I'm a sucker for a good compilation book. Something like this. The first volume of Batman Elseworlds stories. The book clocks in at about 500+ pages. There's a lot of cool stuff in here as well as some mediocre stuff. I love the concept of the Elseworlds stories. Basically, take your characters, put them in any time, any locale, any situation and build a story around them. Some succeed, some fail.
The book starts off with Alan Brennert's Holy Terror. I just recently read this story for the first time in years in the Alan Brennert Batman collection that came out last year. He only wrote a handful of Batman tales, but they were all great. This was no exception. I think I enjoyed it more this time than when I read it a few months ago.
There's a Batman in the old west drawn beautifully by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez.
Robin 3000 was a two issue mini-series that I have no recollection of but enjoyed the hell out of. It felt so much like a 1950s pulp. I kind of wish there was more than just the two issues.
Batman/Dark Joker: The Wild. Nice tale, but probably my least favorite of them all.
Batman/Houdini was a lot of fun.
My favorite story, however, was probably the Frankenstein tale told with Batman characters. It was great. It wasn't just sticking the characters we know into a different setting. The characters were molded to fit the roles they needed to fill. It worked so well.
I've got a second volume sitting in my backlog pile to get to yet. I can't wait.
DC Elseworlds: Batman Vol 1
Writer: Alan Brennert, Elliot S. Maggin, Alan Weiss, Byron Preiss, Steven Ringgenberg, Doug Moench, Howard Chaykin, John Francis Moore, Jack C. Harris, Mike, W. Barr
Artist: Norm Breyfogle, Alan Weiss, Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, P. Craig Russell, Kelley Jones, John Beatty, Mark Chiarello, Bo Hampton, Terry Bingham, Howard Chaykin
DC Comics
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