History Creator / Elseworlds

In late 2023, it was announced by DC that the imprint would be revived in 2024, with the first book under the revival being a sequel to ''Gotham by Gaslight'' titled, ''Gotham by Gaslight: The Kryptonian Age''.

* ''ComicBook/SupermanAndBatmanGenerations'': A story that shows what might happen if Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne weren't subjected to ComicBookTime, thus showing the casts of both series aging in real time, including the two having adventures in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. The ''ComicBook/BatmanAndCaptainAmerica'' crossover that's the source of the image in EvenEvilHasStandards (where the Joker terminates a partnership with the Red Skull upon realizing that the Skull is legitimately a Nazi and not faking it) is also part of the same universe, with The Manhattan Project being called "The Gotham Project".

* ''ComicBook/BatmanCaptainAmerica''

* ''ComicBook/BatmanInDarkestNight'': The comic imagines that Bruce Wayne, not Hal Jordan, receives the ring from Abin Sur; in effect, this one is, "What if Batman was ComicBook/GreenLantern?"

* ''ComicBook/SupermanTheLastFamilyOfKrypton''
* ''ComicBook/SupermanLastSonOfEarth''

* ''ComicBook/GreenLantern1001EmeraldNights''

* The first Elseworlds story is ''ComicBook/GothamByGaslight'', in which Bruce Wayne is a young American plutocrat recently returned to Gotham in 1889, and ends up fighting (and is suspected of being) UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper, who now has new stomping grounds.
* ''ComicBook/KingdomCome'', a beautifully painted and surprisingly cerebral graphic novel set a few decades into the future after Superman retired and a new generation of superheroes has since arisen.
* ''ComicBook/SupermanRedSon'', the trope picture for {{Elseworld}}, is a miniseries about what ComicBook/{{Superman}} would have been like if he had landed in the Soviet Union (specifically Ukraine, which seems to be the closest the writers could find to a Soviet version of Kansas) instead of the United States, he ends up a KnightTemplar Big-Brother figure. President ComicBook/LexLuthor defends the United States from the Red Menace with Superman's RoguesGallery and ComicBook/{{Green Lantern}}s. ComicBook/{{Batman}} has a very sexy hat.
* ''ComicBook/SupermanAtEarthsEnd'' is a particularly [[SoBadItsGood infamous]] one-shot, that involves an aged Superman with a Santa Claus beard who fights cyborgs before going to Gotham AfterTheEnd and battling [[YouClonedHitler twin clones]] of Adolf Hitler. The cover shows him wielding a gigantic gun. [[spoiler: Which he uses against the aforementioned Hitler clones]]. Naturally, it's been subject to MemeticMutation thanks to the likes of [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Linkara]].
* ''ComicBook/IJoker'' is a one-shot about a dystopian future version of Gotham where people worship the current Batman (who is also called "The Bruce", but is NOT Bruce Wayne) as a god. It's told from the point of view of ComicBook/TheJoker. [[spoiler:Or rather, a person who believes himself to be the Joker. This world's Batman likes to take enemies of the state, mind-wipe them, and turn them into carbon-copies of past Batman villains with implanted memories; he then uses them in a yearly bloodsport where the entire city dresses up as Batmen/girls/women and attempts to kill one of the villains so as to get a chance to fight him for the right to become the new Batman. However, after an act of rebellion from his personal doctor/surgeon who converts the rebels into faux villains, this year's Joker gradually regains his memories and, after discovering the original Batcave, defeats the wannabe Bat-god and takes up the mantle of the Bat. He also rescues his girlfriend, who had had her vocal cords removed as punishment for being a rebel; she becomes his Robin.]]
* ''ComicBook/BatmanYearOneHundred'' imagines a world where Batman operated first in 1939 (the year he debuted in comics) and yet is still active 100 years later somehow, fighting corrupt government agencies.
* ''ComicBook/SupermanSpeedingBullets'' has Kal-El fall to Earth near Gotham City, to be discovered and raised as their own by the Wayne family. Or, "What if Superman was Batman?"
* A similar one is ''Batman: In Darkest Night''. In this one, Bruce Wayne, not Hal Jordan, receives the ring from Abin Sur; in effect, this one is, "What if Batman was Franchise/GreenLantern?"
* In the three-issue miniseries ''ComicBook/BatmanTheDoomThatCameToGotham'', Bruce Wayne and his proteges Dick, Jason, and Tim face off against {{eldritch abomination}}s straight out of Creator/HPLovecraft in a time between the World Wars.
* ''ComicBook/JLAActOfGod'' was a notorious one that involved all the people with inherent superpowers losing them.
* Another one is ''Toys/AmeComiGirls'', an {{Animesque}} world that features the company's female superheroes and villains (and sometimes {{Distaff Counterpart}}s in place of male ones).
* ''JLA: Created Equal'' sees all men on Earth apart from Superman and Lex Luthor being killed by a strange spatial phenomenon that infects all other men with a lethal virus (Superman being naturally immune and Luthor sealing himself away before he could be infected), and the subsequent efforts to rebuild the world.
* ''[[ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica JLA]]: ComicBook/TheNail'' takes place in a world where Kal-El is found by an Amish couple instead of the Kents because of a flat tire, and as a result, doesn't become ComicBook/{{Superman}}. While there's still a Justice League, they face xenophobia [[spoiler: and ComicBook/JimmyOlsen is a super villain]].
* The ''ComicBook/BatmanVampire'' trilogy is one of them, as the premise is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Batman becoming a vampire.
* ''ComicBook/SupermanTrueBrit'' is a semi-parodic take on the idea of Kal-El's rocket landing in Britain rather than America.
* In ''ComicBook/BatmanHolyTerror'', Oliver Cromwell's rebellion lasted much longer and spread out all over the world, creating the Commonwealth, a theocratic dictatorship where non-Christians are persecuted. Batman is a BadassPreacher who rebels after learning that the Commonwealth had his parents assassinated for serving in LaResistance.
* ''ComicBook/CatwomanGuardianOfGotham'' is set in an alternate universe where Selina Kyle, not Bruce Wayne, became a masked vigilante superhero after her wealthy parents were murdered in front of her.
* ''ComicBook/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'' (the prequel to [[VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs the video game]]) takes place in an alternate universe where the Joker tricked Superman into killing Lois and their unborn child, along with nuking Metropolis, causing Superman to throw his ThouShaltNotKill code out the window and eventually declare a dictatorship over the entire Earth to (ideally) eliminate all further crime and bloodshed.
* ''ComicBook/DCComicsBombshells'' takes place in the [=1940s=] and features some of [=DC=]'s biggest superheroines (and a few of its female supervillains) during World War II. It spun off of a series of 40's-style pinup statues and comic cover variants.
* ''ComicBook/GothamCityGarage'' followed ''DC Comics Bombshells'' in being spun off a series of pin-up statues that depicted female DC heroes and villains as sexy bikers. It's set in an [[TheApunkalypse Apunkalyptic]] alternate universe in which the sole surviving city on Earth is ruled as a techno-dystopia by Lex Luthor, with [[spoiler:an irredeemably evil version of]] Bruce Wayne/Batman as his chief enforcer, while various mostly-female DC characters ride motorbikes around the DesertPunk-styled "Freescape" as the sole opposition to him.
* ''ComicBook/SupermanAndBatmanGenerations'', an Elseworlds story, that shows what might happen if Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne weren't subjected to ComicBookTime, thus showing the casts of both series aging in real time, including the two having adventures in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. The ''ComicBook/BatmanAndCaptainAmerica'' crossover that's the source of the image in EvenEvilHasStandards (where the Joker terminates a partnership with the Red Skull upon realizing that the Skull is legitimately a Nazi and not faking it) is also part of the same universe, with The Manhattan Project being called "The Gotham Project".
* ''ComicBook/ElseworldsFinestSupergirlAndBatgirl'' takes place in a universe in which Bruce Wayne was never Batman, and the infant Kal-El did not survive long enough to become ComicBook/{{Superman}}. The orphaned Barbara Gordon becomes ''ComicBook/{{Batgirl}}'', Gotham's near-dictatorial protector, and Kara Zor-El alias ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'' teams with a Justice Society backed by Luthor.
* ''ComicBook/NightwingTheNewOrder'' takes place in a BadFuture where Dick Grayson leads a government task force to depower metahumans and put the ones their tech can't depower in stasis until they can after Bruce is accidentally killed by a meta with poor control. He starts questioning his betrayal of his former friends and allies when his son develops powers that would require him to be put in stasis.

* ''ComicBook/DCeased'' is a take on the ZombieApocalypse genre using a technological virus.
* ''ComicBook/TheGoldenAge'' imagines an alternate universe where the ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica became persecuted by a group of second-stringers like Mister America, Johnny Thunder, and the original Robotman, who all joined the HUAC to gain power and influence. It's essentially an attempt to give the JSA the ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' treatment.
* ''Batman: Castle of the Bat'', a Frankenstein pastiche, which puts our favorite brooding bat-themed hero in the shoes of a young scientist who discovers his father's brain has been donated to science and decides to make a brand-new body for Thomas, and to try out his new bat-serum on it, because if you have a bat-serum, you might as well.
* ''Batman Masque'', a Phantom of the Opera pastiche in which the Batman becomes involved with a dancer at the local opera house.
* ''Batman: Two Faces'', a Jekyll and Hyde pastiche, in which a 19th century batman believes he's found a chemical solution which will restore his friend Harvey Dent to sanity. But why not test it on himself first?
* ''Batman/Houdini: The Devil's Workshop'', Batman and Harry Houdini team up to fight vampires.
* ''The Blue, the Grey and the Bat'' has Batman protecting a vital gold shipment for President Lincoln in 1863. It includes Redbird, who is {{Expy}} of both Robin and [[Franchise/TheLoneRanger Tonto]].

* ''Batman The Barbarian'', a retelling of Batman's origin story set in a "rugged, medieval Earth", with Batman being reimagined as a barbarian.
* ''Dark Knights of Steel: Allwinter''
* ''Green Lantern Dark''
* ''Batman Nightfire''
* ''DC vs. Vampires: World War V'', a sequel to 2021's ''ComicBook/DCVsVampires''.

Elseworlds was the publication imprint for American comic books produced by Creator/DCComics for stories that took place outside the Franchise/DCUniverse canon. Elseworlds publications are set in alternate realities that deviate from the established continuity of DC’s regular comics. The "Elseworlds" name was trademarked in 1989, the same year as the first Elseworlds publication.

The original Elseworlds imprint was scaled back in 2003 due to DC wanting to "put the luster back on them", before quietly dying in 2005. There were plans to revive the Elseworlds brand in 2010, but those plans would quickly fall apart, with the only publication under the revived label being the four issue mini-series ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}: The Last Family of Krypton''.

Although the label itself has been dead, the spirit of Elseworlds lives on and stories that take place outside of the canon DC Universe are still made to this day, either under the main DC brand or under Creator/DCBlackLabel (founded in 2018), which acts as a SpiritualSuccessor to the imprint.

The original Elseworlds imprint was scaled back in 2003 due to DC wanting to "put the luster back on them", before quietly dying in 2005. There were plans to revive the Elseworlds brand in 2010, but those plans would quickly fall apart, with the only publication under the revived label being the four issue mini-series ''Franchise/{{Superman}}: The Last Family of Krypton''.

* ''ComicBook/SupermanRedSon'', the trope picture for {{Elseworld}}, is a miniseries about what Franchise/{{Superman}} would have been like if he had landed in the Soviet Union (specifically Ukraine, which seems to be the closest the writers could find to a Soviet version of Kansas) instead of the United States, he ends up a KnightTemplar Big-Brother figure. President Comicbook/LexLuthor defends the United States from the Red Menace with Superman's RoguesGallery and ComicBook/{{Green Lantern}}s. Franchise/{{Batman}} has a very sexy hat.

* ''[[Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica JLA]]: ComicBook/TheNail'' takes place in a world where Kal-El is found by an Amish couple instead of the Kents because of a flat tire, and as a result, doesn't become Franchise/{{Superman}}. While there's still a Justice League, they face xenophobia [[spoiler: and ComicBook/JimmyOlsen is a super villain]].

* ''ComicBook/ElseworldsFinestSupergirlAndBatgirl'' takes place in a universe in which Bruce Wayne was never Batman, and the infant Kal-El did not survive long enough to become Franchise/{{Superman}}. The orphaned Barbara Gordon becomes ''Comicbook/{{Batgirl}}'', Gotham's near-dictatorial protector, and Kara Zor-El alias ''Comicbook/{{Supergirl}}'' teams with a Justice Society backed by Luthor.

* The first Elseworlds story is the criminally under-appreciated ''ComicBook/GothamByGaslight'', in which Bruce Wayne is a young American plutocrat recently returned to Gotham in 1889, and ends up fighting (and is suspected of being) UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper, who now has new stomping grounds.

* ''ComicBook/SupermanRedSon'', the trope picture for {{Elseworld}}, is a miniseries about what Franchise/{{Superman}} would have been like if he had landed in the Soviet Union (specifically Ukraine, which seems to be the closest the writers could find to a Soviet version of Kansas) instead of the United States; he ends up a KnightTemplar Big-Brother figure. President Comicbook/LexLuthor defends the United States from the Red Menace with Superman's RoguesGallery and ComicBook/{{Green Lantern}}s. Franchise/{{Batman}} has a very sexy hat.

The Elseworlds name and logo would soon be used again in marketing for the Series/{{Arrowverse}} CrisisCrossover, ''Series/Elseworlds2018''.

Although the label itself has been dead, the spirit of Elseworlds lives on and stories that take place outside of the canon DCUniverse are still made to this day, either under the main DC brand or under Creator/DCBlackLabel (founded in 2018), which acts as a SpiritualSuccessor to the imprint.

The elseworlds name and logo would soon be used again in marketing for the Series/{{Arrowverse}} CrisisCrossover, ''Series/Elseworlds2018''.

The original Elsworlds imprint was scaled back in 2003 due to DC wanting to "put the luster back on them", before quietly dying in 2005. There were plans to revive the Elseworlds brand in 2010, but those plans would quickly fall apart, with the only publication under the revived label being the four issue mini series ''Superman: The Last Family of Krypton''.

Although the label itself has been dead, the spirit of elseworlds lives on and stories that take place outside of the canon DC universe are still made to this day, either under the main DC brand or under Creator/DCBlackLabel (founded in 2018), which acts as a SpiritualSuccessor to the imprint.

* ''ComicBook/SupermanRedSon'', the trope picture for {{Elseworld}}, is a miniseries about what Franchise/{{Superman}} would have been like if he had landed in the Soviet Union (specifically Ukraine, which seems to be the closest the writers could find to a Soviet version of Kansas) instead of the United States; he ends up a KnightTemplar Big-Brother figure. President Comicbook/LexLuthor defends the United States from the Red Menace with Superman's RoguesGallery and ComicBook/{{Green Lantern}}s. Franchise/{{Batman}} has a [[NiceHat very sexy hat]].

* ''Speeding Bullets'' has Kal-El fall to Earth near Gotham City, to be discovered and raised as their own by the Wayne family. Or, "What if Superman was Batman?"

* In the three-issue miniseries ''Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham'', Bruce Wayne and his proteges Dick, Jason, and Tim face off against {{eldritch abomination}}s straight out of Creator/HPLovecraft in a time between the World Wars.

The elseworlds name and branding would soon be used again in the Series/{{Arrowverse}} CrisisCrossover, ''Series/Elseworlds2018''.

* The first Elseworlds story is the criminally under-appreciated ''ComicBook/GothamByGaslight'', in which Bruce Wayne is a young American plutocrat on a world tour in 1889, and ends up fighting (and is suspected of being) UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper.

* ''ComicBook/SupermanRedSon'', pictured above, is a miniseries about what Franchise/{{Superman}} would have been like if he had landed in the Soviet Union (specifically Ukraine, which seems to be the closest the writers could find to a Soviet version of Kansas) instead of the United States; he ends up a KnightTemplar Big-Brother figure. President Comicbook/LexLuthor defends the United States from the Red Menace with Superman's RoguesGallery and ComicBook/{{Green Lantern}}s. Franchise/{{Batman}} has a [[NiceHat very sexy hat]].

Elseworlds was the publication imprint for American comic books produced by DC Comics for stories that took place outside the DC Universe canon. Elseworlds publications are set in alternate realities that deviate from the established continuity of DC’s regular comics. The "Elseworlds" name was trademarked in 1989, the same year as the first Elseworlds publication.

** The first Elseworlds story is the criminally under-appreciated ''ComicBook/GothamByGaslight'', in which Bruce Wayne is a young American plutocrat on a world tour in 1889, and ends up fighting (and is suspected of being) UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper.
** ''ComicBook/KingdomCome'', a beautifully painted and surprisingly cerebral graphic novel set a few decades into the future after Superman retired and a new generation of superheroes has since arisen.
** ''ComicBook/SupermanRedSon'', pictured above, is a miniseries about what Franchise/{{Superman}} would have been like if he had landed in the Soviet Union (specifically Ukraine, which seems to be the closest the writers could find to a Soviet version of Kansas) instead of the United States; he ends up a KnightTemplar Big-Brother figure. President Comicbook/LexLuthor defends the United States from the Red Menace with Superman's RoguesGallery and ComicBook/{{Green Lantern}}s. Franchise/{{Batman}} has a [[NiceHat very sexy hat]].
** ''ComicBook/SupermanAtEarthsEnd'' is a particularly [[SoBadItsGood infamous]] one-shot, that involves an aged Superman with a Santa Claus beard who fights cyborgs before going to Gotham AfterTheEnd and battling [[YouClonedHitler twin clones]] of Adolf Hitler. The cover shows him wielding a gigantic gun. [[spoiler: Which he uses against the aforementioned Hitler clones]]. Naturally, it's been subject to MemeticMutation thanks to the likes of [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Linkara]].
** ''ComicBook/IJoker'' is a one-shot about a dystopian future version of Gotham where people worship the current Batman (who is also called "The Bruce", but is NOT Bruce Wayne) as a god. It's told from the point of view of ComicBook/TheJoker. [[spoiler:Or rather, a person who believes himself to be the Joker. This world's Batman likes to take enemies of the state, mind-wipe them, and turn them into carbon-copies of past Batman villains with implanted memories; he then uses them in a yearly bloodsport where the entire city dresses up as Batmen/girls/women and attempts to kill one of the villains so as to get a chance to fight him for the right to become the new Batman. However, after an act of rebellion from his personal doctor/surgeon who converts the rebels into faux villains, this year's Joker gradually regains his memories and, after discovering the original Batcave, defeats the wannabe Bat-god and takes up the mantle of the Bat. He also rescues his girlfriend, who had had her vocal cords removed as punishment for being a rebel; she becomes his Robin.]]
** ''ComicBook/BatmanYearOneHundred'' imagines a world where Batman operated first in 1939 (the year he debuted in comics) and yet is still active 100 years later somehow, fighting corrupt government agencies.
** ''Speeding Bullets'' has Kal-El fall to Earth near Gotham City, to be discovered and raised as their own by the Wayne family. Or, "What if Superman was Batman?"
** A similar one is ''Batman: In Darkest Night''. In this one, Bruce Wayne, not Hal Jordan, receives the ring from Abin Sur; in effect, this one is, "What if Batman was Franchise/GreenLantern?"
** In the three-issue miniseries ''Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham'', Bruce Wayne and his proteges Dick, Jason, and Tim face off against {{eldritch abomination}}s straight out of Creator/HPLovecraft in a time between the World Wars.
** ''ComicBook/JLAActOfGod'' was a notorious one that involved all the people with inherent superpowers losing them.
** Another one is ''Toys/AmeComiGirls'', an {{Animesque}} world that features the company's female superheroes and villains (and sometimes {{Distaff Counterpart}}s in place of male ones).
** ''JLA: Created Equal'' sees all men on Earth apart from Superman and Lex Luthor being killed by a strange spatial phenomenon that infects all other men with a lethal virus (Superman being naturally immune and Luthor sealing himself away before he could be infected), and the subsequent efforts to rebuild the world.
** ''[[Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica JLA]]: ComicBook/TheNail'' takes place in a world where Kal-El is found by an Amish couple instead of the Kents because of a flat tire, and as a result, doesn't become Franchise/{{Superman}}. While there's still a Justice League, they face xenophobia [[spoiler: and ComicBook/JimmyOlsen is a super villain]].
** The ''ComicBook/BatmanVampire'' trilogy is one of them, as the premise is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Batman becoming a vampire.
** ''ComicBook/SupermanTrueBrit'' is a semi-parodic take on the idea of Kal-El's rocket landing in Britain rather than America.
** In ''ComicBook/BatmanHolyTerror'', Oliver Cromwell's rebellion lasted much longer and spread out all over the world, creating the Commonwealth, a theocratic dictatorship where non-Christians are persecuted. Batman is a BadassPreacher who rebels after learning that the Commonwealth had his parents assassinated for serving in LaResistance.
** ''ComicBook/CatwomanGuardianOfGotham'' is set in an alternate universe where Selina Kyle, not Bruce Wayne, became a masked vigilante superhero after her wealthy parents were murdered in front of her.
** ''ComicBook/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'' (the prequel to [[VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs the video game]]) takes place in an alternate universe where the Joker tricked Superman into killing Lois and their unborn child, along with nuking Metropolis, causing Superman to throw his ThouShaltNotKill code out the window and eventually declare a dictatorship over the entire Earth to (ideally) eliminate all further crime and bloodshed.
** ''ComicBook/DCComicsBombshells'' takes place in the [=1940s=] and features some of [=DC=]'s biggest superheroines (and a few of its female supervillains) during World War II. It spun off of a series of 40's-style pinup statues and comic cover variants.
** ''ComicBook/GothamCityGarage'' followed ''DC Comics Bombshells'' in being spun off a series of pin-up statues that depicted female DC heroes and villains as sexy bikers. It's set in an [[TheApunkalypse Apunkalyptic]] alternate universe in which the sole surviving city on Earth is ruled as a techno-dystopia by Lex Luthor, with [[spoiler:an irredeemably evil version of]] Bruce Wayne/Batman as his chief enforcer, while various mostly-female DC characters ride motorbikes around the DesertPunk-styled "Freescape" as the sole opposition to him.
** ''ComicBook/SupermanAndBatmanGenerations'', an Elseworlds story, that shows what might happen if Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne weren't subjected to ComicBookTime, thus showing the casts of both series aging in real time, including the two having adventures in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. The ''ComicBook/BatmanAndCaptainAmerica'' crossover that's the source of the image in EvenEvilHasStandards (where the Joker terminates a partnership with the Red Skull upon realizing that the Skull is legitimately a Nazi and not faking it) is also part of the same universe, with The Manhattan Project being called "The Gotham Project".
** ''ComicBook/ElseworldsFinestSupergirlAndBatgirl'' takes place in a universe in which Bruce Wayne was never Batman, and the infant Kal-El did not survive long enough to become Franchise/{{Superman}}. The orphaned Barbara Gordon becomes ''Comicbook/{{Batgirl}}'', Gotham's near-dictatorial protector, and Kara Zor-El alias ''Comicbook/{{Supergirl}}'' teams with a Justice Society backed by Luthor.
** ''ComicBook/NightwingTheNewOrder'' takes place in a BadFuture where Dick Grayson leads a government task force to depower metahumans and put the ones their tech can't depower in stasis until they can after Bruce is accidentally killed by a meta with poor control. He starts questioning his betrayal of his former friends and allies when his son develops powers that would require him to be put in stasis.
** ''ComicBook/BatmanThrillkiller'' places the Batman mythos in the early 1960's.
** ''ComicBook/DCeased'' is a take on the ZombieApocalypse genre using a technological virus.
** ''ComicBook/TheGoldenAge'' imagines an alternate universe where the ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica became persecuted by a group of second-stringers like Mister America, Johnny Thunder, and the original Robotman, who all joined the HUAC to gain power and influence. It's essentially an attempt to give the JSA the ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' treatment.