CBR senior staff writer Brian Cronin has been writing professionally about comic books for over fifteen years now at CBR (primarily with his “Comics Should Be Good” series of columns, including Comic Book Legends Revealed). He has written two books about comics for Penguin-Random House – Was Superman a Spy? And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed and Why Does Batman Carry Shark Repellent? And Other Amazing Comic Book Trivia! and one book, 100 Things X-Men Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die, from Triumph Books. His writing has been featured at ESPN.com, the Los Angeles Times, About.com, the Huffington Post, Vulture and Gizmodo. He features legends about entertainment and sports at his website, Legends Revealed and other pop culture features at Pop Culture References. Follow him on Twitter at @Brian_Cronin and feel free to e-mail him suggestions for stories about comic books that you'd like to see featured at brianc@cbr.com!
Marvel and DC Comics both had a big year in 2025 with their crossover event pairing Deadpool and Batman together, and they're about to return with possibly an even BIGGER event with a new Superman vs. Spider-Man event celebrating the 50th anniversary of the original Superman/Spider-Man crossover.
One of the many variant covers for the DC version of the event, which will debut in March 2026, is by Jim Lee. However, after the cover was previewed online, some fans took issue with one aspect of the cover, and Jim Lee had a hilarious response to the fan critiques (a response that some fans believe could be a super sly Easter Egg reference to a much earlier Superman/Spider-Man crossover).
What was the fan complaint about Jim Lee's Superman vs. Spider-Man cover?
Image via DCAs noted, there were a number of variant covers released for DC's Superman vs. Spider-Man (which will be later followed by Marvel's Spider-Man vs. Superman, just like how in 2025, Marvel released Deadpool/Batman ahead of DC doing Batman/Deadpool). One of the released covers was by DC's President, Publisher, and Chief Creative Officer, superstar artist Jim Lee.
Lee will also be doing a Mary Jane/Lois Lane story in the issue written by Tom King. In any event, some fans pointed out on social media that Lee's depiction of Spider-Man's hand was a bit odd-looking...
Image via DCJim Lee had an amusing response to the critique. He posted on his social media the following message, "It has come to my attention from our assistant to the regional manager that there was an issue with how I drew a hand from my Superman/Spider-Man crossover variant cover. Complaints heard and now resolved. Thank you for pre-shopping with @dccomics. Happy Holidays!"
He then shared the following image...
Image via Jim LeeAs you can see, though, Lee "fixed" Spider-Man's hand, and then also "fixed" Superman's hands by drawing brand-new versions of their hands in bizarre positions....
Very funny response by a comic book icon to fan criticism.
However, there is at least one possible other reason for why Jim Lee drew Spider-Man's hand the way that he did.
What is the possible Easter Egg reference to Superman and Spider-Man
A few fans, as well as Rich Johnston on Bleeding Cool, noted that there was a funny moment in the second Superman/Spider-Man crossover, 1981's Superman and Spider-Man, by Jim Shooter, Marv Wolfman, John Buscema, and a host of inkers, where Spider-Man tried to punch the Man of Steel, and discovered that there is a reason why he has the nickname "Man of Steel," as his punches only ended up hurting his OWN hands...
Image via MarvelAs you can see, Spider-Man's injured hand looks a bit like how Jim Lee drew Spider-Man's hand on his cover. Jim Lee is known to sometimes put little extra bits in his covers (like when he drew Wolverine's claws retracted on one version of the cover of X-Men #1 so that his claws wouldn't go through the corner box where Captain America's head would be on the final cover), so it at least a possibility that it was an Easter Egg reference.
Source: Jim Lee
English (US) · 