Superman: Our Worlds at War, Vol. 1

Our Worlds at War #1

by Jeph Loeb, Joe Casey, Mark Schultz

As Imperiex heads towards Earth, leaving a swath of destruction behind him, Superman and his allies--both hero and villain--fight to protect the universe from Imperiex's ruthless dominion.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Superman, Dc Comics, Superheroes

264 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 2002

About the author

Joseph "Jeph" Loeb III is an Emmy and WGA nominated American film and television writer, producer and award-winning comic book writer. Loeb was a Co-Executive Producer on the NBC hit show Heroes, and formerly a producer/writer on the TV series Smallville and Lost.

A four-time Eisner Award winner and five-time Wizard Fan Awards winner (see below), Loeb's comic book career includes work on many major characters, including Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, Hulk, Captain America, Cable, Iron Man, Daredevil, Supergirl, the Avengers, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, much of which he has produced in collaboration with artist Tim Sale, who provides the comic art seen on Heroes.

Reviews

[Andy Dainty · Rating 1 out of 5]

The most interesting part of this book was the use of historic speeches as narrative. The speeches used were Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and Roosevelt's Pearl Harbour Speech. I had read neither of these before, but new some famous quotes from them. It was interesting to read them in their entirety alongside the Superman space war. I feel that the Gettysburg Address worked much better, with the text tying in to the panels of this issue. The Pearl Harbour speech just set the tone of the issue it was in, but didn't seem to tie in with the individual panels. However the next issue completely undermined everything; obviously there were no more appropriate speeches available so instead The Black Racers Death Song is created to narrate the issue, a pretentious verse that is ridiculously verbose; presumably to try and fit it in with the preceding two historic speeches, but instead it just increases the gulf between them!
In the rest of the plot, Superman and friends are kept busy, whilst superheroes I have seen die before die again, so there is no impact or feeling associated, these JLA members may as well be wearing a red Star Trek shirt.

[John Yelverton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A big epic book that sucks the entire DC Universe into an epic battle not seen since the "Crisis on Infinite Earths".

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Imperiex and his many drones have attacked Earth and its a big deal. At least, DC wants you to believe its a big deal. He's a very blatant Galactus rip off and his presence seems odd because someone should have been aware of him already (GL Corps?). However, all that being said, stuff does hit the fan. There are consequences here and the biggest thing to me is that Clark seems totally overwhelmed, more emotionally than physically. That was the biggest shock to me. I love Luthor's machinations still ongoing in the middle of a global catastrophe. The art is very good in this book (I forgot how much I enjoyed Kano). Overall, there is a lot to like here but there is also way too much going on.

[James Garman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok, I will confess, I read about 215 pages of the 250-page graphic novel. The reason I read that much was that I hate to quit once I start and two, I had nothing else at hand to read.

I got it from a "roadside free library" here in the city where I live and was attracted because I remember reading and enjoying Superman comics growing up. Well, this was bizarre as far as I am concerned. It seemed to mention every way we have ever had a country and then gave us one more war, which was with out-of-space creatures.

The colors were vivid, and the costumes were full on, but it just wasn't my thing. After reading 90 percent, I decided those last 20 pages weren't worth the frustration.

[Taryn Robinson-Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can’t say anything without spoiling but a little bit of me is confused and a little bit of me is scared

[Alan Chen · Rating 2 out of 5]

(This review applies to both Volume 1 & 2 of the story. It does not apply to the collected Omnibus).

Ever since I first heard of the concept, I had been eager to experience the magesty of "Our Worlds at War." I once got my hands on the Omnibus in a Borders, paged through it feverishly, and walked away deeply confused. This couldn't be what I had been anticipating, could it? A deeper review later, and it turns out I was right.

You'd think that a comic book that features a team-up between the Justice League, Luthor, Darkseid, and basically everyone else in the DC Universe (plus the United States military!) teaming up to fight a single foe would be epic and incredible. After all, when you have Superman teaming up with the being that nearly killed him to fight an even bigger threat, it's easy to believe that this story is one for the ages. Instead, this collected edition is a fragmented, jarring, discontinuous mess that too often wanders into unrelated plot-lines and sub-plots. The most egregious of these, of course, is the random Young Justice storyline about the band stranded on a planet where they have almost no bearing on the plot. Furthermore, in a story that ostensibly involves practically the entire Justice League, only Superman and Wonder Woman get any significant page time worth mentioning - I think Batman shows up for a total of 5 pages. What a waste.

To be honest, I only read through the book rapidly in the library instead of checking it out to go over it in detail, but what I saw was enough. The main storyline certainly has stretches of coherence and even occasional greatness, but whatever momentum it tries to build is usually blunted by a blunt change in art style or a focus on random secondary characters for no apparent purpose. Perhaps there are even more tie-in issues out there not included in this collected edition that would help make sense of the cacophony, but as it stands I can't even be bothered to apply my usual review style.

I'll give the series 2 stars. I'd give it 3 just for some of the more special moments that it has, but even the execution of those moments is so bungled that the whole experience is marred. Additionally, hopefully rating it a 2 will hopefully dissuade people from reading this, or at least keep them from reading this before reading some of the other, more vital tales in the DC Universe.

[Trekscribbler · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the staples to Supes personal history is the fact that he's held to standards that other superheroes might not be able to match ... until now. Reading Superman say the words, "I'm going to kill him," is perhaps the most startling revelation in the two-parter trade paperback OUR WORLDS AT WAR. Despite some negative reaction from a large part of the Super-fan base, OWAW is a good read but far from great. It presents a Superman that readers largely haven't seen before, one driven by a passionate instinct for revenge. While the books do possess some continuity issues, there are parts of the story important to our time: acts of terrorism, good surrendering to evil, the loss of life in times of war, etc. However, these two books do suffer from one crucial shortcoming that appears to be a growing trend in crossover / trade paperbacks, and that's the fact that the reader might be told of pivotal events several times from differing perspectives ... once from the Superman installment, once from the Young Justice installment, and once from a Wonder Woman installment. Whereas the end result should be interesting, it's far more confusing here, as some events toward the climax are reviewed slightly out-of-sequence. That said, a Darkseid story is always welcome at my house, and I enjoyed the pure escapism of a reasonably entertaining Superman story for what it was worth.
Would I recommend purchase? Erg. These two books are rather pricey for a story that isn't as tightly woven as it could've been. I would have rather seen the publishers create one volume, with a reasonable price, than two with a slightly higher than necessary pricetag. Damn capitalism. Damn commercialism. If you can get your hands on copies to borrow, I'd take that route first.

[Angel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised that both parts of this series were available in my public library. I was able to read these back to back.

See my note on it over in my blog:
[http://gypsylibrarian.blogspot.com/20...]

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty fantastic. Love the artwork and the fragmented storyline. It made it hard to follow at times, but at the end of this edition you feel you accomplished something and await book 2's challenge. Loved the play with the boards, fragmented still but flowing none the less.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Joe Kelly and Jeph Loeb, and I love the artwork. This was a pretty cool entertaining space epic that has a lot of returns of older characters and some new.

This was a very good opening to the Our World at War saga.

[Monkey of Doom · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too confusing. Way too many people died without explanation. Maybe it's because I'm not a big Superman fan, and ergo, haven't read much of his stuff.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I also read several issues not contained in the paperback, including the lead up Y2K story.

[H. Givens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hard to decipher, bad art, sad ending, tired of big crossovers.

[Jdetrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a huge crossover, this is actually not bad, but it unfortunately is rather disjointed and confusing. It doesn't flow very well as a story.