Half a century ago this week, the new year of 1976 brought comics fans something that would have seemed an utter impossibility just a few years before — a all-new tabloid-sized comic book co-produced by the American comics industry’s two greatest rivals, DC and Marvel, featuring their flagship characters in a single 92-page adventure.
Art by John Romita.
Of course, there were several factors that had come into play in recent times that had helped to make this previously unthinkable project a reality — the most obvious and important of those being that Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man, as monumental as it was, was only the second comic to be co-published by Marvel and DC. The first, MGM’s Marvelous Wizard of Oz #1, had appeared just five months earlier; as its title implies, it was a Marvel production in almost every respect, featuring a script by Roy Thomas, pencils by John Buscema and inks by Tony DeZuñiga and his “Tribe” — all of whom were working for Marvel Comics at the time. So how did DC manage to become attached to the project? Evidently, while Marvel’s project was still in the early days of development, publisher Stan Lee learned that DC was also planning to adapt Wizard of Oz (which, in its original published book form, if not its famous film musical version, was in the public domain). Believing that going head-to-head with its rival publisher with competing Oz comics would likely cut into Marvel’s profits, Lee convinced his DC counterpart, Carmine Infantino, to make a deal to have the two companies publish a single book together. The result, while featuring little creative input from anyone at DC (its letterer, Gaspar Saladino, did at least work for both companies, though most of his Marvel jobs were credited under a pseudonym) proved one very important thing — a business partnership between the two industry giants was legally and logistically possible. All that was required to proceed to the next logical step — a bona fide crossover between Marvel and DC characters — was the will to do so.
That will might not have existed a decade earlier, when Marvel was still considered an upstart and DC felt secure in its position as the industry’s leading company. But the commercial landscape had changed by 1975 — as had the creative environment. For the first time in history, a significant number of the staff employed at both companies (not to mention their shared pool of freelancers) were people who’d themselves grown up as comics fans reading the wares of both publishers — people who legitimately thought it would be cool to see Superman and Spider-Man in the same story together.
Given all that, someone was bound to eventually suggest such a collaborative project — though it might have taken a good bit longer to get off the ground if someone from outside the comics industry, rather than a Marvel or DC person, hadn’t been the first one to seriously bring it forward. As related in several sources (though perhaps most thoroughly and entertainingly in Reed Tucker’s 2017 book Slugfest: Inside the Epic, 50-year Battle Between Marvel and DC), it was a literary agent named David Obst, who’d been working with Stan Lee on the latter’s Origins of Marvel Comics books, who first floated the idea to the head of Warner Books, Howard Kaminsky. Kaminsky was immediately game, and offered to take the proposal to Warner’s sister company, DC Comics, while Obst went back to talk it up to Stan Lee.
Some seven months and many meetings later*, the product of Obst’s inspiration hit the stands — a tabloid comic book that was similar in format to the Limited Collectors’ Editions and Marvel Treasury Editions that DC and Marvel, respectively, had been regularly issuing for the past few years — but which, coming in at 100 pages (including covers) of all-new content, and priced at the princely sum of two dollars, was a rather more intimidating package than any that had preceded it — the publishers’ one-off Wizard of Oz co-production included.
Approaching the magazine rack in the first week of January, we fans could hardly tear our eyes away from the cover of Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man — thanks in large part to an instantly iconic image whose provenance was explained on the ad-free publication’s inside back cover:
Was it presumptuous to describe the cover of a brand-new publication as already being “famous”? Of course it was — but, given how things turned out, that claim really didn’t jump the gun all that much.
The concern over not having either hero “dominate” the other visually was, naturally, emblematic of the sort of wrangling that appears to have gone on throughout the comic’s production process. As I recall, I and my comics-reading friends felt at the time that Spidey had, in fact, been drawn a little bigger than Supes on the cover — but that had obviously been balanced out by the fact that the DC hero’s name came first in the title logo. Who knows, we may even have been right in our analysis (though I’ve never found any documentation to confirm that hypothesis).
We turn now from the inside back cover to the inside front cover, for some words from the two gentleman whose buy-in had clearly been critical in getting this project off the ground in the first place:
As I recall, it felt a little odd to see Carmine Infantino’s column (and photo) sitting side-by-side with Stan Lee’s, if only because, compared to Lee, Infantino was a much less public figure. My eighteen-year-old self was certainly aware of his role as DC’s top man– a position he’d held since becoming the company’s editorial director in 1967 — but I still tended to think of him as the guy who’d been drawing the Flash and Batman when I’d first started reading comics in the mid-1960s.
And now, on to the credits page…
Very much unlike MGM’s Marvelous Wizard of Oz, the creative duties for this first true co-production of Marvel and DC had been cleanly and carefully split between the two companies. DC, it had been agreed, would provide the writer, inker, and letterer, while Marvel would be responsible for the penciller and colorist.
Not altogether unexpectedly, the process of filling those roles had come with a certain amount of drama. As Gerry Conway recalled several decades later for a retrospective article published in Back Issue #61 (Dec., 2012):
Carmine was a guy who had this kind of tendency to carry grudges and liked to poke people in the eye. He was really proud of the fact I had left Marvel and come over to DC, where I was writing things like Superman stories for Julie Schwartz and so on. So he told Marvel he was going to put me on as the writer, which was kind of like a poke at Marvel, because I had just left Marvel! And I had just left writing Spider-Man! But, from a practical point of view, it actually made perfect sense. I was a guy who knew both sets of characters.
Gerry Conway’s first “proper” Superman story appeared in Action Comics #457 (Mar., 1976). Cover art by Bob Oksner.
While Conway’s statement that he “knew both sets of characters” is doubtless accurate, your humble blogger feels obliged to point out that his actual experience in writing the Man of Steel at the time that our present topic of discussion was published was limited to three consecutive issues of Justice League of America (#125-127), a “Lois Lane” story in Superman Family #175, and one lone “Superman” yarn in Action Comics #457 — all of which had been released within the last four months, and the last of which reached stands only three days prior to Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man itself. Even if we charitably assume that some (or even all) of these stories were scripted and inventoried prior to Conway’s getting the nod for the SvtASM project, it’s hardly what you’d call an impressive resume… especially when compared to the writer’s extensive experience chronicling Spidey’s adventures, both in his own title and in Marvel Team-Up — a stint that had run from 1972 to 1975 and included over 60 individual stories. Without taking anything away from Conway, these are facts which suggest that (as he himself postulates) Carmine Infantino gave him the assignment at least as much to rub his defection from Marvel to DC in the rival publisher’s face, as for any other reason.
Penciller Ross Andru, on the other hand, could quite reasonably be seen as the most logical choice for the job of drawing the first Superman/Spider-Man crossover. Andru had drawn multiple solo Superman stories for the hero’s own title as well as for Action between 1967 and 1970, not to mention a number of Superman/Batman team-up stories for World’s Finest during the same period. He’d been drawing Spider-Man since 1971, first in Marvel Team-Up and then, beginning in 1973, as the regular artist of The Amazing Spider-Man itself.
Still, even given all that, the assignment of Andru to the product didn’t come without controversy — though most of that controversy seems to have been on Marvel’s side. As Reed Tucker recounts the story, Conway (who’d enjoyed collaborating with Andru on Spider-Man) recommended the artist to Infantino, who agreed that it was a good idea — though perhaps not purely for creative reasons:
The choice had an added advantage to Infantino and DC: drawing the crossover book would require Andru to take a break from The Amazing Spider-Man for a couple of months. The book was then Marvel’s top seller, and losing its artist might hurt sales. “You’ve got this guy who’s recently left your top-selling book to go work for the other company, and now he’s writing this big book, and he’s taking the artist on your top-selling book,” Conway says. “So there’s a bit of a screw you there too.”
Although Len Wein was then in charge of Marvel’s superhero comics, it was Marvel president Al Landau who agreed to DC’s request for Andru’s services. When Wein complained to Landau about temporarily losing the artist on The Amazing Spider-Man — a comic he also happened to be writing — Landau told him the details of the Superman vs. Spider-Man assignment were none of his “fucking business.” Wein threw himself at the executive, determined to “rip out his throat” and had to be restrained by Marv Wolfman.
Whew.
Fortunately, the rest of the creative team assignments — Dick Giordano on inks, Jerry Serpe on colors, Gaspar Saladino on letters — seem to have gone off without causing anyone any headaches. As did, to the best of my knowledge, the selection of four consulting editors — Roy Thomas and Marv Wolfman from Marvel, and Julius Schwartz and E. Nelson Bridwell from DC. Even so, we’re not quite done with our story’s credits page, as that list of talents, impressive as it is, doesn’t actually include everyone who made a significant contribution to the book.
For one, despite Ross Andru’s years of experience drawing Spider-Man, Marvel art director John Romita reportedly redrew most of the heads of Peter Parker and at least some of those of the members of Spidey’s supporting cast — presumably at the request of Stan Lee, who (as we’ve noted in previous posts) never seems to have net a piece of artwork he didn’t think could be improved just a touch by letting Romita muck around with it a little.
For another, artist Terry Austin — working as an uncredited assistant to Dick Giordano — inked the majority of the backgrounds throughout the book. (Per a letter from Austin published in Back Issue #66 [Aug., 2013], Bob Wiacek also worked on inking backgrounds on a handful of pages.)
Cover to Superman #233 (Jan., 1971), featuring what is probably Neal Adams’ most famous illustration of the hero.
And, last but definitely not least, many of the Superman faces and figures in the story were redrawn by Giordano’s business partner at their Continuity Associates commercial art studio, Neal Adams. As documented by Daniel Best for an article originally published in Back Issue #11 (Jul, 2005) — an expanded version of the piece is archived online here — while the art pages were in Giordano’s custody at Continuity, Adams felt moved to make himself a part of this historic project, albeit anonymously (and, presumably, completely gratis). Here’s what Adams told Daniel Best:
When I looked at the first pages I realized Ross had rushed some of the work and Dick, himself, had a lot of pressure deadline-wise. I thought how many times would Supes go up against Spidey? How many shots will this project get? One!
I knew the strengths and weaknesses of the two artists. I asked Dick if I could tighten up the cover for him in preparation for inking. He said, “Long as you don’t, basically, change it.” I said, “Never, I’ll just sorta ink it with a pencil.” It worked out nicely.
Then we agreed to ask Ross if I could, because I had more experience with Superman, tighten up the figures in the book. Ross was delighted. Dick and I were delighted. I took great effort to keep the Ross Andru look and quality while I added a bit of anatomy here and there, chiselled a face a bit, and basically inked with a pencil, after which Dick inked with ink. I don’t think you could find a collaboration the like of this one, anywhere. I was the mustard on a ham and swiss.
And now you know (assuming you didn’t already). And with that accomplished, it’s time — finally! — to take a look at the final product that all these creative talents — both those that were given official credit, and those that weren’t — delivered to a waiting fandom on January 2, 1976.
(Though, before we jump on in, it’s probably worth reminding ourselves that the story we’re about to review is a whopping ninety-two pages long — which means that, in order to provide the degree of coverage to which both the writer and the readers of this blog have become accustomed, we’re going to be here for a while. So you may want to grab a beverage, as well as lay in a supply of snacks. And don’t forget to take breaks as needed. You’re welcome.)
Now, on with the show…
As we just noted, this is a looonnng story — but it’s cleanly divided into sections, with multiple prologues, chapters, and intervals, which somehow help make the length seem less daunting (not to mention making it easier to find your place again if, for whatever reason, you can’t finish the book in one sitting). Each major section is introduced by a double-page spread, which really need to be viewed at the largest size possible for the best effect (with the original 20″ by 14″ dimensions afforded by the physical tabloid representing the ideal, of course).
Before moving on, your humble blogger invites you to take note of the very thin white outline that encompasses Superman’s figure in the image above. This graphic device — which I’m not sure I even consciously registered when I first read this comic fifty years ago — is used strategically throughout the story to highlight the figures of both Supes and Spidey… a subtle design element, but one that really helps the visuals to pop, especially at the extra-large size.
Whatever “inking with a pencil” Neal Adams may have applied to the Superman figure in the next to last panel above, its composition is pure Ross Andru — an obvious fact to anyone who knows both artists’ styles, and one which supports Adams’ contention that he endeavored “to keep the Ross Andru look and quality” throughout the project.
Per Mike’s Amazing World of Comics, WGBS sportscaster Steve Lombard had been playing pranks on Clark Kent (or at least attempting to do so) for almost three years at this point, and was a mainstay of Superman’s supporting cast. Which just goes to show how long it had been since I’d picked up an issue of Superman or Action, since my eighteen-year-old self didn’t recognize him at all.
Stumbling into the room where his journalistic colleagues are assembled to hear their boss, Morgan Edge, discuss the team’s upcoming trip to New York for the World News Conference, the hapless Lombard is just in time to join them in catching a rival station’s breaking news report about the robotic rampage halted mere minutes ago by Superman: “Most of the demolished buildings were empty –”
As I mentioned earlier, I hadn’t been following DC’s “Superman” books for several years, and to this day I have no idea whether or not the line Superman says here to Lex Luthor, “For a time, I hoped we could be friends again,” nods to some recent storyline where it appeared Luthor might be attempting to reform, or some such. Anybody else know?
In any event, Supes wraps up his heartfelt little speech by acknowledging that, for now, he and Luthor must remain enemies, “because you chose lawlessness, and I chose law!” He then announces that he’s taking Lex back to prison, to which the villain responds by subjecting the Man of Steel to a barrage of high-intensity laser fire…
All of my fellow geezers (well, all who grew up in the U.S., anyway) will likely remember how local TV stations used to break into the network feed “for station identification”. For the rest of you, I’ve just explained the joke with which Conway leads off on his story’s next page — itself a primer on Superman which, conceivably, some stone Marvel fans who’d never picked up a DC comic, or seen Supes on TV, etc., might have found useful:
Back in 1976, I remember nodding my head (metaphorically, at least) at the change made here to the familiar phrase, “truth, justice, and American way”. After all, Superman should be a hero for the whole world, not just the U.S. of A.. All these years later, however, I can’t help but ask: just what is the “Terran way”, exactly? (The current “official” version of Big Blue’s motto, as of 2021 — “truth, justice, and a better tomorrow” — is more successful in globalizing the hero’s idealism, at least in my opinion.)
If it wasn’t clear to the reader before now, the narrative captions for the double-page spread make it pretty obvious — for the purposes of this story, Superman and Spider-Man operate within the same fictional reality. This mildly irked me in 1976, since I knew there was no way the Avengers, Justice League, Fantastic Four, Teen Titans, and all the rest of their ilk could function in the same universe without any of one publisher’s properties characters ever bumping into any of the other’s prior to this. While it didn’t keep me from enjoying the story, it did prevent me from feeling as fully invested in the proceedings as I would have if I’d thought the story “counted”.
Half a century later, while I generally still prefer the “worlds collide” approach used in later crossovers like DC vs. Marvel and JLA/Avengers, I’m less stressed about the way getting the two companies’ characters together was handled in this book (as well as in its immediate successors). There are a couple of reasons for that; I’m going to hold off on sharing one of them until further along in the post, but the other is simply that after so many years of What Ifs, Elseworlds, and assorted other multiversal shenanigans, Crossover Earth (or, if you prefer, Earth-7642) just feels like one more alternate reality among dozens. No big deal, in other words.
The “Spider-Mobile” was, of course, the short-lived vehicle that Conway and Andru had introduced into Amazing Spider-Man a couple of years previously, following a directive of Stan Lee (who was pursuing a toy licensing deal); serving no good story purpose (other than comic relief), it was indeed the fiasco that ol’ Web-Head dismisses it as here.
Doctor Octopus doesn’t take Spidey’s taunts very well, and lashes out at our hero with his metal tentacles. Spider-Man catches one with his hands and uses it to pull Doc Ock off balance; the next one, however, connects solidly with the web-slinger, knocking him off the roof…
“Cops!” exclaims Spidey. “Uh-uhn! You guys think I’m a crook like Ock — and that means I’m splitting — pronto!” Unfortunately, when the hero attempts to shoot out a web line to swing away on, he finds he’s out of web-fluid, and so has to escape by running down the side of the building while the policemen vainly fire after him.
Leaving the Daily Bugle building with Mary Jane Watson, Peter Parker grouses over the bad day he’s having. Among other complaints, he berates himself for having gotten the dates of the upcoming World News Conference mixed up, as that means that his Aunt May, who wanted to attend it with him, will instead have to miss it, as she’s vacationing out of town. (This bit of information has no bearing whatsoever on the rest of the story, but apparently Conway [or Marvel?] couldn’t bear for Aunt May — a mainstay of Spider-Man’s supporting cast since the very beginning — to be left out of this milestone event completely.)
As they stroll past the entrance of the Empire State Building, Peter’s spider-sense begins to tingle, urging him to took up and to the east, where he spies a blimp. Abruptly telling MJ he’s starting to feel sick and desperately needs a drink of water (yeah, she thinks it’s lame, too), he turns and sprints into the ESB, then takes an express elevator going up…
While I’ve never counted myself a big fan of Ross Andru’s art, in recent years I’ve gained a greater appreciation for the way he handled the New York cityscape in his Spider-Man work, utilizing photographic reference to assure authenticity, and vertiginous camera angles to make one feel as though one were swinging through Manhattan’s concrete canyons alongside the hero. His work in this sequence, where he not only has a larger canvas to work with, but has been given room to make a more liberal use of splash panels, is particularly impressive. (And as long as we’re handing out kudos, let’s also offer a few to background inker Terry Austin, whose meticulous attention to detail helps seal the deal.)
This second “hero identification” page, which succinctly sums up the basics of Spider-Man’s origin and powers for anyone not already in the know, wraps up a solid sixteen pages devoted to Spidey and his cast — which, of course, have been preceded by the exact same number of pages focused on Superman and company. You really have to admire the precision with which the two rival publishers’ intellectual properties have been balanced thus far, without the story’s pacing feeling like it’s been manipulated to accommodate corporate priorities.
Per Terry Austin, Bob Wiacek inked the backgrounds for the first three pages of this section (i.e., the double-page spread shown above, along with the page that follows).
Did you get that? We’re already 35 pages into this story (37, if you count the two unnumbered “hero identification” pages) — roughly the length of two standard-size comic books, circa 1976 — and according to Gerry Conway, we’ve yet to “begin!” Wow!
Back in 2012, Gerry Conway recalled for Back Issue the process involved in choosing the story’s villains:
Once we decided we wanted to have equal weight for both [heroic] characters, that meant they had to have equal villains. Superman’s only villain at that point that stood out was Lex Luthor; Brainiac was also important, but I don’t think he really had much impact on the [Superman books] back then, certainly not the way he has today. On Spider-Man’s side, the only comparable character, it seemed to me, was Dr. Octopus…
Your humble blogger finds it hard to argue with Conway’s logic in regards to either baddie; to my mind, the only other Spider-Man villain who might have had as strong a claim as Doc Ock to being Spidey’s greatest foe (circa 1976) was the Green Goblin — and Conway’s own stories using that character, in which the original version had been killed, then replaced by his son, had complicated the Goblin’s backstory so much that it would have been difficult to squeeze onto the page above, and still have room left for Lex Luthor’s bio.
“I’m through being stepped on!” Peter declares. “You want me, Jameson — find me!” Turning his back on a glowering JJJ, Pete heads off with MJ to explore the convention. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the building…
The character of Morgan Edge had been introduced by writer-artist Jack Kirby back in Jimmy Olsen #133 (Oct., 1970), where we fans learned that in addition to being the abrasive, bullying new owner of the Daily Planet, he was also a murderous minion of Darkseid, lord of Apokolips. But subsequent stories in the “Superman” family of titles had revealed that the Edge we knew was a clone of the real one, who was being held prisoner by his evil twin. This subplot would ultimately be resolved in Jimmy Olsen #152 (Aug.-Sep., 1972), which saw the fake Edge destroyed, and the real one restored to his rightful place as the head of Galaxy Communications.
The reason I mention all this is that, in 1976, that latter Jimmy Olsen story was the last time that I’d seen Morgan Edge, in any incarnation. For no particularly good reason, I’d assumed that the real Edge — the innocent victim of Darkseid and company — was a “good” guy. So it was startling to meet him again in Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man, and to realize that while he evidently wasn’t a murderous villain like his clone had been, the bona fide Morgan Edge was still an obnoxious sonuvabitch.
Lois Lane’s remarkable propensity for taking dangerous falls may make some modern readers roll their eyes, but it was such a mainstay of the character’s portrayal in the Silver and Bronze Ages that it’s easy to see how Conway must have found this comedic riff on the trope to be irresistible. And, to be honest, it’s still a pretty funny bit.
Lois and Mary Jane vanish, leaving Peter to stare disbelievingly after the rapidly departing figure of Superman — a response in which he’s joined by none other than Clark Kent…
Not being as familiar with the “Superman” comics of this era as I might be, I have no idea if DC editor Julius Schwartz and his writers had already done a version of the “gotta find a phone booth” gag — but it’s worth noting that the famous iteration from 1978’s Superman movie was still a couple of years in the future at this point.
In the aforementioned Back Issue article revealing Neal Adams’ anonymous artistic contributions to this story, the figures of Superman on the page above are called out as being especially “Adamsesque”. Your humble blogger can do naught but agree with that assessment.
In Slugfest (both the book and video versions), the assembled representatives of DC and Marvel come in for some ribbing over the way they squabbled over their respective heroes’ qualities as the crossover came together; for example, there’s this anecdote from agent David Obst: “So we sit down, and we can’t get two sentences into it when both sides are already screaming at each other… The one quote I remember someone saying is, ‘Are you fucking kidding me?! If Superman ever hit Spider-Man, he’d knock him past Jupiter.’”
Sure, it might sound a little ridiculous to to an outsider for grown men to be arguing about who can beat up whom, Superman or Spider-Man. But, to be fair, the comics pros in that meeting were only making the same observations that comics fans surely would have, had this book gone to press implying that the two characters were on the same power level. It wasn’t a matter of which hero was “better”; after all, even the most avid Spider-Man fans among Marvel Comics’ readership wouldn’t expect him to be able to whip one of the publisher’s true powerhouses, such as Thor or the Hulk.
In 1976, it was much more important to me to see Superman and Spider-Man team up than it was to see them fight; frankly, they could have skipped the whole “vs.” aspect of the crossover, and I would have been fine with it. Still, I was eighteen years old, and perhaps not altogether typical of the era’s comics fandom, let alone of a more general readership. In the end, I accepted that the fight scene between the heroes was inevitable— and if you had to have such a scene, then a contrivance like Luther’s “red sun radiation device” was about as good a solution as you could reasonably expect from Conway and company.
“How’d you get so hard so suddenly?” a stunned Spidey demands to know. “Is this a trick or what?”
As far as I can see, there’s really no good reason for Spider-Man to brave the “super-impostor“‘s lair ahead of Superman — none of the booby traps he just manages to avoid being killed by would give his new colleague a moment’s pause. Which makes this one of the relatively few occasions in this story where the “must keep the heroes in balance” mandate is obviously driving the scripting, rather than any narrative logic.
Luckily for Spider-Man, Superman discerned the booby-trap Luthor set inside the computer right before Spider-Man set it off; equally luckily for both of them (and for us), Supes’ photographic memory and super-speed allow him to reassemble the computer (without the trap, naturally) and restore it to working order almost immediately. And so…
The rather condescending manner in which Superman attempts to address the Masai tribesmen — a situation that is quickly resolved only thanks to one of their number, Nu’chaka, having studied abroad — hasn’t aged terribly well. Actually, the same can be said about much of this sequence, as Superman has to convince the village chieftain, Chagga, to assist them by juggling a group of warriors in the air as a demonstration of his powers — after which both Supes and Spidey are invited to share in partaking of the tribe’s “finest food — a mixture of milk and cattle blood.” (Of course, they both politely refuse.) Those wacky Africans!
Not only is the transformed tribesman strong enough to shred Spider-Man’s webbing — his sword is able to cut through a lock of Superman’s hair, which mean that red sun radiation must be involved. Fortunately, Supes took the liberty of analyzing Spidey’s webbing with his super-vision when the two of them were fighting earlier, which now gives him an idea…
Even setting aside the matter of cultural stereotyping, the entire Africa-set sequence feels like filler — while it does provide an opportunity to show the story’s two stars working together as a team, it barely advances the plot at all, and seems to unduly delay the final showdown with Luthor and Doc Ock. For this reader, it’s really the only spot in the whole 92-page narrative that drags a little.
The reference to the Injustice Gang of the World — who, along with their satellite headquarters, first appeared in Justice League of America #111 (Jun., 1974) — is really the only time in our story that a broader milieu of superheroes and supervillains is even alluded to. Given that it’s a DC-specific reference, one’s almost surprised that it’s not immediately followed up with a nod of some sort to one of Marvel’s bad-guy groupings, like the Masters of Evil, or Ock’s own Sinister Six.
And now, the time has come for me to share the second of the two major reasons that the idea of having DC’s and Marvel’s characters share the same universe for a crossover story doesn’t bother me much any more — and that’s because the scene we’ve just read, featuring J. Jonah Jameson and Morgan Edge grousing together about our heroes’ respective alter egos, is a perfect example of the kind of fun you can only have when they do cohabit the same reality. (Of course, if DC and Marvel had really wanted to make continuity-obsessed fans like my eighteen-year-old self feel like this story “counted”, they could have had their cake and eaten it too by framing the main action within some sort of temporary cosmic convergence event, by which their two universes would briefly merge together before coming apart again, with no one the wiser… but I can see how they could have thought that even that much parallel-world stuff might be too confusing for casual readers. In any case, half a century after the fact, I’m willing to let it go.)
As Superman worries over how the laser’s power could, if unchecked, send Earth’s atmosphere “into a chain reaction… until the entire Earth ecology is kicked out of balance!” — he himself is hit by a direct laser blast that renders him unconscious. A moment later, another blast disables the life support in Spider-Man’s space shuttle, causing him to black out as well…
While Superman may have managed to get the better of Doctor Octopus for now, he’s still shaking off the effects of Luthor’s sonic blast. Meanwhile, Luthor uses his boot-jets to retrieve his partner’s glasses…
Luthor does, in fact, manage to shut the airlock’s doors, trapping Superman inside — but the Man of Steel easily smashes his way out.
Reminiscing to Back Issue in 2012 about his approach to the respective characterization of Lex Luthor and Otto Octavius, Gerry Conway explained:
…I started thinking about the main differences between these two characters and their approaches… The main difference, in my view at that time, was that Lex Luthor… had a world where he was a hero (the planet Lexor, introduced in Superman #164, Oct. 1963). As far as he was concerned, his relationship with Earth was that it was the place that had rejected him and honored his archenemy Superman. So Lex didn’t have much of an investment in the Earth. Dr. Octopus, on the other hand, is totally an Earthbound character… His relationship with Spider-Man was almost childish — he just hated this guy Spider-Man and would do anything to bring him down and make as much money out of it as he could. I realized you had these two characters whose entire worldviews, even if they team up, are going to be at odds. And the question for me became, at what point do they realize this? I felt that in all likelihood, Luthor always knew he was going to sell out the planet and he was manipulating Dr. Octopus as much as he was trying to manipulate everybody else. So from there, the story sort of developed itself.
The end? Well, of the story, sure. But this ad-free comic still has a couple more pages to fill. So, since we’ve already jumped the gun in relation to the inside back cover (remember it?), we’ll turn past that one to take a look at the outside back cover, and the image that wraps up the whole package — a wordless pin-up portrait of our two super-stars, as rendered by Ross Andru and Dick Giordano (and probably Neal Adams):
And that really is the end. Whew!
Your humble blogger feels pretty sure that, when his younger self closed this milestone comic after reading it for the first time back in January, 1976, he had a big ol’ smile on his face. Yes, it’s true that, as I’ve already mentioned, I might have felt a little more invested in the proceedings if the plot had addressed the whole “separate realities” thing in some fashion. And there was probably at least a small part of me that believed that the book would have been even better had it been crafted by a creative team composed purely of my favorites at the time (say, with Steve Englehart writing and Jim Starlin pencilling, perhaps?). But even with all those caveats, this was still a fun and very satisfying book back in the day… and I’ve been happy to find that it holds up even better than I’d expected, fifty years on.
Along with acknowledging Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man‘s own considerable merits, I want to close by also commemorating its historic status as the Ur-crossover comic. Indisputably, its success served as a proof of concept to which every comics company/entertainment franchise funnybook mash-up that’s followed it — from Archie Meets the Punisher to Star Trek/X-Men, and everything in between — can directly trace its lineage. And it all came to pass because a little more than half a century ago, a literary agent named David Obst heard the plaintive cry of comics fandom, “What if?” — and responded with, “Why not?”
*In addition to Reed Tucker’s account of the project’s history in Slugfest, your humble blogger also recommends the Roku Channel’s mini-documentary “Superman vs. Spiderman [sic]” — one in a series of short programs based on Tucker’s book. Narrated by Kevin Smith, the doc features archival footage and sound recordings of Stan Lee and Carmine Infantino discussing the project, along with present-day interviews with David Obst, Gerry Conway, Roy Thomas, and others, all topped off with some amusing (if perhaps fanciful) dramatizations starring Ron Perlman as Obst, Kevin Dunn as Infantino, and Sean Gunn as Lee. You can view the whole 7-minute program online for free here.
https://tombrevoort.com/2017/01/29/it-came-out-right-around-the-time-of-my-9th/
That back cover had major work done to the Spidey figure by John Romita. The original Ross version has Spidey looking over more towards Superman.
Also, you can see Terry Austin sneak his name in on a billboard on the Spidey origin page.
Thanks for the additional information, Tom!
I certainly saw this when it was first released. Handsome cover, and the Adams-retouched Superman figures (here and there) certainly improve the quality . . . but I never purchased it. The main reason was Ross Andru. I loved the Kane-Romita era of the Amazing Spider-Man, but stopped buying it once both parties left (Kane after no. 123 and Romita with 124, though he did pop in with 132 and one issue in the 140s), though the latter still had cover duties for a while (and Kane had a hand in the iconic cover to 151).
My kid brother purchased the remaining issues of ASM up to no. 200. I was not a fan of Ross Andru’s figure work or character’s faces at all, but I did respect his architectural backgrounds.
So I flipped through Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man on the newsstand, and put it back. Big and splashy, yes, but it all seemed a bit juvenile to me—–and I wasn’t even a teenager yet.
I did buy Superman vs. Muhammad Ali when it was released, but strictly because of Neal Adams’ involvement. The story was even cheesier than this Supes & Spidey teamup.
I would have to check comics.org or some similar site to find out what the production numbers were in this. Did Marvel and DC use a unique one on it? Typically there is a logical sequence of them in context of what job was done for which editor, and when. J-1028, for example, would be a typical production number for a story published under DC editor Joe Orlando. Seeing J-1029 and J-1030 on the first page of a story, whether they were published months apart or out of sequence, would indicate when the art for these stories was completed.
It’s 50 years since I saw ads for this in DC Comics I was buying – but it was never available in local newsagents to buy in the UK, so this is the first look at it I’ve had – thanks for the indepth review! I like the artwork, but also-18-year-old me also wasnt remotely interested in heroes fighting each other for the sake of an eye-catching cover – the term “hero” should automatically mean sorting differences out through other means, not a one-sided slug-fest. It’s certainly a long issue and I could never have envisioned me (as a non-Marvel buyer) loving Spider-Man expensive movies in the 2020’s and a proper good Superman movie coming out to boot!
I’d agree that I wished ‘the plot had addressed the whole “separate realities” thing in some fashion’. Back in the day, I was the kind of nit-picky and pedantic uber-geek who noted every little inconsistency (I’ve changed, honestly. Really). In Conway’s then-recent Spider-Man run (I think in the Hulk/Canada story), he’d had Peter interrupted when about to change out of costume, and thinking something to the effect that ‘this kind of thing never happens to Clark Kent’. Very obviously then, he thought of Clark/Superman as a well-known fictional pop icon, so how he was now unaware of his secret identity and that they inhabited the same reality? Doesn’t bother me now, but then…
I think I was also a bit too aware of how carefully the heroes and their casts were being balanced by the respective publishers to prevent bias to either. This awareness of the behind-the-scenes’ politics may have impacted my willing suspension of disbelief, and the plot itself felt too obvious to really impress me.
Another major supporting vote for Andru’s detailed cityscapes and excellent camera angles. With Austin’s inks and the size of the package, they’ve never been better showcased than here.
I was in Spain for Christmas and my future mother-in-law’s borrowed PC wouldn’t allow the posting of comments about the last couple of articles, but I’d only have repeated my opinion that Gerber’s reach often exceeded his grasp, even while he obviously had more to say than more generic writers. I just hope that my attempts to post to this site don’t result in future M-i-L receiving Email updates about 50-year old superheroes and talking ducks – our sometimes strained relationship could do without that!
Anyways, Feliz Año Nuevo, Alan and everyone here!
Spider-Man #120: “… I mean, when was the last time Clark Kent found Kryptonite in his phone booth?…”. so Peter Parker obviously knew the ‘fictional’ Superman. And it’s by the same writer! Like I said, doesn’t bother me now like it did then. At. All. Didn’t need to go and look up the reference, just wanted to be accurate. Really…
Andru really made amazing use of the enhanced size of the canvas he was working on.
As a longtime Superman reader, I assume the “we were friends once” referred to that period when they’d been buddies in high school. Before, as noted, the destruction of Luthor’s experiment.
Conway’s portrayal of Luthor felt completely off to me. He’s never shown any desire to go off the rails and wipe out the world — he might not care much about collateral damage when he’s after Superman but he doesn’t target innocents.
I loved the idea that DC and Marvel coexisted in one Earth, though at the same time I knew it couldn’t possibly be “real.” It didn’t dim my enjoyment of the book.
Earth 2 and whatever others had been created in the pages of JLA at this point and alt realities like over at DC should have had everyone prepped for an Earth that was a DC-Marvel combo.
“As a longtime Superman reader, I assume the ‘we were friends once’ referred to that period when they’d been buddies in high school.” Yes, of course. What I was curious about was Superman’s remark that “for a time” he’d hoped they could renew their friendship. Maybe he was thinking about the period right after Lex’s accident, but I got the impression he was referring to a more recent development.
Ah, got it now. No, there was never a period where they looked like Luthor’s hate was ebbing. Maybe Superman meant “when you first went bad I kept hoping you’d change.”
I can’t leave without mentioning an anecdote Fred Hembeck tells about the announcement of the second Supes/Spidey team-up years later. A fan got up and asked Jim Shooter “Why out of all the amazing heroes the two companies created, would you pick Spider-Man and Superman? Why them?” “Well, it was either Superman/Spider-Man or Brother Power/Brother Voodoo.”
Brother Power/Brother Voodoo… I would definitely have paid to see that one.
And there could be an Amalgam mashup of the two characters… Voodoo Power!
I dunno, Ben… I kinda prefer “Brother Brother”. 😉
Brian Cronin did a post pointing out “Superman changes in a phone booth” was almost entirely a Fleischer cartoon thing (https://www.cbr.com/superman-clark-kent-change-phone-booth-comics/)
I remember this one being heavily promoted in the Marvel UK weeklies of the time, but I can’t recall ever seeing it for sale in any of the newsagents I frequented. If I had, I kind of doubt I would have bought it, partly because of budget constraints – I was still about a year away from getting the paper round that enabled my collecting habit to really get going – and partly because I was the worst kind of Marvel zombie, considering DC comics, and indeed all other comics, to be dopey kids’ stuff. (I was all of 11 years old at the time. Oh boy.)
Reading it now for the first time, it’s an absolute delight. There’s a real sense of occasion about it and all the contributors really rose to it. In particular, Ross Andru’s page layouts and compositions are outstanding, with his trademark cityscapes really popping out of the pages.
Neal Adams apparently couldn’t resist “inking with a pencil” on some of the Doc Ock faces and figures as well as Supes/Clark – those on pages 19 and 83 particularly bear his stamp.
Despite all the behind-the-scenes politicking you described, Alan, or perhaps because of it, Conway does a great job of working in the backstories and supporting casts of both the main characters without alienating the casual reader who’s not necessarily hugely familiar with either.
What a nice way to start your retrospective journey through the comics of 1976! Happy New Year Alan, and everyone else reading this!
I didn’t buy any Treasury sized comics when they came out because of their unwieldy dimensions so I only read this much later. By then other crossovers had appeared and been read so I think that diminished my appreciation for this story. It also doesn’t help that while I will go to my grave as an Andru fan and consider him my favorite Spider-artist, I generally considered Conway third tier and don’t like Adams and Giordano’s art. It was okay and I appreciate its role as a trailblazer but that’s about it.
I may have lost my copy of Supes/Muhammad Ali, but I still have this one. In fact, my copy is signed by Stan Lee himself. I remember ordering this book from DC instead of buying it off the rack in order to have it signed by both Lee and Carmine Infantino. Then, when I received the book, there was a note from Stan apologizing for the lack of a Carmine autograph, but apparently Infantino left DC just before the book arrived to be signed. Still, I have Stan’s autograph, which is probably worth something, even though the comic itself is hardly in mint condition.
As to the book itself, I bought this for the event itself, and would have bought it no matter who had been on the creative team. But trust me when I tell you I bought this book in spite of Ross Andru’s pencil’s, and not because of them. Even though I had bought Spider-man regularly since I’d been introduced to him in Jr. High, I had never liked the way Andru drew faces and had been unhappy with the way he often posed the characters on the page. I remember thinking at the time, “thank god Dick Giordano inked this book and fixed the faces!” Thanks to you, Alan, I now know that it wasn’t just Giordano, but also Neal Adams and Terry Austin who made the pictures so much more pleasing to my eye.
Storywise, I didn’t give a second thought to the multiversal aspects of the story. Superman and Spider-man were teamed up in a huge story and that was all that mattered. Lex Luthor and Doc Ock were both scientists, so their team-up made sense and their differing opinions regarding the fate of planet Earth also made perfect sense, given what I knew of both characters. While I’d love to peruse the original plot outline from Conway currently in Mr. Brevoort’s possesion, I’m glad he wound up telling the story as he did; simple and direct.
One last question. Is this book available online anywhere? I mean, I’m sure you can buy it on EBay or whatever, but I’m equally sure there are legal reasons why neither DC or Marvel are able to include any of their team-ups or the Amalgam books on the Marvel Universe or the DC Universe Infinite websites. Just curious.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Alan! Happy New Year, everyone!
That’s a very interesting tidbit about your autographed copy, Don! I vaguely remember seeing the offer to order a signed copy but had no idea that Infantino had gotten the ax before he got a chance to hold up DC’s end of the deal. He’s supposed to have been fired sometime around the end of January, so the timing definitely tracks.
Good news, Dan. There’s a Facsimile Edition of this book coming out on January 7th!
https://13thdimension.com/whoa-superman-vs-spider-man-treasury-facsimile-to-get-alex-ross-variant/
Thanks, Ben!
While I certainly saw advertisements for this, it wasn’t available at the NEX where I got my comics, and likely I wouldn’t have gotten it anyhow as it was well over my comics-buying budget in early 1976. At the time, I didn’t have any DC comics in my collection. I’d once had at least a few comics from circa 1969-’71, but those got tossed out during one of the family moves from state to state and by then I was a strict Marvel maniac and my brother Terry never got into super-hero comics.
Anyhow, this came off as a typical team-up comic with the usual beats, including the misunderstanding or villainous tricks which get the heroes to fight one another before teaming up to fight the bad guys, who eventually turn against one another. Appeared entertaining enough, nevertheless.
Of course, fans would just have to take this story as appearing in a different reality than the normal Marvel & DC universes. One other thing that struck me was Spidey telling Supes, “guess it was just luck that he grabbed my girl too” and, then, at the end, Clark & Lois and Peter & MJ all going out to dinner together. Given all that, neither Clark nor Peter would have to be rocket scientists to figure out one another’s alter ego.
I was not a fan of Ross Andru’s work but here I think he did a really great job. I think too that what with all the behind the scenes politicking and such that the Marvel people would have seen how Doc Ock clearly plays second fiddle to Luthor. I mean, he’s like a villainous sidekick. He doesn’t seem in on the whole caper, continually asking Luthor what’s going on. His only real contribution story-wise is turning against the crazed Lex at the end. Speaking of Luthor, if he’s such a brilliant super-scientist, what can’t he cure his own baldness? The antics with Morgan Edge and Steve Lombard remind me of really how pretty dismal Superman’s characterization was at the time. There just wasn’t a whole lot there after O’Neil left. Elliot S! Maggin provided some insight but the stories were still awfully lightweight. Spiderman in that era was pretty forgettable also. The Spidey-mobile, That “mysterious” character with the secret identity? The weasel maybe? I can’t remember. Anyway, this cross-over served to pull both characters out of the doldrums so there’s that positive point.
Another UK reader here. I also remember this being advertised in the mostly Marvel mags I had but being unavailable anyway, it felt very remote and a cultural aberration as the gradual erosion of the Marvel Universe continuity as I saw it back then was actually mildly disturbing to my young self. I see they sort of address this with the pulled punch but as a fight off , it felt such a mismatch I thought at the time. Had no idea any villains were inside as part of the story.
As with the Oz edition, the format was to me associated with Marvel Treasuries so implied they had the prime hand in both projects. The mainly Andru artwork certainly wouldn’t have excited me to buy should I have had the finances and the opportunity, maybe Adams would have.
More musings … might’ve been a hoot if Stan Lee himself had taken part in writing the story and Carmine Infantino had drawn it. As it was, it appears that as of 1975, Andru was the only artist who had regularly drawn both Superman and Spider-Man, and only Gerry Conway and Len Wein had written stories featuring them, in Wein’s case as writer for the Justice League of America. Also, as far as I know this mag was the only time Neal Adams worked on a story that included Spider-Man, even if he wasn’t officially credited.
Seeing the double editorial messages. reminds me of one of the major differences between the big two back then. While I was a mostly Marvel reader , I did dabble in DC , specially the Kirby titles but I had little idea what Carmine Infantino looked like – let alone his position or persona at DC around the time – no danger of that happening with Stan The Man! Compare the two styles in the above editorials, Infantino is mostly factual mentioning names , Stan (yes, first name familiarity) takes almost twice as many words to name names and promote in his bombastic hyperbolic but somehow warmer more personalised style.
Wein also wrote a few issues of World’s Finest and Superman in the early 1970s. I love Superman 258 that Wein wrote.
I started collecting in fall 1976, so I didn’t buy Superman vs Amazing Spider-Man new. In hindsight, I probably would have preferred if Wein had written it. He wrote the first issues of Spider-Man and the Hulk that I ever got, and I adore his Batman run with Irv Novick.
Alan, this treasury edition came out about six months before I was born. I’ve never actually read it, so thanks for the highly detailed rundown of the book. Seems like a really fun story. Perhaps when DC and Marvel publish the Facsimile Edition of the book this month, I’ll pick up a copy, finances allowing, of course.
I’ve never been a huge fan of Ross Andru, but his layouts & storytelling for this book are really good. Of course, the inking by Dick Giordano is really high quality. So, art-wise the work of Andru & Giordano (plus Neal Adams, Terry Austin, Bob Wiacek, John Romita, et al) makes this first historic superhero intercompany crossover a really great one.
Regarding the writing, I still feel we’re a bit off from the point when Gerry Conway went from promising young ingenue with a lot of rough edges to accomplished author, but we’re obviously getting there, as I think this is better than the work he had done just a couple of years earlier. And I agree that at the time in the mid-1970s Conway was undoubtedly the natural choice to have written this crossover, as he was really the only person to have done a significant body of work for both companies in recent times. Well, okay, I suppose Jack Kirby would also fit into that category, but I cannot imagine that he would have been at all interested in doing a Superman / Spider-Man team-up extravaganza, whereas Conway had the youthful enthusiasm to approach such a project.
So, definitely a good, quality book. Perhaps not an unqualified success, but close to it. I can certainly understand why your younger self enjoyed it so much.
Oh, yes… I was curious as to what issue or issues of Amazing Spider-Man were missed by Ross Andru so that he could pencil Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man. I looked on The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators website, and it must have been ASM #154-155, cover-dated 03/1976 and 04/1976, which were penciled by Sal Buscema, since those would have been released around the same time as this treasury edition, and were written by Len Wein.
Now that was fun!
Being limited to a weekly budget of $1.00, purchasing this back in the day would have meant missing 8 issues of whatever Marvels were coming out over the next two weeks. That along with not being into Superman and on verge of dumping Spider-Man made it too easy to pass this one up.
Now thanks to Alan, I’ve finally had the pleasure experiencing the “popcorn” fun this afternoon. While I could pick at certain aspects of the story – which were already pointed out – bottom line, this was a kick!
Even better, look at the doors this oversized comic opened! We now take for granted crossovers that would have remained fantasies were it not for the determination of that agent back in 1975.
Now that I’m inspired to re-read JLA/Avengers, I’ll do so with a nod of appreciation for this classic!
And then there were those odd amalgam comics of the ’90s with character mashups.
My favorite Marvel/DC crossover was X-Men/Titans, drawn by Walt Simonson. That was an awesome comic.
Walt is always terrific.
I liked the Image/Marvel crossover WildC.A.T.S. X-Men: the Golden Age drawn by Travis Charest which was probably *the* hot comic of 1997. A year later DC acquired these Image characters, but too late for this to qualify as a DC/Marvel team up. Career best art by Charest, too. He allegedly spent a year drawing this single issue, and it shows.
Charest is amazing. One of my favorite artists. the X-Men/Wildcats book is great. He’s just too slow to keep up with a regular book.
He disappeared after that, taking on a massive bandes dessinees project for a French publisher. I believe he only completed 100 out of 400 pages. Another artist finished it. By the time he came back to US comics he never had the same high profile.
Thus far, that’s the only official Marvel/DC crossover that I have and I really enjoyed it. Also happened to be the first comic I got to feature Darkseid and other aspects of Kirby’s 4th World series.
The idea of DC and Marvel “battling” over character dominance on the cover, and ending up with a smaller Superman on the left (seen first) and a slightly larger Spider-Man higher up on the right reminds me of the Steve McQueen-Paul Newman rivalry when they fought over the credits in “The Towering Inferno” in 1974. Both men had an equal number of lines in the film, but the “compromise” was that McQueen’s name would appear first on the left in the opening credits, and Paul Newman’s would appear second and higher up on the right.
Funny parallel!
I loved this story, and still do.
I was eight years old when I first read it – or rather, its Brazilian Portuguese translation by EBAL.
http://www.guiadosquadrinhos.com/edicao/almanaque-dos-herois-1977/al001109/28491
It was my first real introduction to Spider-Man, too, unless you count the 1967 cartoons. Yes, the second Hero Identification page had me as part of its target audience. My eight-year-old self was impressed by the care they took to balance the two heroes while still making it very clear that they just weren’t on comparable power levels.
And it worked. Even now I remember how impressed I was that Spider-Man thought nothing of fighting people who were clearly fully capable of harming him while also having to deal with his own shortage of web fluid and civilian life. Superman was heroic out of acknowledgment of capability and resulting duty; Spider-Man was heroic out of an almost palpable craving for making a difference if he could. Very different characters, each admirable for their own reasons. Superman descended from the superlatives, Spider-Man dared to achieve them out of sheer determination. And he is determined in this story; so much so that his own webbing can’t keep up – see how it snaps right as Spider-Man is having his second shot at Supes at page 51.
This story, by the way, is subtly yet clearly referenced in the third page of “What If?” #1, less than a year later. Contrast Spider-Man’s panel there with the unforgettable last panel of page 54 above.
It took this review for me to notice that there is a possible goof right there in the final pages: Spider-Man describes Mary Jane as “his girl” within earing range of MJ herself, as well as Lois, Superman, Lex and Doc Ock. Not something that we would expect him to do, since MJ is Peter’s girlfriend, not Spider-Man’s.
For some reason even back then I appreciated the care of making the blue on Spider-Man’s costume noticeably darker in hue than Superman’s. It underscored that those characters were not created to be mirrors of each other, but rather to work on their own terms. Also contributing were the mentions of Spider-Mobile and Injustice League; it was great to be told in no uncertain terms that these characters had pasts and extended environments beyond what these pages would show.
The villains’ characterization also had lots of appeal. Luthor is clearly calling the shots and Doc Ock is playing along… which is why Otto feels borderline heroic when he realizes that Spider-Man is talking sense, there is no reason why he should want Earth to suffer. It feels more respectful than artificially making both equally relevant and similarly motivated.
Never saw this anywhere when it was published, but would have bought it, and enjoyed it. Conway was writer in Spider-Man’s book for a good part of my spider-readership…it just read like a book where the characters weren’t tweaked to fit the shoehorning together. Lots of nice touches: I liked that Peter and Lois were aware of each other’s work and respected each other professionally, that Lois nipped MJ’s cattiness in the bud before it could get tiresome, that the Super vs Spider fight was gotten out of the way fairly quickly (all things considered), and the encounter between Jameson and Edge.
Major props too for the art – I always liked Andru’s take on Spider-Man, and in this tale the background detail inking, regardless of who’s it was, really elevated the work (although I’d have probably been puzzled by some of the differences in faces etc, I wouldn’t have lost any sleep over it).
Couple of things – if Luthor could teleport Lois and MJ to the Injustice Society satellite, why couldn’t he do the same for himself and Ock? (did I miss something)?
And, superhero tragic that I was at the time…Marvel and DC, purveyors of superhero fantasticosity unsurpassed, finally combine to produce a team effort unheralded, because we demanded it etc, and the first thing we get is….The Wizard Of Oz? Were they really expecting that one to fly off the shelves or were they attempting to go beyond the baked-on fan audience they already had? Similarly, never saw it, but saw the ads and thought “Huh?” They may as well have done a Marvel Value Stamp for Toto…
Alas, even Lockjaw didn’t get one. 😉
Shanna the She-Devil’s big cats were shown on her MVS, and even one of the Red Ghost’s super apes turned up on his MVS, but not hide nor hair nor puddle of drool was to be seen of poor old Lockjaw.
Is this the first time one of your retrospectives has come out the same week as a facsimile version of the book itself? This certainly whetted my appetite for the reprint, which is waiting for me at my local shop!
I think it probably is, chris — although I have to admit I haven’t been tracking that!
Yesterday I dug out my UK Marvels from early January, 50 years ago, and found, low and behold, the x-over tabloid advertised on the back covers of both Avengers#121 and the Mighty World of Marvel #171 (both week ending 10 Jan,76). This meant that the x-over went out on sale at the same time in the UK as in the US! Apologies if this means little to those of you on the other side of the pond, but normally we in the UK would have to wait 2 to 3 months before US comics became available to us, unless purchased (at higher cost) from dealers who had the comics ( I assume) air freighted over.
And I was one of the lucky ones that found it ( maybe from a WHSmith, certainly not from my normal newsagents) and must have twisted my father’s arm for 75p to buy it.
Re-reading it today, even more amazed at the attention to detail in the backgrounds. Brilliant stuff from Austin…and of course from Andru. Like Man of Bronze I hated Andru’s art at the time on Spidey, but now feel oddly nostalgic about it. Top stuff from Adams too, who did some terrific touching up, not only on Superman’s musculature, but also I think on Spidey’s.
The tabloid feels like an old friend, or an old jumper, warm and comfortable. I must have read the tabloid so many times in my youth, and still have that now tatty copy. Conway makes Supers readable, and of course he has a great handle on Peter/ Spidey. Spidey is the standout character in the issue, even though in all honesty it is a Superman-Lex Luthor fight. I read that Carmine thought that he would gain lots of Marvel readers once they read the tabloid, but I think it must have been the other way round!
And thanks Luis for pointing out why Spidey’s costume was a much darker blue in the issue. I had thought that Jerry Serpe had looked at the first Ditko Spidey issues and had been inspired to use the dark blue from there. And well done for pointing out the ‘my girl’ from Spidey on the penultimate page…although MJ and Lois looked out of hearing range in the panel.
Some last points:
I saw a Youtube interview with John Byrne, and he had the double page splash on pages 46 and 47 on his studio wall;
the gag on page 24 made me laugh out loud, even after 50 years;
on the cover, Spidey may be the larger of the two heroes, but his figure posture is more than a little awkward, whereas Supes figure is balanced and more dynamic;
Landau seems to have been a really charming character, and not one on Len Wein’s (or Roy Thomas’ for that matter) christmas card list;
finally it seems that Mike Esposito was really offended at not being offered the inking duties on the tabloid, and it appears he blamed for some time both Len and Marv for this.
And finally thanks Alan for keeping up this great blog. Happy New Year, and happy 1976!!
And finally ( finally) the Spidey/Supes figures are so totally in proportion with each other on the double page splash of pages 46 and 47 ( almost mirror images) that I am surprised that this was not the basis of the final cover!
I read this for the first time last night, in the the form of the new facsimile edition that just came out. I do remember seeing this on the newsstand when I was a kid, but passed on it at the time, because $2.00 was a lot of money to me when I was eight. I had other Marvel and DC Treasury Editions, but they were either $1.00 or $1.50, if I recall correctly. Also, the idea of Superman and Spider-Man being in the same book struck me as somehow wrong. Even at that tender age, I had the idea that DC and Marvel were two very different worlds, and we do see that play out some in this book, I think – Clark, Lois, and Jimmy do come across as somewhat old-fashioned and stodgy next to Peter and MJ, I think.
Having said that, it’s interesting to see those two worlds collide, and this crossover does drive home just how similar Superman and Spider-Man are in many ways: both wear primary-color red and blue costumes, both are journalists (in Peter’s case, a photojournalist) for a New York/Metropolis newspaper, both have a mild-mannered alter ego, both are part of love triangles that can never really be resolved – Clark/Lois/Lana and Peter/MJ/Gwen, although I understand that that subplot is slightly more complicated than that, and eventually Clark does marry Lois and Peter does marry MJ, at least for a while. Of course, there are differences – Spider-Man wears a mask, Superman does not, Spider-Man has an endless supply of quips and self-deprecating humor, Superman can be a bit of a wooden cipher Boy Scout, etc.
At age 58, my declining eyes love the larger Treasury format, and Andru, Giordano, Adams, and Austin really take full advantage of it here. The double-page splashes are truly epic. DC published a new Superman Treasury story last year, drawn by Bruno Redondo, and his artwork for than new story also takes full advantage of the format. It’s glaringly obvious that John Romita re-drew the heads of Peter Parker, and perhaps of MJ in some cases, which I find fascinating, and which brings to mind DC having Murphy Anderson redraw Jack Kirby’s heads for Superman in Kirby’s Fourth World books. As Alan’s account of the behind-the-scenes negotiations to make this book happen reveals, these two companies were protective of their respective brands and copyrights, and they were going to make sure their belll cow characters stayed on brand, even if Romita’s heads for Peter Parker stick out like a sore thumb in what otherwise looks like a very “DC” book. But, even though there were a lot of cooks in the kitchen here, the overall look of the artwork is very solid.
I can’t say the same about the story, which is a total mess. It reminds me a lot of the second issue of the magazine-sized Spectacular Spider-Man from 1968, which I believe Alan reviewed here on Attack of the 50-Year-Old Comics. Both books suffer from the problem of having so many pages at their disposal that the writers and artists didn’t really know what to do with them or how to fill them up, leading to what could be viewed as a precursor of today’s decompressed storytelling or “writing for the trade,” or what could be called just a random series of filler scenes. Unsurprisingly, to me at least, the scene at the museum or wherever it is where Clark, Lois, Peter, MJ, Jimmy and the civilian cast all meet and mingle is more interesting than the empty punch-up scenes. As I said with regard to Omega the Unknown a few weeks ago, at my age, that “civilian” side of comics interests more than the superhero stuff, although I think I always leaned in that direction, and, to be honest, I think Clark and Lois and Peter and his supporting cast were always more interesting than the villain of the month. I would also say the story suffers from being dominated by Luthor – obviously Spidey had to have one of his villains appear, but Luthor is the driving force of whatever plot there is, and Dock Ock comes across as an afterthought, one more instance where this strikes me as very “DC” book with Spidey as a guest star.
Another fantastic review and thanks for the generous portion of pages. I haven’t read any of these major company crossovers, only a few Amalgam issues. I spotted that Austin logo on the building and his inks are unmistakable.
To chime in with the UK availability theme, I found anything other than the usual ‘monthly floppies’, so annuals, specials, Treasury size stuff, was really scarce. My older brother somehow got hold of a couple of Marvel Treasuries including the Star Wars and the Spidey (the iconic Romita cover with the red webbing background).
Great write-up!
I was 11 when this came out, and I still can’t look at it objectively. It just gives me so much joy to think about, even though I haven’t reread it in decades. Like Don Goodrum, my parents ordered the signed version for me, and I received a Stan signature and the letter explaining Carmine was gone. As I was much more a DC fan than a Marvel fan, I was particularly disappointed, but I still have the book and the letter.