Our Worlds at War: All-Out War!: "Death Be Not Proud" / "A Date Which Will Live in Infamy" / "The Doomsday Protocol" / "Chest Deep in Heroes' Blood" / "Thousand Yard Stare" / "Her Mother's Daughter"
The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #594 (Sept. 2001)
Superman: Our Worlds at War (2006), reprinting Action Comics vol. 1 #781, JLA: Our Worlds at War #1, Superman vol. 2 #172, Superman: The Man of Steel #116, Wonder Woman vol. 2 #172 (Sept. 2001)
Writers: Jeph Loeb, Joe Casey, Mark Schultz, Joe Kelly, and Phil Jimenez
Pencillers: Ed McGuinness, Ron Garney, Mike Wieringo, Doug Mahnke, Kano, and Phil Jimenez
Inkers: Cam Smith, Mark Morales, Lary Stucker, Tom Nguyen, Marlo Alquiza, and Andy Lanning
Colors: Tanya & Rich Horie, Rob Schwager, and Patricia Mulvihill
Letters: Richard Starkings, Bill Oakley, and Ken Lopez
Ass't Editor: Tom Palmer, Jr.
Editor: Eddie Berganza
Imperiex arrives in the solar system in force in the middle third of Our Worlds at War, appropriately called "All-Out War!" Honestly, I found many aspects of the story confusing at first-- with a high focus on action, Superman vaults from escapade to escapade and there's not a lot of time spent explaining what's actually going on. Big events seem to happen off-page. Possibly they happen in tie-in comics not collected here, but still. (At one point, there's an alien armada coming to Earth's defense; at another, it's been destroyed.)
from Wonder Woman vol. 2 #172 (script by Phil Jimenez, art by Phil Jimenez & Andy Lanning) |
The stories here chronicle increasing desperation on the part of Earth in general and Superman in particular as Imperiex advances. Lots of big fights and big losses and big deaths: Lois's dad and Aquaman and John Henry Irons and Wonder Woman's mother all die, Atlantis is destroyed. Some are more about what happens than how or why, and those I struggled to engage with. Jeph Loeb usually uses character narration to keep things grounded, but both of his issues in this span populate their narration boxes with famous speeches that counterpoint the action: the Gettysburg Address in Superman #172 and FDR's Pearl Harbor speech in JLA:Our Worlds at War. It's not really interesting enough to have a noteworthy positive effect.
from The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #594 (script by Joe Casey, art by Mike Wieringo & Lary Stucker) |
from Action Comics vol. 1 #781 (script by Joe Kelly, art by Kano & Marlo Alquiza) |
Which is why it's kind of a bummer that Wonder Woman #172 comes next. If it had to be included, I think it would have been better placed earlier, before Action #781. As it is, the Wonder Woman issue feels like a backtrack, but moved earlier, I think the chronology of Superman's actions would be more straightforward, and we'd have a better sense of what he's actually doing in Action. The first issue of the next chapter, Casualties of War!, picks up with Superman working for Luthor, so it seems like it should go right after the cliffhanger. Anyway, the issue itself is fine, and Phil Jimenez's art is great, but it's really a Wonder Woman story, clearly tying up some big emotional threads from that series that the reader has to struggle to catch up on if they haven't been reading it already.
from Superman vol. 2 #172 (script by Jeph Loeb, art by Ed McGuinness & Cam Smith) |
It's also interesting to note that this set of issues are dated September 2001 and this story is all about how you respond to an existential violent threat without compromising your ideals, including an American president who is willing to put values aside for security. But the on-sale date was July 2001, and of course it would have all been plotted and written much earlier than that. Something was in the ether, I guess. If the comic ends up doing anything particularly interesting with these themes, I'll discuss them more when I get to "Casualties of War!"
ACCESS AN INDEX OF ALL POSTS IN THIS SERIES HERE
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