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The fall of 2002 was an interesting time for me as far as pop culture. Like many young men my age from Utah, I had volunteered to take two years away from my normal life to serve as a Mormon missionary. At that particular time, that meant missing pop culture milestones like Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Return of the King, two-thirds of the Grant Morrison New X-Men run, the resolution of the season 1 cliffhanger of Smallville and so on. For a massive geek like myself, it stung. None of those compared to missing JLA/Avengers.
At that point, the series had just been announced. I believe at that time Mark Waid’s participation was still anticipated, despite his CrossGen exclusive (He ultimately did not participate), alongside Kurt Busiek, and a release date was still being ironed out, thanks to George Perez’s own CrossGen exclusive contract. It was a project for the ages, and one that, as a relatively new fan of the Avengers and a longtime Justice League fan, I was incredibly disappointed I would miss.
Fast forward to my return to normal life two years later, and as I sought to find collections and single issues of the comics I’d missed, the now-completed crossover series was surprisingly hard to find.
JLA/Avengers was now one of the few bits of pop culture that I’d missed that I would seemingly never be able to catch up on.
I continued to follow Perez’s career, as he had become one of my favorite artists. I picked up almost every new project he was involved in until I took a break from comics in 2009. By the time I started reading again, Perez had largely retired. So naturally, last fall’s announcement of his ailing health was a huge blow.
When the new printing of JLA/Avengers was announced, I was thrilled. Not only would I have a chance at a personal holy grail, but it was affordable AND would benefit a cause Perez was passionate about. Knowing the limited print run of 7,000 copies meant my chances weren’t great, I immediately emailed Greg Gage of Black Cat Comics in Sugarhouse, Utah. Then, earlier this month, Greg let me know he’d come through. His request of 25 was cut down to six, but I was one of the lucky ones getting a copy.
The book itself is fascinating. As a story, it is both very much of its time yet very timeless. It’s an excellent adventure blending together the two franchises while telling a story that felt more substantial than any other Marvel/DC crossover to date. It’s full of artifacts of the early 2000s, such as Carol Danvers’ Warbird identity and Kyle Rayner’s second Green Lantern uniform. Fortunately these don’t do much outside of establishing when it was published (even throwing in changes that happened as it was getting worked on, such as Aquaman’s magic water hand). It also shows how the two franchises both have and haven’t changed in the past 20 years.
The Justice League, despite the publishing reboots and shake-ups of the past decade-plus, actually remains fairly similar, anchored by DC’s six biggest characters. Obviously if the reprint had happened between 2011 and 2016, I may not be saying that, but the characters and concepts feel classic, even if some of the legacy characters in the costumes have changed. The Avengers, however, feel very different. You can see the influence of both Brian Michael Bendis’ New Avengers and the Marvel Cinematic Universe in how they’ve reshaped the Avengers as a franchise — both the larger team and the individual characters (For example, the Hulk and Spider-Man’s limited presences both feel surprising).
In the end, though, the cosmic blowout feels like a must-read for any fan of both franchises, or any fan of the creators, especially Perez. And the limited print run in light of that is glaring.
Which leads me to the other side of this book. This printing is the first time the series has been available in almost 20 years, and it’s easily the most sought-after single story in the comics industry. This printing was intended not just to be a benefit for the Hero Initiative but as a tribute to the ailing Perez, a giant in the industry currently in hospice care for pancreatic cancer. The limited print run is shocking in that context.
Now I know there are behind-the-scenes contracts and corporate edicts we don’t understand in play. We maybe never will. Maybe Disney or Warner Bros. said they’d do it but no more than (blank) copies can be printed. Maybe they only had the resources for that many copies on such short notice. But given the limited print run, those involved had to know that instead of being a benefit for a charity, this book would instantly become a benefit for speculators.
And it is. On eBay, copies of this printing are currently running from $50 (for a copy with eight bids and nine days left in the auction as of this writing) to more than $300 (56 bids with three days left as of writing). Now some of them are clear in the listing that the amount over MSRP will be donated to charity (mostly the Hero Initiative), which is both admirable and worthwhile, but some of them are clearly just someone out to make a buck. You can’t tell me a seller listing two copies for nearly $600 has the best intentions. It’s a frustrating move when the book itself is such a love letter to the actual project.
And that’s where the other part of the book falls short. It’s confusing that a book that was intended as a tribute to the legacy of one of the most prolific and influential creators in the history of comics isn’t much of a tribute to Perez himself. Instead it’s more about the history of DC and Marvel crossovers, and a good handful of the behind-the-scenes information about the story seems to be the same backmatter from the first printing, with a new afterword from Busiek about the history of the project.
It does talk quite a bit about Perez’s work both on this project and its predecessor, the ’80s JLA/Avengers one-shot that was canceled a third of the way in. But it makes no mention of Perez’s career, his legacy, outside of this project, even in Busiek’s brief afterword. It didn’t need much, even just a paragraph about Perez’s long career and this book being the epitome of what’s so beloved about his work, but it’s absolutely stunning to get nothing at all.
This is an incredible book, and an absolute thrill to finally get a copy. It’s exactly what I had hoped it would be 20 years ago. Kudos to DC Editor-in-Chief Marie Javins for moving mountains to make this happen, as it seemed that the closest we may ever again get to a crossover between the two publishers is Chip Zdarsky writing Batman and Daredevil at the same time. But the behind-the-scenes of it appears flawed enough that it absolutely casts a shadow over the release.
Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist, and all around awesome guy. He’s also very humble.
