Batman: Gotham By Gaslight

Author: Brian Augustyn

Ah, steampunk. The genre itself was only cooling on the windowsill when Mark Millar and Brian Augustyn basically created the Elseworlds concept, taking Batman to a Victorian-era Gotham where a mad man is on the loose. It's basically the Jack the Ripper story, only transported to the DC Universe as it might have been told in the page of Punch magazine. The storytelling here is phenomenal. The Batman character is so flexible that it easily fits in with any time period, and the idea of a costumed hero in the time of Queen Victoria actually fits so perfectly. The story is dark, and by the end or it, you're realizing that this is the start of something much bigger; an entire concept was born in those first pages. DC jumped on Elseworlds, taking established characters and putting them in new scenarios, usually for a one-shot, but sometimes for miniseries as well. Batman, even moreso than Superman, has been turned into some of the most amazing scenarios in these comics, though none of them approach the level of Gotham by Gaslight. In fact, very few comics approach it period. Why it tops the list:Hugely influential, brilliantly written, gorgeously drawn, and masterfully realized, it is a rare comics masterpiece.