Movie Poop Shoot's Chris Allen and Comic Book Galaxy's Alan David Doane cross the barrier between their two sites to bring you the review event of the year, et cetera.
JLA/Avengers #1 of 4
By Kurt Busiek and George Perez
Published by Marvel Comics
But you made me feel, all shiny and new.
-- Madonna
ADD: Here's the shiniest new comic of 2003, featuring a large cast of characters on the cover who, if you add it up, the combined length of time they've spent in the cultural consciousness totals something close to 1,000 years. Is this an exciting meeting of pop-culture icons or an opportunistic money-grab built around tired, worn-out cliches? Two decades after it was first announced, JLA/Avengers is here. And I was, I have to admit, somewhat excited about that prospect early on.
CA: Somewhat excited is pretty much how I would describe it. I remember when this was announced last year I was genuinely interested. It's just something that anyone raised on superhero comics wants to see, the meeting of both companies' big, true blue superteams.
ADD: You just can't keep Madonna out of it, can you?
CA: Not sure what you mean, but I do want to get right into the groove, seeing if Busiek and Perez have taken these characters they cherish and dressed them up, and justified their love to we, the readers waiting in breathless anticipation.
Anyway, by the time of the solicitation, I preordered the book with nary a look at the copy. I knew it was something I would get, regardless of the story. And it would seem that decision is being put to the test somewhat.
ADD: I grew up on George Perez superhero comics, I admit it. I wasn't even in my teens when Perez arrived on Avengers the first time around, bringing with him a slick, dynamic style that even the inking of Vince Colletta (on Perez's first outing) couldn't completely mask. Once a more compatible inker -- Pablo Marcos -- became Perez's regular inker, on both Avengers and Fantastic Four (the only two titles I ever subscribed to), a real era of exciting supergroup comics had dawned for Marvel readers. At least, 12-year old ones like me.
Perez has done a lot between then and now, but the one thing that has always hung over his career like the Sword of Damocles was the aborted, original iteration of this mini-series, which fell victim to disagreement between Marvel and DC after Perez had completed work on nearly two-dozen pages. (Perez discusses the situation in this interview). The original story and those pages of art are not a part of this 2003 incarnation, which is written by Perez's former Avengers colleague Kurt Busiek. Now, I would maintain that Perez mostly fulfills expectations, with plenty of intricate backgrounds and exciting action scenes. The key flaw, and it's a big one, is the paint-by-numbers script by Busiek.
CA: Or, in other words, "the freakin' GRANDMASTER?!"
This first issue, as you say, finds both creators more or less fulfilling expectations, showing the Avengers and Justice League in action, meeting and arguing, showing the differences between the teams, and the general difference in tone between the Marvel and DC Universes. Busiek's worked extensively in both. It's not a bad idea at all for the Flash to arrive on Marvel-Earth (I'm calling it this just for purposes of the review; it's not so designated in the comic) and be horrified by the lynch mob chasing the poor teen mutant. It's a bit of a stretch for Flash to take one mob as representative of the entire population, but okay, we've got a lot to cover and a lot of characters who need face time, so space is limited. There is an amusing joke involving the Justice League reminding the Avengers of the Squadron Supreme, who of course were a Marvel in-joke version of the JLA in the '70s and beyond. I'm ambivalent whether even a lengthy series such as this merits the space given to winks and nods to old fans, since I imagine plenty of newer readers will be drawn in as well. I don't care that much either way, but wish that a better main story was in place.
ADD: And although such Busiek and/or Perez efforts as The Power Company and Soulless had me braced for a mediocre effort, I have to admit that I was hoping to see this creative team working at its peak.
CA: I hate to correct you, but I think you got one of the names wrong. I'm pretty sure the cancelled Busiek book was called Poorer Company.
ADD: I think you're forgetting that you're the good cop. I've been extremely disappointed in some things Busiek and Perez have done, like Power Company or Crimson Plague, but at their best together, say, on the Ultron storyline from Avengers #19-22, you could actually believe, for a brief moment, that good stories were still possible about these characters -- something that reading either Avengers or JLA makes seem very unlikely these days. It's hard to believe it was just a few years ago that Grant Morrison's JLA was one of the hottest books around and that Busiek and Perez were doing some of their best work on Avengers. Unfortunately here, the rote nature of the JLA/Avengers script causes one to wonder where that Kurt Busiek is. Presumably Busiek was excited to get this assignment, and that kind of shines through in some of the dialogue, but the plot might has well have been generated by a computer program.
CA: Cheap shots aside, DEFENDERS not even mentioned, and good cop badge polished, I liked all of the Busiek/Perez run on AVENGERS, and AVENGERS FOREVER proves the guy can handle a kitchen sink epic with intelligence and power. But what we've got here is the same sort of cheesy quest for objects of power that has been used for decades. The Grandmaster -- a scrawny, blue-skinned senior citizen god for those not familiar -- is not an imposing menace. Games of cosmic chess just seem a little quaint for such a long-awaited project, so there's a wistful disappointment when even slightly dangerous characters like the Grant Morrison-retooled Crime Syndicate are wiped out in the span of just a few pages. If we get the Grandmaster together with the Guardians of Oa, it'll look like a January meeting of the Friar's Club when the heater's broken. I don't think Busiek's doing a terrible job -- it's competent and occasionally amusing -- but so far there's not a thrill to be found.
ADD: No, that's precisely it. From the dull, "Let's all look left" cover to the tepid reveal of the grand plot, there is indeed not a thrill to be found. And while Busiek and Perez could veer left and start using better villains and more imaginative plot developments, I'm not optimistic. And the shame of it is, I want to be. An issue of Avengers -- #161 -- is the most vivid, wonderful memory of comics I have from my childhood. And it was drawn by Perez, to boot. Busiek, between his Iron Man, Avengers and especially Astro City and Marvels, has written some of the best superhero comics ever. They've had decades to ponder the possibilities in general and many, many months to hammer down an airtight plot. But you never get a second chance to make a first impression, and the best impression this thing makes is, "It could be worse, it could be Geoff Johns."
CA: Looking for me to make a Geoff Johns joke, huh? Not this time. And I think we've covered the airless vs. airtight plot problem, but that cover just about says it all, huh? I guess we'd just be trading clichés, but one would hope the characters would be moving on it, instead of posing for a mall photographer's family portrait and looking the wrong way. "You folks want the hearth background or the giant starfish?" And while one can make the case that Perez must be engaged in the project, inking his own pencils, I found myself wishing for someone a little rougher and more energetic. I never want to return to the long-haired Superman, but Perez drew him much better back in ACTION COMICS, rather than this J.C. Penney mannequin on the cover, just to carry that mall metaphor on a bit longer. Lot of cleft chins goin' on, too. Nice hair on Wonder Woman, though.
Listen, we're having some fun at the book's expense -- and hey, it is an expense, as we'll be paying almost $50 for the whole thing when all is said and done, but it's not like it's so bad you want to chuck it across the room. It's...okay. Maybe it'll fire up next issue with some surprises, interesting character interactions and some of the ol' Perez razzle-dazzle. I'm not that optimistic, either, but there's still some promise.
ADD: I'm of the opinion that people never put in more effort to impress than in their first day on the job, so I think the odds are against the story improving; what I mainly see here under the clever gags and glossy art is wasted opportunity. Despite the combined millennium in the cultural consciousness that I mentioned at the outset, the public clearly is not totally sick of superheroes. The Matrix and Spider-Man proved there's a hunger for this sort of thing at the theaters, and I think if this story had been a little more accessible you could have seen it generate tons of positive press in the mainstream media and had kids who never bought a comic before lined up around the block to read it.
Instead, what we have here is a fanboy trivia contest, where your enjoyment of the story is diminished a little bit more every time you fail to recognize such hokey baloney as The Wand of Watoomb. I know my 7-year-old son was excited to see all these well-known superheroes on the cover, but I have to wonder if his joy at the prospects of what lie within wasn't tempered by the story's cluttered, inbred nature, and how that will translate in the long run. This could easily have been a story for the ages, and as someone who wants to pass along the joy and excitement comics can bring, I'm disappointed to see JLA/Avengers #1 more as an expensive, well-produced product that takes no chances and welcomes in no one who doesn't already know the secret handshake. Grade: 3.5/5