Elseworlds Revisited - From 1999

I often review DC Comic's Elseworlds series in which alternative versions of major characters or incidents are explored. In the 1950's and 1960's, these were known as "imaginary stories," e.g. a story in which Lois Lane might marry Bruce "Batman" Wayne. I have usually been favorable to Elseworlds.

Most Elseworlds stories have been based upon DC's most popular characters. A three issue series, Conjurers, is a definite change.

The major characters are based on DC's mystical heroes and villains, but the resemblances are often in name only. Some are easily recognizable such as Boston "Deadman" Brand. Others, such as Zatana, are very different from their better-known originals.

It took me a while to grasp that this Deadman had a widow and that she was the daughter of Travis Morgan, the Warlord. Readers unfamiliar with this part of DC's lore could become frustrated.

Another character comes from an old DC humor series, Stanley and His Monster. This version is anything but humorous, but there are whiffs of the original concept. Chuck Dixon's script is complex and stands up nicely to multiple readings. Eduardo Barreto's art is good as is Lee Loughridge's coloring.

For those who need a super hero, there are appearances by Ted Kord, an inventor frustrated in a world where magic overrides the laws of physics and makes technology useless. Kord is, in DC's "normal" continuity, the Blue Beetle, a character rarely seen these days.

The conjurers are opposed to an other-dimensional race that reminds me of H.P. Lovecraft's "Great Old Ones" in his "Cthulhu Mythos". Dixon's use of Lovecraftian monsters is more restrained than that of most comic book writers and thus more effective.

Lovecraft's stories are probably familiar to comic book readers. Those who are intrigued by the idea of a Universe governed by magic rather than science might track down the Lord Darcy stories by Randall Garrett. At lease one anthology has been published and is currently available through the Science Fiction Book Club.

Reviewed by Dr. Jon Suter