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In 1989, DC Comics unveiled its answer to Marvel Comics' What If...? series when it launched its Elseworlds imprint, but over time, it's forgotten what made it great. Made at a time when the company was trying to distinguish itself from the same old stories, the line attracted all-star talent to reimagine classic characters. Since its debut, readers have come to wish for a return to form.
Between 1989 and the advent of the New 52, Elseworlds allowed DC's greatest creators to reimagine crucial characters through new genres, settings, and styles. Having since revived the imprint, some creative teams continue to underwhelm in just how radically they're willing to transform the universe. If anywhere should be defined by its weirdness, it's this imprint.
Elseworlds Should Be More Than DC Comics' What If...?
Contrary to what some believe, the appeal of Elseworlds wasn't quite the same as Marvel's What If...? series. Over in Stan Lee's world, the series served as a way of answering fan questions and debates, revisiting crucial moments to show how things might have gone differently. DC promised something entirely different, although it did allow some creative teams to explore what-if-style scenarios. The main appeal of the imprint had less to do with duplicating Marvel than it did with completely upending the company's lore, often interpreting classic characters into literary works.
Unfortunately, as years have passed since 1989, too many writers have started to see Elseworlds as no different from lines like Black Label. The unique selling point of this line is just how radical the transformations to the DCU are, sometimes blending them with other franchises entirely. When looking at a series like Ron Marz and Igor Kordey's Batman & Tarzan: Claws of the Catwoman, readers were treated to a phenomenal mash-up of both heroes' worlds. Crucially, even its alternate take on Two-Face was something entirely different from what fans were used to, a crooked archeologist instead of a coin-tossing gangster.
Where Marvel's What If...? is defined by parallel stories, Elseworlds has always been at its best through comics that feel more like statement stories. They have something to say beyond sparking another fan debate, often exploring the profound nature of characters like Superman and Batman. Few series brought out this potential quite as well as Mark Waid and Alex Ross' Kingdom Come, which cut at the heart the golden age heroes held in American culture. At a time when comics were inundated and dominated by overly edgy antiheroes, the superstar duo sent a message about legacy just when readers needed it most.
DC's Elseworlds Approach Is Too Obsessed With Popular Characters
When Batman: Gotham By Gaslight was released back in 1989, one of its greatest strengths lies in the fact that it refused to rely on the usual suspects of the DC city. Where modern writers would tell this story by reinventing various rogues and having readers guess who was Jack the Ripper, Augustyn avoided this trope. His version of the infamous killer was just an ordinary man, and he didn't dwell too much on squaring Gotham with turn-of-the-century America either. The genre and setting shift are the key gimmick, not a shallow makeover of the same old Batman vs Joker tale.
Stories like Batman/Dracula: Red Rain, Gotham By Gaslight, and Justice Riders all did a great job of taking full advantage of the potential of their new genres and settings. Rather than being bogged down by the idea of making these stories feel like cliché transpositions of Gotham and Metropolis, they made things feel truly different. Better yet, they offered a wider variety of genre approaches, alternating between Western, war, pulpy adventure, and steampunk. The worlds around these characters shouldn't feel familiar. In fact, the more different, the better. Once people understand a story's gimmick, too much of what follows can become predictable, and that's what writers must avoid.
Elseworlds is supposed to live up to the "graphic novel" name in the truest sense possible, diving deeper into the lore behind these characters and superhero comics themselves. Through Black Label, DC has its place to tell simple alternate takes on characters that hold closer to the core universe. The '89 imprint needs to be something more, a place to elevate characters like Wonder Woman and Superman through superstar masterworks unafraid to change everything. For a line that once boasted about the JLA visiting the island of Dr. Moreau or the brilliance of Jack C. Harris and Bo Hampton's Batman: Castle of the Bat, some books since can feel lazy.
Elseworlds Has to Be DC's Risky Imprint
In a world where DC's Black Label exists, the difference between it and Elseworlds should be more stark, not closer in approach. Where one should offer more cinematic and mature approaches to the DCU, the other, by design, should be much more radical and risky in its alterations. When picking up these books, there has to be more of a hook than simply wondering how all the same characters will change in this particular story. In fact, some of the best completely strip beloved heroes of their more recognizable character traits, making them feel more unfamiliar to readers.
These miniseries and graphic novels should feel weird, bizarre, and risky in their creative choices, living up to the unique potential of the line. For every story where DC writers simply recreate the same cast of characters through a new lens or genre, they're missing the freedom Elseworlds promises to be bold.
