't mean to say that his detective skills can't show up in the other two but that they would be central in Detective Comics).

Ya sounds good, but they would need real good writers for all three

This is a very good idea! I don't like how all 3 Batman books are seemingly separate and are all trying to do the same thing. This is an awesome idea of making each title distinct and working together to expand his world. And show the aspects of his crime fighting

What about the comic Batman and ........... ? I think that one is made to show his softer side, and to help showcase the Bat Family

Good idea !!

Um but isn't this what they actually do?

@jonny_anonymous: is it? Because if it is... they've been a bit off themark.

More mystery stories with decent detective work would make me very happy.

Honestly, I'm not sure because I only read Batman. From the reviews I read of the other titles, they seem to be the same. But I'm not sure if thats actually the case. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

So I didn't include this one because, until Damian was killed, I kind of considered this Damian's book (at least partially). Or maybe it's more accurate to say that I thought of it as more of a team book. It already seemed to be kind of doing its own thing, as well. Batman, Inc is another one that I would not really consider here

Agreed

I'd really like it if they were legit mysteries. Kind of Encyclopedia Brown for adults type stuff where the clues are actually there throughout the book such that you could actually make your own deductions and hypotheses if you are observant enough. That would take a tremendous amount of coordination with the artist, however

Nice ideas.