History ComicBook / JLAAvengers

[[caption-width-right:250: BigDamnHeroes personified.]]

* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: Krona casually and effortlessly whacks ComicBook/{{Galactus}} [[ComicBook/SecretWars like a bug]], which makes perfect sense as he had destroyed a significant number of universes at that point, and overpowered infinitely more powerful entities such as Eternity. And then builds a house out of him. Let it never be forgotten that Krona beat a planet-devouring entity within a minute, then ''built a house out of him''.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Even more than you'd expect, since the final issue features ''everyone'' who'd ever been on the roster of either team up until that point fighting virtually every villain they'd ever faced. That number gets really big considering that just about every major hero in the Marvel Universe has been an Avenger (save Comicbook/{{Daredevil}} pre-''ComicBook/FearItself'' and [[ComicBook/FantasticFour the Human Torch]] pre-ComicBook/SecretWars [[note]]That's, obviously, without mentioning basically 99% of the ComicBook/XMen[[/note]]), and no small number of heroes have joined the Justice League, including many members of the ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica.

* PoorCommunicationKills: Many of the fights in issues 1 and 2 could have been easily avoided had the League and Avengers actually discussed what was happening instead of pointing fingers at each other.

** Hawkeye's (and the readers') reaction to [[spoiler:seeing the Infinity Gauntlet on the fist of Darkseid. However, Darkseid discards it when he learns that the powers the gauntlet should allow him to control don't exist in the DC Universe]]. Made even better by the fact that Hawkeye recognizes Darkseid as being the most evil being in the multiverse even though he never met him (he says Darkseid "looks even worse than ComicBook/{{Thanos}}, if that's even possible").

* ButtMonkey: Poor Wally West really gets the short end of the stick in this one. On his first visit to the Marvel Universe, he discovers that he has lost his powers, as there is no Speed Force there. He is summarily beaten by an angry mob mistaking him for one of ComicBook/{{Magneto}}'s Acolytes. He then gets owned by Iron Man. And then by Quicksilver (much to the latter's delight). Then he is completely AWOL in the big brawl at the climax (save a one-panel cameo as Dark Flash) and shows up at the very end, having ''just missed'' a chance to see Barry.
** He is owned by Quicksilver on their ''third'' encounter. Wally won the first two (though the second one was kind of accidental, because he was more worried about outrunning {{ComicBook/Darkseid}}'s Omega Beams than beating Quicksilver).

** Played straight with Hawkeye and Green Arrow. Clint is the better archer. Is key to saving the day, becomes the only hero in either universe to be inducted into both the Avengers ''and'' the Justice League. Then, to add insult to injury in issue #3 when the worlds are combined into a [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] utopia, he's dating Black Canary.

** Averted, predictably enough. Dr. Light yells "Captain Marvel -- look out!" [[ComicBook/CaptainMarVell Marvel Captain Marvel]] and [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} DC Captain Marvel]] simultaneously thank her. And in the background of that panel is Monica Rambeau/Photon, who originally went by "Captain Marvel" as well.

Originally, the crossover -- which would have pitted the teams against their respective enemies Kang the Conqueror and the Lord of Time -- was meant to come out in the early 1980s; noted artist George Perez, who had worked on both team's titles, was set to draw it. But some behind-the-scenes conflict (allegedly, Marvel's then Editor-in-Chief, Creator/JimShooter, pointed out some story errors -- such as the hero ComicBook/{{Quicksilver}} being as fast as ComicBook/TheFlash -- and asked for a rewrite, which was not well-received by the DC people) led to the project's cancellation, despite Perez having already drawn several pages. This caused resentments that prevented the companies from doing crossovers again for several years, and left many comics fans disappointed.

* LegacyCharacter: It's genuinely touching to see Barry Allen and Hal Jordan assuring each other that Wally West and Kyle Rayner will continue their legacies after they've died. [[BackFromTheDead Well, it was more poignant back in 2004…]]

* CrapsackWorld: Although it's played for laughs, Marvel!Earth really does come off as this when compared to DC!Earth, judging by the differing treatments that the superheroes receive. InUniverse, the Avengers even speculate that DC!Earth may be a CrapsaccharineWorld, where the "shiny gloss" conceals super-powered tyranny or some such thing. Then again, Marvel started out as a {{Deconstruction}} and built itself on the concept where the threats were far more powerful than the heroes, which is why the {{MacGuffin}}s from the Marvel Universe can wipe out ''reality'', while the artifacts from the DC Universe are relatively less dangerous and more functional; the Green Lantern itself is one of them.

** Averted, predictably enough. Dr. Light yells "Captain Marvel -- look out!" [[ComicBook/CaptainMarVell Marvel!Captain Marvel]] and [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} DC!Captain Marvel]] simultaneously thank her. And in the background of that panel is Monica Rambeau/Photon, who originally went by "Captain Marvel" as well.

* TheWorfEffect: Terminus manages to briefly incapacitate Superman. Starro turns Thor into a brainwashed slave. After this, Superman and Thor spend most of the story giving each other the Worf Effect.
** Captain America and Batman also each take down one of their counterpart's most troublesome foes. During the final battle, Captain America defeats Prometheus [[note]]whose helmet allows him to fight as skillfully as the world's greatest fighters (including Batman himself -- whose abilities he explicitly said he'd be using), has taken on the entire Justice League, and beat Batman in their first fight[[/note]]. On the next page, Batman is seen taking down Taskmaster [[note]]whose photographic reflexes allow him to fight as skillfully as any fighter he's ever watched (including Captain America himself), has taken on the entire Avengers team, and has won a round against Cap at least once[[/note]], right after having beaten Batroc, whom Bats commends as being fast and skillful. Notably, Taskmaster wasn't the only one who showed up to fight the Bat at that moment: he was with people like Crossbones, Titania, Zaran, Razorfist, Libra and others. Could the Dark Knight take them all alone? Maybe, maybe not. But then…

** WorfHadTheFlu: Captain America beating Prometheus is at least given a bit of {{Foreshadowing}} in issue #1, where Batman admits that Cap could beat him in a hand–to–hand fight (though perhaps not easily, and certainly not quickly). So, Prometheus using ''only'' Batman's skills ultimately fails to defeat Cap, though their fight does seem to continue through no less than two time–shifts.

** Hawkeye's(and the readers') reaction to [[spoiler:seeing the Infinity Gauntlet on the fist of Darkseid. However, Darkseid discards it when he learns that the powers the gauntlet should allow him to control don't exist in the DC Universe]]. Made even better by the fact that Hawkeye recognizes Darkseid as being the most evil being in the multiverse even though he never met him (he says Darkseid "looks even worse than ComicBook/{{Thanos}}, if that's even possible").

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: Plenty of them in the moments where many characters are on-panel. An example is the fight that opens volume 2, when you can see Batman do a flying kick right through an intangible Vision. The "whoa!" the look on Bats' face as he does so is priceless.

* OnceUponATime: The narration of each chapter starts with this phrase word-for-word after their epilogues. Given the fancy print and placement of the phrase -- especially in the first chapter -- it can be argued that "Once Upon A Time" may be the name of the story itself.

** Hercules, due to a misunderstanding gets beaten up by Wonder Woman. Later he's nearly killed by Screaming Mimi's SonicScream, only to be rescued by Black Canary... [[{{Irony}} another sonic scream user]].

* LegacyCharacter: It's genuinely touching to see Barry Allen and Hal Jordan assuring each other that Wally West and Kyle Rayner will continue their legacies after they've died. [[BackFromTheDead Well, it was more poignant back in 2004...]]

--> Panel 5: Iron Man is in his thirteenth armor of the crossover, tying the score once more, but he's cleary tiring and we're not sure he has another in him...

** Franchise/{{Superman}} fighting Count Nefaria, a Marvel villain who was originally created as a parody/homage/AlternateCompanyEquivalent of... Superman.

** Franchise/WonderWoman angrily attacking Marvel's [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHercules Hercules]], referring to him as the "despoiler of Hippolyta". In the Franchise/DCUniverse, Heracles (a villain) at one point enslaved and raped Hippolyta (Wonder Woman's mother). In the Franchise/MarvelUniverse, Hercules (a lovable hero who ReallyGetsAround) did at one point have an affair with Hippolyta... who's actually considered a ''villain'' there. (The event is based in Myth/ClassicalMythology, where Heracles/Hercules seduced Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, and stole her belt. Marvel and DC both gave it their own spin.)

** Batman, Comicbook/BlackPanther, Comicbook/{{Huntress}} and Comicbook/BlackWidow teaming up... and the scene shifts elsewhere.

-->'''Superman:''' Tell yourself that, Mister... ''Ease'' yourself to sleep at night while you let your world go to ''Hell''! Where I come from, though... '''''LIVES MATTER!'''''

** Captain America and Batman also each take down one of their counterpart's most troublesome foes. During the final battle, Captain America defeats Prometheus [[note]]whose helmet allows him to fight as skillfully as the world's greatest fighters (including Batman himself -- whose abilities he explicitly said he'd be using), has taken on the entire Justice League, and beat Batman in their first fight[[/note]]. On the next page, Batman is seen taking down Taskmaster [[note]]whose photographic reflexes allow him to fight as skillfully as any fighter he's ever watched (including Captain America himself), has taken on the entire Avengers team, and has won a round against Cap at least once[[/note]], right after having beaten Batroc, whom Bats commends as being fast and skillful. Notably, Taskmaster wasn't the only one who showed up to fight the Bat at that moment: he was with people like Crossbones, Titania, Zaran, Razorfist, Libra and others. Could the Dark Knight take them all alone? Maybe, maybe not. But then...

'''Batman:''' If you've got nothing better to do...\\

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Metron asks Krona if it's ''knowledge'' he's looking for - or ''power''.

* ColorFailure: During Issue #3 when the two worlds separate once more, the colors are so faded the characters are nearly monochrome in a few panels. This isn't because of the snow - snow wouldn't affect a character's color scheme after all. It's just to indicate that something has gone ''very'' wrong with the world(s).

* DoesNotLikeGuns: Namechecked by Batman, of course; when Tony tells Bruce that he's sorry the modifications sacrificed the Atlantean warcraft's guns, Bruce replies he didn't care - he doesn't like guns.

* HoldTheLine: The entire final battle is just to get Supes (armed with Cap's shield) to Krona - everyone else's job is to clear the way, leading to many such moments, including Wonder Woman, who gets some help from Hippolyta and She-Hulk (see the Heartwarming page for details).

** Several of the confrontations of this are of this nature; a partial subversion occurs between Batman and Captain America, however, who briefly test each other's skills before deciding that continuing the fight - which Batman states the Cap could, eventually, win - would be a waste of effort that would be better served finding out ''why'' they were put in that position in the first place. Batman even says, in effect, "Let them and them fight" while they look for answers.

* PaintingTheMedium: Lots of it in the latter issues - Panels breaking, colors being faded, etc. At one point, the heroes are staring at each other through the weakened barrier between their universes. Said barrier is shaped like Krona's face, in place of the usual panel borders.

The story involves Krona, a DC villain turned cosmic, obsessed with discovering how universes are born, and tearing several of them apart in the process. To save his universe, The Grandmaster, a cosmic being from the Marvel Universe, offered to give Krona the knowledge he wanted... '''if''' he beat Grandmaster in a game. Krona accepted. The "game" was to force the two superhero teams to compete against each other (without telling them the real reason) over several artifacts scattered over their worlds - notably, each being backed the team of the opposing universe. This turned out to be a plan of the Grandmaster's to imprison Krona; it also resulted in a change of reality, creating a world where both teams had always co-existed. However, they discover the truth, and, finding out that Krona is about to free himself, decide to join forces to beat him once and for all. Alterations of time result in virtually every hero who had ever been an Avenger or a Leaguer showing up to help (but so did their enemies, under Krona's control). In the end, Krona is defeated and reality is restored to normal on both worlds.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar:
-->'''Batman:''' (''when he and Cap find him in the Grandmaster's base'') Atom?\\
'''[[ComicBook/TheAtom Atom]]:''' In the six-inch flesh, Batman!

* CrapsackWorld: Although it's played for laughs, Marvel!Earth really does come off as this when compared to DC!Earth, judging by the differing treatments that the superheroes receive. InUniverse, the Avengers even speculate that DC!Earth may be a CrapsaccharineWorld, where the "shiny gloss" conceals super-powered tyranny or some such thing.

[[caption-width-right:250: Big Damn Heroes personified.]]

** Darkseid gets ahold of the Infinity Gauntlet, which would normally fall under the category of ''worst thing that could ever happen'', but its vast power to manipulate reality is attuned to a ''different'' reality so it's useless to him.[[note]]Considering Darkseid wouldn't fall for some of the same {{Villain Ball}}s Thanos did when wielding it, it would have been ''real bad''. Darkseid is pretty no-nonsense and straightforward.[[/note]]

** ComicBook/IronMan designs a complicated weapon that Lantern can then generate and use[[note]]Kyle Rayner's day job as an artist also helps, plus his constructs tend to be more complicated than his GL partners due to this[[/note]].

** Despite being [[DramaPreservingHandicap unable to use his powers]] in the Marvel universe, [[ComicBook/TheFlash Wally West]] should still be [[StorybreakerPower fast enough]] to defeat most of the Avengers by himself. As it is, Wally is limited to the basic speedster skill set: running fast, dodging attacks, and little else.

** At one point near the end of issue #4, at Iron Man's direction, Green Lantern whips up a large energy gun that's identical to Iron Man's [[VideoGame/CapcomVs Proton Cannon]].