If there’s something I adore about comics are the multiverse and parallel realities stories. Seeing what would have happened if they had zigged instead of zagged is always intriguing. Obviously that means that Marvel’s What If is one of my favorites, but that doesn’t mean that DC is left behind. Between the Silver Age’s Infinity Earths, the post Crisis Elseworlds, the Hyper-Time and now again the 52 Earths, there’s so many different versions of the character that I’d love if many of them had their personal titles. And here are some of them.
Kal El: Last son of Earth.
The story of a reverse Superman, where Clark Kent was sent to Krypton to survive a cataclysm on Earth is fascinating on it’s own, as it can be a tragedy waiting to happen given how Krypton is doomed to explode. It’s even more interesting when we take in account that a human can’t survive on Krypton due to the different gravity and atmosphere, and that post-crisis Kryptonians aren’t big on the whole “raising children”. So the beginning of Last Son of Earth is quite intriguing as we see Jor-El treat the baby he and Lara found as a bit of an experiment and a bit of a real son because he can’t bring himself to destroy the alien. Add a Green Lantern Ring that finds Kal-el worthy, and the story is an amazing read. I’m not fond of the ending -you have to read it to find what’s it about- but the whole road leading up to there is incredible… and so is Kal’s Green Lantern uniform.
Captain Leatherwing. Detective Comics Annual 7
What can be cooler than Batman as a Pirate? I have no idea, so of course I had to draw Captain Leatherwing, the privateer who his a life-long fight against the terrible Buccanner known as the Laughing Man. I must admit that what I enjoy more about this Batman’s version is his crew at the Flying Fox… but he alone is worth the price of admission.
Diana Prince. Justice Riders
The sheriff of the quiet town of Paradise, there’s nothing much known about Diana Prince or her origins. Just that she is super strong, super fast, and that she will not let anyone who has hurt her town go free. She is sort of the leader of the Justice Riders, and MAN, I miss her.
Jokester is one of the very, very few heroic Jokers out in the Multiverse. He’s the main enemy of the villain Owlman (Batman of Earth-3) and dedicates his life to show how ridiculous crimedoers in costumes are. I find Jokester an amazing character, a great study of the “one bad day” theory, as Jackie had not one, but THREE really bad days at Owlman’s hand, and yes, he’s insane, but he channeled his madness in a better way (He’s also married to Three Face, Evelin Dent, and at some point had a romance with his manager Harley Quinn after Evelin became Three Face, AND loves his daughter Duela so… yeah, Jokester is a cinnamon roll and DC made a big mistake killing him. I need a Batman/Jokester team up)
Barbara Gourdon. DC Bombshells.
In a world without male heroes and set in World War II, Barbara Gourdon was a pilot during World War I until her beloved Luc Fuchs was lost in action. Then she traveled to the Bog in Louisiana, to find a way to save him and… well, she got turned into a vampire.
What is great about her is that even as a vampire and thinking of herself as a monster, she formed a Coven with Killer Croc, Enchantress and Ravager, kicked the Joker’s ass when he came looking for supernatural powers, and then joined the Bombshell’s Suicide Squad. Something as silly as not being able to walk on the day was not going to stop Barbara.
Holly Quinn. The Harlequin. Batman ’66
Holly Quinn is my second favorite alternate of Harley Quinn. Yes, she’s still a villain which make her quite different from all the other Harleys, but she’s one of the very, very few whose origin is not “Joker gaslighted her into loving him, abused her as his partner, made her completely miserable and made her go insane”. Yes, the Joker is to blame for Holly going crazy, but it wasn’t due to any fake romanticism, nor torture. Just a good old sixties machine to make you go insane, and Holly actually volunteered to stop the machine to save Gotham. I just wish she appeared more in the comics.
Kon. Earth 395
There’s very little info about Kon from Earth 395. Like, next to nothing as he had about 7 lines in the Hypertension story line back in the old Superboy comic before things got weird with the crisis. Still, I adored his look, and would’ve killed for a comic with him given how Kal from Earth 395 was more or less King Arthur merged with Superman, and thus, with Kon as his apprentice, his story could be very interesting.