Summary
- DC Comics creates elaborate Elseworld stories where familiar characters like Batman undergo drastic alterations.
- The Batman tales explore different timelines and stories, including cyberpunk, vampires, and Victorian-era mysteries.
- Batman: Last Knight on Earth and White Knight offer unique takes on the caped crusader's character and relationships.
DC Comics excels at creativity, allowing writers and artists to experiment with familiar concepts from another timeline altogether. The best Elseworld stories in DC Comics allow audiences to be immersed in strange new worlds, where familiar icons like Batman are altered in permissible ways to separate from the main canon. If there is one character who has been thrust into Elseworld stories the most, it’s Batman.
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The best Batman Elseworld stories are plentiful, and it seems like creators and DC Comics love to present a new world for Batman to play in. Whether it’s as the last knight on Earth, as a vampire, or just a grittier tale with all the familiarities of Gotham City, there is an abundance of Elseworld stories featuring Batman.
8 Batman: Year 100
Batman's Topical Detective Story Within a Cyberpunk Police State
- Creators: Paul Pope
- Release Date: April, 2006
Enter Gotham City in the year 2039, where a cyberpunk-esque police state has taken over the city that Batman swore to protect. As the Gotham police continue with their unwarranted arrests and searches, their clash with Federal agents and continuing hunt for Batman is going to end poorly as the world’s greatest detective seeks his own path to solve a murder.
Batman: Year 100 is a Batman story that does away with continuity, and instead, relies on telling a detective story in the heart of Gotham City. The addition of cyberpunk technology and authoritarian themes is concerningly topical, making Batman: Year 100 a must-read in 2024.
7 Batman: Last Knight on Earth
Batman Teams Up With the Head of the Joker to Discover Earth's Dark Fate
- Creators: Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo
- Release Date: July, 2019
Bruce Wayne awakens as an inmate of Arkham Asylum, where his entire world is spun around in an effort to confuse what’s real and what’s in his head. When Bruce Wayne escapes this prison, he finds himself not in Gotham, but a ruined world with an ocean of sand. With nothing but the head of the Joker in a hanging jar to guide him, Batman must uncover what happened to his world and see if he can save it.
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It's always a treat to see the legendary partnership of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo in another Batman book. Their creative collaborations are always celebrated, and Last Knight on Earth is definitely one of their weirdest, but also one of the most endearing. The love for Batman and his world is obvious in this intriguing and creepy Elseworld tale.
6 Gotham by Gaslight
A Victorian-era Batman and Gotham City are Plagued by Jack the Ripper
- Creators: Brian Augustyn, Mike Mignola, P. Craig Russell, Eduardo Barreto
- Release Date: January, 1990
Gotham City and the Batman are thrust into a 19th-century murder mystery. Gotham by Gaslight is a tale of the Batman from another world, one where the Victorian era takes the stage, and Batman’s origins are explored with a unique twist, along with a new villain to spark further intrigue, as Jack the Ripper has come to Gotham.
A re-imagining of Batman and his iconic characters, Gotham by Gaslight set the standard for Elseworld stories. Whilst the plot was nothing exceptional, it still harbors a few surprises that will keep the most hardcore Batman fans on their toes.
5 The Doom That Came to Gotham
Batman Grapples With Eldrich Horrors Beyond Comprehension
- Creators: Mike Mignola, Richard Pace, Troy Nixey
- Release Date: November, 2000
In the year 1928, Bruce Wayne returns to Gotham City to become Batman, where he is faced with all manners of terrors that exist beyond space and time. As Batman investigates Eldritch horrors that await him, he’s going to find an army that attempts to feed on Gotham and the world, and only Batman can end this horror, but at what cost to his own morality?
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Putting the creator of Hellboy himself, Mike Mignola, on a Batman book that deals with Eldritch horror themes is a recipe for success. The Doom That Came to Gotham is tense and intriguing, and Gotham City blends so well with the era of Lovecraftian horror.
4 Batman & Dracula: Red Rain
Batman Battles Vampiric Urges and Lord Dracula Himself
- Creators: Doug Moench, Kelley Jones
- Release Date: February, 1992
Dracula has come to Gotham City to make it his new dark dominion, where he will prey on the weak and the homeless to feed on them and create an army. If Batman is to save his city, then he must align with the undead, and become something equally unholy himself to defeat Dracula and ensure Gotham doesn’t suffer from an endless and bloody night.
Combining the Gothic worlds of Batman and Bram Stoker’s Dracula seems too good to be true, and the distinction between Batman and Dracula’s philosophies and forces for good and evil helps to make a compelling tale, one where Batman’s code of ethics will be challenged at every sharp turn.
3 Batman: White Knight
The Public Turns on Batman When a Cured Joker Shows Them He's Gotham's Villain
- Creators: Sean Gordon Murphy
- Release Date: October, 2017
A familiar, yet different world, White Knight takes place in a world where Batman is once again apprehending Joker, only this time, there is a cure for his madness. The Joker becomes Jack Napier, and with his sanity in check, he’s able to save Gotham City, and turn it into something that doesn’t need the Joker, and definitely doesn’t need the Batman.
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White Knight is an interesting take on the dynamic of Batman and Joker, and it’s a rather deep-rotted statement on how crime and villainy are Batman’s therapy. White Knight also presents some interesting ideas for familiar characters, like the relationship between Joker and Harley Quinn and how toxic that was divulged over the years.
2 Batman: Earth One
A New Origin For a Darker and Realistic Caped Crusader
- Creators: Geoff Johns, Gary Frank
- Release Date: July, 2012
A new origin awaits Bruce Wayne, and the hurdles on the way to becoming Batman have never been fiercer. Gotham City is at its lowest point, and friend and foe are one and the same. As Bruce grapples with the fate that awaits him as Batman, he’s going to have to deal with a disapproving Alfred, corrupt police, and an unquenched thirst for vengeance.
Batman: Earth One is yet another reimagining of Bruce’s origin as Batman, and everything about it works. The writing and the art make for an interesting read, and Earth One is a gritty starting point for those who want a new Batman with its own continuity.
1 The Dark Knight Returns
A Retired and Older Bruce Wayne Becomes the Batman That Gotham City Needs
- Creators: Frank Miller
- Release Date: June, 1986
A dark and depressing future takes hold, and criminal gangs run amok in Gotham City after the Batman was forced to retire. An older and grizzled Bruce Wayne has reached a breaking point after seeing just how far down in the gutter Gotham has fallen, and the Batman returns to a city that doesn’t want him, but it certainly needs him.
The Dark Knight Returns is a graphic novel that forever changed Batman as a character. Whilst the story can be considered canon, Elseworld, or a potential future for the main Batman, it’s still an Elseworld tale that deals heavy themes. Batman’s potential future as a retired fugitive, pairing against villains that are addicted to him, and a battle of heroes who have sworn allegiance to the government, makes for one of the best Batman comics of all time.
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