8 Weird Directions The Comic Book Movie Genre Could Take

By Chris OMalley /

6. Elseworlds

A similar premise to Marvel€™s What If... ? series but with a more hard-edged and serious tone, Elsewords would allow stories from a DC multiverse of possibilities to be told. From setting Batman in Victorian Ripper era in Gotham By Gaslight or Superman: Red Son, which sees baby Kal-el land in communist Russia then change the course of 20th century history beyond recognition. Elseworlds such as these would perhaps have to be done as a single TV series arc or even cinematically to justifiably realise on screen. However the existing tales from the comics wouldn€™t necessarily need to be told and an Elseworlds series could take the form of a kind of Twilight Zone anthology show, where each episode focusses on an alternative version of a DC character. It could be as bizarre as a JLA episode about a group of non-superpowered people called Clark, Bruce, Diana, Barry and Hal whose character traits allude to their superheroic versions. Or an episode set in a Game Of Thrones-esque fantasy world where there is a knight who rides at dark, a boy who can run as fast as a thousand horses, a warrior maiden named Diana, the keeper of the Emerald Lantern and a Titan-like God on Earth named Kal. Comic fans are always complaining about changes to character details in adaptations but Elseworlds would allow for changes to be made in a way that intrigues and genuinely services the story.