Summary

• DC's Elseworlds imprint explores alternate continuity versions of its classic characters, including many incredible reimaginings of Batman and Gotham City.
• With stories set in the past and far flung future of the DC Universe, alongside alternate histories, the many Elseworlds incarnations of Batman have offered writers the opportunity to tell a wide range of stories.
• With Elseworlds returning with more Batman stories, now is the time to revisit some of the best.

For decades, DC Comics has indulged some of the wildest, most unexpected narrative possibilities for many of its iconic characters through its Elseworlds imprint, a place for stories set far outside the company's main continuity – and naturally, many of the best Elseworlds stories have featured alternative versions of Batman.

Featuring versions of Gotham's Caped Crusader set in the past, future, and alternate, unfamiliar versions of the present DC timeline, these stories have helped push what it means to be Batman to previously unimaginable limits. While Batman the Barbarian, now is the perfect time to revisit the back catalogue.

10 Batman: Holy Terror

Batman As A Priest

The first story that ever published under DC's official Elseworlds label was Batman: Holy Terror. This story set Gotham City, and America as a whole, in an alternate history where Oliver Cromwell survived instead of dying of malaria. This led to a chain of historical changes that resulted in America becoming a hyper-Christian society. Some characters, such as Thomas and Martha Wayne, ed the resistance against this dystopian society, leading to their assassinations. This prompted Bruce to become a priest before becoming Batman. While Holy Terror Batman originally went after the people responsible for his parents' demise, he eventually broadened his mission to fight against the society that took his parents from him.

Batman: Holy Terror – by writer Alan Brennert, with art from Norm Breyfogle, Lovern Kindzierski, and Bill Oakley – was released in 1991.

9 Batman/Lobo

A Twisted Version Of Batman's World

Batman/Lobo – written by Alan Grant, Simon Bisley, Nathan Eyring, and Bill Oakley – was released in 2000.

A truly bizarre alternate universe, one that seems truly randomly mixed together, the world of Batman/Lobo was the setting for a strange tale that mixed and matched various elements from Batman's mythos, such as James Gordon taking the place of Alfred, Tim and Dick swapping places, and Joker being revealed to be Batman's brother. This was a hyper-violent tale that followed Lobo being hired to kill the Joker, before Joker convinced him to kill Batman first. What followed was a cartoonishly violent confrontation between the Dark Knight and the Main Man, which involved a ton of characters being killed off as the Main Man hunted Batman down.

8 Batman: Gotham Noir

James Gordon As The Central Protagonist

Gotham is a very dark city, and it's clear to see a lot of its roots come from the noir genre. Some writers have wanted to take that a step forward, which was explored in Batman: Gotham Noir. This story followed James Gordon, but instead of Commissioner, James was re-imagined as an alcoholic, hard-boiled detective. When James was framed for murder, he found himself pulled into a conspiracy involving the corrupt mayor. All the while, Gordon found himself hunted by the mysterious Batman, who believed the erstwhile gumshoe to be guilty of the crime. Ultimately, it was up to James Gordon to get to the bottom of the mystery, while also avoiding being captured by Batman.

Published in 2001, Batman: Gotham Noir was written by Ed Brubaker, with art by Sean Phillips, Dave Stewart, and Bill Oakley.

7 Batman: Brotherhood Of The Bat

An Army Of Batmen Tries To End The World

Batman: Brotherhood of the Bat was a 64-page one-shot, written by Doug Moench, in collaboration with a number of artists, including Jim Aparo and Lee Loughridge. It was released in 1995.

Many of the villains in the DC Universe have a dark desire for the world if their plans were to succeed. One such villain is Ra's al Ghul, who believes that in order for the world and nature to survive, genocide must happen for humanity. This story explored the idea of what would happen if Ra's al Ghul won. After using a version of the Ebola virus to eliminate the majority of human life on Earth, Ra's decided twenty-three million more must die before he can reach his goal. To achieve this, Ra's moved his base to Gotham and began training an army of lethal Batmen. The only one to stand against this twisted Brotherhood of the Bat was none other than Damian Wayne.

6 Batman: Two-Faces

Batman Relives A Classic Story

The story of Batman: Two-Faces was a dark twist on the classic Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde tale. Bruce Wayne came into possession of a flower that was beautiful during the day, but transformed into a grotesque weed at night. After violently losing Pamela Isley at the hands of Two-Face, Bruce swore to cure the villain. Bruce then created a potion from the plant, which gave him super strength and inhuman abilities. Using these, he tried to fight crime; at the same time, a new killer called the Joker appeared, who befan murdering women across town. As the story progressed, Batman realized that the potion had given him a split personality, making the Joker another side of Batman's psyche, which took over at night.

Batman: Two-Faces – written by by Dan Abnett, with art by Andy Laning, Anthony Williams, Tom Palmer, Lee Loughridge, and Willie Schubert – was published in 1998.

5 Batman: Castle Of The Bat

The Most Gothic Batman Yet

This story took Batman's Gothic theme to the next level. Batman: Castle of the Bat reimagined Bruce Wayne as the iconic Doctor Frankenstein. After a highway robber murdered his parents, Bruce dedicated his life to becoming a skilled doctor. He spent all of his time studying how to bring people back from the dead; once he had the necessary knowledge and tools, he attempted to revive his father, Thomas Wayne. While Thomas was revived, he was terrified of the light. Trying to fix this, Bruce injected Thomas with a serum that gave him bat-like abilities, as well as a bat-shaped head. This required Thomas to wear a mask at all times, and he took to murdering highwaymen in the middle of the night, trying to prevent the crime that had killed him in the first place.

1994's Batman: Castle of the Bat was written by Jack. C Harris, with art by Bo Hampton, and Tracy Hampton Munsey.

4 Batman: The Doom That Came To Gotham

Batman Faces Horrors From Beyond The Stars

One of the most iconic storylines in the Elseworlds catalog, Batman: The Doom That Came To Gotham featured Batman facing off against cosmic monsters. Batman was reimagined as an industrialist businessman, who got embroiled in a conspiracy by Ra's al Ghul and his League of Assassins to revive the Old God Iog-Sotha. This story allowed the writers to re-imagine famous Batman characters, such as Poison Ivy, as Lovecraftian monsters. This was likely one of the most truly Gothic horror stories that Batman has ever had. While Batman has had dark stories in the past, few match the idea of Batman fighting C'thulu's madness.

Batman: The Doom That Came To Gotham – written by Mike Mignola, with art by Richard Pace, Troy Nixey, Dennis Janke, Dave Stewart, and Bill Oakley – was a three-issue series, released from 2000-2001.

3 Gotham by Gaslight

Batman Investigates History's Greatest Unsolved Murders

Batman is a detective; one of his main purposes is solving crimes by collecting evidence, and deducing conclusions instead of simply running in and using his fists. To match this, Batman was put against one of the most famous unsolved murder sprees of all time, Jack the Ripper. Gotham by Gaslight is one of the first stories that people think of when Elseworlds is brought up, and it makes sense why. It was a gripping story with absolutely fantastic art, one that gave readers everything a good Batman story needs, including an iconic killer with a specific M.O., along with a mystery that to this day still hasn't been solved in real life.

Gotham by Gaslight – written by Brian Augustyn, with art Mike Mignola, P. Craig Russell, David Hornung, and John Workman – was a one-shot released in 1989. While it technically pre-dates DC's Elseworlds imprint, it has retroactively been included in Elseworlds collections.

2 Batman: In Darkest Knight

Batman Finally Gets Superpowers

The Batman: In Darkest Knight one-shot was written by Mike W. Barr, with art by Jerry Bingham, Digital Chameleon, and Pat Brosseau. It was published in 1994.

A very easy thing to do with superheroes, especially non-powered superheroes, is to give them the powers of another hero. This is exactly what happened in Batman: In Darkest Knight. This story saw Batman being granted a Green Lantern ring, on the fateful night he was supposed to be inspired by a bat. This version of Bruce Wayne became a Green Lantern and used his powers to fight crime. As a Green Lantern, he had responsibilities beyond just Gotham, beyond Earth, which led him into conflict with Sinestro. In an attempt to get back at Batman, Sinestro tracked down and fuses his mind with Joe Chill, creating a twisted, insane villain that matched what Batman usually finds in the Joker.

1 Batman: Bloodstorm

Batman's Darkest Elseworlds Story

Perhaps the darkest story Batman has ever gone through in Elseworlds was the time Batman was transformed into a vampire. The biggest effects of this were seen in Batman: Bloodstorm. This book was part of what's known as Batman: The Vampire Trilogy with Batman/Dracula and Red Rain preceding and following Bloodstorm, respectively. This book saw Batman infected by a vampire – but as he hadn't drunk human blood, he was a "pure" vampire, in the sense that he wasn't forsaken by God. Not only one of DC's most intense Batman stories, Bloodstorm was also a unique, interesting take on vampire lore.

As a "pure" vampire, Bruce was perfectly capable of entering churches, drinking holy water, and touching crosses. The only thing he could not really do was stand in the sun. Unfortunately for Bruce, he lost this purity after the Joker pushes him to the limit, forcing Batman to drink his blood and kill him. After that, Batman went on a killing spree, murdering every single criminal he could get his hands on, before seemingly being killed at the conclusion of the story, as he allowed Gordon and Alfred to drive a stake through his heart – though as Red Rain proved, there was still more to be done with Elseworlds' vampiric Batman.

Batman: Bloodstorm – written by Doug Moench, with art by Kelley Jones, John Beatty, Les Dorscheid, and Todd Klein – was published in 1995.