Elseworlds

I enjoy the Elseworld tales as well! You might want to check out some of the following, If you can find them:

Gotham by Gaslight - The First Elseworld book. I'd also recommend anything else written by Mike Mignola (like Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham)

The Golden Age - An excellet book... This is easily one of my favorite comic stories. I have a serious love for the WW II era so that probably helps. You might want to check it out.

Superman: Secret Identity - while this isn't labelled as a "Elseworlds" book, it fits in well. It's a nice self contained history of the "real world" Superman.

Super-Folks - This one isn't an Elseworlds tale or even a DC book, but if you want to read the literary father of "Watchmen" or "The Dark Knight", you might want to take a look at this one. This book was originally published in 1977 and follows the worlds most powerful superhero (not named in the book as far as I remember) in his last adventure. It's a great read!

I hope some of these pique your interest... they all deserve a good read!

http://www.amazon.com/Superman-Speed.../dp/1563891174

This has to be my favourite next to Red Son. It shows Kal Els craft landing in Gotham, not Kansas, and being found by the Waynes. When they are brutally murdered, Kal Els powers appear and send him on course to becoming The Batman.

It is a much darker, harder Batman than we are used to (he kills!!!), but the story shows him gradually finding his humanity and becoming something more. Interesting how they use the other characters in Supes' 'verse, especially Luthor - who is essentially three characters in this tale.

An absoloute MUST-READ for any Supes/Batman fans!

Funny how DC has so much more books "outside" their universe, including Elseworlds, Vertigo, etc, than Marvel does. Even when I was a big comic book collector in the 80's, Marvel might have had the best superhero comics, but DC had all the mature stuff like Dark Knight and Watchmen. Much more creator controlled books too.

I'm really fond of a JLA annual done for Elseworlds. I forget what year it came out, but it essentially had the Justice League being blown to shit by a megalomaniac, who then conquers Earth for an entire generation while an underground movement mythologizes the League. After awhile, a new League is built, with new versions of the old heroes, but their Superman turns out to be the traitor. Turns out, the founder of the new League is a disguised Martian Manhunter, who (and this is kinda stupid) flew out of the giant canyon where the League was blown up.

The comic also had a small, cartoonish backup story involving DC villains forming the "O Squad" with villains who's names end with O. They end up squabbling over who gets what portion of Earth (while the JLA, bored, eat chinese food) and get into a fight when people protest against the membership of T.O. Morro(w). In the end, natch, Lobo arrives late and beats them all up.

I have that at home!

Fabfunk,
I think the JLA Annual that you mentioned is part of the 1994 Summer Annual Event:

Elseworlds Annuals 1994
All regular DCU 1994 Annuals had an Elseworlds theme. This is a list of those books, and the title(s) of the stories.

Action Comics Annual #6 "Legacy" (reprinted in Alternate Histories)
Adventures of Superman Annual #6 "The Super Seven Part I: The Longest Night"
Batman Annual #18 "Black Masterpiece"
Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight Annual #4 "Citizen Wayne" (reprinted in Alternate Histories)
Batman: Shadow of the Bat Annual #2 "The Tyrant"
Catwoman Annual #1 "The Last Man"
Deathstroke, the Terminator Annual #3 "Journey's End"
Detective Comics: Batman Annual #7 "Leatherwing" (reprinted in Alternate Histories)
Flash Annual #7 "The Barry Allen Story"
Green Lantern Annual #3 "Ring of Evil"
Justice League America Annual #8 "The Once and Future League"
Justice League International Annual #5 "No Rules to Follow"
L.E.G.I.O.N. '94 Annual #5 "The Man From L.E.G.I.O.N. 007", "L.E.G.I.O.N. Archives", "L.E.G.I.O.N. 90210", "LEGION by Gaslight", "WomanMan with Girl the Boy Wonder", "Elseworlds Rejects"
Legionnaires Annual #1 "Castles in the Air"
Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #5 "The Long Road Home"
Lobo Annual #2 "A Fistful of Bastiches"
New Titans Annual #10 "Facets"
Robin Annual #3 "The Narrow Path"
Steel Annual #1 "Crucible of Freedom" (reprinted in Alternate Histories)
Superboy Annual #1 "The Super Seven: Part II The Men of Steel"
Superman Annual #6 "The Feral Man of Steel"
Superman: The Man of Steel Annual #3 "Unforgiven"
Team Titans Annual # 2 "Into the Light"

I took this list from this page.

And, while DC seems to have downplayed this over the years, Dark Knight Returns was originally an Elseworlds story.

Have they actually branded any books Elseworlds recently? Last one I can recall noticing was the JLA/Planetary crossover.

The Elseworlds brand has been folded. To my knowledge, they are no longer going to produce any more EW titles.

And Action Comics Annual #6 "Legacy" (reprinted in Alternate Histories) is pure, peanut-free shit.

I liked it. But I loved Byrne's Superman run, so.

There's another Superman Elseworlds, called DISTANT FIRES by Howard Chaykin. It's quite good, aside from the usual "post-apocalyptic survivor" stuff that's been done to death in other media. Also, if you liked RED SON, you'll recognize the ending.

I like to believe that THE GOLDEN AGE isn't an Elseworlds (despite it's label). Also, I recall events from it were referenced during the '90s STARMAN series (by the same writer, James Robinson).

DARK KNIGHT RETURNS was an Elseworlds before they even came up with the concept of Elsewords, and they slapped the logo on it in some future printings.

I'm not a big fan of them, because there's always a huge "Who cares?" factor, but my favourite that I've read is BATMAN & DRACULA: RED RAIN, by Doug Moench and Kelley Jones. What makes it so good is that this is just Bruce Wayne, as he always is, but dealing with actual vampires, with grim consequences. No "reinventions" opf the basic concept or anything. It's just a regular Batman tale, but with a sad ending. Plus Jones' art is more restrained. It's really moody, and I tore through it one rainy afternoon back when I was about 10, and it left a lasting impression.

This makes me really sad... I enjoyed the Elseworlds books quite a bit. They are/were they only comics I still would buy 1st run. Everything else I wait for the collected edition.