This is the one where Warren Ellis pays tribute to Superman. The first two pages are magnificent.
That’s where the similarities end. It turns out, there’s no child in that rocket. It’s a bomb. The old couple die and Kansas burns.
Meanwhile, Nate meets Qabiri–a cosmic being who was responsible for that bomb–whose job is to protect parallel universes by destroying planets who have the technology to cross over to alternatie realities. He “sees” Qabiri through the sightless eyes of a nun who has visions of that alternate Earth.
Some of the superheroes of that world fall to Qabiri. (The are suspiciously familiar to D.C. Comics’ alternate reality heroes, The Authority–a comic that Ellis worked on.) The rest team up with Nate, and defeat Qabiri.
While this is a great story with cool new characters, most of them die and/or are never seen again, so I haven’t tagged them. Also, Warren Ellis is gone by the end of this arc, as is Ariel Olivetti. The book suffers for their loss, but is still solid. The remaining creators–Steven Grant and Quique Alcatena–will end this series for good, next issue.