Epic Randomness: The Blog » Silver Age Elseworlds

It’s my opinion that late 90′s DC Comics are probably the best of my generation, you had amazing runs like Grant Morrison on JLA, experimental series like Chase, outright fun titles like Hourman, and great fifth week concepts like Final Night and DC One Million. One of the true lost gems of that era is the Elseworlds 80-page Giant. For the uninitiated, Elseworlds is a label DC slaps on a title that gives us an alternate take on our favorite heroes, be it something like Batman becoming a Green Lantern, or Superman becoming a sports icon/businessman! Elseworlds is where anything can happen, and I love those stories.

The Elseworlds 80-page Giant on the other hand is a mystery to most people, the issue was pulped when a story depicting a baby Superman got into a bunch of cartoonish hijinks that would kill a human baby. DC didn’t want to get in trouble for the content, so the entire issue was scrapped, but not before a trickle of issues made it to the UK. I was lucky enough to grab a copy of the issue at Wizard World in 2000, shortly after it was published/scrapped and before it skyrocketed in price. Ironically, of the stories in the issue, only two have ever seen the light of day, including the controversial story that got it pulped in the first place!

Now while fair use won’t allow me to post the entire issue (I’m hoping for a digital re-release, myself), I can recount some of the highlights, such as a story where the stretchy heroes/villains of the DCU are placed in a Lovecraftian horror story, and retrospective on a universe where all of the heroes are actually musical acts. My absolute favorite though, is a collection of mock-up splash pages made to emulate classic silver-age DC titles. There are no stories, but these “opening pages” are enough to get your imagination working overtime, so I present to you, Silver Age Elseworlds!