Posted in: Avengers, Comics, DC Comics, Justice League, Marvel Comics | Tagged: crossover, tom brevoort

The JLA/Avengers Crossover Regret That Tom Brevoort Still Clings To…

The JLA/Avengers Crossover Regret from 2003 that Marvel Comics' Tom Brevoort still clings to...

Marvel Executive Editor and SVP Tom Brevoort wasn't just talking about the ins and outs of the current Marvel/DC crossover, but in his Word Balloon podcast interview with John Siuntres, he also looked back at the 2003 JLA/Avengers crossover miniseries by Kurt Busiek and George Pérez.  Tom Brevoort revealed that a key subplot originally planned for issue #3 was scrapped mid-process, and the change still "drives me nuts to this day." The idea? A full universe swap sequence where Marvel characters would suddenly exist in the DC world (and vice versa) as the two realities merged. Brevoort, who edited the Marvel side of the project alongside DC's Dan Raspler, described how the concept emerged during an intensive plotting session in Florida after an Orlando con: "One of the ideas that came up that everybody was really excited about was, in issue three, the two universes have come together. We would enter a world where it was like the Marvel characters in the DC world and the DC characters in the Marvel world."

Kurt Busiek began scripting issue #3 with this in mind, but the team quickly hit a wall. Brevoort explained the core problem: by 2003, the Marvel and DC universes had converged so much in tone, style, and structure that the swap felt forced rather than revelatory. "We just couldn't make it work. It didn't work the way we sort of thought it would. By the year 2000, the difference between the DC universe and the Marvel universe, other than one has a Gotham City and one doesn't, they weren't really different in the sort of way that they were in the sixties. And so we were building these big contraptions that were taking pages and that weren't really getting to the spirit of the thing. So at a certain point, we had to go and crack the story back open again."

The subplot was dropped, and the issue was replotted – but opening the story back up created ripple effects. And Tom Brevoort's counterpart at DC, Dan Raspler, raised concerns about another element in the issue, leading to further changes: "As we started to replot that stuff, Dan Raspler had a problem with another thing that was in that issue, and because we'd opened it back up now, that was in play as well, and so suddenly that bit got changed and thrown out as well. I'm not as happy with how that part of it resolved. Ultimately, it bugs me, nobody else on Earth. Maybe it bugs Kurt, maybe it bugged George. I don't know."

Brevoort stressed that the final book is beloved, saying that "most readers have not been complaining about JLA Avengers over the last 20 years", and the compromise was reached amicably. But for him, that one specific "mechanism of the plot" remains a sore spot, though he declined to detail it further, noting it's "mostly down to a difference of opinion" and ultimately "my problem rather than their problem."

The conversation also touched on related fan backlash from the series, particularly the definitive Superman vs. Thor fight in issue #2. Brevoort recalled the pre-publication fan suggestions flooding in via a dedicated email. "One of the things that came in by the pound was fans on both sides of the equation saying we want real fights with a real winner and a real loser and no being mealy mouthing about it. And so we did Superman Vs Thor. And it turns out that in that moment, Superman beats Thor, and every Thor fan on the planet went bananas. And they came back with bargaining. Well, couldn't you have made it a tie, or couldn't you have…  dude, last week you were saying we will not accept the tie. We want a definitive winner clearly…" He added wryly, "that's probably my greatest crime in comics was letting Superman beat Thor to certain people."

JLA/Avengers is currently being reprinted in facsimile editions by Marvel, and DC remains a high-water mark for inter-company crossovers… maybe the new Spider-Man/Superman will join it? And of course, at some point, you know Marvel and DC will do Justice League/Avengers again… maybe for the 25th anniversary in 2028? And maybe Tom Breevort will get to fix that regret?

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