Is the term "Elseworld" specific to DC?

Hi guys :)

Is the term "Elseworld story" specific to DC comics, or did other publishers used the term also?

Wiki

Elseworlds was the publication imprint for American comic books produced by DC Comics for stories that took place outside the DC Universe canon.[1] The "Elseworlds" name was trademarked in 1989, the same year as the first Elseworlds publication.[1]

It is DC specific, yeah. The Marvel equivalent is probably [I]"What If...?"[/I]

It's a D.C. brand and I guess that stops anyone else from using it in that way. But I'm all for people having the right to use words however they want. So if you want to call a Marvel story an elseworld, you should have that right. Just like I should get to call a D.C. story a what-if.

In my mind, though, the classic Imaginary Story, What-If and Elseworld are distinctly different versions of the same speculative concept.

The What-If from Marvel in the 1970s and 1980s depended on their very clear continuity. You had to know Marvel's continuity back then, to fully appreciate the What-If. They would take a specific story from the Marvel canon and then say what if this critical moment played out differently. "What If Sub-Mariner Had Married the Invisible Girl?" "What If Spider-Man's Uncle Ben Had Lived?" Those stories rewarded the Marvel faithful for following the continuity and knowing what had happened and what didn't.

The Superman Imaginary Story also depended on the reader knowing Superman continuity, but it didn't play with specific stories. It played with the broader continuity. "Imagine that Kal-El never got his powers and grew up to be Batman." "Imagine that Brainiac shrank Kryptonopolis rather than Kandor City." You didn't have to have as much knowledge of Superman continuity, but understanding the mainstream version of Superman and his family helped to understand why the Imaginary Story was a novel version of that. Understanding what was wrong with the Imaginary Story reenforced what was right with the regular Superman stories.

For the classic Elseworld stories, you didn't need any knowledge of D.C. canon, and they often took place in another period than the current D.C. titles of the 1990s. "In the Victorian Age, a Batman hunts Jack the Ripper." "In 1938, Superman is swept up in the events of WAR OF THE WORLDS." "In the Old West, Diana gathers a posse of Justice Riders in league to right some wrongs of America." Not needing to know what was in continuity or out of continuity, seemed to be the thing. You could come into an Elseworld with no understanding or appreciation of D.C. canon and you would never have to bother with whatever the D.C. Universe happened to be that month.

[QUOTE=Digifiend;4988038]It is DC specific, yeah. The Marvel equivalent is probably [I]"What If...?"[/I][/QUOTE]

IMO, "What If...?" is fundamentally different than Elseworlds in that WI? is retellings of established Marvel continuity outcomes, where Elseworlds are deliberate reimaginings of DC characters and situations. Marvel has played with some of that ([I]Marvel 1602[/I] being a prominent example), but never did a specific line branding for it AFAIK.