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I was thinking about this earlier. Thru the magic of hindsight, I'd probably have used the original Avengers and the original JLA, set in a non-specific time period. Have the JLA go to New York to check out the Avengers, since the latter group has a dangerous monster -- the Hulk -- as one of their "members".

Sure, some fans would have been ticked off that the book wasn't about the most current members, or, more likely, every single member -- but a wise man once said you can't please everybody!

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On behalf of artists everywhere, may I suggest you don't ask for that sketch. Let George offer, or let it pass.

"Bear in mind that the second Perez image above was NOT for the
JLA/Avengers that published this decade, it was a recreation of the aborted
1983 crossover cover, meaning not meant for publication. Also, it appears
to me that the recreation was drawn at a smaller dimension than the
original. I wouldn't be looking at the quality of the second work too harshly. "

Vinny; I believe Perez did some recreation of that piece. But the second image posted is from the JLA/Avengers issue #3 page 12. ;)

Dan James; I am green with envy. I HAVE to ask... How much did you pay for it?? (No you don't have to answer)

"In one thing I read, Kurt said he wrote this series as a farewell for fans
because NuMarvel was changing the way comics were being written. "

Kip Lewis; That does not surprise me in the least.... that is exactly how it felt reading the comics. Agreed... it was not perfect... but damn how it was fun. I had a similar feeling reading the New Teen titans; Games OGN lately.

My biggest complaint about the series is that it felt so cluttered -- like Busiek couldn't decide which characters to use, which versions of the teams to go with, which previous story lines to ripoff pay homage to.  So he just went with everything.

I found the series to be a great deal of fun, in the sense that it WAS such an epic exercise in fan-think. So many conundrums, inside jokes, comparisions, etc... It's exactly was many fans would try to do themselves if given such a book to work on.

Overall, I found the characterizations to be solid, but the friction between the two continuums grew a bit thick sometimes, as each team perceived the other to be somehow intrinsically opposed to them, almost a take on Morrison's "Earth 2" novel that he did with Quitely.

All that being said, I would have preferred the single universe approach. What we got didn't rankle my nerves too much, but it was simply "more of the same" with the cosmic scale, the multiverses, the constant "reboots" altering the timeline...

It felt more "DC" because DC's stock-in-trade at the time this was published was again, through constant fan-think, exactly this sort of multiversal rigamorale... Parallel universes, counterparts upon counterparts, constants reboots and restarts rejiggering the timeline and altering everyone's memories and perceptions...

Using the parallel dimension trope to explain why the two teams had never met was really the easy way out for the writer. Making this their "first" encounter ever made it easy to play all of his long-held cards without acknowledging any of the other team-ups or having to come up with reasons for why the world's two premiere super-teams interact with one another so rarely.

Also, the plot begins to write itself once you show that there are two universes... Obviously, they must be in opposition... Perhaps in danger of colliding... The big gun villains in the two universes, perhaps they have plans dependent upon there being two worlds...

With that, the way into the story becomes the whole story.

In one of the rejiggered timelines shown in the book, the teams have always co-existed on the same Earth and are shown having a JLA/JSA style get-together aboard the satellite, trading quips and conversation as if they were all long-standing acquaintances rather than wary, hostile strangers bent on defending their home dimensions from odd-seeming alien invaders.

Oh, to have had the whole thing take place in that briefly-glimpsed reality...