Videos by ComicBook.com
Many of the best DC stories of all time are Elseworlds stories, and a big reason for that is the awesome variants that readers have been introduced to. These alternate versions of DC favorites grabbed fans’ imagination and have never let go. These ten Elseworlds alternate are the best of them, giving readers stories that show their favorite characters in new ways.
10) Vampire Batman
Batman: Red Rain is one of many Elseworlds Batman tales — he’s by far the character with the most Elseworlds stories. Red Rain saw Batman dealing with Dracula. Batman did his best against the vampire lord, but eventually had no other choice but to become a vampire himself to beat Dracula. This version of Batman would return in Bloodstorm and Crimson Mist, where he lost control of his vampiric thirst, forcing his former allies to band together against him. Evil Batman isn’t exactly a novel idea — we’ve had multiple evil versions of Batman shoved down our throats over the years — but Vampire Batman takes the basics of Batman and delightfully twists them.
9) The Ultra-Humanite/Mr. America from The Golden Age
The Justice Society is the first and best superteam, and has been the subject of some amazing Elseworlds books. The best of them is The Golden Age, which tells the story of DC’s Golden Age heroes after WWII. Basically, every character that’s in this book is awesome, but the best of them is the Ultra-Humanite. The Ultra-Humanite was the greatest DC villain of the Golden Age, and The Golden Age shows why.
The story starts with him in the body of Mr. America, a fact that we don’t find out until later in the book. The Ultra-Humanite, in the body of Dolores Winters, worked with the Nazis in Germany. At the end of the war, Mr. America was captured by the Nazis, and the Ultra-Humanite took over his body. Back in the US after the war, he took credit for killing Hitler and enacted a plan that would put him in the government and pave the way for the return of Adolf Hitler as Dyna-Man. This is the coolest Ultra-Humanite ever, and one of the best Elseworlds villains ever.
8) Manhunter from The Golden Age
The Golden Age focuses on many DC heroes — Alan Scott, Hourman, Captain Triumph, Johnny Quick, Liberty Belle, Starman, and more — but the best character is a forgotten DC hero — Paul Kirk, the Manhunter. Manhunter was a non-powered hero, allowing him to invade Germany (which was impossible for powered heroes thanks to the Spear of Destiny), and worked with Mr. America to destabilize the Nazis from within.
Manhunter discovered that Ultra-Humanite was swapping bodies with Mr. America and tried to stop it, but was injured and had to escape by jumping out of the German castle he had infiltrated. He lost his memory and was able to get back to the US, slowly but surely getting his memory back and helping the heroes see the snake in their midst. Manhunter ended the threat of the Ultra-Humanite, pushing him out a window to his death. Manhunter would end up in Kenya, where he disappeared from the world forever.
7) The Owl
Another amazing Justice Society Elseworlds story is JSA: The Liberty Files, a late ’90s masterpiece that introduced readers to the Bat (Batman), the Clock (Hourman), and the Owl (Doctor Mid-Nite I). The Owl is easily the best version of Charles McNider. McNider was a Golden Age hero who was blind, but had perfect vision in the dark, using “blackout bombs” to allow him to see at any time. He was an expert hand-to-hand fighter, and worked with the Clock and the Bat in WWII. He helped in the battle against the Joker, who was an agent of the Nazis in The Liberty Files, and a Nazi raised Martian Manhunter. The Owl didn’t survive the battle, but he was an awesome version of a hero that never really shined in the modern age.
6) The Clock
While Batman is a part of the cast of JSA: The Liberty Files (and its sequels The Unholy Three and The Whistling Skull), he’s not actually the star. That’s the Clock, an alternate reality version of Rex Tyler. Rex was a chemist who invented the drug Miraclo, which gave him superhuman strength and durability for an hour at a time. He ended up joining the war against the Nazis with the Bat and the Owl, and was the muscle of their little team.
He was a key to defeating the Joker, as well as Superman, who was a Nazi controlled Martian Manhunter. Eventually, an American Superman ended up being Zod, with the Clock giving his all to defeat him, joining this universe’s version of the Justice Society as one of its foremost members in The Whistling Skull. The Clock is such a fun character to read, anchoring the chapters of this three-part epic about the greatest Golden Age heroes of them all.
