JLA/Avengers: It Had to Be George

I've seen some speculation online lately about why we haven't gotten a Marvel-DC crossover in nearly 20 years. This probably isn't the answer, but maybe the powers that be just figure they're never going to top the last one.

Please pardon my amateur Photoshopping.

“JLA/Avengers” (as it was known for issues 1 and 3, “Avengers/JLA” for 2 and 4) not only combined the rosters of the teams circa 2003, but everyone who had ever been a member and a host of other elements from each universe thanks to the time-traveling, reality-shifting nature of the story. In some ways, it was more Marvel vs. DC than 1996's “Marvel vs. DC/DC vs. Marvel.”

And it could only have been drawn by George Pérez.

Of course, it wouldn't have been possible without the story crafted by Kurt Busiek, a living comic book legend in his own right. But the subject of this Super Blog Team-Up is the incomparable Pérez, giving us a chance to show our appreciation and admiration for his influence on the medium we love.

Pérez was supposed to have drawn this crossover about 20 years prior, but it fell apart for reasons. When the time came to make it happen again, Pérez had recently wrapped up his second run on “Avengers” (and how many artists have had two landmark runs on the same title, a couple of decades apart?). With a highly regarded JLA tenure as well, plus “dibs” on the project from years before, there was hardly another choice.

According to an excerpt from Christopher Lawrence's book, “George Pérez: Storyteller,” the artist crammed 580 characters into the four, 48-page issues. Pérez says in the book that's more than he drew in the 12-issue “Crisis on Infinite Earths.” Busiek didn't even put all of those characters in the script!

Cover to JLA/Avengers #3, without title

It took two years for Pérez to finish the series, and, re-reading it for the first time in quite a while, it was worth the wait. I understand this was a special project, and I'm glad the publishers gave him the time to make it happen. That's not always the case with monthly books, and it shows. I'm no art expert (regular readers have seen my youthful endeavors and I can assure you my talents haven't significantly improved since junior high), but there doesn't seem to be a hasty or wasted panel or line anywhere.

There are the gorgeous, character-stuffed splash pages for which Pérez is famous. There are also plenty of densely layered spreads of panels packed with characters and dialogue that never feel cluttered or rushed.

from Avengers/JLA #2

In issue 3, when the teams get a blast of information on the history of their worlds, the framing sequence is gorgeous and the moments highlighted in the kinetic display are deftly rendered. I think I recognized almost all of them without the need of captions or editor's notes.

Not that Pérez needed full- or double-page spreads to make his point. The moment in issue 4 where Thor tosses Superman Mjolnir and he's wielding it along with Cap's shield could have been one. Heck, it is the cover to that issue, giving us one character instead of the increasingly large numbers Pérez sketched on the previous three (he even developed tendinitis working on #3's cover, according to Lawrence's book). But Pérez uses about a quarter of the page. He's got a story to tell, and a host of lower-tier characters to have blasted aside on the next page – no disrespect intended to Aztek, Silverclaw, Animal Man and the original Guardians of the Galaxy.

Whether they were Busiek's choices or Pérez's or teamwork, each panel seems to be populated deliberately and at times thematically. Sure, it makes sense for Quicksilver and the Flash, Hawkeye and Green Arrow, etc., to match up often. But Red Tornado clashing with Thor and Vision for a page underscores the themes those characters share despite not being obvious analogues. Guy Gardner being psychically rebuffed by Moondragon before he can even say anything uncouth to her? Terrific. Booster Gold and Hellcat gravitating toward each other? Music to the ears of a fan of both characters (well, I guess to the eyes since sadly they don't get any dialogue). Namor and Maxima, who have found themselves allies and enemies of the titular teams, fighting side by side? Perfect.

Most crossovers can get pretty far on the novelty alone. We can't expect these stories to “count,” especially the ones in which everybody's already living in the same universe so it's clearly an imaginary tale. But this one not only establishes they are on different worlds, it emphasizes they can't just hop back and forth, giving it at least the possibility of being in-continuity. And, as Busiek would make clear in his subsequent run on JLA, this one is canon.

I tend to follow writers more than artists, probably because that's where my interests lie and because even an artist whose work I don't appreciate as much is light years beyond what I can do. It's almost magical to me.

But I know what I like, and I know when something is special. Pérez's work isn't just distinctive and prolific. He strikes what is, to me, the perfect balance between realism and the fantastical. Some artists go overboard, blasting characters out of proportion. Some draw so realistically it's impressive to see the way their imaginations translate the unreal into our world. Pérez does it all, making me believe whatever he's put on the page exists, if not in the “real world,” then somewhere.

In “JLA/Avengers,” he played the greatest hits of the two greatest comic universes, as well as some B-sides (I see you Great Lakes Avengers!) for those of us who love the characters like he does.

Thank you, Mr. Pérez.