020 DC Elseworlds: Justice League Vol 01

Another Elseworlds book.  The last one I read focused solely on Batman.  This one (supposedly) focuses on the Justice League.  I say supposedly because it's a real mixed bag.  The first story is a Superman/Batman story, there's a Teen Titans story in here, a Wonder Woman story and a Supergirl/Batgirl story.  There are two proper JLA stories, but I guess that's enough to call it a Justice League book. 

Like any book like this, it's going to be a wildly mixed bag.  I've read some of these stories before, while others were new to me.  The first story is a pulpy Superman/Batman adventure which was a lot of fun to read.  Justice Riders, the second story and the cover feature, was also a lot of fun.  Wonder Woman is the sheriff in the old west and teams up with a bunch of super-folks to bring down the villain.  There wasn't a terrible amount of story in that tale, but it was still highly enjoyable.  The next tale was League of Justice, a two part story I couldn't even get half-way through.  It was dreadful.  It was unreadable.  Next was Wonder Woman Amazonia.  I'd read this years ago and forgotten all about it.  It's my favorite story in this volume, both storywise and artwise.  It's set back in the era of Jack the Ripper and is the origin story of Wonder Woman.  Fascinating to me.  Next is Titans: Scissors, Paper Stone.  It's an anime type Titans story that is just as unreadable to me today as when it was first published.  Don't ask me what happened, because I can't tell you.  The volume rounds out with a Supergirl/Batgirl story.  I loved this story when it was first published.  I have to say that it doesn't hold up as well for me today.  It's a great concept, it just needs to be fleshed out some more.  This story might have benefited from being a two part story rather than a done-in-one.

All in all, it was a fun book.

DC Elseworlds: Justice League Vol 1

Writer: John Francis Moore, Chuck Dixon, Ed Hannigan, William Messner-Loebs, Adam Warren, Barbara Kesel

Artist: Kieron Dwyer, Hilary Barta, J.H. Williams III, Mick Grey, Ed Hannigan, Dick Giordano, Phil Winslade, Adam Warren, Tom Simmons, Matt Haley, Tom Simmons

DC Comics

013 DC Elseworlds: Batman Vol 1

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