| JLA/Avengers | |
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Cover art for JLA/Avengers #1 (Sep. 2003). Art by George Pérez. |
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics Marvel Comics |
| Schedule | Monthly |
| Format | Limited series |
| Publication date | Sep. 2003 – May 2004 |
| Number of issues | JLA/Avengers #1, 3 (Sep. & Dec. 2003) Avengers/JLA #2, 4 (Oct. 2003 & May 2004) |
| Main character(s) | Avengers Justice League of America Grandmaster Krona |
| Creative team | |
| Writer(s) | Kurt Busiek |
| Artist(s) | George Pérez |
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.[1]
Contents |
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,[2] 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,[3] editorial disputes - reportedly instigated by Marvel Editor-In-Chief Jim Shooter - prevented the story from being completed.[4][5] 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.[5]
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.[6] Perez also had an exclusive commitment with CrossGen, but had had a clause written into his contract allowing him to do the series if and when it was approved.
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.
Krona, an exiled Oan rogue with powers of entropy, travels across various universes seeking the truth of creation, and destroys two universes in the process with his probes. 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 a 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; initially, the Grandmaster’s longtime adversaries, the Avengers, would represent him, and the Justice League, from Krona's home universe, would oppose them on his side, but Krona then decided to swap teams after seeing the Grandmaster's confidence, which meant that the Avengers would fight for Krona, while the Justice League would fight for the Grandmaster.
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 and shows them the items. 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.). The Avengers are told of the game by Metron, and Iron Man is given the Mother Box to help them travel between universes. Captain America, seeing the state of the DC Universe, gets an impression that the League are fascists who demand that common citizens worship them. The League acquire the Nullifier before being sent back to their universe by the Avengers, causing the Avengers to follow them. When the two teams meet in DC’s Metropolis, the bitter feelings of the team leaders spark off a battle royale.
During the battle, Batman and Captain America briefly test each other's skills before deciding that they would be better off finding out answers as to why their teams were put in that position in the first place, thus removing themselves from the battlefield. They use a dimension-travel bicycle to travel to the remnants of the universes that Krona had already destroyed, then meet up with the Atom (who had previous gone missing but reveals he hitched a ride on Metron's chair) in the Grandmaster's home base, where they discover that Krona and the Grandmaster had decided to swap teams. Meanwhile, the battle in Metropolis ends abruptly as the Scarlet Witch discovers that her control of chaos magic has given her immeasurable power in the DC Universe. Realizing that she can sense the items, she transports the Avengers away. 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 after Quicksilver takes the item from the Flash, who is slower in this Universe as he has to store the Speed Force as there is none in this Universe, until Batman, who had earlier formed a truce with Captain America to investigate the reasons for this contest, regains the Cube with the help of the latter, who orders the Avengers to stand down. 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, gets the truth from his mind, 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, revealing the game was a trick to gather the artifacts.
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. A group of DC villains are fought in a wintry Metropolis by members from both teams, while a disaster is stopped in a fire-filled New York City in the Marvel Universe. The heroes find a barrier between the two worlds with Krona's face and remember him, and realize that people are being taken between the Universes. The Martian Manhunter is able to see beyond the barrier and contact the other heroes. Iron Man and Superman fly out of the atmosphere, Superman sees the events are happening worldwide, and the two see the Worlds being merged. The Scarlet Witch, then Green Lantern try to separate them, but though able to hurt Krona and briefly disrupt the process, reality continues to warp. 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 he brought the Universes together to imprison Krona using the 12 items, but Krona is merging the universes further to destroy them, hoping to create a new Big Bang, which he can survive and learn the secrets of.
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. However this takes the last of his power, and he then dies. 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 two worlds continue to be destroyed, while Krona reveals he has used Galactus' knowledge to discover there is a sentinence within Universes. He tells this to Metron, who is uneasy about what he is doing to the Worlds. Krona has captured the universal avaters of Eternity (comics) and Kismet. Later, as the two teams formulate a plan of attack from the Watchtower while the two worlds are breaking apart and even the Moon is damaged, Captain America and Superman both apologize from their previous views of one another, Captain America confessing he sometimes feels as if he is not doing enough to help his world, while Superman admits he fears he may be doing too much. Superman decides Captain America should lead the two teams, and is given his shield. Later, the Avengers and Leaguers arrive at Krona’s base which has been made from the remains of Galactus, using an Atlantean ship with help from the Flash and Thor, 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. Metron leaves the base, telling Krona he must ask himself what he is doing. At the end, Superman breaks through Krona's final line of defence, an energised wall, armed with Captain America’s shield and Thor’s hammer- Captain America was leading the teams using the Martian Manhunter's telepathy and Thor was overwhelmed by several enemies-, but Krona defeats every hero present. At last, a sneak attack is pulled by the Flash and Hawkeye- who had faked their deaths earlier-, Hawkeye penetrating Krona's equipment with a TNT arrow and giving the Flash the chance to take the artifacts. They succeed, and the universes are returned to normal with help from the Spectre pushing them apart, and the heroes bid each other farewell, now with a great deal of mutual respect between them. Superman finds he can no longer lift Mjolnir, and Thor says Odin has sometimes lifted the spell in difficult circumstances. The Flash and Thor transport the teams back to their own worlds as Galactus starts reforming. Krona has imploded to form a cosmic egg, which is stored in the JLA Watchtower with Metron watching, saying one day a new Universe will hatch which Krona will learn the secrets off by being part of it. He and the Grandmaster talk about how this was all a game, and Metron had agreed to divert Krona into the Marvel Universe. The Grandmaster says this is the first game he played when all sides won.[7]
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