Chris Weston's Rejected Elseworlds Batman Comic Set in WWI/Great War, feat. French Two-Face

From the blog of Chris Weston: They were the accompanying art to my pitch for an Elseworld's Batman-Enemy Ace team up, "Batman: Aces High, Jokers Wild", set during the Great War. It features Bruce Wayne as volunteer a pilot in Lescadrille Lafayette, swearing vengeance on the Hun after his parents went down with the Lusitania. The Joker's in there too as a German pilot known as the "Killer Clown", his face twisted by hideous duelling scars... and of course his squadron is nick-named "The Flying Circus" and are decked out in garish colours. Two Face is a French pilot horrifically burnt in a crash. And chucked into the mix is Enemy Ace, who becomes increasingly uncomfortable during the course of the book with "The Killer Clown's" un-chivalrous conduct in the air, and, more disturbingly, his torture of captured airmen.

Sequences included The Joker's use of deadly "Smilex" gas in the trenches, which causes the allies to literally die laughing; the introduction of the Bat-tank; Wayne converting a disused, bat-filled chateau behind enemy lines into a secret hangar, complete with his "batman" Alfred serving as engineer and medic... and a Golden Age Flash cameo as a particularily speedy dispatch rider.

I thought it was a great idea. DC didn't agree.

Why does DC hate greatness? Really, I just miss Elseworlds anyway, but I'm especially sad that this one was never made. Maybe someday we'll see this made alongside Patton Oswalt's rejected proposal for a "Dirty Dozen with the Arkham Inmates" story.

For now, this just makes me want to reread George Pratt's Enemy Ace: War Idyll. Why that comic isn't considered a masterpiece is beyond me.