This issue absolutely brought out every ounce of pure comic geekiness I have within me.
I loved seeing the Avengers and JLA react to each other’s worlds, Batman taking out the Punisher off panel (with no prep time, either!), Thanagarians vs. Skrulls, and of course the first controntation.
Wonder Woman is pissed.
I’m anticipating the next issue so much I almost wish I’d waited for the TPB so I could read it all at once. I’m sure there are faults that I’ll find once I get over my initial “omfg Thor hit Superman” phase.
I don’t know exactly which heroes are the main focus, but I do known that Perez insisted that everyone that was ever a member of either team was going to be somewhere in the story. He wanted to draw them all. :eek: Makes me wonder about his sanity.
I had a good idea what Hawkeye was thinking of when he was bothered by something at the back of his mind after seeing the JLA for the first time. I was just wondering which Avenger was going to mention it first. “Mind controlled” Hilarious to us Marvel Zombies, it made me laugh out loud when I was reading it in bed.
As far as the main rosters, we got:
Avengers:
Captain America
Thor
Iron Man
Wasp
Yellowjacket
Hawkeye
Vision
Quicksilver
JLA:
Superman
Wonder Woman
Flash
Aquaman
Batman
Green Lantern
Plastic Man
Atom
Oh, Shy Guy, did you notice…not only did Thor clobber Supes, but he made him bleed pretty profusely. Eat magic hammer, Big Blue!
Man, you mean they got Superman’s magic weakness wrong?
He’s not allergic to magic, he’s just as vulnerable to it as the next guy. IOW, a magic hammer which has the power to hit really hard wouldn’t particularly phase him (well, no more than anything else that hits really hard, say a small tactical nuke ;)), but a wizard could turn him into a frog, or something.
If Thor’s hammer could take him out, then Wonder Woman or Captain (“Shazam”) Marvel could bitchslap him across town any day of the week, and that’s just not so.
To be honest, they never mention the “magic” in Mjolnir, but getting hit by Thor’s hammer with the speed and power it was thrown probably would feel like a tactical nuke
Does anyone else think it’s cheap that the Soul (Infinity) Gems count as one item?
And Marvel CAN bitchslap Superman, and has done so, both in Kingdom and in regular comics (Which is the reason I have such a mad-on for Black Adam. All the power, none of the morals.). Of course, the problem is taking Superman by surprise…
Aquaman? Come on! That’s just sad. Why put in Fishboy when they could use MM?
Compulsive? This is Perez we’re talking about. He’ll put every single person remotely connected to both teams in there even if he has to draw them only 2 mm high. Even then they’ll be more detailed than a lot of other artist’s normal sized renderings.
I wasn’t expecting much from the story, but I really am hooked. I normally don’t like “cosmic” stories, but this is working out nicely.
It sounds very interesting. I may have to venture into a comic book store after all these years…
As for Thor beating Superman…well that has been coming for sometime. He really is the toughest of all of the Marvel “regular” superheros and with the lightning and magical hammer (as well as the strength and speed) he should beat Supes. A little plug here, I predicted this some time ago on the “Who is the most powerful marvel regular superhero thread”. Pat me.
Max Carnage Wrote:
To be honest, they never mention the “magic” in Mjolnir, but getting hit by Thor’s hammer with the speed and power it was thrown probably would feel like a tactical nuke
Also, Batman v. Captain America will be nice. They are both quiet insane when you look at it. I don’t think Cap has a chance since Batman is evidently omnipotent but it may be fun nonetheless.
No, it was a horribly short “fight” where Bats and Cap were in a sewer, a sudden wave caused Cap to misthrow his shield and miss(!) his intended target, whereas Batman had no trouble throwing a batarang and knocking out Cap.
Very very lame and not a punch was thrown. Cap has taken much more than a thunk on the head while kicking Ratzi ass. Some guy throwing a stick ought not be enough to take him out.
Luckily a 4 issue mini series will give us much more room for expanded fights.
I also like that this story doesn’t seem to be set in the Access/Marvel 616/Earth-1 Universes as no one seems to recognize anyone in their opposing universes.
Nope. Well, yeah, “Ratzi” meaning “Nazi.” Back in the war, “Ratzi” was thrown around as a derogative of “Nazi” and Cap and Sgt Fury used the term quite a bit IIRC.
DC:
*Destiny’s Book: Everything that has ever happened and ever will happen is written in Destiny’s book. One of the Endless, Destiny narrated the History of the DC Universe right after the Crisis on Infinite Earths back in 1985.
*Orb of Ra: This object gave Metamorpho his powers
*Power Battery: Every Green Lantern has one of these. They are the power source for the rings.
*Spear of Destiny: a Roman Centurion used this to pierce Christ’s side on the cross. In the DCU, it’s a powerful mystical artifact that was used by Hitler to keep all the American superheroes out of Fortress Europa for most of WWII (which is why Green Lantern didn’t win the war single-handed)
*Medusa Mask: The wearer (usually the Goden Age Psycho-Pirate) can control your emotions and remember the Crisis on Infinite Earths.
*Bell, Wheel and Jar: Totems of the demons Abednezer, Rath and Ghast. I think the early JLA fought them.
Marvel:
*The Infinity Gems: Only one is properly called the Soul Gem. The other gems are for power, time, space, the mind and reality. Put all six together and you’ll either become God or cancel them all out, depending on the mood of the being called Infinity. At various times, these have been wielded by the Elders of the Universe, the High Evolutionary, Adam Warlock and the Infinity Watch.
*Wand of Watoomb: I think Dr. Strange beat Dormammu with this once.
*The Ultimate Nullifier: Can nullify the universe. Reed Richards used this to repel Galactus the first time he noticed Earth, and also threatened him into promising to keep Earth off his menu forever. Looks like a tape measure.
*Cosmic Cube: There are actually a bunch of these, and they’re not all cubes. Hold it in your hand and whatever you want will become real. The Red Skull built the first one and promptly lost it.
*The Evil Eye: Wielded by the time-traveling Prester Jon of Avalon, it’s an all-purpose mystic weapon on par with a Green Lantern battey/ring combo. It was split into six pieces by an explosion, and Loki & Dormammu–in a plot very similar to this story, come to think of it, using a lot of the same characters–used the Avengers and Defenders to retrieve them.
*Casket of Ancient Winters: I really should have paid more attention to the Simonson issues of Thor; I think this restrains Malekith.
No, I don’t think I’m too old to be reading comic books.
He’s not with the JLA when they confront the Avengers because the Watcher has materialized in front of the JLA Watchtower and they have no idea what’s going on, so MM stays to keep an eye on him.
Ohhh yeah. I can’t wait to see Superman after he’s gotten up from that blow. The fight next ish should be intense.
And they didn’t really play up the vulnerability to magic thing. As Max said, Thor just throws really, really hard and his hammer is indestructible. You see Superman geting up from the blow the next page, so it didn’t even knock him unconscious.
[spoiler]I know some of them
Green Lantern’s battery is obvious.
The spear of destiny is the only weapon that can harm the Spectre and was used by Hitler to keep superheroes out of Germany in WW2.
The Medusa Mask is used by the Psycho Pirate.
The Orb of Ra turned Metamorpho into… Metamorpho.
Not sure about the Eternity book, and I read that the Bell, Wheel, and Jar are from a really really old JLA story.
Anyone care to clarify the Marvel items? All I really know are the Infinity Gems, the Ultimate Nullifyer, and the Cosmic Cube
[/spoiler]
