Set Description:
Couldn't wait to get my hands on this when I first heard it was finally coming out. Definitely a 'bucket list level event'!
The best of all the Marvel/DC collaborations to date in my opinion (surpasses even the level of fan boy excitement I felt when the Marvel vs. DC/Amalgam mini-series came out). Without a doubt, this wouldn't have worked had Marvel/DC opted to use someone other than George Perez to draw this. I simply cannot imagine anyone else being able to draw this, showing each and every current and former Avenger and Leaguer in 4 issues, other than him. The cover art in issue #3 is simply breathtaking - I am hoping that this gets released as a poster/print someday. Thank you very much Mr. Perez & Mr. Busiek!
I'm hoping to complete a solid super premium '10' set someday. Next to impossible given that I think there are only 2 "Gem Mint copies of issue #1 to date out there, but who knows?
Summary and Plot (taken from Wikipedia):
JLA/Avengers (Issues #2 and #4 titled Avengers/JLA) is a comic book limited series and crossover published in prestige format by DC Comics and Marvel Comics from September 2003 to May 2004. The series was written by Kurt Busiek, with art by George Pérez. The series features the two companies' teams of superheroes, DC Comics' Justice League of America and Marvel's Avengers.
Publication History
In 1979, DC and Marvel agreed to co-publish a crossover series involving the two teams, to be written by Gerry Conway and drawn by George Pérez. The plot of the original crossover was a time travel story involving Marvel's Kang the Conqueror and DC's Lord of Time. Writer/editor Roy Thomas was hired to script the book, based on Conway's plot,and although work had begun on the series in 1981 (Pérez had penciled 21 pages by mid-1983) and it was scheduled for publication in May 1983,editorial disputes - mostly instigated by Marvel Editor-In-Chief Jim Shooter - prevented the story from being completed. The failure of the JLA/Avengers book also caused the cancellation of a planned sequel to the 1982 The Uncanny X-Men and The New Teen Titans crossover.
An agreement was reached between the two companies in 2002, with a new story to be written by Kurt Busiek and drawn by George Pérez. In a joint panel at WonderCon 2000, Busiek (then writer of the Avengers title) and Mark Waid (then writer of the JLA title) stated they had nearly come to an agreement to begin the crossover within the regular issues of the respective titles but the two companies could not come to a business arrangement. When the series was approved, however, Waid was unavailable due to an exclusive commitment with company CrossGen, and Busiek became the sole writer on the project.
The series was reprinted by DC Comics in 2005 as a two-volume collector's edition hardcover (which included for the first time the original 1983 Pérez penciled pages), and then re-released as a trade paperback in November 2008.
Plot:
Krona, an exiled Oan rogue with powers of entropy, travels across various universes seeking the truth of creation, and destroys the universes in the process. His search brings him to the Marvel Universe, where the Grandmaster intercepts him when he tries to send more probes back through time and proposes a deal: that they play a game, and if Krona wins, he will be led to the one being in that universe who has witnessed creation (Galactus). If he loses, Krona has to spare the Grandmaster’s universe. Krona accepts, and the players are chosen; the Grandmaster’s longtime adversaries the Avengers are selected to fight on Krona’s side, and the Justice League from Krona’s home universe will oppose them.
The Grandmaster soon sets the game in motion with Metron as his ally. He informs the League that they have to gather twelve items of power (six from each universe - the DC items being the Spear of Destiny; the Book of Eternity; the Orb of Ra; the Psycho Pirate's Medusa Mask; the Bell, Jar and Wheel of the Demons Three; and the Green Lantern Power Battery of Kyle Rayner; and the Marvel items being the Ultimate Nullifier; the Evil Eye of Avalon; the Wand of Watoomb; the Casket of Ancient Winters; the Cosmic Cube; and the Infinity Gems) to save a universe, while Metron tells the Avengers that they have to stop the League to prevent their world being destroyed. The League travels to the Marvel Universe, and Superman is disgusted at various conditions which show the ineffectuality of the Avengers (the Hulk running rampant, the destruction of Genosha, Dr. Doom’s tyrannical reign of Latveria, etc.) while Captain America, seeing the state of the DC Universe, gets an impression that the League are fascists who demand that common citizens worship them. When the two teams meet in DC’s Metropolis, the bitter feelings of the team leaders spark off a battle royale.
The battle ends abruptly as the Scarlet Witch discovers that her control of chaos magic has given her immeasurable power in the DC Universe. The hunt for the items of power begins, as various Leaguers and Avengers travel across the two universes and fight each other to retrieve the artifacts. The score becomes tied, and a final battle for the Cosmic Cube takes place in Marvel’s Savage Land. The Avengers seem to gain the upper hand until Batman, who had earlier formed a truce with Captain America, regains the Cube with the help of the latter. The Grandmaster arrives and announces the Justice League as the victors, and asks Krona to leave his universe. Krona, refusing to be denied, attacks the Grandmaster, summons Galactus and attempts to beat the truth out of him. The Grandmaster uses his remaining strength to utilize the power of the artifacts, and merges both universes together.
As a result, reality is altered such that the Justice League and Avengers have been allies since both the teams’ formations. However Superman and Captain America, both strongly attuned to their respective universes’ frequency, sense that the world is not right. Soon, the universes, being incompatible with each other, begin destroying themselves. The core members of each team (consisting of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), The Flash (Barry Allen), Aquaman and the Martian Manhunter from the League; and Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, The Wasp, Giant-Man, The Vision and The Scarlet Witch from the Avengers) join forces to avert the crisis. The Phantom Stranger leads them to a dying Grandmaster, who explains the situation: that Krona is merging the universes further to destroy them.
The Grandmaster asks the assembled heroes to stop Krona and restore order. The heroes, whose memories have been altered by the merging of the Universes, demand to know what the world was like before this incident. The Grandmaster shows them various events that had taken place in their universes, and each team member witnesses the tragedies that had befallen them: the deaths of heroes like Superman, Lantern and Flash; loss of the heroes’ loved ones (Odin, Jason Todd, Hippolyta, the Scarlet Witch’s children); the Pyms’ marital problems; the loss of Aquaman’s hand; Iron Man’s descent into alcoholism, etc. Several heroes vote to leave the universes as they are, to prevent the tragedies from happening, but Hal Jordan inspires everyone to work for the good of the world, not themselves.
The Avengers and Leaguers attack Krona’s base, and Krona summons numerous villains of both worlds to attack the heroes. With time and space deteriorating, reality also changes, and the battle is joined by every single hero who had been a part of the Justice League and Avengers, but Krona's stronghold is defended by every villain they have fought. At the end, Superman attacks Krona head-on, armed with Captain America’s shield and Thor’s hammer, as Captain America was leading the teams using the Martian Manhunter's telepathy and Thor was overwhelmed by several enemies, but fails, as Krona kills every hero present. At last, a sneak attack is pulled by the Flash and Hawkeye with a TNT arrow and the Flash taking the artifacts, who had faked their deaths earlier. They succeed, and the universes are returned to normal with help from the Spectre, and the heroes part ways. Krona has imploded to form a cosmic egg, which is stored in the JLA Watchtower with Metron watching.
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