As everyone probably knows, the first JLA/Avengers crossover took place in 1969.
As Roy Thomas explains it, “This initial takeoff on 4 members of DC’s Justice League was the result of writer Mike Friedrich suggesting to JLA writer Denny O’Neil and me, at a party at my apartment, that each of us find a way to slip the other’s group into the comic he was writing.” Thomas slipped them into a three-part Avengers story pitting Kang the Conqueror against a new adversary, the Grandmaster.
In #69. the team is keeping watch over Tony Stark’s hospital room (from injuries received battling a rogue LMD in Iron Man) when they’re attacked by Kang’s android Growing Man (the more you hit him — the bigger he grows!). They end up getting sucked into the future where Kang tells them he needs their help. In his previous battle with the team (#23-4), Ravonna, the woman Kang loved, died to save him from a double-crossing underling. Or did she? Cap’s Kookie Quartet returned to the present wondering if they’d ever know.
It turns out Kang saved Ravonna’s life by putting her in suspended animation. Alas, she was too far gone for even 40th century science to restore her to full life. A year before #69, Kang was bemoaning — undoubtedly not for the first time — that if he only had power over life and death, he’d resurrect her to rule by his side.
Enter the Grandmaster, a cosmic gambler who offers Kang a second chance at love. They’ll each pick teams of warriors, with Kang getting that precious power of life and death if his gladiators win. If he loses, Earth will be retconned out of existence. Needless to say, Kang picked the most formidable team he knows for his champions.
At the end of the issue we meet the Justice League’s counterparts, the Squadron Sinister. In #70, they go into action. Thor, Cap, Goliath and Iron Man defeat counterparts of Superman (Hyperion), Batman (Nightwing), Flash (the Whizzer) and Green Lantern (Doctor Spectrum). However Goliath wins his round against the Whizzer with the uninvited help of the Black Knight. The Grandmaster announces a foul for outsiders intervening and grants Kang only a partial win for this round.
The final installment sends Yellowjacket, T’Challa and the Vision back to 1941 to battle Captain America, Namor and the Human Torch on the streets of Paris. We get no explanation why the Golden Agers are in occupied Paris though Roy would provide one several years later in Invaders (which also explains why even though the fight really takes place in 1942, Cap wields his original shield). In any case, the Avengers win and return to Kang’s throne room in the 40th century. The Grandmaster declares that due to the partial-victory thing, Kang can have the power of life or the power of death — not both. Kang decides he’d sooner see the Avengers dead than Ravonna alive.
With the Grandmaster’s power amping him up, Kang effortlessly crushes his old foes. Fortunately the Black Knight found a way to join them in the future and jumps the Conqueror. As he’s not an Avenger, Kang’s enhanced power doesn’t affect him. Kang loses his revenge along with his second shot at love.
I’ve read this arc several times but with my analytical rereading the Silver Age hat on, I noticed a few things this time out. First, it’s obvious Kang was planning to double-cross the Avengers from the beginning. His initial reference to getting the power of life and death sounds like he’s talking about the power to revive Ravonna. The Grandmaster ruling that he has to choose between life and death makes it clear that with a solid win, Kang would have gotten both the power to revive and the power to kill. Three guesses whom he’d have used the latter on.
Even if Kang had played straight with his old foes, he’s not as sympathetic or tragic as the story paints him. To restore one person, he’s gambling the lives of billions — everyone who has ever lived or will ever live on Earth, all wiped from existence if he loses. That’s not romantic, it’s monstrous.
Roy’s handling of the Wasp isn’t monstrous but it isn’t good. As I mentioned writing about Hank and Jan’s wedding, starting with #57 Roy writes Jan as unable to do anything but scream. Here she’s abducted into the future with the others but she winds up imprisoned while the guys do the fighting. It would be less sexist if she’d stayed in the present. It’s reminiscent of how since Roy took over Incredible Hulk — overall doing a better job with Herb Trimpe than the Stan Lee/Trimpe team — Betty Brant has no role in the plot except to stare at her father and beg him to be nicer to Bruce.
I think I’ve seen that identical scene a half-dozen times in the Thomas/Trimpe run already.
On the bad guys’ side, there are two interesting points about the Squadron Sinister. One is that while the Whizzer takes his name from the Golden-Age Hero, he explicitly identifies him as a comic-book character. I’m sure that’s a callback to Barry Allen picking the “Flash” name out of an old comic book; it also shows that Marvel hasn’t yet embraced its Golden Age as part of Earth-616 history. Sure, Cap, Namor and the original Human Torch are canon (though Fantastic Four Annual #4 treats the original Torch as being an obscure bar-trivia question), as is Red Raven of all people, but the default seems to be that most of Marvel’s line were pure fiction.
Then there’s Nighthawk. When Kyle Richmond turned hero a few years later in Defenders, neither he nor anyone else brought up that he willingly worked for the Grandmaster, knowing Earth’s existence was at stake (the Grandmaster would have saved Nighthawk). That’s completely evil, though fixing it is an easy retcon — the potion that gave Kyle his enhanced abilities also addled his brain for a while.
Roy Thomas is a much better writer than Denny O’Neil so it’s no surprise Justice League of America #75, “In Each Man There Is a Demon” (O’Neil and Dick Dillin) is a much worse story. A side-effect of the battle with Aquarius the previous issue leads to the League manifesting their dark sides, who function as Avengers stand-ins. As there’s little resemblance between, say, Dark Hawkman and Iron Man so O’Neil strains to make it work.
Likewise Atom’s Dark Side turns out to be not Ant Man but Goliath.
To give O’Neil his due, he continues the status-quo shakeup that began with the Martian Manhunter leaving. Neal Adams gave Ollie a social conscience in a recent Brave and the Bold; now O’Neil takes away his money.
I don’t know if O’Neil had Green Lantern/Green Arrow in mind at the time but Ollie gets his first left-wing firebrand speech a couple of issues later (stay tuned). Another change this issue is Black Canary. After all, you can’t have a chick with no super-powers fighting in the JLA, right? Not even one who’s been in the game for decades.
Fortunately Black Canary’s no longer just a martial artist with canary-summoning powers.
Surprisingly, having given her a new power, O’Neil seemed reluctant to use it. The following issue shows it’s too erratic to use casually, for example blasting people standing behind her instead of in front of her. IIRC it wasn’t until the late 1970s that her “sonic song” became a regular part of her skill set.
It would take much less time for Ollie/Dinah to become a thing and O’Neil’s definitely seeding that here.
Dinah, don’t you see the answer’s sitting right next to you?
Avengers covers by Sal Buscema, Hulk art by Trimpe, JLA by Dick Dillin
