gothicteletubby's review
3.0
Most of these stories are actually batshit, weird, and make no sense it's hilarious. The best story here, by far, is Holy Terror, Batman as a Catholic Priest fighting an evangelical, puritan society who killed his parents is wild, and so funny yet had such heart.
The other stories were mostly fine. The Blue, The Grey, And The Bat was so boring and the story didn't make a lick of sense. Robin 3000 wasn't even a stand alone story, the art is amazing but I had such a hard time caring because "Robin" wasn't even a real Robin, just a random character with the title of Robin. Batman/Dark Joker was one of the better stories, very weird and medieval. Batman/Houdini was also fine, I liked the art but some panels were so confusing and I didn't understand what was going on, and some of the characters were so similar looking I didn't know who was who. Castle Of The Bat's story was okay, but I loved the idea of instead of Frankenstein being a story of a Monster being rejected by their creator and Mary Shelley dedicated the story to her father, it's about a son creating a Monster because of his love for his father. In Darkest Knight being such a wacky story about Green Lantern Bruce Wayne is hilarious, the absurdity of the characters antics to beat the other steadily increasing page after page and not knowing where the hell the story is going to go is so stupid and I'm obsessed. Dark Allegiances was so weird, I still don't know how I feel about it, Batman fighting KKK Nazis and then later having to shake hands with Hitler, then saving FDR and Hitler from an assassination attempt by the Joker, like I don't know what to say.
The other stories were mostly fine. The Blue, The Grey, And The Bat was so boring and the story didn't make a lick of sense. Robin 3000 wasn't even a stand alone story, the art is amazing but I had such a hard time caring because "Robin" wasn't even a real Robin, just a random character with the title of Robin. Batman/Dark Joker was one of the better stories, very weird and medieval. Batman/Houdini was also fine, I liked the art but some panels were so confusing and I didn't understand what was going on, and some of the characters were so similar looking I didn't know who was who. Castle Of The Bat's story was okay, but I loved the idea of instead of Frankenstein being a story of a Monster being rejected by their creator and Mary Shelley dedicated the story to her father, it's about a son creating a Monster because of his love for his father. In Darkest Knight being such a wacky story about Green Lantern Bruce Wayne is hilarious, the absurdity of the characters antics to beat the other steadily increasing page after page and not knowing where the hell the story is going to go is so stupid and I'm obsessed. Dark Allegiances was so weird, I still don't know how I feel about it, Batman fighting KKK Nazis and then later having to shake hands with Hitler, then saving FDR and Hitler from an assassination attempt by the Joker, like I don't know what to say.
drdena's review
4.0
I'm really glad DC has decided to collect these stories. I'm a big Elseworlds fan, simply because each story takes familiar characters and puts them somewhere, or somewhen, else. Good for the casual and for the hardcore reader; most of the stories are just "fun".
Some stories are hits: Darkest Knight, Dark Allegiances (poignantly self-aware, pulpy, and current), Castle of the Bat...
Others are misses: Robin 3000, Holy Terror, The Blue The Grey and The Bat..
Other lines up somewhere in the middle.
Collection as a whole: Good for one at a time reading, but I don't think I'd want to binge these.
Some stories are hits: Darkest Knight, Dark Allegiances (poignantly self-aware, pulpy, and current), Castle of the Bat...
Others are misses: Robin 3000, Holy Terror, The Blue The Grey and The Bat..
Other lines up somewhere in the middle.
Collection as a whole: Good for one at a time reading, but I don't think I'd want to binge these.
lord_petros's review
2.5
I admit, I picked this up mainly for the Green Lantern story, as the idea of Batman wielding a green ring seemed like it would work. It did, but it was one of the few stories in this collection that did. Some of the concepts were good, but the execution was off. Individual stories in this collection range from 1 to 4 stars, but as a whole, 2.5 stars is the most fair.
kaqueershi's review
2.0
I liked the stories with Houdini and the god of the wilds but the rest of this book seemed to be an excuse for folks being weirdly racist while writing historical fiction
tiedyedude's review
2.0
A huge disappointment, as it seems like they took all the terrible Elseworld stories that wouldn't sell on their own and jammed them together. Only the Houdini and Green Lantern stories even touched on the Batman mythos; the rest just happened to have a character dressed as a bat.
argaen's review
3.0
Holy terror 4/5
The blue, the grey and the bat 3/5
Robin 3000 1/5
Dark Joker 3/5
The devil's workshop 3/5
Castle of the bat 5/5
In darkest knight 3/5
Dark allegiances 2/5
The blue, the grey and the bat 3/5
Robin 3000 1/5
Dark Joker 3/5
The devil's workshop 3/5
Castle of the bat 5/5
In darkest knight 3/5
Dark allegiances 2/5
tiedyedude's review against another edition
2.0
A huge disappointment, as it seems like they took all the terrible Elseworld stories that wouldn't sell on their own and jammed them together. Only the Houdini and Green Lantern stories even touched on the Batman mythos; the rest just happened to have a character dressed as a bat.
booknooknoggin's review against another edition
1.0
This was uber bad and extremely tasteless. The only one that was mildly entertaining was the Houdini one. Don't waste your time picking this up.
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