Published May 15, 2026, 5:45 PM EDT
Nicolas Ayala is a Senior Writer for the Comics team at ScreenRant, with over five years of experience writing about Superhero media, action movies, and TV shows.
The best Marvel and DC crossover in comic book history just received a new cover from a legendary artist. The Marvel and DC multiverses are so immense that even their most expansive crossovers can only ever scratch the surface of their respective realities, leaving countless characters and entire dimensions untouched. Within their own boundaries, a single multiverse contains an infinite array of alternate realities, which makes it a statistical impossibility for any localized event to feature every Marvel and DC hero, villain, or variant in existence.
Marvel and DC crossovers are few and far between. The tradition began in 1976 with the monumental Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man, which paved the way for later iconic face-offs like 1981's Batman vs. The Incredible Hulk and the short-lived 1996 Amalgam Universe. After a multi-decade freeze driven by corporate competition, DC and Marvel recently reignited their partnership with a wave of localized, one-on-one crossovers that began with the dual Deadpool/Batman and Batman/Deadpool one-shots, as well as Superman/Spider-Man and Spider-Man/Superman.
As Marvel and DC's casual collaborations continue with The Flash/Fantastic Four, Thor/Shazam!, It's Jeff/Aquaman, and Supergirl/Blade, both companies take a look back at one of their biggest shared efforts.
Marvel Unveils Alex Ross' Tribute To George Perez With A Stunning Avengers Vs Justice League Cover
Avengers/JLA #4; Written ByKurt Busiek; Art By George Pérez
Apart from the exciting new titles both companies announce for the rest of the year, Marvel and DC regularly announce re-releases of famous comics, usually with updated art. This year, Marvel and DC collaborate to update the historical 2003 crossover JLA/Avengers for a modern audience. To celebrate, artist Alex Ross remakes George Pérez's iconic Avengers vs Justice League cover with his unmistakable hyperrealistic art style.
Alex Ross is the perfect artist to pay homage to a fabled name as big as George Pérez. Not only has Ross created some of the most memorable covers in recent years, including those of The Immortal Hulk and The Immortal Thor, but he has also remade and paid homage to iconic covers like those of 1984's Secret Wars and 1991's X-Men (Vol. 2) #1. Ross also illustrated DC's Kingdom Come and the World's Greatest Super-Heroes series that includes the iconic Superman: Peace on Earth and Wonder Woman: Spirit of Truth.
Avengers / JLA Is A Landmark Of The Comic Book Medium
Kurt Busiek & George Perez's Marvel & DC Crossover Can't Be Replicated, But It Deserves A Sequel
The 2003 limited series JLA/Avengers is a rare achievement of Marvel and DC's intercompany cooperation. Written by Kurt Busiek and meticulously illustrated by George Pérez, this four-issue masterpiece served as the ultimate love letter to the Big Two. It successfully wove decades of convoluted history into a coherent, large-scale crossover. Pérez’s breathtaking art famously featured almost every single character who had ever been a member of either team, rendered with a level of detail and passion that summarized Pérez's legendary career.
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The sheer logistical and legal nightmare of coordinating such an event between two competing corporate giants means that the original crossover cannot be truly replicated. JLA/Avengers is an extraordinary time capsule that captures both universes at a very specific, monumental juncture in their respective histories. Published before major status-quo-shattering events like Avengers Disassembled and Infinite Crisis, JLA/Avengers features both teams' classic line-ups at the height of their modern eras, complete with the return of once-dead heroes like Barry Allen and Hal Jordan.
Both universes have evolved dramatically over the last two decades. The emergence of a vibrant new generation of heroes has created an entirely fresh landscape for character dynamics that didn't exist back in 2003. The introduction of newer Marvel characters like Miles Morales and the Young Avengers, and newer DC characters like Jon Kent and DC's current generation of Green Lanterns warrants a sequel to Busiek and Pérez's JLA/Avengers, possibly written and illustrated by Marvel and DC's biggest stars of today.
Avengers/JLA #4 fascimile edition is available from Marvel & DC on August 26, 2026.
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