One complaint you can't make about Avengers/JLA is that nothing happens. A lot happens. On every page. In fact, it almost feels like maybe these creators have overstuffed the book, and we rarely get to slow down and see the smaller moments that I was really hoping to see in amidst the big cosmic crossover. That said, however, Busiek and Perez once again deliver an issue that is guaranteed to cause a geekgasm, full of characters both major and minor facing off and full of references to the super-hero universes that both teams inhabit. The first issue was an introduction of sorts to the characters, this one a trip through locales, as the heroes visit a variety of places both well-known and less so in the homes of their foes, intent on the plot device of the items in each universe that they've been sent to quest for. This is a book that will leave the casual fan bewildered and maybe downright annoyed, but for anyone who loves these characters, it's a treat.
Busiek knew that a clash between these teams had to be epic and cosmic, and so he brought in some of the cosmic phenomena on both sides. The reason for the scavenger hunts is revealed in the opening pages of this issue, and it will come as little surprise to those who know the Grandmaster's modus operandi, although the stakes at hand and the prize to be won made for a pretty nifty little twist. The plotting is, as in the first issue, a transparent device to get these characters to do what Busiek wants, but it's pretty easy to forgive that, because anyone who has been reading super-hero comics long enough to enjoy this has also seen all this cosmic crossover stuff before; the familiarity is part of the point, and part of the fun.
When you're playing around with intercompany crossovers, the trick is to provide as much juxtaposition as possible, and that's what Busiek does. DC characters in standard Marvel settings and vice versa, unlikely team-ups between DC and Marvel heroes where they discover a few similarities about themselves and plenty of battles to satisfy the "Who'd win" crowd that has been debating the Superman/Thor thing since the dawn of the super-hero age is the order of the day. It was a treat to see all these settings, as Busiek hits the obvious (Batcave, Blue Area of the Moon, Savage Land) as well as a few less-obvious ones (Santa Rico, Happy Harbor). Seeing these fish out of water moments is a big part of the attraction of the book.
Another attraction is seeing these two characters interact, and that is where Avengers/JLA is starting to come up a bit short. In trying to fit in so many characters, Busiek and Perez have made almost every character's role that of a cameo. Even the most meaty parts of the issue, a team-up between Batman and Captain America, feels relatively small and rushed. And some crucial match-ups I'd been hoping to see, such as Green Arrow vs. Hawkeye to name one, are relegated to one panel throwaways. Perez's art is fantastically detailed, and it's always astounding to see how he can put so many panels on a page and make them clear, but there's only so much that can happen in those tiny panels, and the fights are cramped as a result. Given that the intercompany brou-ha-ha is a big part of the attraction, it's a shame that the conflicts so far have been so easy and so quick.
One thing I have to credit this team with, in addition to hitting a lot of the right fanboy buttons, is that they clearly have put thought into this beyond just doing the obvious with these characters. Sure, the formula for the opening part of the story is as old as crossovers themselves, but there's a wink and nod at the audience that the creators know this, and by the end of issue two, what had been driving the story no longer is. Instead, there's a climactic finale that leads into the next part, and while the general thrust of the next issue is easy to guess, the overall structure of the story retains enough mystery to keep me guessing.
