Our Worlds at War

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Cover to JLA: Our Worlds at War #1. Art by Jae Lee.
Cover to JLA: Our Worlds at War #1. Art by Jae Lee.

Our Worlds at War was a comic book crossover, published by DC Comics during the summer of 2001. OWAW was written by Jeph Loeb, Joe Casey, Mark Schultz, Joe Kelly, Phil Jimenez, and Peter David. Pencillers were Mike Wieringo, Ed McGuinness, Doug Mahnke, Ron Garney, and Leonard Kirk.

Contents

[edit] Plot

The crossover, which occurred mainly through the monthly Superman titles, Wonder Woman, and a series of character themed one-shot specials, dealt with the heroes of the DC Universe facing the threat of the cosmic force known as Imperiex, who attacked Earth for the purpose of using the planet as the staging ground for the "hollowing" of the entire universe.

Thanks to the sacrifice of Strange Visitor and General Rock, Earth's forces managed to crack Imperiex's armor, intending that Darkseid would subsequently use Boom tube technology to transfer Imperiex's energy back to the galaxies that he had destroyed. However, Brainiac-13 appeared on the battleground with Warworld, and absorbed the Imperiex energies and vowing to use them to rule everything.

In a desperate gambit, Superman dived into the heart of the sun, thus gaining a massive power boost that enhanced his abilities significantly. Rapidly realizing that Warworld couldn't be destroyed without releasing Imperiex and triggering another Big Bang, Superman and the Martian Manhunter formed a brief telepathic link with the remaining major combatants — including Darkseid, Lex Luthor, Steel and Wonder Woman — to explain their new plan. With Darkseid's powers weakened, they would have to use Tempest as a magical focus for his abilities, empowered by the faith and strength of the Amazons, focusing the energy through Steel's new 'Entropy Aegis' armor (which was created from a burned-out Imperiex probe), and, with Lex Luthor activating a temporal displacement weapon, Superman would subsequently push Warworld through a temporal boom tube, sending both Imperiex Prime's and Brainiac's consciousness back 14 billion years to the Big Bang, destroying both villains through a combined effort. In his final moments, Imperiex Prime realized, in an ironic twist, that the imperfection he had detected in the universe was himself.

[edit] Life imitates art

Our Worlds At War came to a close just weeks before the attacks of September 11, 2001. In a sobering occurrence of synchronicity, Adventures of Superman #596 was released one day after the attack, featuring the image of Lex Luthor's twin LexTowers heavily damaged by alien attacks on the issue's second page. The book's writer, Joe Casey, could not have intentionally referenced the attacks on the World Trade Center, as the story was written well before September, but DC acknowledged that it mirrored the devastation so vividly that they made the books returnable without penalty to retailers.[1]

[edit] Cast of Characters

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[edit] Deaths

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[edit] Issues

The story ran through the following issues:

tradepaperback collection

  • SUPERMAN: OUR WORLDS AT WAR VOL. 1 | 256pg. | Color | Softcover | ISBN 1563899159,
  • SUPERMAN: OUR WORLDS AT WAR VOL. 2 | 247pg. | Color | Softcover | ISBN 1563899167,
  • SUPERMAN: OUR WORLDS AT WAR VOL. 2 | 247pg. | Color | Softcover | ISBN 1563899167,
  • Superman Our Worlds at War | 512pg. | Color | Softcover | ISBN 1401211291,

[edit] References

  1. ^ ICv2 News - DC Makes Adventures of Superman #596 Returnable