In a surprising bit of news, DC Comics have announced that the long-dormant Elseworlds imprint will make a comeback next year with several waves of new, out of continuity titles.
Elseworlds, for those unaware, was a line of comics where creators could take familiar characters and put a brand new spin on them. And not just ideas like “what if Superman were Batman?”, though that was certainly an option. The really weird books ran with concepts like “what if Batman became Dracula?” and “what if the Justice League were a western posse?” and two separate instances of “what if this hero was Frankenstein(‘s monster)?” Not every book was great, but it was at the very least a fun, interesting imprint.
And now, one of the big announcements from New York Comic-Con reveals that the line is coming back in a big way, with several new Elseworlds titles, and only half of them are Batman! Some of the announced titles are completely new– Greg Smallwood’s six-issue Batman the Barbarian, Clay and Seth Mann’s six-issue Batman: Nightfire, and the seven-issue Green Lantern: Dark from Tate Brombal and Werther Dell’Edera– while the rest serve as sequels to pre-existing stories. Those include the six-issue miniseries Dark Knights of Steel: Allwinter from Jay Kristoff and Tirso Cons, and the twelve-issue maxiseries Gotham by Gaslight: The Kryptonian Age from Andy Diggle and Leandro Fernandez and DC vs. Vampires: World War V from Matthew Rosenberg and Otto Schmidt. Details are relatively scarce for most of these titles, particularly the original ideas, but The Kryptonian Age is reported to follow the Victorian Batman of Gotham by Gaslight as he puts together that era’s take on the Justice League.
Given that most Elseworlds tales of old were typically single-issue one-shots, the fact that these are all limited series is an interesting choice to say the least. That could potentially help flesh out the ideas presented in each work, which was something that definitely hindered older Elseworlds books with their limited page count. A second wave of titles is expected to be announced in the new future as well, with other creators teasing their involvement in the line, so in the meantime check out the gallery below for a first look at this first batch of Elseworlds comics.
No release dates are available for any titles, though the line will launch sometime in 2024. More news as we hear it here at Batman News.
