By Zack Quaintance — The Hero Initiative has announced a new limited edition of JLA/Avengers by Kurt Busiek and George Pérez, and I for one am freaking out. The new book — released in cooperation with DC and Marvel — is a softcover, 288-page printing set to retail for $29.99. It will feature the entirety of the original four-issue miniseries that co-published in 2003 by DC and Marvel. The new printing is limited to 7,000 copies, and it will be released in March (no specific date was in the announcement).

In addition to the original comics, the book will also include 64 pages of extras, ranging from reprinted introductions by Stan Lee (Marvel…obviously) and Julius Schwartz (DC…just as obviously). On top of that, Busiek will pen a new afterward. Most importantly, this new printing will be a Hero Initiative edition, tying into the charitable not-for-profit organization that provides a safety net for comics creators, specifically those who are ailing and need financial assistance with medial costs.

Pérez — who recently announced that he has Stage 3 pancreatic cancer and is foregoing treatment to live the time he has left on his own terms — has a long history with the Hero Initiative. He was a founding member of the organization’s board of directors and has also served as its disbursement chair. It is perhaps safe to assume proceeds from this printing will go to benefit the Hero Initiative, as both of the major publishers have seemingly resisted working together to reprint it for years, lest the a good cause and the death of one of the medium’s true legends change their minds.

I have personally never read JLA/Avengers by Busiek and Pérez (with colors by Tom Smith and lettering by Comicraft). I missed at the time, seeing as it fell right in my stereotypical college withdrawl from keeping up with current comics, and by the time I’d returned to regular reading, the collections were already out of print. JLA/Avengers got a deluxe hardcover edition with a slipcase in 2005, followed by a softcover edition in 2008. But it’s been notoriously difficult/expensive to get a hold of ever since (a cursory Ebay search this afternoon found the softcover starting at $80 and the hardcover at $400).

*More JLA/Avengers artwork by George Pérez*

The new book will be available to pre-order through Diamond soon, and one images very soon, given the coming release date in March. With a scant 7,000 copy printing, I’m going to have to be diligent here, but even if I don’t get one, I’m still planning to make a contribution to the Hero Initiative in honor of Pérez.

Read the full announcement via DC Comics website., and definitely go read about/donate to the Hero Initiative.

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Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.