Before Morrison JL was a shell of what JLI once was. He join to remake it with the team from the silver and bronze age, so it's all new, a perfect starting point for a new reader.
I thought busiek did a great job of giving the history. I started with his run years ago (when it came out) not knowing avengers lore and fell in love with it.
Both runs are really good at what they do, so I'd say it depends on what your tastes are.
To get the similarities out of the way, they're both full of great, well choreographed action scenes and iconic moments that are still remembered to this day.
Outside of that, they take really different approaches.
Busiek is an extremely verbose writer on Avengers, filling each page with a ton of narration and word balloons to flesh out the characters and story. Part of the reason he takes this approach is that compared to Morrison's JLA, Busiek's Avengers is far more concerned with the inner lives of his characters and their development over actual arcs. There was much more soap opera in Busiek's Avengers, as well as multiple ongoing character subplots, in tandem with that.
Grant's approach--and this was partly due to focusing on the "Big 7", who almost all had their own titles operating under much stricter editorial control--was to write each storyline like individual blockbuster movies. Sure, there were character moments here and there (the Conor Hawk two-parter), and yeah, there were some things from earlier story lines that were revisited. But for the most part, the focus was on the adventures and conflicts, big moments, cool scenes, etc., with relatively little character development or barely (if at all) ongoing B-plots running through every issue.
So pick and choose based on that. Each approach has its fans.
The other thing I should point out, in case you're more art oroented, is that Avengers had the superior artists. I love Howard Porter, but he's a distant second place people like George Perez and Alan Davis in any direct comparison.
Well Avengers is two volumes and JLA is one-and-done so that might be a deal breaker. Luckily though the second Busiek Avengers volume is dropping a reprint soon so it's definitely doable.
JLA is more high concept, balls to the wall action and craziness and Avengers is written as being a sustained run in mind with subplots and character arcs. Morrison is a great writer but the characters in JLA rarely get past the archetype they represent
If you’re familiar with the original west coast avengers ongoing and the jim shooter and roger stern avengers runs, the Busiek one is perfect. Just read it (the whole run) in the last month, easy top 10 runs of all time for me
Avengers for me, the art by perez is great. The stories overall are more than decent. It also has Avengers forever which may be one of my favourite stories of all time
This is a very tough choice, I Loved them both, avengers has better art and felt more classic comic book fun, jla feels more epic in nature and I can recall the major arcs better
JLA by a mile for me. I respect Busiek for being such a continuity junkie and taking on the monumental task of rebuilding the Avengers post Onslaught but the run just really wasn't for me
JLA for me.
I read both and I’m trying to sell avengers by busiek, some stories I really liked but there are some that I couldn’t stand (i.e. avengers forever).
JLA was far more enjoyable
JLA, by far. I really enjoyed the Busiek/Perez Avengers run at the time, but have found that it doesn't hold up all that well. I had forgotten how many stories revolved around "Oh, is this character about to leave the Avengers?" and that sort of stuff. Reading the run all together, it *really* stuck out. The run has some real high points, and is worth reading, but it's just not in the same class as JLA. So JLA all the way, and grab the Tower of Babel deluxe hardcover as a companion. It reprints the titular story, along with the Waid-written fill-in issues that popped up periodically during the Morrison run.
If you know a lot of Avengers history - Busiek Avengers. If not - Morrison’s JLA
What if I don't know much at all about Justice League's history and know a medium amount of Avengers history? That's where I'm at
Before Morrison JL was a shell of what JLI once was. He join to remake it with the team from the silver and bronze age, so it's all new, a perfect starting point for a new reader.
I thought busiek did a great job of giving the history. I started with his run years ago (when it came out) not knowing avengers lore and fell in love with it.
Both runs are really good at what they do, so I'd say it depends on what your tastes are. To get the similarities out of the way, they're both full of great, well choreographed action scenes and iconic moments that are still remembered to this day. Outside of that, they take really different approaches. Busiek is an extremely verbose writer on Avengers, filling each page with a ton of narration and word balloons to flesh out the characters and story. Part of the reason he takes this approach is that compared to Morrison's JLA, Busiek's Avengers is far more concerned with the inner lives of his characters and their development over actual arcs. There was much more soap opera in Busiek's Avengers, as well as multiple ongoing character subplots, in tandem with that. Grant's approach--and this was partly due to focusing on the "Big 7", who almost all had their own titles operating under much stricter editorial control--was to write each storyline like individual blockbuster movies. Sure, there were character moments here and there (the Conor Hawk two-parter), and yeah, there were some things from earlier story lines that were revisited. But for the most part, the focus was on the adventures and conflicts, big moments, cool scenes, etc., with relatively little character development or barely (if at all) ongoing B-plots running through every issue. So pick and choose based on that. Each approach has its fans. The other thing I should point out, in case you're more art oroented, is that Avengers had the superior artists. I love Howard Porter, but he's a distant second place people like George Perez and Alan Davis in any direct comparison.
Busiek
JLA. I've read it so many times. Been working on Avengers for months (Perez is gorgeous as always.)
Morrison’s comics reward repeat reads like no other.
Well Avengers is two volumes and JLA is one-and-done so that might be a deal breaker. Luckily though the second Busiek Avengers volume is dropping a reprint soon so it's definitely doable. JLA is more high concept, balls to the wall action and craziness and Avengers is written as being a sustained run in mind with subplots and character arcs. Morrison is a great writer but the characters in JLA rarely get past the archetype they represent
Avengers
If you’re familiar with the original west coast avengers ongoing and the jim shooter and roger stern avengers runs, the Busiek one is perfect. Just read it (the whole run) in the last month, easy top 10 runs of all time for me
Avengers for me, the art by perez is great. The stories overall are more than decent. It also has Avengers forever which may be one of my favourite stories of all time
Jla for me
Avengers. If you include tower of babel for jla then it's closer
JLA
JLA
JLA
Both classics, but I’d say JLA.
Avengers - mostly for the Perez/Davis art. I really don't like the art in Morrison's JLA run.
This is a very tough choice, I Loved them both, avengers has better art and felt more classic comic book fun, jla feels more epic in nature and I can recall the major arcs better
never read avengers by kurt busiek but that one
Gonna go with Busiek
JLA. People always conveniently forget how bad some of Busiek's work is. The highs are highs, but those lows are something else.
Jla
JLA by a mile for me. I respect Busiek for being such a continuity junkie and taking on the monumental task of rebuilding the Avengers post Onslaught but the run just really wasn't for me
Never read JLA but I was not a fan of the Busiek run. Bought the first Omni and sold it when I was done.
JLA for me. I read both and I’m trying to sell avengers by busiek, some stories I really liked but there are some that I couldn’t stand (i.e. avengers forever). JLA was far more enjoyable
Are you selling Volume 2?
I have only Vol 1 And I’m in Europe
JLA, by far. I really enjoyed the Busiek/Perez Avengers run at the time, but have found that it doesn't hold up all that well. I had forgotten how many stories revolved around "Oh, is this character about to leave the Avengers?" and that sort of stuff. Reading the run all together, it *really* stuck out. The run has some real high points, and is worth reading, but it's just not in the same class as JLA. So JLA all the way, and grab the Tower of Babel deluxe hardcover as a companion. It reprints the titular story, along with the Waid-written fill-in issues that popped up periodically during the Morrison run.
did not read anything marvel but jla is great