Elseworld Tales

[kina_angel]

Am I under the correct assumption that elseworld tales have nothing to do with continuity of all other stories? I mean how does Kingdom Come fit into the timeline? If it doesn't fit in then his son is just imgained, right or wrong. This stuff is suppose to be more reader friendly since Crisis but I like the other stuff a lot more. I mean it incorporated all the other forms of media into it eventually until around '71, right? I have been back reading. It 's hard to know what goes where and how all the titles fall into together. And why Does Lois Lane have her own line? Does she have any powers? Sorry, I am just confused and frustrated . Answers are greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

[Klar Ken T5477]

It's the new moniker for "Imaginary Stories"...titles that could, or maybe or perhaps not happen outside current DCU continuity. :roll:

[Captain Kal]

Most Elseworld tales have no relevance to mainstream DCU continuity.

However, Kingdom Come is special in that the sequel, The Kingdom, made it a valid alternate future timeline for the mainstream DCU.  Also, the events in the Superman/Batman book have clearly shown the KC Superman interacting with the present-day characters in attempts to stave off a disaster in his future.

[Captain Kal]

Lois Lane had her own book, past tense.  She currently doesn't have a book, at least not since the late 70s, IIRC.  The Superman family titles were consolidated into a Superman Family book then.  Her book started during the 50s alongside the anti-comics crusades.  Same goes for Jimmy Olsen's book.  While Batman and Wonder Woman were the only other survivors of the comics purges from the Golden Age besides Superman, Superman was the only character to not only survive but branch out in spin-off books.  Hence, the Lois and Jimmy titles were born and survived until at least the 70s.  It's a testament to the popularity of the supermythos that his supporting characters could be viable titles for decades.

Currently, I believe a couple of spin-offs are being published.  Metropolis SCU focusing on the Special Crimes Unit that polices Metropolis when Kal is away, Dateline: Metropolis which is really a return of Jimmy Olsen's book, and Lex Luthor: Man of Steel which portrays things from Luthor's warped POV where Lex is the hero and Superman is the alien menace.

[Captain Kal]

BTW, though technically Elseworld stories don't fit into continuity, The Kingdom introduced the concept of Hypertime where all DC stories ever published exist in some corner of Hypertime.  Think of it as a vastly expanded take on the Pre Crisis Multiverse since it even includes Hypertimelines where the Crisis didn't occur and the Pre Crisis Multiverse still exists and all variants thereof.

With the exception of The Dark Flash Saga and Superboy's Hypertension storyline, Hypertime hasn't been used much by DC.

[lastkryptonianhere]

Well officially Hypertime hasn't been used much but with the Doom Patrol series and new Legion series I have the feeling that the crisis rumored to be happening in the next few months will somehow involve Hypertime.

[TELLE]

Lois Lane had her own book, past tense.  She currently doesn't have a book, at least not since the late 70s, IIRC.  

She had a miniseries in the 80s.

[dto]

This was the standard blurb that accompanied Elseworld stories:

"In Elseworlds, heroes are taken from their usual settings and put into strange times and places--some that have existed, and others that can't, couldn't, or shouldn't exist. The result is stories that make characters who are as familiar as yesterday seem as fresh as tomorrow."

Originally, Elseworlds were seen as modern "Imaginary Stories"  of "What If?" tales -- one-shot flights of fancy that cast Superman as an Arthurian knight or Batman battling Lovecraftian horrors.  Some obviously had no connection at all to standard DC Universe continuity -- Batman working with Harry Houdini?  Superman ending the American Civil War and saving President Lincoln?  But some elements have trickled into the mainstream DCU, especially "Kingdom Come" and "The Kingdom" -- Gog made a recent appearance in the Superman titles, and Hypertime was explored in the Superboy "Hypertension" arc.

In "The Kingdom", Hypertime showed that ALL Elseworlds existed "somewhere", along with other now-retconned characters.  ("Hypertime Ghosts" of the Earth-2 Robin and Earth-1 Supergirl were seen in the Planet Krypton issue.)  In the earlier-mentioned "Hypertension" storyline, Superboy Kon-El encountered various different Superboys from elseworld titles (plus what MIGHT be the original Silver Age version that ceased to exist after the Byrne reboot), and there are signs that Batman has been drifting closer to the future Frank Miller version seen in "The Dark Knight Returns".

So while Elseworlds are not intended to directly interact with the mainstream DC Universe, some elements and themes might be later incorporated as canon, and popular Elseworlds characters might well pop up again in a Hypertime-related tale.

I haven't read all the Elseworlds titles, but some Superman related books are worth mentioning:

Superboy's Legion (1-2).  What if Kal-El's rocket was discovered by R. J. Brande in the 30th Century, and years later a teen-aged Superboy decides to form a group of young superheroes?  But what happened back in the 20th Century without him?  

JLA: The Nail  (1-3).  What would the JLA be without a Superman?  There's a sequel, but I haven't followed that one.

Elseworld's Finest:  Supergirl and Batgirl.  Kara Zor-El arrives as the sole survivor of Krypton (Luthor pickled the infant Kal-El in formaldehyde), while Barbara Gordon's parents died in Crime Alley.  Years later, the two meet...

Superman and Batman: Generations (1-4).  John Byrne's historic saga of the Kent and Wayne families, beginning in the 1930s when Bruce and Clark first meet.  There was a Generations II (4 issues) and Generations III (12 issues), though the ending of the last one left many fans dissatisfied.

Superman: Last Son on Earth (1-2)  Clark is rocketed from a doomed Earth to Krypton, and adopted by the Els.

Superman:  Last Stand on Krypton.  Sequel to the above.

Superman:  Red Son (1-3).  What if the Soviets got Kal-El's rocket?

Superman:  Secret Identity (1-4).  Not marked as an Elseworld, this explores a present day "Superboy-Prime" in our world.

DC: The New Frontier (1-6)  Also not marked as an Elseworld, this retelling of the dawn of the superhero age during the late 1950s - early 1960s might very well be the foundation background of the upcoming All Star line.