JLA/AVENGERS UPDATE
Tuesday, March 20, 2001

Although the JLA/Avengers crossover by Kurt Busiek and George Perez remains unscheduled and more than a year away, editors of the project said that fans will get a chance to see small parts of it, possibly this year.

"I imagine we'll probably be releasing glimpses of little stuff as the year progresses," DC's Dan Raspler said at the recent news conference. "We're not going to leave everyone out in the cold. Because once the stuff starts coming in, I'm sure everyone's going to want to see it."

"We'll have regular sort of progress updates once a month," Marvel's Tom Brevoort said. "We'll be releasing a panel or two panels on the Internet or what not, so that people can see little glimpses and know the fact that we're actually proceeding."

Raspler said there's a possibility of companion books or products for the crossover.

"I would imagine there will be of some kind," Raspler said. "This is not an official announcement or anything like that, but I imagine that we will want to do something like that to make it more special."

"That's all down the road right now," Brevoort said. "Right now we're worried about the actual book. Once, we get that figured out, then we'll figure out what ancillary things we want to do."

The creators said they are looking forward to mixing the teams' members.

"It's sort of thing that makes the best story even better is the chemical combinations between the personalities and with both teams, they're so extreme, it would be a lot of fun," Raspler said.

"It's worth pointing out, it's Avengers/JLA, not Avengers vs. JLA," Brevoort said. "And while there will probably be conflicts and there will probably be battles, that's not the point. The story that we're telling and these two teams - how they're the same, how they're different, how they interact -- and what makes these two universes special places, that's what the story's about. We'll get to the battles - assuming there are battles - where they fit the story rather than make the story the battle."

Added Perez: "I enjoy the character interaction. These are individuals facing each other, not just costumes."

Which characters do the creators hope to see interact?

Said Raspler: "I want to see Thor and Superman. I'm really psyched about that."

Said Perez: "With Thor and Wonder Woman, you'll have a mythological god with a woman who worships a different pantheon. Both of them are really fascinating. I think of the back-and-forth debate and not just who's stronger than who. I think that's what the fans want to see. Ideologically, how would they react to somebody so radically different for the first time?"

Said Brevoort: "I'm more interested in seeing the characters that you don't tend to lump against one another interact. I'm more interested in seeing how Batman and Hawkeye interact than I am Batman and Captain America because on some level it's parallel with Batman and Captain America. They fit a certain role on their teams. Those are the moments I'm looking most forward to, sort of the odd matchups." Busiek emphasized the teams.

"Inevitably when people start talking about this, it's this character should fight this character and this character should fight this character," Busiek said. "As if it's like one-on-one celebrity elimination wrestling. But these guys are teams. If it was one-on-one, it could be Superman/Thor as a project, it could be Batman/Captain America as project. This is Avengers/JLA. It's about team interaction."