World's Greatest Detective.

[Soras Teva Gee]

L does seem better than Sherlock. What Sherlock does makes sense in some ways, but L simply looks like he has read the whole manga beforehand. Basically, better writing makes Sherlock look more credible and therefore less skilled.

Yeah for my money L had one good trick in deducing Kira's general region then coming up with an experiment to prove that.

Pretty much after that him and Light both run on pure plot.

Great detective gets pretty informed in my book.

[An Enemy Spy]

The Question.
"The plastic tips at the ends of shoelaces are called aglets. Their true purpose is sinister!"

[Eldariel]

Clearly the answer is Haruhi Suzumiya as the only omnipotent sleuth I've ever read of.


On a more serious note, yeah, I'd go with Sherlock. Batman is very good at solving dilemmas but his modus operandi is more along the lines of figuring out "What that is? What does it try to do? How do you defeat it?" about some cosmic powers than it is figuring out who committed a crime.

Mind, he's very good at that too and he's usually the one pointing out things don't match in e.g. Justice League and uncovering the mastermind behind the obvious culprit. But that's only a part of his agenda and I do think Sherlock has pulled off more impressive feats in that particular regard.

L...eh, he's so damn good but I have trouble quantifying his ability vs. the other people. It's just...it feels there's less material to go off of with him.

[Starbuck_II]

Detective Conan, he might be stuck in child form, but he is a great detective.

Also Wishbone, best dog detective.

[Traab]

Encyclopedia Brown. The kid is the ultimate petty crime solver.

[Barmoz]

Gregory House, or Harry Dresden

[BRC]

Gregory House, or Harry Dresden

House isn't a detective, he's a doctor. He's got the right mindset (since he's basically Holmes), but the wrong knowledge base.


Harry could work, but only because of his Magic. This is supposed to be a test of mental abilities. It dosn't seem right to deprive Batman of his crime lab while letting Harry keep his tracking spells.

[DiscipleofBob]

I'm pretty sure at least some incarnations of Doctor Who count.

[Aotrs Commander]

...Jupiter Jones...?

Why do I get the strong impression that will pass completely over the heads of the majority of the playground?

[Ravens_cry]

Basil of Baker Street!

[dps]

House isn't a detective, he's a doctor. He's got the right mindset (since he's basically Holmes), but the wrong knowledge base.

The original concept for the show was that House and his team would get involved in solving crimes through their medical cases (which actually happened a couple of times, such as in the episode in which it turned out that what was wrong with the patient of the week was that his wife was poisoning him)--sort of a more adult version of Diagnosis: Murder. But the concept was changed before the show started production to simply having them solve medical mysteries, not crimes.

[Anteros]

What L does isn't detective work, it's magic. He knows things for no reason other than the author wanting him to. Besides, he couldn't even catch Light. Does anyone really want to tell me that Holmes or the Bat wouldn't have been able to catch Kira? Really?

[JCarter426]

Dirk Gently, he solves the whole crime!

Ok, probably Batman. In the cartoon he closes every case in like 15 minutes.

[Kitten Champion]

What L does isn't detective work, it's magic. He knows things for no reason other than the author wanting him to. Besides, he couldn't even catch Light. Does anyone really want to tell me that Holmes or the Bat wouldn't have been able to catch Kira? Really?

You argue that L's detective skills are unrealistic but use Batman or Holmes as more plausible alternatives?

As to catching Kira.

Holmes would've been dead. That would've been easy for Light. Batman too. Honestly, it's not that hard to imagine the chain of reasoning that would lead to discovering Bruce Wayne was Batman for someone of Light's ingenuity.

Lastly, L did catch Light. L's failure was one of insufficiently proving his and Misa's guilt to his own satisfaction, before Light's plot succeeded.

[Xondoure]

Well L is lucky enough to have an adversary who on some level wants to be found.

Spoiler

Show

For example, killing the man who investigated him at any point was obviously going to end badly. And I don't think I even have to mention the ending and how many obvious ploys there were to prevent what happened from happening.

[Soras Teva Gee]

You argue that L's detective skills are unrealistic but use Batman or Holmes as more plausible alternatives?

As to catching Kira.

Holmes would've been dead. That would've been easy for Light. Batman too. Honestly, it's not that hard to imagine the chain of reasoning that would lead to discovering Bruce Wayne was Batman for someone of Light's ingenuity.

Lastly, L did catch Light. L's failure was one of insufficiently proving his and Misa's guilt to his own satisfaction, before Light's plot succeeded.

Getting killed by a magic murder book has nothing to do with detective skills at all.

L (kinda not) concealing his name is a good example of the Death Note story running on pure narrative convenience.

Also it is very easy to say Batman has to be Bruce Wayne when you know the answer and know Batman's set of tricks pretty well. There have been times where Batman is more or less an unknown to the public at large. Most certainly what he can do which crimps any "has to be Bruce Wayne" arguments. Especially given the variety of possibilities in the DCU, John Henry Irons for example is last I checked not Fiction 500 wealthy and managed to make himself power armor.

[Starwulf]

I'd vote for L, from Death Note. If you consider the magnitude of the challenge involved, finding a single mass murderer with an untraceable magical means of killing from among billions of potential suspects based on incredible logical deductions and considerable personal bravery, he's his own level of awesome.

I was actually going to say this, but since you already mentioned him, I'll just second it. Though, there could be an argument for Light, since he figured out who L was, and managed to kill him before L could take him down.

[Kyberwulf]

Lots of good Gumshoes here.
Some I never would have thought of, Cal Lightman, and Dr. House. Althought not detectives, honorable mentions.

On the subject of L. I don't think he should be on this list at all. His "means" of Identifing the region was highly dubious.

[jamieth]

Hm, speaking of L, I'd mention a movie version of him, cause in that one, he actually managed to prove Light's guild decisively, even though it required him to basically commit a suicide to achieve that. (Well, Holmes also died fighting with Moriarty, even though that was retconned later)

But, after all, it still would be Sherlock, if only for the fact that without him, none of the others would exist. (Technically, Dupain was first, but I don't think the genre would ever go big with Poe alone...)
Oh, and it doesn't help that I'm currently effectively playing Holmes in a World of Darkness campaign... a female, high-school, magic-wielding Holmes :-)

edit: though, obviously, given my avatar and sigmature, I must say Haruhi deserves a special mention... after all, no other detective I'm aware of can make a theory, then change reality so that said theory is correct :-)

[DiscipleofBob]

Phoenix Wright definitely isn't the greatest detective, but he at least deserves a mention in this thread.

[Zea mays]

C. Auguste Dupin should be worth a mention too, if only for originating the genre.

[Fallen Angel]

Who do you think should really have the title, "World's Greatest Detective."

Keep in mind that This thread is only concerned with Detecting abilites only. I am not concerned with combat prowss, or the amount of resources available to them. If all other things are equal, who has the best mind putting clues together and deducing the facts.

A small list I can come up with.
Sherlock Holmes- Obviously
Batman
Robert Goren
Columbo

If you have any other possible Detectives up for the prize, let me know.

(Yes, I know that some characters may just be a "Rip off" of certain other characters, but include them anyway since these characters have other characteristics then the source.)

What about Poriot and Maggy Marple?

What about Gibbs?

[Traab]

What about Poriot and Maggy Marple?

What about Gibbs?

Gibbs?! He has an entire TEAM doing his research and detective work for him. All he does is demand updates and help interview witnesses and such. He really doesnt solve much of anything himself.

[Kyberwulf]

The same could be said for most of the Detectives. They all rely on other people to help them. No detective is truly a one man show. The ability that makes a good detective, is the abilty to get information and apply that information to the solution.

[Tiki Snakes]

Actually, the classics (Holmes, Marple, Poirot etc) quite often are one man shows, often with another person around so they can exposite for the reader.

[Soras Teva Gee]

Yeah your classic detective formula has said detective doing all the real work. Anyone else helping is just a report, like saying "the police examiners found no signs of forced entry" or whatever the data point is.

Whether the detective does this themselves or not isn't really the point all the mystery is up to them.

The NCISI:AL shows of today break things up to provide character drama and so forth.

[Mauve Shirt]

Harry Dresden!
Jk, he's kind of a derp.

[Traab]

The same could be said for most of the Detectives. They all rely on other people to help them. No detective is truly a one man show. The ability that makes a good detective, is the abilty to get information and apply that information to the solution.

Not really, most of the detectives on the list tend to put things together themselves. Even if they have guys gathering potential evidence for them, its the detective who figures it all out. Gibbs doesnt do that. He is the supervisor for an entire team of investigators. He rarely ever solves the mystery, its more that he keeps them moving so everyone can solve it.

[Raimun]

Phillip Marlowe.

What do you mean coolness is not a factor in this?

[Avilan the Grey]

Darkwing Duck.