2002 PREVIEWS
JLA/AVENGERS
Almost 20 years in the making, can 2002's hottest projects live up to its hype?
Hype isn't quite the right word - try phenomenon.
During the past two decades, a lot has changed about the project - from the writers to the editors to how many issues the series would be. Everything's changed, that is, except for the involvement of artist George Pérez. While company squabbles between Marvel and DC have scuttled the project numerous times, Pérez never gave up on the project he was born to draw. Even when the first attempt at a JLA/Avengers one-shot was scrapped in 1983, for which Pérez penciled 21 pages of the monster crossover, the ultra-detailed-oriented artist didn't give up hope.
"This isn't just a big deal for fans, this is the project I've dreamed of doing for 20 years," Pérez stresses. "It broke my heart when they told me it wasn't going to happen the first time. When I got past page 21 this time, I actually took a break and finished off the Chronicles work I was doing for CrossGen so I could be totally committed to finishing Avengers/JLA."
Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada made green-lighting the JLA/Avengers project one of his top priorities in 2001, and soon after Quesada took his post, Pérez was the first to step up and say he'd immediately sign on to the most highly anticipated comic project of all time.
While Pérez has no doubt how huge the upcoming four-issue mini-series by himself and writer Kurt Busiek will be, he says he'd also well aware of how high fan expectations will rise when DC and Marvel's top two teams meet in the first issue, planned for late 2002. (The prestige format series will see Marvel publish issue #1 and #3 and DC Comics publish issue #2 and #4).
In fact, fan expecation is so high for the series, Busiek's keeping most of his plans close to the vest. While he says there's definitely going to be some fighting and a huge threat to both teams, he won't say much more. But he did reveal a few morsels to tease fans into a frenzy and assures the crossover will indeed live up to its hype.
"There's a cosmic threat that endangers all reality. It involves both teams and it sprawls over tons of locations, from Manhattan to Metropolis to the far reaches of space," Busiek offers. "But details? I want people to read the book to get those. I hae to say, I think we've got the perfect Batman-Captain America fight, and it's just the way it should happen, and most of the people I've told about it seem to agree. We'll just have to see if the fans think so."