X-Men/New Teen Titans #2: the team-up you didn't see
[in response to a letter in NEW TEEN TITANS #29, 1982]
[...] sorry you didn't care for the DC/MARVEL crossover (although we did) but maybe the next one will be more your liking. What? Next One? Yes, we hereby announce the next TEEN TITANS/X-MEN meeting, scheduled for Christmas 1983, this time produced by DC. drawn by George Pérez and written by me. Marv Wolfman. If you're interested in making suggestions as to Who the villains should be. please hurry. We're going to begin working on the story any week now.
And since we really liked Chris's. Walt's and Terry's work on number one, well. Our job is going to be even harder. We went to produce the best team-up yet.
[from the NEW TEEN TITANS lettercol #38, 1983]
The second Titans/X-Men team-up will be published later this year if schedules are willing. George will be drawing it and Marv will write. It should be a goodie. One advanced bit of info is the villains: Brother Blood and The Hellfire Club. Interested now?
[The team-up was eventually scrapped because of a fall-out between Marvel and DC concerning JLA/Avengers, which was also being planned at this time.]
X-Men/New Teen Titans #2: Marv Speaks
[Marv Wolfman Interview - Amazing Heroes #50, 1984]
Wolfman has also been affected by the apparent death of the JLA/Avengers book, because he was slated as the writer for the follow-up Titans/X-Men comic. Wolfman says, "I'm sorry it happened. I'm not angry at anybody. I'm more sorry from a financial viewpoint that I am anything else, because the Titans/X-Men would have done phenomenally well. I would have loved to have pocketed the money. The only thing I'm really sorry about is that the companies didn't talk to each other properly. I don't know who's at fault, I don't get involved with politics. It doesn't really matter to me who's at fault. I'm sorry because I would have loved to do the Titans/X-Men. I had worked out a real good plot. The week before it all fell through, Chris Claremont came over and typed in the next year's worth of X-Men into my word processor so that I could work on it and know exactly how to fit it into continuity. We talked about a lot of stuff that would go into the book. Chris had given me some ideas; I had given him some ideas on the first one. I think it could have been a fun story."
"I hope that, someday, the animosity that was created vanishes and that the companies feel that they can get back together. At this point, the only one losing, finances notwithstanding, is really the reader."
X-Men/New Teen Titans #2: George Speaks
[George Pérez Interview - Amazing Heroes #50, 1984]
Knowing the scene for what it is, when one has to make a stand, and facing what's at stake was the watchword for one of the greatest losses suffered by both Marvel and DC, and that was the elimination of the JLA-Avengers special from any kind of scheduled release. A book that Pérez had always dreamed of illustrating, and a fandom desire for years, the process which led to this book s premature death has become one of the ugliest contraversies of recent years. It affected Pérez deeply, turning the amiable illustrator from one of the few who left Marvel with none of the ill will that some of its most recent expatriates have felt towards the company, into a figure of cold, deliberative anger where this subject is concerned. Citing improper editorial procrastination by Marvel as the JLA/Avengers deathknell, it's the only time that Pérez has publicly lost his temper. His reason is quite clear and focused, however, channeling the anger into constructive analysis.
It is this hearty analysis which has brought sharp attention to this matter; one which has not only killed the JLA-Avenger special, but the projected Titans/X-Men special by Wolfman and Pérez as well. "As of now, it's without a creative team, as are the Titans/X-Men, obviously. They have to figure some kind of way wherein they can publicly acknowledge that Dick Giordano and Jim Shooter have kissed and made up, as it were.
"Obviously, it's a lot more complicated than that but, basically, if the books are to be done.. the only way I will work on it, is that an editor from both sides is picked to represent the companies and scripts have to be okayed in a one-day turnover. If a script is done, or a plot is done, the editor from Marvel comes to DC's offices, reads it there, and a decision is made. No more waiting weeks upon weeks and getting no answer.
"The editors involved have to be other than either Dick Giordano or Jim Shooter; if Jim Shooter's still involved, I will not be involved. In that, obviously to be fair, Dick will not be involved if the top editor of the other company's not working on it. After all the incredible mix-up on Jim Shooter's part, there is no way I was going to accept the assignment under the same conditions. Something has to be done to make working conditions a lot easier, wherein the political bullsh*** becomes something we don't have to deal with, where we can just work on producing the best book possible.
"There are a few concessions that they have to make on my behalf. They gave me the option that, if I don't want to finish the JLA/Avengers, I could have somebody else finish it and I'll do the X-Men/Titans. But I'm not going to do the X-Men/Titans because I wanted to do the JLA/Avengers. If I don't do the X-Men/Titans, they don't want to do the JLA/Avengers. So basically, the decision is mine. I can bury it upon saying that I don't want to do the X-Men/Titans, which means that neither of them get done. I either do both or I do none. If I do none, then none get done.
"I've given the company a year to get their act together, and all they've done now is get everyone antagonistic towards each other. Now people start acting like grown-ups, like professional businesspeople, or... that's it. There is no book. The fans are being ripped off by this type of behavior, they're being cheated. I'm being cheated, Obviously, these books were part of my anticipated income for the year, and I did neither of them, as it turned out. I ended up missing two issues of the Titans, the Titans ended up skipping a month because of all this.
"Now if they want the book to go on, with me involved at least, they have to start acting like responsible editors realizing what they're doing this comic for. For the money, granted. They're also doing it for the fans. These are the books that the fans want. Let's concentrate on that and forget the political garbage. It has no place in the situation and it's just totally unfair to everyone involved."
Despite the unfortunate circumstances surrounding Pérez's work on the DC/Marvel crossovers, he is far from being short of work. He is drawing both of the Teen Titans books that will be appearing until the newsstand Titans book goes into reprints in April of 1985.
[George Pérez Interview from Wizard #35 1994]
[...]
Let's get back to the Justice League/Avengers crossover. I gather the problem was that Marvel-and specifically Jim Shooter, in your mind-was less than forthcoming in approving the plot and things like that.
That would be simplifying it to Jim's detriment. The first fault was specifically Len Wein's- not to slam at Len, by the way. Len approved my starting to pencil the plot that Gerry Conway had provided. I realized there were lots of holes in it and asked if I could fill them up as I went along. Basically, they put their faith in me, since I knew both groups of characters.
It wasn't until I'd finished more than 20 pages that I received a call and discovered that Len had given me the go-ahead before the plot had even been sent to Jim Shooter for approval. And the flaws I found in it were the same ones Jim found, pretty much. I was fixing it as I went along, and Jim, having worked with me on Avengers, should have known I would do that.
But Jim, from what can tell, thought DC had treated him badly on his lost stint with the company, and this was a slight he was not going to take, that a major project was being done without his official okey-dokey. To me, it seemed, this was now going to be revenge. It would be payback for a lot of years-and my work was being held hostage.
At first, I was angry with Len for having me start [working] with a plot that was not approved; then got angry with Jim.. - Everything he was complaining about-in my mind-could easily be taken care of; in fact, I was already taking care of it. He started to get picayune about things-why this character shouldn't be here-as opposed to the idea that this was a fan's dream. It was a contrivance in and of itself. [I said,] "We can get around all this. Let's produce this because it's a book everyone's been waiting for."
Unfortunately, it became a gigantic pissing contest .. At one point, they asked for Roy Thomas to redo the plot, utilizing as many of the pages I had drawn as possible. But by that point, the damage was done. It got to the point where I refused to do the fourth cover for the Black Widow story in Marvel Fanfare #13. I told the editor, Al Milgrom, "I'm broken. I can't do any mare work for Marvel Comics as long as Jim Shooter is editor-in-chief."
That's when I signed the exclusive contract with DC, to ensure this wouldn't become an empty threat. I'd made myself legally unable to go to Marvel, even if I changed my mind. It might have cast me money-but I was angry. One thing I should point out: Jim Shooter and I hove long [since] buried the hatchet. I've told him I would gladly do a cover for Defiant if he needs one. I don't want people to infer that I am still carrying a grudge
