One Last Chapter, One Last Time

One last chapter, one last time... before 'Elsewhere' is relegated to the abyssal back pages of Batman FanFic... to join countless other of its companions living in archival obscurity. No story is meant to go on forever.

For those of you who have actually read the entire story and made it here, from the bottom of my artistic soul, I thank you... I really do. And I hoped you enjoyed it. It was fun playing in the big DC sandbox with some of the comic book characters I've enjoyed reading over my literary lifetime.

'Elsewhere' became one of those wild house parties that just got out of hand. The kind of party you drew up a guest list for, fully intending to keep it small, but it still got crashed anyways. People you hadn't invited just kept showing up all damned night…

But they were really cool people that maybe you should have invited. So you figured what the Heck, what's one more?… Somewhere along the way, things got a little out of hand, but everyone still seemed to be having fun and getting along anyways.

And then there was that one nerdy kid who just kept chugging energy drinks in the corner all night… still wide awake when everyone else was tired and ready to go home.

That kid took over Wayne Industries and became the Epilogue.

Originally, I had planned on keeping 'Elsewhere' at 100,000 words, which is quite lengthy as FanFics go. Three hundred and thirty thousand words never even crossed my mind as something even remotely possible.

Personally, I blame the villains.

You see, my favorite part of this story was - and always will be - the villains.

The re-imagining of Trigon as a New God was the masterstroke. That made it all possible. Because it meant that I had Darkseid… And you have no idea how happy that little revelation made me.

While Trigon is fun to write, Darkseid is… both fascinating and truly frightening. When writing Darkseid, you have to be on a whole other scale of what's possible.

Darkseid's scheme to exploit the Guardians while he secretly constructed his one million Manhunter army on Apokolips… that was pure Darkseid. The entire Green Lantern Corps was nothing more than Darkseid's predictable patsies. Since the emerald dawn of their creation, their doom was preordained. The dark day would come when they would either serve Darkseid… or die.

And they themselves had enabled the Great Tyrant to bring about their horrid Fate. They designed the original Manhunters, harnessed the energy that would be used to power them, and allowed Darkseid to operate unobserved.

That, my friends, is classic Darkseid.

Sigh.

Black Adam was a different sort of nasty. I portrayed him as a chauvinistic egotist; a Champion blinded by his own immeasurable power. But the tale of Teth-Adam was one of redemption; at the time of the Earth's darkest hour, it would be this fallen Champion who would redeem himself by selecting his replacement to save our world.

Thankfully, Bruce Wayne was able to point him in the right direction!

And quite frankly, I'd pay good money to see my Raven as the Champion of Magic in a comic book. Really good money! I had no trouble at all envisioning this amazing woman standing toe-to-toe against Darkseid, draped in fluttering white and gold, reducing his one million Manhunter army to scrap metal in an instant.

Sigh.

Ra's al Ghul was a lot of fun for me as well. I quite enjoyed portraying this evil man as the misanthropic Champion of the Green. His ability to possess other people's bodies and murder their souls made him incredibly chilling. Like Darkseid, Ra's was a calculating villain prepared to go to any extreme to achieve his goal end, a brutal traitor to his own kind.

Brainiac was just a way to show what Raven is truly capable of in her role as Champion. Besides Brainiac, who really needed astatine-219 anyways?

Speaking of the Champion of Magic, a part of me feels guilty for categorizing this monstrous epic under the 'Batman' section of FanFic. I'm not sure why I should feel this way… After all, Bruce Wayne is one of my central characters, even if he's not Batman in this particular story.

Besides Bruce, there's also Alfred Pennyworth, Barbara Gordon, Richard Grayson (who does become Batman), Tim Drake, James Gordon and Ra's al Ghul. These are undeniably iconic Batman characters.

Heck, even the Riddler made a brief appearance.

But then there's Raven… Glorious, wonderful Raven.

If there were a 'Raven' category in FanFic, I admit, I would have been sorely tempted. But there's not. More for shame…

Truly, I never imagined that the words 'Raven Wayne' would seem so natural to me, that she would grow into such an amazing and heroic character who just happened to be married to Bruce Wayne. She was the character who underwent the greatest transformation throughout the story.

If I had to do it over again, there's a few things I would have changed.

Bruce Wayne would be younger. Thomas and Martha Wayne would have adopted the suddenly-orphaned Richard Grayson – a year before their own untimely deaths - making Bruce and Richard 'brothers'.

Alfred would then become their legal guardian.

There would be no Engine of Destruction and I wouldn't kill off all federal politicians. Although… I still think that was a pretty damned ingenious way for the League to put their own President in power. Convert one and then just eliminate the rest. Sounds exactly like something Ra's al Ghul would do.

I would have Bruce and Barbara in University. Richard would be in the Air Force and Clark would be more like Superboy than Superman. I would ramp up the tension with Dick and Bruce regarding Bruce's strange relationship with Raven.

Would have. Should have. Could have.

But I am content.

'Elsewhere' may not be perfect, but it is complete. It ended well. Our heroes live on, our villains are conquered, and everyone has found true love.

In its totality, 'Elsewhere' is a monstrous amount of words bursting at the seems with familiar characters deconstructed in new and imaginative ways. A place where the entire Universe was saved not once, not twice, but three times! (Trigon, Darkseid and Brainiac)

It had romance, adventure, clever plots and moments where you probably thought 'I can't believe he just did that!' I've made my apologies to Richard Grayson and Lois Lane already. That's the fun of FanFic though, there's no Editorial Director to tell you that you can't do something. No share holders to answer to.

No need to worry about continuity or canon - total artistic freedom.

It was fun for me.

And I hope it was fun for you.