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JLA/Avengers
Book One: A Journey Into Mystery
1[of 4]/SEP/2003
Publisher: DC Comics/Marvel Comics
Writer: Kurt Busiek
Pencils: George Perez
Inks: George Perez
Colors: Tom Smith
Letters: Comicraft
Price: $5.95 US/R67.00 SA
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After twenty years the wait is finally over. George Perez
[Solus] first started artwork on this timeless
crossover all those years ago only to be thwarted by in-fighting
between the two publishing giants of DC and Marvel.
Thankfully for all you patient fans out there they got their respective
behinds into gear and now we have the long awaited, unrivalled slugfest
that is JLA/Avengers to look forward to over the
next few months.
A force larger than any planet, in fact one that can threaten entire
universes has come looking for trouble. Strange beings and monsters
from an unknown dimension have begun to attack major cities in both
the Avengers and JLA world’s. It’s up to these two super-teams
to figure out what’s happening and what the stakes are…
Kurt Busiek [Arrowsmith] begins
this four part epic crossover with a story to match his cast. It’s
a pretty old-school tale of big ‘dimension roaming,
planet eating, all powerful super beings trying to take over the
entire universe as we know it’ proportions. This
seems largely outdated and very campy in relation to most other
modern day comics. There is of course a reason for this, you won’t
find another book quite like this anywhere in stores, it’s
a huge fan-boy attraction that’s been in production and inside
creator’s heads for over twenty years now. It’s bound
to be a bit of a bronze age meets the eighties meets new school
affair and with two universes, DC and Marvel, it’s always
going to be forced to have some wacky ‘inter-dimensional super
being threatens two alternate realities’ vibe going on in
order to feasibly get both teams on the same page.
Apart from the storyline being a bit over the top the book is still
great fun to read, thanks in no small part to the solid artwork
of George Perez. I must admit that the art doesn’t impress
me as much as I feel it should. It’s consistent and Perez
is most definitely a legend who has proven that he can draw
just about any Superhero alive and with his ability to
draw huge double page spread fight scenes it would be hard to fault
the choice of having him on art duties. It’s more the fact
that the inking and colouring mixed with the pencils gives the book
an overall eighties feel. It just seems this entire crossover
has stayed about 20 - 30 years behind modern day comics
and is struggling to break out of that campy crossover ‘big
fight’ feel.
If you are a true comics fan you will undoubtedly enjoy this. All
your favourites are here and both teams have some classic moments
in this first issue. It’s not all it could be though, but
with twenty years of waiting, ‘over expectation’
is always a problem. A solid start to a classic superhero crossover
showdown.
Score 7/10
Reviewed By:Iain Duncan
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Comic Reviews
