Our Worlds at War

"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.

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, 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, 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.

The planet Daxam was involved, temporarily stolen from its rightful orbit.

World Trade Center Attack
"Our Worlds At War" came to a close just weeks before the attacks of September 11, 2001. 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. DC acknowledged that it mirrored the devastation so vividly that they made the books returnable without penalty to retailers.

Characters

 * Superman
 * Wonder Woman (Diana Prince, Hippolyta)
 * Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner)
 * The Martian Manhunter
 * Aquaman
 * The Justice League of America
 * Young Justice
 * Superboy
 * Supergirl
 * Imperiex
 * Brainiac 13
 * Darkseid
 * Grayven
 * Doomsday
 * Lex Luthor
 * Suicide Squad
 * Manchester Black
 * Strange Visitor
 * Lois Lane
 * Lena Luthor
 * Sam Lane

Deaths

 * Steel: killed. Then returned with another suit.
 * Guy Gardner: suggested by dialogue, later proved false.
 * Hippolyta: perished while saving Greek citizens. Has since returned.
 * Aquaman: presumed dead, Atlantis missing. Has since returned.
 * Sam Lane: killed. Later turns up alive.
 * Maxima: killed.
 * Massacre: killed.
 * Ma and Pa Kent: missing, later turn up alive.
 * Strange Visitor: killed

Publications
The story ran through the following issues:


 * Action Comics #780-782
 * Adventures of Superman #593-595
 * Batman #593-594,
 * Batman: Our Worlds at War #1,
 * Flash: Our Worlds at War #1,
 * Green Lantern: Our Worlds at War #1,
 * Harley Quinn: Our Worlds at War #1,
 * Impulse #77,
 * JLA: Our Worlds at War #1,
 * JSA: Our Worlds at War #1,
 * Nightwing: Our Worlds at War #1,
 * Superboy #89-91,
 * ''Supergirl #59-61,
 * Superman #171-173,
 * Superman: Our Worlds at War Secret Files #1,
 * Superman: The Man of Steel #115-117,
 * Wonder Woman #171-173,
 * Wonder Woman: Our Worlds at War #1,
 * World's Finest Comics: Our Worlds at War #1,
 * Young Justice #35-36
 * Young Justice: Our Worlds at War #1.
 * Superman/Batman #64, #68-#71 (A brief new direction of the Superman/Batman series at the start of 2010 featured a story that took place in the aftermath of Our Worlds at War with #64 acting as a prologue and #68 through #71 being the story proper complete with the trade dress banner.)

Collected editions
The story has been collected into trade paperbacks:


 * ''SUPERMAN: OUR WORLDS AT WAR VOL. 1 | 256pg.  |  Color  |  Softcover  | ISBN 1-56389-915-9,
 * ''SUPERMAN: OUR WORLDS AT WAR VOL. 2 | 247pg.  |  Color  |  Softcover  | ISBN 1-56389-916-7,
 * SUPERMAN: OUR WORLDS AT WAR THE COMPLETE EDITION | 512pg.  |  Color  |  Softcover  | ISBN 1401211291