JLA/Avengers

#TP-B

Hero Initiative Reprint

Release:	Mar 09, 2022
Cover:	Mar 2022

Creators

Writer	Kurt Busiek
Artist	George Pérez
Cover Artist	George Pérez
Cover Colorist	Tom Smith
Cover Separator	Tom Smith
Colorist	Tom Smith
Letterer	Comicraft, Richard Starkings
Separator	Tom Smith
Editor	Dan Raspler, Tom Brevoort, Mike Carlin

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And so, we close out this crossover week with a quick look at what is, in my opinion, the second-best DC/Marvel crossover.

The best is, of course, the X-Men/New Teen Titans crossover from years earlier, but this one comes very close and I certainly wouldn’t argue against anyone who considers it the best, even if just for the glorious Pérez art.

After all, this is kind of the ultimate crossover event, bringing the preeminent hero teams of both universes together in a shared adventure with the highest stakes possible.

It’s a story that contains innumerable iconic moments, with the requisite misunderstandings and clashing personalities that lead to the inevitable hero vs. hero battles and timey-wimey shenanigans that allow for appearances of basically every incarnation of both teams – sometimes all at once – because when the late George Pérez was asked which classic JLA and Avengers characters he would like to draw his answer was “Yes.”

The story also takes a look at some of the differences between the DC Universe and the Marvel Universe, both in terms of their internal functions and characteristics and, on a meta level, their approaches to characterization and storytelling in an interesting and entertaining way that doesn’t detract from the story, and, indeed, adds to it.

A JLA/Avengers crossover had been in the works back in the ’80s, but for various reasons it never saw the light of day, and the failure to launch apparently led to some bad blood and a complete lack of – official – crossovers until the mid-90s.

It is perhaps fitting, or ironic, or something that this crossover from the early aughts ended up being the last of that wave of crossovers, with blood once again going bad.

However, nearly two decades later, a real-world event brought the companies back together again. The news that George Pérez’s time on this world was limited led to a breakthrough – it helped that there were different people in charge – and an agreement was made to release a special limited-edition volume collecting the original mini-series to honor the life of the legendary artist, with proceeds going to support the Hero Initiative.

I already had the story in a trade paperback that was released before bad blood set in, but how could I not want something released as a tribute to the work of man who is probably the most responsible for my love of comics?

I was fortunate enough to be able to purchase one of the four copies my comic shop received. While other shops made it more of an event, mine went with a simple “first come, first served” approach and I was the second or third person to email them about it when the book was announced.

(When the store owner handed me my copy, he made sure it was buried at the bottom of my stack, and he spoke to me in hushed tones, making the whole thing feel like a drug deal.)

The intercompany cooperation required to release this tribute to George Pérez continued and has led to the crossover events that I’ve been writing about here, and the crossover events that are still to come in the new year, which I may or may not write about.

But that brings us to the end of this week of daily posts with a crossover theme.

I have another, longer mandatory furlough coming up next month, so we’ll see if that results in daily posts as well.

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