A SIT DOWN WITH KURT BUSIEK
July 25th 2003 01:28 AM
interview Jay McKiernan
(excerpt)
 JLA/AVENGERS #1
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AVENGERS/JLA #2
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Jay McKiernan: Now let’s get to the big one: JLA / Avengers. This might just be the most anticipated book of the year, and that’s saying a lot considering 1602 is coming out soon. How did this project come about and how were you approached?
Kurt Busiek: JLA/AVENGERS was originally slated to come out in 1982 or 1983, but rather famously fell apart over editorial disagreements and communication problems between Marvel and DC. Over the years since, every now and then, either Marvel would approach DC about trying again, or DC would approach Marvel, and each time the other side didn't want to do it for one reason or another. So it kept not happening and it became something of a holy grail for superhero buffs -- a legendary "lost project." A few years ago, shortly after DC had approached Marvel again, Joe Quesada became editor in chief at Marvel, and started looking into why it hadn't been done. To Brevoort outlines for him the various attempts over the years and why they'd fallen apart, and Joe said, "Well, none of that applies now. Let's do it."
So Tom contacted whoever at DC had made the latest overture, and the project got rolling.
George Perez was the obvious and only choice as artist, since he'd been the artist on it the first time around, he's considered one of the all-time greats among superhero artists, and he was just coming off an acclaimed run on AVENGERS. At the time, I was writing AVENGERS and Mark Waid was writing JLA, so the easiest thing would be for the two of us to co-write, but Mark had just signed an exclusive deal with CrossGen about a week before JLA/AVENGERS became a go project, so the book got offered to me solo. For which I will always be grateful to both Mark Waid and Mark Alessi.
JM: Was it difficult to work on this book, feeling the pressure because of all the expectations, or was it very easy to get a handle on this mini-series?
KB: We knew that there was enormous expectation out there, but we also knew that there was no way we were going to meet it all -- no matter what we do, some readers are going to be disappointed. So we just made sure we'd have enough room to do a big, sprawling project where we could go places that maybe the readers weren't expecting, tried to come up with a storyline worthy of the two teams, and stopped worrying about it. The pressure's there whatever we do, so it's not too much of a factor.
Beyond that, I'm familiar with both teams, and am working with good editors and a top-notch artist. So some of it was tricky, some was easy, but we came up with what we think is a sweeping and enjoyable adventure with a lot of scope, a lot of action, room for character stuff and a few surprises. With any luck, the readers will have at least as much fun with it as we did.
JM: Did the presence of George Perez as the artist make this much easier? You had a great working relationship with him on the Avengers and did that continue with this book?
KB: Absolutely. After three years of working with George, I have enormous faith in his storytelling abilities -- I know that I can give him pages I wouldn't dare give to another penciler, and he'll make them work. I also know a lot about what he most likes to draw and what he doesn't, and he knows that I trust him, that he can take the story and rework it, staging it his way as long as it tells the underlying story. So yeah, that familiarity and experience gave us a very solid grounding. Plus, George is very much the 800-pound gorilla on this book -- polite and considerate, but he's indispensable to the project, and having George saying, "I want to do it this way" made it easier to set it up the way we wanted it.
