This coming March will be the 50th anniversary of the landmark DC-Marvel collaboration Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man Treasury Edition. Yours truly was lucky when he ordered his as an 11 year-old: I of course had ignored the “send no cash” warning on the order form and carefully wrapped the necessary two-dollar bills and two quarters inside a piece of looseleaf paper complete with the message “The money is in here.” Some kind-hearted soul sent me the book anyway.
The book was a huge deal at the time — the first real official company crossover — as Marvel was becoming the dominant force in mainstream comics after DC’s long-time record of winning sales numbers. It eventually ended up being considered non-canon because Pete Parker and Clark Kent exist in the same universe in the story. The early 2000s Justice League vs. Avengers story established that the DC and Marvel Universes were very different and thus rather difficult to travel between.
The inside cover features comments by Marvel’s Stan Lee and DC’s Carmine Infantino, while the back details the decisions on how the iconic cover came about. Gerry Conway scripted the story, with Ross Andru (who began his major comics work at DC but was The Amazing Spider-Man‘s artist at the time of this issue’s publication) on pencils.
The story opens with Superman taking on arch-enemy Lex Luthor, who’s got all sorts of anti-Kryptonian weapons at his disposal. Supes eventually captures his nemesis, and takes him to the klink. Meanwhile, Spidey encounters his arch-foe Dr. Octopus (who’s now got a “Flying Octopus” vehicle to Spidey remarks “… and I thought the Spider-Mobile was a fiasco!”) and likewise ends up victorious.
Evidently Doc Ock knows of Luthor as when the latter is brought into the hoosegow he exclaims “Lex Luthor … here?” Of course, Luthor springs his already-planned escape and ends up taking Ock with him. The pair concoct a plan which includes kidnapping the heroes’ girlfriends (with Luthor disguised as Supes, of course … but it’s doubtful they knew MJ was Pete’s squeeze), and then zapping Spidey with a red-sun radiation gun which enables the web-slinger to hold his own, at least for a little while, against the Man of Steel. (After the zap wears off, Spidey asks Supes “How did you get so hard so suddenly?” Hmm …)
If you’re of a certain age and that above scene rings some artistic bells, story inker Dick Giordano had said in a past interview that some of the book’s pages were sent to Neal Adams’ studio — at which Dick was working at the time — and the master artist (who had done a lot of work for DC at the time) actually redid some of Superman’s poses.
Back to the story: Eventually the heroes track down the villains, and Luthor’s grand plan turns out to be so nuts (destruction of Earth if he doesn’t get $10 billion) that even Ock ultimately turns on him. Still, Supes has to fly at hypersonic speed to “create a cresting wall of sound” to stop a monster tidal wave from destroying a big portion of the U.S. (If this actually worked, today we could just fly a modern military jet or missile along the wave to zap the tsunami, eh?)
Overall, Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man is just an average story, but given the scope of the event at the time, it was a must-have. I know many folks who do not (and did not) like Ross Andru’s run on Spidey’s own title (I happen to have loved it) and hence immediately were turned off by the book. Not to mention, Giordano’s inks are just what I like: gritty, yet neat (aka Vince Colletta), and serve Andru quite well.
As (un)luck would have it for the 50th anniversary of the collaboration, the Big Two are putting their marquee heroes back together again in March with the one-shot Superman/Spider-Man #1 by Mark Waid and Jorge Jiménez. In what I guess is a sign of the times, how … soy does Jiménez’s cover look compared to Andru’s from half a century ago? Ye gad.
According to the issue’s (brief) summary, “When journalists Clark Kent and Peter Parker find themselves chasing the same story, the conspiracy they uncover could change the world—especially if Brainiac and Doctor Octopus have anything to say about it.” There’ll also be “bonus stories” (aka money grabs) such as Jimmy Olsen and Carnage(!), writer Gail Simone takes “a look at what happens when Power Girl meets Punisher, and Christopher Priest pens a tale featuring Superboy Prime and Spidey in his symbiont suit.
Why even consider this supporting this? I mean, if you disagree with Waid about anything political, he views you as evil incarnate. And the obese mass that is Simone, while not as quick on the temper trigger as Waid, doesn’t take dissenting opinions very well either. In fact, she’s often one of the “20” in so-called “80-20” issues, in particular men pretending to be women.
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English (US) · 