DC Comics / Marvel Comics
Writers: Kurt Busiek
Artist: George Perez

FC, 48 pages
$9.50 CAN / $5.95 US

It's finally here!
by Mike Hintze

It has taken 20 years and a whole lot of coordination between three comic publishers (yes, I said three), but the greatest intercompany crossover of all time has finally arrived! Unlike the miserable crossovers from the 1990s that just served to raise the ire of many a comic fan (anyone remember Wolverine beating Lobo?), this crossover has the best of both worlds. The World's Greatest Super Team and the Earth's Mightiest Heroes are together, facing a threat that neither team could face alone.

After some successful crossovers in the late 70s (Superman vs. Spiderman, Batman / Hulk and Teen Titans / X-Men for examples) DC and Marvel decided to go for broke and team up the JLA and the Avengers. Fan favorite artist George Perez was slated to draw with Gerry Conway writing. Perez dove into the project, which promised to be the biggest blockbuster in comics' history.

At this time, Marvel was helmed by a fellow named Jim Shooter, who has since become known as a very outspoken (and controlling) person to work with. Shooter was responsible for many of Marvel's big name projects back in those days (Secret Wars being one of the most prominent) and he had a special interest in seeing this big crossover done right. Issues arose between Shooter and the creative team, and eventually, Shooter pulled the plug on the project, saying he wasn't happy with the way Marvel's characters were being treated. Meanwhile, Perez was already 22 pages into the book when he got the call that the project wasn't going to happen. The crossover went away. Perez went on to other projects. The JLA / Avengers crossover was dead in the water, leaving us with mediocre crossovers such as Superman vs. He-Man and Spider-Man vs. Kool-Aid Man.

In the mid 1990s, DC and Marvel began once again to toy with the idea of crossovers. The result was the DC vs Marvel miniseries written by Dan Jurgens and Peter David with art by Jurgens and Claudio Castellini. For this event, comic readers were able to vote on the winners of specific battles. This proved to be a mistake, as many readers voted the most popular characters over those who might actually win. For example, readers voted Wolverine (with his bone claws; no adamantium at the time) beat Lobo, the intergalactic bounty hunter who can go toe to toe with Superman. Superman beat the Hulk, Spider-Man (the Ben Reilly Spider-Clone) beat Superboy, and so on.

This was followed up by another DC vs Marvel miniseries that wasn't decided by the fans, but rather was told as a complete story. Batman met Dr. Strange, Robin met Jubilee and the X-Men fought the JLA. This led directly to the successful crossover called Amalgam Comics. Marvel and DC ceased publishing for a particular week and instead the new Amalgam Comics company published one-shots where Marvel and DC characters were merged into one: The Legion of Galactic Guardians 2099 (amalgam of the Legion of Super Heroes and Guardians of the Galaxy), Super-Soldier (Captain America and Superman), Magneto and the Magnetic Men (Magneto and the Metal Men), Dr. Strangefate (Dr. Strange and Dr. Fate) and Bruce Wayne: Agent of SHIELD (guess who) were a few of the one-shots published.

Amalgam eventually led to another weekly event where we saw other combinations of DC and Marvel characters: Bullets and Bracelets (Punisher and Wonder Woman), Amazon (Storm and Wonder Woman), Bat-Thing (Man-Bat and Man-Thing) as well as others. DC and Marvel were having so much success with the crossover concept they kept pumping them out to no end (as was the thing to do in the 1990s). Fantastic Four/Superman, Green Lantern/Silver Surfer, Batman/Spiderman, Batman/Punisher, Superman/Silver Surfer, Spiderman/Gen 13 and Wolverine/Cyblade (from Image Comics Cyberforce) were but a few.

For all the success, the big two companies still hadn't had their biggest hitters go together yet. They might have done so sooner, but sales on crossovers were slipping. The novelty had worn off. Fans were tired of the same old stories. Both Marvel and DC put any plans for future crossovers on indefinite hiatus.

Time passed and eventually Joe Quesada became Marvel's new editor-in-chief. He promptly said "No more crossovers" with one exception: he wanted to see JLA / Avengers.

At first, Kurt Busiek (then writer of Avengers) and Mark Waid (then writer of JLA) were going to co-write the book, with George Perez back on art chores. Waid then accepted an exclusive contract with Crossgen Comics, and thus was no longer available. Busiek was then going to solo write the book, but more corporate planning came into play, delaying the project. Mark Alessi, CEO of Crossgen, then approached Perez with a lucrative offer of employment: relocate to Florida, work for Crossgen exclusively and get a regular salary with full benefits. Perez had been dealing with some health issues in the last few years and so decided to take Alessi up on his offer with one stipulation: he wanted to be able to complete JLA/Avengers. Busiek was left as sole writer of the series, and DC and Marvel gave their full support to the project. Now it's here, and I have to say George Perez has never looked better.

This first issue of JLA/Avengers hits the ground running. Immediately we see two long time staples of each team's history get annihilated by the evil Krona. Krona was one of the Maltusians, the race that eventually became the Guardians of the Universe, creators of the Green Lantern Corps. Krona developed a device to allow him to see back to the dawn of time, the results of which caused an energy feedback that created the Anti-Matter Universe, which led to the creation of the Anti-Monitor and the events known as the Crisis on Infinite Earths in the DCU. Krona returned to tangle with Green Lantern and the Guardians on an occasion or two, but hasn't really been seen since the Crisis in 1986. In JLA/Avengers #1, Marvel's Grandmaster and DC's Metron are involved with Krona, but they have plans of their own as well. We don't know Krona's true goal, but you can be sure it does not bode well for either team's universe.

Busiek captures the essence of both teams perfectly, from Hawkeye's brash attitude to Batman's tactical silence. I miss Busiek and Perez on Avengers. Seeing them back even in this limited way is a pleasure. Of course, I also think Busiek and Perez would be a kick ass team on JLA. Recently Perez was released by Crossgen in terms of exclusivity, so maybe we'll see him return to the companies that he made great. Busiek has his hands full with his own creator-owned work, but now that DC's Power Company has been canceled, Busiek is without a mainstream title upon which to work. Only time will tell.

This issue concludes with each team thinking the other is out to destroy their universe. Thor has thrown his hammer at Superman, and thus the battle begins. The big thing I'm looking forward to next month? Batman vs Captain America. If the rest of this miniseries is as good as this opening issue, I'm gonna be in fanboy heaven!

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