The Cold War , The Victorian Age , The Catholic Reformation … Is there anything Batman ca n’t make best ? This hebdomad we cover alternate history of the DC and Marvel universes .
The most unmanageable part about substitute histories in strip is keep everything straightforward . When you have a world that allow for both prison term travel and alternate universes timelines can get perplex fairly quickly . I ’m going to limit word to take turns comic histories that have to do with existent diachronic events just so we ’re not here all week .
Luckily , DC ’s Elseworlds demarcation of comics is dedicate to just these kinds of stories . While some of DC comic ’s Elseworlds line feature DC related diachronic what - ifs like Superman crashing at Wayne Manor as a child or Batman being take as a Green Lantern , others have a far more historical bent such as Mark Millar ’s Superman : Red Son where Superman crashes in Soviet Russia and becomes America ’s greatest foe in the Cold War . Major threats to Superman ’s communistic superstate let in American president Lex Luthor and a Russian Batman wearing an awesome , awesome hat .
Elseworlds news report often have superheros in a non traditional diachronic setting such as the Victorian Batman tale Gotham by Gaslight by Brian Augustyn and Mike Mignola or Adisakdi Tantimedh ’s steampunk JLA : old age of Wonder where Superman ends up process with Nikola Tesla .
Perhaps the closest thing to a traditional Alternate History story in comics is Batman : Holy Terror which even has a formal non - superhero full point of deviation . In a universe where Oliver Cromwell live on another ten long time and America was turned into a theocratic dystopia the reverend Bruce Wayne becomes Batman after learning that his parents were kill by the oppressive government .
Marvel ’s relationship with alternate histories is somehow even more complicated than DC ’s . Luckily much of it can be safely snub here since it involves alternative comics history and seldom involves say , Spiderman press Napoleon .
A notable exception however is Neil Gaiman ’s Marvel 1602 where Marvel ’s superheroes begin appearing at the first light of the seventeenth century . This leads to all sorts of interesting historical divergences such as a spanish inquisition that ’s look for out the X - men and other Marvel variation or Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four on the verge of discovering special relativity three hundred years early . The concept has examine popular enough to engender three spin off comic strip focusing on other characters include a Fantastic Four spin - off 1602 : Fantastick Four by Peter David where Dr. Doom kidnaps Shakespeare and squeeze him to work as Doom ’s prescribed biographer .
While some of these alternate universes can seem like quick gimmicks , it ’s important to remember that comedian and alternating story have a long and far-famed story together . Even Alan Moore ’s Watchmen – with its tantrum of an alternate Vietnam War and an lengthy Nixon presidency – is an alternative chronicle story .
BatmanBooksComicsNeil GaimanSuperman
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