To me, Elseworlds was too limited a concept when compared to the old "Imaginary Stories".  Far too often it seemed that they just changed some superficial trappings of the title instead of going in depth and looking at the new possibilities that could open up.

There were some that did that, but when they started doing Elseworlds Annual Events and other stuff, it went from being about great one shot stories to the standard 10/90 percent split of Sturgeon's Law.

Stories like the one above, with an evil Clark Kent and a Lex Luthor Superman, seem a bit more interesting than  "what if Superman was: King Arthur; Conan the Barbarian; Batman;A Union Soldier; A Soviet Superhero; Tarzan;A Basketball Star;British. " where the character himself remains the same. (As well as most of the relationships to supporting characters.)

Yes, it is lunacy. A good analogy (perhaps) would be someone trying to reconcile all the events of the Bond novels with the events of the Bond films, despite the fact such things aren't meant to be reconciled.

I always just enjoyed comics on their own terms. The "imaginary stories" were superb because they were an indulgence for me. A good one was DETECTIVE COMICS #347 (I won't spoil that story, just read it). It's an "imaginary story" and is a lot of fun. It doesn't need to be reconciled with the "real" adventures that preceded it. No-one needs to figure out how to reconcile it with the other adventures. No-one needs to wonder what earth or universe it took place in, it is simply there to be enjoyed ON IT'S OWN TERMS!

If the story from DETECTIVE COMICS #347 were being written today, there'd be letters asking where it fits into continuity. There'd no doubt be talk about it a press conference where someone at DC would try and reconcile it with the "real adventures". Someone would want to know how it fits into the bigger picture. Personally, that type of thinking is fine if you're a history teacher wanting to investigate historical events and fit them all together and reconcile them in order to teach your students properly. That thinking doesn't belong in the enjoyment of comics, though.

I had a real buzz years ago when I read the Superman/Spider-Man crossover. It was nice to think that Superman could just meet Spider-Man. The tale actually enhanced my enjoyment of previous Superman and Spider-Man adventures because I could view, say, the Stan Lee/Steve Ditko Spider-Man stories and be in awe of the fact that as Spider-Man began his career, Superman was not that far away. And it required no deep thinking - Superman and Spider-Man simply met.

However, it got frustrating when, years later, I heard some people asking what earth the adventures took place on, how Superman and Spider-Man met, etc. Like "imaginary stories", the Superman/Spider-Man crossover was there simply to be enjoyed on it's own terms, much like a tale such as Spider-Man encountering The Transformers. It doesn't have to be an intellectual exercise and no-one needs to concern themselves with where it all fits into continuity. Like the Basil Rathbone SHERLOCK HOLMES films or the JAMES BOND franchise, I say just enjoy each adventure on it's own terms.

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Which was literally impossible for some people. Mark Gruenwald, for instance. A dear friend, and much missed, but Mark was the ultimate anal fanboy. He self-published whole FANZINES dedicated to dissecting the concepts contained in the "multiverse", and single-handedly he dragged much of DC's kind of thinking into Marvel.

Mark was the chief engineer behind turning the occasional Marvel/DC crossovers into a monthly comic (de-uniquing, a distinctly DC habit), and establishing a "link" that allowed characters to move between the "universes" -- something that had been totally unnecessary when SUPERMAN vs THE AMAZING-SPIDER-MAN was done.*

When I did BATMAN & CAPTAIN AMERICA and DARKSEID vs GALACTUS, I took SUPERMAN/SPIDER-MAN as my model. I spent no time at all worrying about "how" the characters ended up in the same "reality". They were simply there, and as far as I was concerned, always had been.

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* And which, of course, was a key element of the recent JLA/AVENGERS crossover, even to the point of making the different Earths impact upon the characters differently, something I'm sure never even flittered thru anybody's mind when SvASM was being planned.

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Started earlier than that. The Elseworlds became alternate timelines with the introduction of Hypertime in 1999.

And after it was introduced Hypertime was used once in a Superboy arc (which was a lot of fun) and never ever addressed again. Much like the multiple worlds of 52 have not been addressed since. Heck, DC has a big imaginary story coming up this spring, and they aren't using Hypertime or 52. Its just another alternate world.

I love the Elseworlds/Imaginary Stories/What If concepts. To me, when I was a kid and part of the audience that mattered, it was nothing more than a brand. It was a logo that helped me find books I wanted to buy.  I picked up pretty much everything with an Elseworlds logo on it even though I was a Marvel guy. To me, it seemed perfectly clear. It always seemed like it was the older guys who got worked up over the labels and what counted. I just read for fun.

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Which included a reference to GENERATIONS.

sigh

QUOTE: When I did BATMAN & CAPTAIN AMERICA and DARKSEID vs GALACTUS, I took SUPERMAN/SPIDER-MAN as my model. I spent no time at all worrying about "how" the characters ended up in the same "reality". They were simply there, and as far as I was concerned, always had been.

That is the approach I liked. Worked for me with the early crossovers. In fact, there was absolutely NO thinking done my during the early crossovers. I never said, "Hang on a minute, Superman and Spider-Man on the same Earth?" I read the comics (after recovering from the buzz I felt when I first saw them on sale) and enjoyed them on their own terms.

It's the same with any fiction, I guess. If Spider-Man had bumped into Duke from G.I. JOE: A REAL AMERICAN HERO or Superman had suddenly appeared to help the characters of M.A.S.K., well that's fine. Enjoy things on their own terms.

One of the many problems with this explaining that was used in later crossovers is that, one, it's boring (how many big cosmic explanations can there be?) and, two, it doesn't lend itself well to some characters. If Batman meets Hawkeye, I don't think it suits their characters to have some big cosmic event happening. It can get tedious.

Other explanations are fine, anyway. Superman meeting Spider-Man? Fine, they meet in their civilian identities at a journalism conference. Batman meeting Iron Man? Fine, Batman is in New York City to investigate a crime with links to Gotham, which involves a threat to Tony Stark's company. Captain America meeting Superman? How about Cap visiting the Daily Planet to be interviewed by Lois Lane about America's role in the world and then having to team up with Superman to defeat Lex Luthor? Those are just examples, I don't think big cosmic events are needed.

I don't know, there's something that takes away the awe when the DC and Marvel heroes are viewed as being separated by universes, only accessible due to some big cosmic event. There's something warm and fuzzy about the thought of Superman and Spider-Man being a hundred or so miles away from each other.

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And how I envy you that "buzz"! As an industry insider, I knew months ahead of release that the book was coming. But fans in those pre-DSM days had no such awareness until they saw the house ads the month the thing was released. Some didn't know about it until they saw the actual book on the stands!

How incredible that must have been!!