Favourite Elseworlds novel?

[thecolorsblend]

Dark fantasy, eh? Maybe I'll give it a look.

GBG is the hands-down favorite for me. Red Son is a very close second. But ultimately Red Son eventually diverges from a narrative focus on Superman. After a while, I think Millar went up his own back side a little bit in trying to cram other DC characters into the story.

That's not a problem with GBG. It's clean, mean and possesses a laser-like focus on Batman. Yeah, you get winks to other characters. But even they are related to Batman somehow.

Frankly, I think at least half of my affection for GBG is due to Mignola's art. But it's still an amazing Batman tale apart from that. It's just that Mignola squeezes every last drop of mood and atmosphere out every page. He took a great story and made it amazing.

As much as I enjoy TDKR, it wasn't originally considered to be an official Elseworlds. And I think the deconstructive thing has been played out. Neither of those things are Miller's fault, obviously, but to me TDKR is in its own category because it has to be that way. And besides, it technically doesn't qualify as an Elseworlds anyway. So to me, it just doesn't count.

There are some horrible Elseworlds things out there. In Darkest Knight is one of them.

But a good Batman Elseworlds story is usually completely amazing.

01- Gotham By Gaslight
02- Superman- Red Son
03- Red Rain (the whole trilogy is good but this one is the best)
04- Superman- War Of The Worlds (nice, dumb fun)
05- JSA- The Golden Age (this might've ranked higher if not for a few wtf moments)

[Azrael]

Dark Knight Returns, Kingdom Come, Gotham by Gaslight, Red Son, the Vampire trilogy, Dark Joker, Man-Bat (fantastic paintings by John Bolton), Castle of the Bat, Speeding Bullets, and more. Another one I liked was Batman: Masque. There's probably a reason I never see it mentioned, in this forum or elsewhere, but I remember I picked it up mainly because of the artwork and especially the cover. Still have some attachment to it.

[thecolorsblend]

Speeding Bullets? Really? Far be it from me to criticize but that's kind of an interesting choice. I enjoy those old Bruce "Superman" Wayne backup stories from the 70's or 80's or whatever. But SB... I dunno. It didn't really scratch the itch for me. I sort of like the idea of a one-shot where Superman is basically a driven, angry, vengeful Batman. But that story was a bizarre, strange-brew mashup of the two characters. It was the two great tastes that don't taste great together.

Not criticizing, again, just saying that story didn't play for me at all.

[Azrael]

I thought it was a fun premise. Maybe it's not one for the "best ever" lists like Red Son but a nice "What if Kal-El was found and adopted by the Waynes".

[The Dark Knight]

I have owned a copy of the comic since it was first released, so my opinions here are filtered through that nostalgic prism.

I thought it was a good amalgamation of the two characters - the origins of Superman (rocketed away from Krypton) with the upbringing of Batman (raised by Alfred at Wayne Manor). I think that's the best possible balance for such a concept. The mugger killing the Waynes but being unable to kill Bruce due to his invulnerability is something so simple, but something so genius. That was one of the best scenes from the book for me.

I also dig the art. It's gorgeous looking book with broody visuals.