JLA/AVENGERS 325
variety of editorial diffi culties. After DC had given their creative team the go-ahead to
begin writing and drawing the book, Marvel’s executive editor Jim Shooter raised some
objections to the proposed story. After several months of back-and-forth, the book was
quietly abandoned. While Marvel and DC’s management both told their sides of the
story in articles in later-published comics, the book itself was never fi nished, though
the 21-penciled story pages would ultimately see print two decades later in the 2004
Avengers/JLA Compendium.
Ill-feelings from that project eff ectively ended Marvel/DC crossovers for a decade.
In 1994, with the editors involved in the Avengers/JLA diffi culties having moved on,
new crossovers began to happen, including an eventual four-issue DC versus Marvel
series, followed by two sets of “Amalgam” titles featuring the heroes of both universes
amalgamated with each other as well as a four-issue miniseries titled DC/Marvel All
Access which featured heroes of one universe visiting the other. Concerned that the
DC/Marvel crossovers had began to feel commonplace, the companies ceased teaming
their primary heroes with each other after 1999’s Batman/Daredevil. Th e exception,
announced in 2001, was the long-awaited JLA/Avengers.
Ave nge rs writer Kurt Busiek and JLA writer Mark Waid proposed that the cross-
over actually happen within the pages of each monthly series, but legal concerns led to
the book becoming a four-issue stand-alone miniseries (48 pages per issue), written by
Busiek with art by Pérez (who still wished to do the book he had been denied 20 years
previously), and colored by Tom Smith. Busiek was well known for his encyclopedic
knowledge of Marvel and DC’s history, and Pérez was equally well known for his art
with team or crowd scenes; this proved a good fi t as every Avenger or JLA member who
had ever appeared was ultimately included in the published story, though in many cases
only peripherally.
JLA/Avengers (issues #2 and 4 were actually titled Avengers/JLA) was released in
late 2003 and early 2004, with the fi nal issue delayed several months due to an injury
to Pérez’s drawing hand. Th e plot involved DC villain Krona’s universe-destroying
quest for knowledge, and Marvel’s Grandmaster and DC’s Metron’s attempts to thwart
him, drawing the Avengers and JLA into opposing each other in quests for items of
power. As each team visited the other’s universe they found themselves taken aback by
the other’s worlds — the JLA viewed the Avengers’ universe as a dark place that feared
and hated its protectors, while the Avengers saw the JLA as setting themselves above
those they protected. When both universes had their histories rewritten, the two teams
were briefl y portrayed as long-time allies, often meeting in a manner reminiscent of
the Earth-1 Justice League and Earth-2 Justice Society’s frequent cross-universal team-
ups, but ultimately reality was restored and both teams allied against Krona. While
the fi nal issue, which saw Superman wielding Th or’s hammer and Captain America’s
shield to face Krona, was held by a small but vocal fanbase as disrespectful of Marvel’s
heroes (this despite the JLA/Avengers creative team then being Marvel’s creative team
on Avengers), the series was otherwise regarded as a great success critically, artistically,
and monetarily.
