Avengers or JLA?

[Iron Man]

Both of the Big Two's flagship superhero teams date back to the Sixties, and their long histories have featured periods of success as well as periods of stagnation. For the last few years, and especially now, I think it's fair to say that the Avengers have been thriving while the JLA have been floundering a bit with very little solid direction.

But which team do you prefer overall?

I'm not gonna narrow it down to any particular facet - you can make the decision on any basis you like, be it characters, past stories, current stories, writers, artists, etc.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I've always preferred the Avengers. They're a powerful team, but they've always felt more like a family to me than the Justice League. That's part of why I was so disappointed to see Bendis drag them into a more JLA-ish direction after "Avengers: Disassembled." Thankfully, it's coming back to the core concept a bit more now.

 

[Franklin Richards]

That's easy.


Fantastic Four.

 

[Raiden]

I prefer Avengers over JLA, simply because Avengers to me feels more like a team than JLA does. Avengers may have powerful superheroes like Thor & Iron Man, but they all defer to Capt. America, who may not have the greatest superpowers but he leads by his experience and leadership quality. JLA has Superman, who is not known as the greatest leader (imo) but has abilities that can make him into an one-man army, and makes me wonder why they'd have members like Hawkman who doesn't really add much to the team. Anyway, that's the way I see it.

 

[Drz]

I love Grant Morrison's JLA and the few Mark Waid JLA stories i've read, tho i gotta also say i really do love the Ultimates/Ultimate Avengers. Both books have great writing, characters and emotional level for me. I mean i never really knew Kyle Rayner even tho i read GLC, but i really liked how Morrison made Flash and Kyle into these good friends even tho they start off disliking each other.

I also really enjoy the Authority, but overall i've read more good JLA stories compared to Avengers or Authority. I also really enjoyed the Dark Avengers, it had this really cool theme of villains waving the american flag while being real monsters.

 

[hippie_hunter]

I prefer the Avengers over the JLA.

With the Justice League any hero that isn't a part of the Big 7 and a specific set of B-listers feels out of place and has no place in the League. Asides from Justice League International any Justice League team that is essentially not this:

note: replace Hawkgirl with Firestorm

Is for the most part best left forgotten.

With the Avengers though Marvel's major characters (Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Spider-Man) aren't placed on as high a pedestal as DC's Big 7. You don't need the Hulk and Spider-Man on the Avengers, and quite often you don't have Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor on the Avengers at the same time as well. The Avengers roster has always been more flexible than the rather static Justice League roster mostly because the team changed dramatically right at the team's very beginnings with Hulk leaving, the entire team leaving in favor of Captain America and His Kooky Quartet, and allowing characters like the Vision, Hawkeye, Hank Pym, Justice, and whatnot to really shine and thrive throughout Avengers history.

The Justice League feels more like a gathering of Earth's most powerful and recognizable heroes banded together due to a sense of responsibility to protect the Earth and that's it. The Avengers however feel more like their gathering was due to fate. That being an Avenger is a core part of their character as opposed to being a part of the Justice League just being a part of the job.

And while most of my favorite characters are Leaguers, I just honestly prefer the Avengers over the Justice League.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I definitely agree about the membership. As great as the "big three" of the Avengers are, they're not essential. The real core of the Avengers, for me, has always been Hank Pym, Hawkeye, the Vision, Jan, the Scarlet Witch, and Captain America. As long as a couple of those characters are on the team, it feels suitably Avengery, and then the creators are free to put in whoever else they want.

 

[hippie_hunter]

I definitely agree about the membership. As great as the "big three" of the Avengers are, they're not essential. The real core of the Avengers, for me, has always been Hank Pym, Hawkeye, the Vision, Jan, the Scarlet Witch, and Captain America. As long as a couple of those characters are on the team, it feels suitably Avengery, and then the creators are free to put in whoever else they want.

Even Wolverine

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Nope, Wolverine is a clearly cynical cash-grab, so I still despise his presence on the team. Spider-Man's similar, but he could actually have a conceivable interest in joining the Avengers (for the prestige of being on such a visible and respected team), so I let him slide. Wolverine, on the other hand, serves literally no purpose on the Avengers besides enticing Wolverine fanboys to buy Avengers comics, and the stated reason for his inclusion on the team--Iron Man arbitrarily deciding they need a go-to killer--brings the very concept of the Avengers as a whole down.

 

[hippie_hunter]

Nope, Wolverine is a clearly cynical cash-grab, so I still despise his presence on the team. Spider-Man's similar, but he could actually have a conceivable interest in joining the Avengers (for the prestige of being on such a visible and respected team), so I let him slide. Wolverine, on the other hand, serves literally no purpose on the Avengers besides enticing Wolverine fanboys to buy Avengers comics, and the stated reason for his inclusion on the team--Iron Man arbitrarily deciding they need a go-to killer--brings the very concept of the Avengers as a whole down.

But what if this were the roster:

Captain America, Beast, Thor, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Hank Pym, Jan, Hawkeye, and Wolverine

Would you still hate the team?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Not the team as a whole, but it'd still rankle me to see Wolverine on there. I don't hate the team now, really, and I'll be reading Avengers in a month, which will feature Wolveirne. But like Sesame Street said, "One of these things is not like the others."

 

[hippie_hunter]

It's nice to have someone who shares my animosity towards Wolverine being on the Avengers.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I'm sure we're not the only ones.

 

[Raiden]

It's nice to have someone who shares my animosity towards Wolverine being on the Avengers.

I like Wolverine, but I also think his inclusion in the Avengers is just a money-grabbing move by Marvel, and he doesn't belong in the team. He has enough books devoted to him anyway.

 

[mjdiddy1]

I guess the question is which team can survive and remain interesting without it's "Big Three"? Essentially this is what JLA is trying to do...sort of (if you don't count Mon El, Dick Grayson, & Donna Troy). And the Avengers somewhat survive that experiment albeit in three distinct versions. I have to go with the Avengers because they are far more interesting and relatiable because of that 'every man' factor. JLA has always struck me as 'Gods trying to enforce' the human populace to do what they as heros/'Gods' deam as being right.

 

[CantThinkOfAName]

It's nice to have someone who shares my animosity towards Wolverine being on the Avengers.

His appearance in Black Widow #1 was kind of funny. When Bucky asks why he's there, he says "Business." One of the better unintentional jabs at Wolverine in a comic.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Heh, subtle.

 

[CantThinkOfAName]

As opposed to...

 

[Spider-Jay420]

Wolverine plays so little a part as an Avenger anyway, he's more like a reserve Avenger at this point. I mean really, how many Avengers missions he gone on? I don't mind him on the team. NO, he's not an Avenger, but helping them out every now and then is cool. I really liked when JMS was writing ASM, and Logan was just hanging out in the Tower drinking beer and watching TV. Funny.

As far as the JLA goes, I do prefer the Avengers, but I'm a total Marvel guy, so I'm biased, absolutely. I'm really only interested in DC when Superman and Batman are involved. The only JLA I read was Morrison's relaunch up through issue 100. But I loved his original line-up. I'm looking forward to the upcoming Avengers with the marqee characters on the team. "A" list all the way. Bendis has been rocking Seige, so hopefully he can keep it going for the Avengers relaunch.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Wolverine doing virtually nothing as an Avenger doesn't miraculously make his being an Avenger any better. It just means that Bendis is terrible at focusing on individual characters within a team book, which we already knew. See the immortal invisible Iron Fist in New Avengers for further proof of that.

 

[hippie_hunter]

Essentially this is what JLA is trying to do...sort of (if you don't count Mon El, Dick Grayson, & Donna Troy).

And guess what? Robinson's roster sucks hard. I would be down with an almost all Titans Justice League but he has to mess it up with Starman, Congorilla, Jade, Jessie Quick, Red Tornado, and Supergirl.

Seriously, he couldn't put Wally on the League? Now would have been a good time to have Roy on the League as opposed to Meltzer's introduction. Maybe get Kyle to fill in the role of Green Lantern as opposed to Super Skank. And you know what, I'd like Garth to be alive once more.

 

[Jennifer Walters]

I like what Robinson's trying to do with the roster, but it's not really working out for him.

I've always enjoyed the feel of the Avengers more, for me anyone can be an Avenger and it still feels right, with the Justice League, I sometimes scratch my head and go ''Really? He/She is on the Justice League now?" I recently did this with Congorilla.

 

[chamber-music]

I definitely agree about the membership. As great as the "big three" of the Avengers are, they're not essential. The real core of the Avengers, for me, has always been Hank Pym, Hawkeye, the Vision, Jan, the Scarlet Witch, and Captain America. As long as a couple of those characters are on the team, it feels suitably Avengery, and then the creators are free to put in whoever else they want.

I feel the same way. My perfect core Avengers line up would be

Captain America
Thor
Iron Man
Hank Pym
Hawkeye
Black Widow or Ms Marvel

I would rather see Wonder Man back in the Avengers over Wolverine.

 

[random_havoc]

As opposed to...

Man that is some terrible art

 

[random_havoc]

Not the team as a whole, but it'd still rankle me to see Wolverine on there. I don't hate the team now, really, and I'll be reading Avengers in a month, which will feature Wolveirne. But like Sesame Street said, "One of these things is not like the others."

I just can't wait until they put out the exciting new team book: WOLVERINE! ... and the avengers.