IMPERIEX

Real Name: Imperiex

Class: Cosmic being

Occupation: Destroyer of galaxies

Group Affiliation: None

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Mobile across the universe, beginning of time to present

First Appearance: Superman II #153 (February 2000)

Powers: Imperiex was pure energy encased in a armor shell that possessed superhuman strength and durability and could project devastating energy blasts. He used Probes-machine colonies that reproduced and created more advanced and powerful Probes.

History: Imperiex was a force of entropy, and destroyed universes so he could have a hand in restarting them during big bangs.

(Superman II #172) - An Imperiex Probe landed on Earth and destroyed Topeka, Kansas, and Superman found its body in the wreckage. Imperiex revived and they battled, with Superman pushing himself to his limits after seeing the destruction Imperiex caused. Superman ruptured Imperiex's armor, causing a massive explosion.

(JLA: Our Worlds at War #1) - The JLA fought a group of Imperiex Probes in space, and although victorious the explosions caused by the defeated Probes severely injured the team. While they were recovering in the Alien Alliance's space ark Imperiex seized the opportunity to send more Probes to Earth to hollow out the planet and absorb its energy. The Titans, Outsiders and other heroes opposed Probes in Frankfurt, Germany, Krasnoyarsk, Russia, Zaire, Africa and South Pole Antarctica, but the Probes fought them off. One Probe attacked Atlantis and Aquaman raced to the rescue. He defeated the Probe, but the resulting explosion seemingly vaporized him and Atlantis.

(Adventures of Superman #594) - President Luthor unleashed Doomsday as a weapon in the Imperiex War. Superman and Doomsday destroyed a number of Imperiex Probes in space before Imperiex Prime disintegrated Doomsday and hit Superman with an energy blast. The injured hero crashed on Apokolips.

(Action Comics I #781) - Superman battled and destroyed a number of Probes in Zaire. Imperiex said that trying to defeat him was futile, since his destiny to create a new Big Bang was part of the natural order. Imperiex' command ship destroyed by the JSA so he could no longer manufacture probes, so he launched an all-out attack with his remaining Probes on the Alien Alliance space arks and Washington, D.C. The space ark was defended by Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and Hippolyta, who sacrificed her life to fight them off. The Probes in Washington were destroyed when Major Sam Lane sacrificed his life to detonate the nuclear engine of his tank.

(Superman II #173) - President Luthor, the Atom and Doc Magnus devised a plan to crack Imperiex Prime's armor and channel the energies back to the galaxies he stole them from using a Boom Tube provided by Darkseid. Superman, Strange Visitor and the Blackhawks were responsible for delivering a payload of 30 hydrogen bombs to drop on Imperiex Prime. Strange Visitor absorbed Superman's energy and left him behind while she bombed Imperiex, sacrificing herself to crack his shell. Brainiac-13 stole the released energy using Warworld and used the LexCorp Towers, actually a temporal displacement cannon, to bombard Apokolips with the energy. Darkseid used this attack as a reason to declare war on Earth.

(Action Comics I #782) - Superman was able to beat back Brainiac-13, but learned Imperiex's energy was alive and powering Warworld, and that the defeat of Brainiac would free Imperiex. Superman came up with a plan to deal with them both, he had Lex Luthor, who'd regained command of LexCorp Towers, fire the temporal displacement beam into space the same moment Darkseid used the Omega Effect from Apokolips to create a Boom Tube in space. Steel used the Entropy Aegis to fuse the two, creating a Boom Tube that opened up to the beginning of time, which swallowed Warworld. Imperiex set off a big bang that melded with the original, allowing him to fulfill his purpose, and scattering B-13's consciousness across all spacetime.

Comments: Created by Jeph Loeb & Ian Churchill.