Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Superman Elseworlds

Elseworlds: Superman Vol. 1

Rate this book
Clark Kent's parents are brutally murdered, causing a young boy to grow up to become...Batman? Superman as a grizzled loner trying to save the world from destruction? The Man of Steel as a medieval knight? In Elseworlds, anything is possible.

These reimagined alternate histories of the Man of Steel are all now here in one collection for the first time ever in SUPERMAN: ELSEWORLDS VOL. 1. Included are many tales either never before included in graphic novel form or long out of print, including SUPERMAN: SPEEDING BULLETS, SUPERMAN: KAL, SUPERMAN: DISTANT FIRES, SUPERMAN: A NATION DIVIDED, SUPERMAN, INC. and SUPERMAN: WAR OF THE WORLDS.

368 pages, Paperback

First published February 13, 2018

11 people are currently reading
171 people want to read

About the author

J.M. DeMatteis

1,906 books230 followers
Also Credited As:
DeMatteis, John Marc
Ellis, Michael
Lombego, Wally

Bio:
J.M. DeMatteis was a professional musician/singer and rock music journalist before entering comics in the late 70's.

Credits include Spider-Man, Moonshadow, Brooklyn Dreams, Justice League, Abadazad, Hero Squared, the Life and Times of Savior 28.

Created I, Vampire , Creature Commandos, Moonshadow, Hero Squared (co-creator), Abadazad, Stardust Kid, Savior 28 and more.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
53 (24%)
4 stars
77 (35%)
3 stars
71 (33%)
2 stars
13 (6%)
1 star
0 (0%)
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
Profile Image for Chad.
10.3k reviews1,060 followers
April 22, 2024
Superman: Speeding Bullets by J.M. DeMatteis & Eduardo Barreto

It was a given we'd see this mashup once the Elseworlds series got rolling. What if Kal-El's ship crashed at Wayne Manor instead of a Kansas farm? The premise starts off strong. Kal-El has been raised as Bruce Wayne, his parents die and Bruce isn't aware of his powers until a break-in occurs at Wayne Manor and Alfred is threatened. Once he finds out his heritage, he creates the Batman suit and starts melting criminals faces off! Batman was way too brutal for my taste. Lex Luthor comes to town and falls into the vat the Joker was meant to. Up to that point, the story was pretty good, but then for some reason, DeMatteis decides to incorporate the entire Superman cast and backstory and things start feeling really contrived. Bruce buys the Gotham Gazette and hires Perry White and Lois Lane to run it. And after one conversation from Lois, Bruce becomes Superman instead. The shift to nonsense in the book was quite noticeable and once the book is skidding out of control, DeMatteis hits the gas instead of pumping the brakes. Still, I really enjoy the Elseworlds concept and think they are all worth a read. Longtime Superman artist Eduardo Barreto provides the art.


Superman: Kal by Dave Gibbons & José Luis García-López

A What if? Superman's ship crashed in medieval Europe instead of a Kansas farm. Your standard middle ages tale of a hero rising up to dethrone the local tyrant. Well told, with great art by one of the premier Superman artists of the 70's and 80's, José Luis García-López.

The Superman mythos lends itself to the Elseworlds concept so well. All that needs to happen is that Baby Kal's spaceship crash lands in a different time or place.


Superman: Distant Fires by Howard Chaykin, Gil Kane, & Kevin Nowlan

An inadvertent nuclear war destroys most of humanity and strips away the powers of all meta-humans. Now Superman is all alone except for mutants and giant mutant rats and the like. Eventually he comes across a community of the remaining meta-humans and they rebuild society. However, some of the former heroes aren't happy with how things are going and venture off on their own setting up a final conflict. I like how the ending bookmarked nicely with Superman's origins. Gil Kane's art has never looked better than with Kevin Nowlan's inks.


Superman: A Nation Divided by Roger Stern & Eduardo Barreto

What if Superman had fought in the Civil War? Atticus Kent joins the Union army and discovers his powers when he goes into battle. It's an interesting premise on how it would have shortened the war and changed America. The end was very dumb where he becomes the Lone Ranger with a silver horse he made from his spaceship.


Superman Inc. by Steve Vance & José Luis García-López

An Elseworlds story that begins with a small tweak to Superman's origin. Kal-El crash lands the next field over and is raised as an orphan. What will he grow up to be without the Kent's love and guidance? In this case, it's a self-centered sports star who becomes his own brand like Michael Jordan. Eventually things head back in a more Superman like course.


Superman: War of the Worlds by Roy Thomas & Michael Lark

The Golden Age Superman fights the aliens from War of the Worlds. The Superman of that era was much less powerful making this a more even fight. Explores the xenophobia of the era. Michael Lark's art reminded me of Fleisher's Superman.
Profile Image for Little Timmy.
7,386 reviews59 followers
April 8, 2020
I love Elseworlds stories and this volume has some of my favorite Superman ones. 4 of the 6 stories collected are some of the best versions of Superman I have read. Very nice art overall. Recommended
173 reviews3 followers
July 15, 2018
Like all anthologies this is a curate's egg.

Some of these stories are genius. Clark Kent as Batman is a dark, gripping and brilliant story that works on every level Superman War of the Worlds is not as objectively good as that, but it earns credit for it's reinvention of H.G Wells both the story and his glorious prologue. it also works by setting it in 1938 and drawing Superman in the style of Siegel and Schuster. I would argue these are the best two stories here.

The Civil War story and medieval Superman have entertaining aspects but lack something compared to the above listed ones. Even if the artwork is impressive on both occasions. I would argue the weakest story is the Dale Suderman story which reinvents him as a super successful jerk who has used his abilities to become a sports superstar and billionaire totally devoid of everything that makes him Superman but fails to provide a "proper" pay off for his conversion in my eyes.
Profile Image for Julio Bonilla.
Author 12 books39 followers
February 26, 2021
You’re not human!



People have always needed Superman, regardless if he’s from another planet. In this book, he’s featured in different scenarios, starting with Superman: Speeding Bullets...

Profile Image for Michael.
3,383 reviews
May 17, 2018
The overall gist of each story seems to be "Baby Kal-El's rocket is found by ???, and Lois Lane and Lex Luthor seem to inevitably show up in some incarnation."

Speeding Bullets is a standout, with baby Kal-El found by the Waynes of Gotham City and, at the tender age of nine, witnessing his parents' murder. Eduardo Barreto's a terrific artist, capturing the moodiness of Gotham nicely. DeMatteis overreaches with the Luthor/Joker connection, but otherwise delivers a stirring script that contrasts the darkness and intimidation of Batman (manifested through the tragedy of the Waynes' murder) against the hope and optimism of Superman (manifested in the arrival of Superman's true love, Lois Lane, now reporting in Gotham following Luthor's takeover of the Daily Planet). The result is very effective and uplifting, despite the script being a bit camp at times. 4/5 stars.

Kal, by Dave Gibbons and beautifully drawn by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, isn't quite as good, but is passable entertainment. Young Kal's rocket crashes in medieval England, where he is again a farmer's son and later a blacksmith. He meets and falls in love with the Lady Loisse and clashes with the evil Baron Luthor. The newness and twist is that while Speeding Bullets ended with the hope of Superman's presence, Kal goes darker, steering into Arthurian tragedy. But building on the Arthurian themes, a promise of future heroism endures, as Kal leaves his sword embedded in stone for a future hero. 3/5 stars

Distant Fires is a Kingdom Come riff. Dispensing with "Baby Kal-El's rockets lands [insert random place here]," Howard Chaykin instead focuses on the end of Superman's time. After a nuclear holocaust wipes out most life on Earth, Clark discovers the surviving populace is largely comprised of fellow super-beings, all of whom have lost their extraordinary abilities to the radioactive fallout. As their power begin to slowly return, a schism in their ranks tears into the planet, leaving a poetic finale as the father becomes the son. Gil Kane has never looked better than he does here, with Kevin Nowlan finishing his pages. 3/5 stars

A Nation Divided brings Barreto back on artwork but doesn't have much else to recommend about it. Baby Kal still arrives in Kansas, but in the 1840s. He helps win the Civil War in speedy fashion (with an elementary school history lesson overview of a few major battles) and prevents President Lincoln's assassination. There's little personal turmoil or personal growth in the story, which ends with young Atticus Kent discovering his alien origins and setting off for the western frontier. 2/5 stars

Superman Inc. is another strong art showing, with Garcia-Lopez penciling again. The story is lukewarm, with baby Kal adopted by a loving couple who die young, leaving him in foster care most of his adolescence. Consequently, he'd kind, but shallow and uses his abilities to become a sports star and celebrity. And Lois is there and Lex is there, and he grows a bit. It's nothing you can't really guess from page one. 2/5 stars

War of the Worlds showcases Michael Lark's beautiful artwork. One thing, you can't really fault the art in any of these stories. Roy Thomas's script brings together two of 1938's biggest pop culture moments - the debut of Superman and the radio broadcast of Orsen Welles' War of the Worlds, with 1938-power-level Superman against the invading Martian ships. There's a nice theme of how we see aliens in our midst, both the good and the evil. The story is a solid and enjoyable ride, although I have a hard time accepting that we're supposed to accept Luthor as one of Earth's heroes in the end. He flip-flopped sides with too much ease to buy into the idea that he's a model of altruism going forward. 3/5 stars
168 reviews9 followers
June 11, 2023
I’m reading through all the Elseworlds comics in my library’s ebook collection; I think that writing these would be a perfect job for me. Take a bunch of characters and put them in ridiculous situations! Anyway, here are my thoughts about the stories in Elseworlds: Superman, Volume 1.

Speeding Bullets: This one was possibly my favorite- Kal-El’s spaceship landed just outside of Gotham, where he was adopted (and named Bruce) by Thomas and Martha Wayne. Unfortunately, his powers only fully manifest when he sees them gunned down, leaving him with the additional guilt of having fried Joe Chill to a crisp with his heat vision. He grows up to become a dark and angry Batman, until Lois Lane convinces him that people will be better helped with hope than with fear. Lex Luthor as the Joker was the weakest part of this to me- he should have been the Penguin.

Kal: The plot here is pretty simple- the spaceship lands in the middle ages, and Superman ends up playing out a Braveheart plot against Baron Luthor to avenge Lady Loisse. I feel like they could have done a lot more interesting things with this, like Kal having people think he was a saint or something, but it’s okay. There is a twist at the end about the origins of Excalibur that I am willing to incorporate into my personal Arthurian canon!

Distant Fires: Post-apocalyptic Superman. I really did not like this one. I’m not opposed to Clark/Diana on principle or anything, but I wasn’t convinced by them just automatically hooking up as survivors, nor of her being the love interest/damsel in distress to be fought over by Superman and a bitter jealous Captain Marvel. I don’t know much about Captain Marvel beyond the dork in the Rifftrax shorts, but that seemed very arbitrary! Also, the radiation that took away Superman’s powers made the Joker sane and good. Even by the standards of comics, bullshit.

A Nation Divided: My other favorite, where Superman grows up in the 1800s as Atticus Kent, joins the Union Army, and kicks some rebel ass. Lincoln gets a letter that some Kansas soldier caught a cannon ball in the stomach, got up fine, and hurled it back at the other side, and asks “Is Grant drinking again?” I thought it made sense that while, as a soldier, he was willing to kill, he wanted to minimize death if he possibly could, and just picking up Jefferson Davis and flying him over to Lincoln to surrender was a good way to do that. A nice Golden Age-style fun time.

Superman, Inc: As a little orphan boy, Superman goes through the foster system and juvie and finds purpose in his life when he discovers how good he is at basketball, so he becomes a celebrity with a franchise. But when he clashes with Lex Luthor’s media empire, will this lead him to face some truths about himself and use his skills for a higher cause? Not the best, not the worst, but the ending was very nice.

War of the Worlds: Clark Kent arrives in Metropolis and gets a reporter job just as the Martian tripods attack! I always like when superhero stories are set in the 30s and 40s, so we were off to a good start there, and Superman picking up and throwing around Martian equipment was endearingly pulpy. I didn’t care for the resolution as much as the setup, but Lex Luthor’s constantly shifting alliances depending on whether humanity or the Martians were offering him the better deal at the moment was a highlight. Now, if they’d continued the story into “Edison’s Conquest of Mars”...
Profile Image for Daniel.
164 reviews15 followers
June 29, 2019
If I see guys like DeMatteis, Gibbons, Roy Thomas, Chaykin in the cover of a graphic novel that depicts alternative realities whose main character is Superman I think I would buy without even bothering to preview. In fact, I did this and was mildly disappointed not because of the art which is top notch, but the stories have interesting premises that are not well developed: Superman raised by the Waynes, or Superman raised in the pre-Arthurian times, or a post-apocalyptic Justice League story. These are just ok stories which have great writing and art but fail to tell a good story. The last two stories, however, are pretty good: Superman becomes a sports superstar unconscious of his powers and the absolute masterpiece written magnificently by Roy Thomas, which is a retelling the War Of The Worlds story whose golden age inspired artwork has astonished me. I think this is the only 5/5 story in here and made it worth half the price.
Profile Image for Louis Skye.
652 reviews8 followers
February 12, 2019
Was excited for this as I liked the Batman Elseworlds stories but this wasn't nearly as good. The Superman stories can't seem to escape his origins nor do they try to reimagine his life.

The main issue I had with this collection was how dated the writing was. So verbose and heavy-handed.

I did like the story of Superman landing in Gotham instead; imaginative and interesting.

I also liked the apocalyptic story because of all the characters; and it had a good ending.

Superman Inc was decent in parts but I didn't like the overall tone, and the messaging was muddled.

Kinda disappointing read but I'm still glad I read it.
226 reviews2 followers
November 29, 2018
I love these alternate super hero tales, and especially the Superman ones. Like what if Kal-El landed in Gotham? Or in Abe Lincoln's time? Or fought in the War of the worlds? Beloved character in a hugely different setting. I have the individual issues of each of these stories stored away, but wanted to reread them so picked this up. I'm sure there will be other volumes, and I know Batman has some too. People who like this should also find Superman Red Son-where Kal-El lands in Russia!
Profile Image for Macky Santiago.
Author 3 books66 followers
August 23, 2019
Speeding Bullets is still the best of this series (where the Wayne’s in Gotham actually adopt baby Kal El). Medieval Clark, dystopian post cataclysm clark, American Civil War Clark, sports star clark, and war of the worlds clark were not the greatest reads to me personally for many reasons but i find no reason others who love the genres of these elseworlds wouldn’t enjoy them... provided they also love Superman. Lol
Profile Image for Sean.
4,151 reviews25 followers
June 2, 2020
The idea of Elseworlds stories is good but just throwing Superman into a different time period is not ideal story telling. This collects 6 different stories and they are all subpar. There is some good art here but these stories are mostly terrible especially Howard Chaykin's insane book. Overall, this is probably only for completists.
Profile Image for C..
295 reviews7 followers
November 9, 2025
A messy collection, but ultimately a rewarding one as a Superman fan. Some of the stories are good, some don't up to their concepts, one is out abd out awful and some are better than they have any right to be.
Profile Image for Benjamin Wallin.
112 reviews2 followers
November 30, 2025
The issues range in quality, but the one where Superman is a capitalist who uses his powers to become a top tier athlete is fantastic. The mythic Aurthurian one tickles all my fantasy loves: revenge, forged swords, evil lords, etc. The other issues are fine.
Profile Image for gin.
275 reviews
April 27, 2018
this was so bad i literally only liked the first story
Profile Image for Stephen Theaker.
Author 92 books63 followers
May 31, 2018
There was a lot I liked in this, but also 100% more of Superman’s wives being beaten to death than I want to see in a Superman book.
3 reviews
September 28, 2023
Some really good stories here(I fucking love a nation divided) and then there’s distant fires, one of the worst stories ever told.
Profile Image for Soos.
33 reviews
May 22, 2024
Only the first chapter alone, "Speeding Bullets" is worth reading. The rest barely interests me.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.