I didn't buy the series when it came out, but planned to get the eventual collection. I generally prefer that to the 48-page squarebound "prestige format", especially for comics with full-bleed artwork and lots of double-page spreads. Unfortunately, the only reprint they offered in the immediate aftermath of the original publication was a $75 oversized hardcover in 2005, packaged with a second book full of extras. By 2008, after a few years of nothing else coming out, I figured no affordable collection was on the way, and at a convention happened upon a dealer who had a half-longbox filled with copies of #2 and #4 of the series for $1 each. Picked up those (well, one of each), found a copy of #1 at another dealer $3. Had to mail order #3 for a relatively extortionary $5, and between the time I ordered it and receiving it they announced a $20 softcover reprint, which came out in late 2008. I considered picking it up at the time, but was in no hurry (and it was a pretty sparse package, without most of the extras included in the hardcover), and it appears to have quickly fallen out of print and remained that way. Because why would you want to have a popular book called JLA/AVENGERS available to purchase in an era when Avengers became a household name with three of the top ten grossing movies of all time and the JLA... also had a movie come out?
Anyway, there is another softcover edition, coming, with the extras from the hardcover, and benefitting charity, as a tribute to Pérez (who recently announced he was terminally ill and in hospice care). Unfortunately it's a limited edition, so I'm unlikely to get it. Maybe if there's a more widely available version in the near future. There are also a few other DC/Marvel co-publications long out of print that I wouldn't mind seeing new editions of.
Anyway, pulled out the series to re-read for the first time in quite a few years. It's pretty fun stuff, unabashedly fan-service, I'm not quite sure if it makes sense to anyone who's not as deeply immersed in the minutia of the DC and Marvel super-hero publishing history as much as I unfortunately am, but I guess there are quite a few people in that boat. Even I only understand the broad strokes of it, there are a lot of little details that refer to stories I never read. I'm not sure how he managed it, but Busiek somehow avoids bogging down the story by explaining most of the references but explaining enough that anyone can follow the story and be rewarded by the references they happen to get. It also works, in large part thanks to the Pérez artwork, always detailed, somehow bringing consistency to a story involving hundreds of characters originally designed by wildly disparate creators.
Anyway, I've had fun every time I've read it, so if you're able to pick up a copy of the upcoming reprint I'd suggest you do so.
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