I make Batman what he is in the comics. Kind of untouchable, like a James Bond or The Man with No Name, someone who doesn't have a character arc, because they're already awesome at everything and transendant in a way. Then I'd bring in Dick Grayson to have a character arc over the next trilogy, so to speak. Where he advances from uncostumed supporting character in his first film, to costumed apprenitce in the second to full fledged vigilante in the third.
I wouldn't try and squeeze 40 years of storytelling in two movies by trying to showcase multiple sidekicks and robins and such. There's no way that you can get the masses attached, and no reason to try and catch up with a comic book status quo that is rebooted so regularly.
Approaching it more like Bond is a good way to do years of comic stories. Which would be an interesting approach to a superhero film franchise. Instead of inspiration trying adapting as fully as possible actual comic stories.
They can do the same with Superman or any other character. Why should that be relegated only to DTV animated films?
Bond is a kind of a serial film series, I see no reason that approach can't be taken with Batman, Superman, etc.
The idea of not having a character arc is interesting to me, because if you think about it there are a lot of heroes that are just like that from by gone ages. Flash Gordon never really had an arc, and yet he captured the imaginations of the audiences of the time. The Shadow etc. Is there something different about today that people need character arcs, or can we as a people accept a movie can be good without our protagonist being simply who he is?
On the other hand, Robin adds a new dimension to the character of Batman and forces him to take on a new role as mentor and surrogate/adoptive father. It raises questions for him as much as it does for Robin. So on the one hand, there's no reason he can't be the uber-prepared and kitted out Batman of the comics or Arkham City, but on the other he would now have the added weight of fatherhood and being a mentor/master.
Ultimately
A Death In The Family and
A Lonely Place of Dying are about Bruce/Batman and who he is, what are his limitations etc. Those stories, sadly, have not been touched by filmmakers and they would be the most character driven Batman stories that have ever been done. They are gut wrenching... and if at a later point they were to do Under the Red Hood in live action... it brings both those stories up again.
Knightfall would be an interesting story to fully, faithfully adapt... especially KnightQuest and KnightsEnd. I mean, could you imagine a full film devoted to depicting a crippled Bruce Wayne galavanting about the world in the disguise of an Englishman trying to save the only doctor that can help him, who he has also fallen in love with? Meanwhile, in Gotham, the new Batman in town is tarnishing the mantle of the Bat? I don't know about you, but whatever Nolan is going to be doing with TDKR KnightQuest would be a great deal more ballsy if done faithfully and done well.
Ra's al-Ghul, Talia and the League of Assassins are great Bond villain type characters too.