Elseworlds
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Elseworlds is a group of comic books produced by DC Comics that take place outside the company's canon. According to its tagline: "In Elseworlds, heroes are taken from their usual settings and put into strange times and places - some that have existed, and others that can't, couldn't or shouldn't exist. The result is stories that make characters who are as familiar as yesterday seem as fresh as tomorrow."
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History
The first Elseworlds title was Gotham by Gaslight, by Brian Augustyn and Mike Mignola and edited by Mark Waid, which featured a Victorian Age version of the superhero Batman hunting Jack the Ripper, who has come to Gotham City. This title was not originally published as an Elseworlds comic, but the success of this concept lead to the Elseworlds concept and this title was retroactively declared the first Elseworlds.
Noted titles
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Other Elseworlds titles include JLA: The Nail, which theorizes a world without Superman - where the Justice League of America has still been formed, but chaos reigns without a proper champion of the world's ideals; I, Joker, where a futuristic Gotham City is led by a cult that follows Batman's ancestor, a self-proclaimed god known only as "The Bruce"; and Flashpoint, where Barry Allen (The Flash) takes a bullet meant for John F. Kennedy, paralyzing him from the neck down.
One of the most famous Elseworlds titles is Kingdom Come, a miniseries in which a new, violent generation of superheroes replaces the aging idealism of DC's classic heroes, and the conflict between the two groups ignites an apocalyptic battle. The Kingdom is the sequel to Kingdom Come
To readers of DC comics, Elseworlds can fall under any writing style not affiliated with the DC comics universe. Titles like Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (1986), Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? (first printed in Adventures of Superman #423 and Action Comics #583) (1986), Watchmen (1986-87), The Batman Chronicles #21 (May 2000, solicited as Elseworlds, but has no logo), and Bizarro Comics (Jun 2001, featured story from the cancelled Elseworlds 80-Page Giant) were referred to as Elseworlds in the DC Universe without the name brand logo. In 1994, DC comics Elseworlds collaborated with the DC yearly summer Annual edition comic books.
See also
- What If...?, the Marvel Comics equivalent.
- List of Elseworlds publications
External links
- Unofficial Elseworlds Homepage (http://www.elseworlds.net/)
- Timeline (http://blaklion.best.vwh.net/timelineElse.html)
- Index of Characters and Publications (http://www.io.com/~woodward/chroma/atelsew.html)
- Fanpage (http://members.tripod.com/~YJFAN/Elseworlds.html)