JLA/Avengers issue #1

[Jokerz79]

I definitely miss marvel vs dc cross overs. Most weren't great to be honest (JLA/Avengers was more the exception than the rule), but they were still fun.

My two favorites were JLA Avengers and X-Men Teen Titans.

[dreyga2000]

The whole first two issues feel anti marvel at times. They spent what 4 pages showing how awful marvel is but dc gets two panels and that's it and it's "the speed guy has a museum" . If your going to tear apart marvel then due the same for dc. Then theres the out of character scene of the avengers acting likes savages and attacking superman over thor getting beat! Thor gets beat all the time and the avengers didn't act that way! Hated superman stopping thors hammer also. That would have broke his hand and he would be screaming in pain as magic affects supes the same as everyone and the line about barry and hal are "the real ones" over wally and kyle are the huge annoying things about the mini series!

It was accurate at the time the DC Universe was a more idealized world where the heroes rarely if ever lost. Where Marvel was more gritty and the heroes had to deal with heavy consequences.

[gurkle]

The whole first two issues feel anti marvel at times..

I've heard that, though I kind of felt the opposite because I felt the DC heroes were a bit short-changed: Superman was a total dick for most of the series and Wonder Woman got to do very little despite George Pérez being so associated with her. (Even I know that it's weird to have a JLA/Avengers series where the Scarlet Witch gets more to do than Wonder Woman.) Yes, Thor jobbed to Superman in the fight, but outside of the fights the Marvel characters seemed more in-character as a group.

That may just be that the two creators had just spent three years doing "The Avengers" together and so I accept their Marvel portrayals as "in character" because it's the characterization they helped establish, while they were still finding their way with the DC characters. But I think the series would be stronger if Superman had more moments to show his usual characterization. Captain America got this - even though he and Superman were both dicks to each other, Cap got the scene with Batman to show him at his best, and I don't think Superman even got that.

[XPac]

The whole first two issues feel anti marvel at times. They spent what 4 pages showing how awful marvel is but dc gets two panels and that's it and it's "the speed guy has a museum" . If your going to tear apart marvel then due the same for dc. Then theres the out of character scene of the avengers acting likes savages and attacking superman over thor getting beat! Thor gets beat all the time and the avengers didn't act that way! Hated superman stopping thors hammer also. That would have broke his hand and he would be screaming in pain as magic affects supes the same as everyone and the line about barry and hal are "the real ones" over wally and kyle are the huge annoying things about the mini series!

Plus batman beats the punisher for half a hour! Punisher beat hulk, Spider-Man and wolverine at once! Sorry don't buy it at all. Batman beating him I can buy but no way he "beat him up for a half a hour!"

With that said he did have it where the avengers would have won if cap had not thrown the contest and batman more or less said cap would win if they fight. So avengers did get some love but it really felt like marvel was getting more hate then dc in those early issues.

The last issue battle was great! Seeing members from both teams team up from all generations was a once in the lifetime treat and even smaller members like animal man, power girls cat, retro, the great lakes avengers, stingray and d-man got some screentime!

That last issue alone is worth the complaints from the other issues plus having them change into classic outfits added more to the fun!

All in all the greats outshine the complaints. Great series.

I think it all balanced out in the end. I would agree superficially DC arguably looked bigger, better and more powerful at the start. But honestly I thought the Avengers sort of showed up the JLA by the end of the story.

[brettc1]

Regarding the Thor/Superman fight, I've long heard rumours that a condition for the crossover was Superman could not be taken down by any single Marvel character.

Ultimately Thor won this fight where it counts the most - at the box office

[XPac]

I've heard that, though I kind of felt the opposite because I felt the DC heroes were a bit short-changed: Superman was a total dick for most of the series and Wonder Woman got to do very little despite George Pérez being so associated with her. (Even I know that it's weird to have a JLA/Avengers series where the Scarlet Witch gets more to do than Wonder Woman.) Yes, Thor jobbed to Superman in the fight, but outside of the fights the Marvel characters seemed more in-character as a group.

That may just be that the two creators had just spent three years doing "The Avengers" together and so I accept their Marvel portrayals as "in character" because it's the characterization they helped establish, while they were still finding their way with the DC characters. But I think the series would be stronger if Superman had more moments to show his usual characterization. Captain America got this - even though he and Superman were both dicks to each other, Cap got the scene with Batman to show him at his best, and I don't think Superman even got that.

Though I thought the characterization for the DC characters was fine (outside of Superman, but I think both him and Cap were acting somewhat uncharacteristic for a very specific story driven reason), I suppose its not that shocking that Busiek might write the Avengers a little more in character than the JLA. He's written the league, but he's done a lot more Avengers stuff. Again though, I think his overall Justice League stuff was fine.

Yeah, a lot of characters like Wonder WOman didn't do a whole lot, but there were a LOT of characters in this book. You can only do so much. I did have a sort of interesting encounter with Hercules at least.

[Gaastra]

I think it all balanced out in the end. I would agree superficially DC arguably looked bigger, better and more powerful at the start. But honestly I thought the Avengers sort of showed up the JLA by the end of the story.

Yup the avengers had more or less won the contest till cap throw the fight knowing it was the best choice for the universe.

Yeah, a lot of characters like Wonder WOman didn't do a whole lot, but there were a LOT of characters in this book. You can only do so much. I did have a sort of interesting encounter with Hercules at least.

She did have the moment where she beats the marvels hercules for what the dc version did! Poor Hercules but a nice moment tied to wonder womans history.

Though I thought the characterization for the DC characters was fine (outside of Superman, but I think both him and Cap were acting somewhat uncharacteristic for a very specific story driven reason),

Cap and supes were jerks so much in the threads at the time everyone thought they were getting controlled by a bad guy to make each team fight each other. Turns out they were just acting like jerks for no reason.
Cap snaps back to normal when he teams up with batman then turns into a jerk again again in issue 3 for a time. Both teams have been in other universes before so it's strange how they acted.