I was looking at mycomicshop.com, here's an incomplete list of the ones they list:

https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?q=elseworlds&pubid=&PubRng=

I loved these books for a variety of reasons.
1) they were very nicely formatted, and generally had very nice art.
2) the limited-series or one-shot nature of the books gave you a complete story that came to a full conclusion, as compared to the regular series that are often serialized and often don't come to a similar complete and satisfying end. I used to joke back on the DC boards that "You almost need a Phd in comic book continuity to understand the new books." The Elseworlds line was a welcome exception to that, where you could just step in and enjoy, without all the clutter and sometimes pretentiousness that went with the regular titles.
3) It was interesting to see the characters changed in ways very different from the regular series, in new costumes, new eras, or just a "what if" type twist, exploring a path the characters didn't go down in the regular series.

For reasons I still don't understand, this line of books ended, right about the time I was (for a while) interested in the new books. Its cancellation was part of what pushed me back to being indifferent to and not buying the new books.
They were an easy entry point for new readers, or readers like me who had been out of the fold for a while.


So... what happened?

And what are some of your favorites?



I'll start with one of the more popular ones, BATMAN/DRACULA: RED RAIN, by Doug Moench and Kelley Jones.



As I recall, Moench and Jones collaborated on this Elseworlds book before they did their roughly 50-issue run on the regular BATMAN series.

I love the idea, that Batman is already an atmospheric and almost supernatural creature of the night. And in RED RAIN, he goes beyond that to become a vampire, and truly enter the realm of the supernatural. Also interesting how it changes him and makes him more savage, in some ways out of character for the Bruce Wayne/Batman character we all know and love. But it works and is explainable, because he's a vampire!

And needless to say, great art.

With two new Elseworlds sequels after, BATMAN:BLOODSTORM, and BATMAN:CRIMSON MIST.

Each of these were one-shots and well done.

By Moench and Jones, there was also a BATMAN: HAUNTED GOTHAM series that was enjoyable, but somehow not as engaging and visceral as the RED RAIN series of one-shots.