This is a big DC crossover involving too many different titles. The two volumes attempt to collect stories involving Superman, Wonder Woman, Young Justice, and Impulse. A lot of back story seems missing and the artwork often looks like bad manga. I am really hating these kinds of crossovers, and reading these stories in this GN format is extremely confusing.

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.

I'm giving this 3 stars, but this is a VERY GENEROUS 3 stars. The only reason I'm doing that is because the action is pretty good and there's a lot of it.

What is going on here? I know Superman doesn't quite have the resolve of Batman, but Superman is supposed to be the standard of the DC Universe. The one they turn to when all else fails. So why is he whining so much? Why is he neglecting Lois? Why is he so annoying? Who knows. They don't explain it to us.

It should be noted that there is a lot missing. Most of the DC Universe books touched upon this crossover & they can't all be included. However, that doesn't explain why the plot is so confusing. There are parts that are just cryptic.

There are some genuinely suspenseful parts, the subplot between Lex and his Brainiac'd daughter being the highlight.

Again, there's a lot of pretty good action (including a good slap 'em up between Supes & Darkseid). But what separates the guys who wrote this from the truly great writers is plot. And that is lacking here.