It's the DC Universe vs Galactus! That's the elevator pitch for Our Worlds At War, but it's really so much more than that. Spinning out of the vastly underrated few years where the Superman titles were under the stewardship of Joe Kelly, pre-lunacy Jeph Loeb and Joe Casey, this intergalactic crossover was the first time in years that there felt like there were any real stakes in the lives of the Justice League (and friends). Imperiex, the villain of the piece, is pretty much just Galactus - he's come along to destroy the Earth as a starting point for wiping out the entire universe, as he sense as imperfection in it and reckons we need to start over - but unlike Galactus, he very nearly succeeded in his mission. In fact, Imperiex came so close that it required one of the most unlikely team-ups in DC history. Whilst Supes relied on his usual back up of Wonder Woman, Batman, The Flash, Green Lantern and all (who each appeared in their own Our World At War tie-in issues), the irrepressibly evil Darkseid lended a hand too. Presumably because he didn't want anybody to decimate the galaxy before he had chance to try again in Final Crisis. Whilst the "deaths" in the crossover were quickly undone, in true comic book fashion, the event did have some lasting effects in the Superman titles. Most notably Lex Luthor - who had his own reasons for helping with the battling of Imperiex, namely that his twin LexCorp towers (yep) had been destroyed, and that the destruction of Earth would be bad for business - rode the wave of public support that followed his help in defending the planet all the way to the White House, setting up an interesting new dynamic where the Man of Steel's greatest enemy was...the President.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
