OK.
When I first started collecting comics regularly back in the mid-80's it was a couple of years after the original JLA/Avengers crossover fell through. The first JLA comics I bought were the Vibe-Vixen-Steel-Gypsy issues, and I never bought Avengers at the time. So I had no interest in the failed original crossover between the two (assuming I was even aware of it in the first place).
When the new version of the crossover came out last year, I still wasn't excited over the whole thing, but being open-minded (and afraid these would be hard-to-find books that I'd regret not picking up) I figured I'd check it out. And it still didn't interest me.
But, you know, I wanted to give it another chance. So when I heard about the hardcover collector's edition, I thought the same thing I thought might happen with the individual issues - this would become a hard-to-find collector's item and I'd never get a chance to buy it after it came out. So today comes around and I go to my local comic shop and the owner has a couple of these. I asked him to hold one for me because I thought I might find one cheaper on eBay, but the owner offered me a $10 discount if I wanted to buy it (cover price is $75), and I knew it wasn't that much less in the eBay auctions I saw, so I picked it up for sure.
Enough of the backstory, now for the review:
Slipcase: The slipcase and two books are as big as the Absolute Authority hardcovers released recently. The slipcase features the complete wraparound cover to JLA/Avengers 3.
Hardcover 1: The first hardcover reprints the whole story plus a few extras. It features two introductions by both Stan Lee and Julius Schwartz detailing the history of how the two superhero teams were created. The Schwartz part was nice to see as sort of a final word from him before his death. At the end of the story is a character guide to all the characters appearing on that issue 3 cover (that cover ends up getting reprinted three times in this set).
Hardcover 2: This supplements the crossover and features the following.
- A little history on DC and Marvel's crossovers through the years. Included are two pages reprinted from Batman 237 showing the Rutland Halloween parade, a short mention of the origin of that sequence, and the comics which featured a Rutland Halloween parade crossover.
- A short history on DC and Marvel's official crossovers and a list of the TPBs collecting those stories.
- Reprinted articles from Marvel Age 19 and the Meanwhile... column on why the original crossover fell through.
- The 21 pencilled pages (seven of which are photostats) that Perez drew for the original crossover and Perez's page-by-page description of those pages, as well as his recollection of the rest of the original story.
- Busiek's outline for the newer series and an alternate outline for part of issue 3.
- Annotations to the story.
My opinion: It's cool to have a book like this for no other reason than to see Perez pretty much attempt "Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Sequel" with the number of characters and scenes included in the story. This is something that I wasn't crazy about at first but I'm sure I'll warm up to it. The character guide and annotations are my favorite parts and I know I'll check them out again. My only complaint, and it's minor, is that the original JLA/Avengers plot shown in the supplementary book was recollected by Perez alone. It would be nice if its writers (Conway and Thomas, I guess) contributed and told what they remembered (Perez makes it sound like the original plot is lost). But that one quibble aside, anyone who liked the series should get this book.
