Review: Avengers JLA

Back in the day, I had a huge comic collection. I didn't collect any particular titles. I just read anything and everything -- Marvel, DC, Atlas, even the odd issue of Archie. I remember when my den mother found out I had amassed over 100-plus comics and berated me over what a waste it was to have over $25 tied up in a comics collection! How times (and prices) have changed!

I gracefully bowed out of comic collecting after Marvel cancelled the U.S. edition of its Doctor Who comic. I still pick up Teen Titans Go and Justice League Adventures for my son, but I only pick up graphic novels myself now -- usually reprints of stuff from my childhood such as Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and The New Gods. It takes something truly special to make me plunk down four or five bucks (!) on a single issue.

Avengers JLA was a four-issue miniseries that I just couldn't resist. Yeah, I'm a 36 year-old geezer who spends most of his time reading religion & philosophy, but c'mon -- I'm still an eight year-old fanboy at heart. This was a chance to see Earth's Mightiest Heroes duke it out with the World's Greatest Superheroes! I've always been a sucker for DC/Marvel Crossovers ever since I read Superman versus Spiderman in 1976.

The story starts out promising enough, with the Grandmaster challenging Krona to a game using the Avengers and the JLA as unwitting pawns. George Pérez turns out some of the best artwork I've seen in a long time and captures each character beautifully, which is no mean feat considering the large cast involved. I especially liked the sequences where the heroes switched realities and their reactions to each other's earths. The JLA is disgusted with the anarchy and corruption of the Marvel Universe, while The Avengers are speechless at the way heroes in the DC Universe are almost worshipped. Good so far. But the much anticipated battle between the superteams in issue two comes across as almost an anticlimax and the limited series never really recovers. It just got worse with each installment, like The Matrix movies. By issues three and four, writer Kurt Busiek dispenses with the story altogether and the comic just becomes an endless parade of cameos as -- ahem -- reality begins to shift and the rosters of the superteams keeps changing.

Avengers JLA was a great premise that unfortunately disappeared up its own rear end. Frankly, my friends and I thought up better Marvel/DC crossovers playing with our Mego Action Figures at recess. The only thing I regret more than reading it is the realization that I just spent $24 on four comics -- roughly the same amount I had invested in my much better collection as a third-grader!