Crossover Capers: Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man (DC Versus Marvel Omnibus, Part 1)
This first-ever DC/Marvel mash-up is simply told, yet it's a wonder to behold two iconic characters cross paths
—by Nathan on September 24, 2025—
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's…another new series of blogs!
Over the past five years, I have tackled stories within standalone universes, reviewing clusters of comics as they pertained to their corner of the graphic literature publishing industry. Look there, you can spot Spider-Man thwip-ing through my many "Spider-view" posts, while Batman, Superman, and other Justice League members contentedly fight crime under my "Distinguished Critique" banner, and Spawn, the Next Men, and other assorted characters hang out in "Random Reviews." Connections across series occur, usually through creators such as Mike Grell, John Byrne, or Todd McFarlane. But though talented writers and artists jump between comic companies, their creations generally stay put.
Until now.
The "intercompany crossover" has always been a strange phenomenon to me, primarily because I've never put much stock in such stories. To me, these tales aren't ever canonical, more like fan-fiction derived from the question "Hey, wouldn't it be really cool if X met Y?" brought into reality when companies agree to share their toys. Calling it "fan fiction" may feel like a frustrating shot across the bow, as I'm sure no one else is more justified in sharing these characters than the companies who created them and the professionals responsible for guiding their monthly, canonical narratives. There's just a part of me which has, quite cynically, ruminated on the idea of these crossovers and concluded "Why read these? They're not real."
Yes, you read that right. Throw a teenager in red-and-blue pajamas and have him punch a green-and-purple goblin, and I won't bat an eye at the fiction of it all, but have him exist on the same page as another guy in red-and-blue pajamas who can fly and shoot lasers from his eyes, and I roll my own peepers.
Call me quirky, or maybe a little pessimistic, but some part of my imagination has always struggled to regard Marvel/DC mashups as too much of a dream come true. Perhaps it's the temporary feeling of it all. These can be slotted into the "What If-?" or "Imaginary Stories" categories, and the problem with those kinds of narratives is that they tackle cool concepts without needing to worry about consequences pouring beyond the final page. "What if Spider-Man teamed up with Superman?" Great idea…for the single issue developed from the concept. But why does it matter?
Well, something inside me nudged me towards embracing some of these "crossover" narratives recently, most likely because I felt it was a significant frontier within the genre I had yet to tackle. I've reviewed Marvel comics, DC stories, comics from Image, Dark Horse, and Vertigo…Spider-Man, Superman, Batman, Iron Man, the X-Men, Wonder Woman, Daredevil, Spawn, Swamp Thing, Savage Dragon, Aquaman, and on and on…and I'll continue reviewing those stories. But what if I reviewed some of these characters in concert? These crossovers felt like the next stepping stone on my list of "story types I haven't covered yet."
So here we are.
And where else to begin than the beginning? I recently purchased the DC Versus Marvel Omnibus, a near 1,000-page collection of several intercompany crossovers published periodically over twenty-four years. We can thank literary agent David Obst for convincing Marvel head honcho Stan Lee and DC publisher Carmine Infantino to pursue a blockbuster event featuring the top hero from each company. From this seed sprang a fully-formed flower, courtesy of Gerry Conway and Ross Andru, two men familiar with both subjects: Marvel's wall-crawling Amazing Spider-Man and DC's Man of Steel, Superman.
How better to pair these two dogooders than to have them clash on the page? And what better way to promote your fight for the ages than to call it what it is:
"The Battle of the Century"
Writer: Gerry Conway
Penciler: Ross Andru
Inker: Dick Giordano
Colorist: Jerry Serpe
Letterer: Gaspar Saladino
Issue: Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man #1
Publication Date: January 1976
What a way for Marvel and DC to ring in the New Year. Published January 2, 1976, this one-shot couldn't have popped up on a more perfect day. Think of all the readers crowding newsstands as they stare at what must have been the most incredible, seemingly impossible image produced at that time: Spider-Man and Superman, squaring off. It seems to have been either a fantastic late Christmas present or the best New Years gift a comic fan could ask for.
I'll dive into the story itself, but let me start with this: though I've read more complex stories that I have appreciated for their narrative and thematic sophistication, this issue helped lay those doubts I expressed in the introduction to rest. And it starts with that cover, brilliantly depicting both characters in their favored element–Spider-Man, clinging to a high radio tower; Superman, soaring through the skies. And look at their faces, their fists. Each man is itching for a fight, and the reader is left to wonder just what circumstances could cause Marvel's most popular hero and DC's paragon of justice to clash.
Gerry Conway smartly writes a simple story, presenting us, largely, the basics we may recognize as common in stories such as these: our heroes meet, they fight, and they realize they've been duped by adversaries who have joined forces to rain titanic terror upon them. The story is a riff off team-up issues between characters within the same universe. These guys always get into some kind of misunderstanding before shaking hands and punching the right villains. So a lot of this is par for the course, though I'd be hard-pressed to admit I expected more from a narrative published in 1976. Yes, comics were becoming more complex and emotionally investing even at this stage–look no further than "The Death of Gwen Stacy," another Conway contribution, for an example of how well emotion and theming can be injected into a single issue. But for this kind of story, the focus is the characters, bringing these two fabled figures together for the first time, and so you don't have to think too deeply on the story.
Knowing this wasn't going to be a tale that would change my outlook on some facet of existence, I found I enjoyed the story for what it provided: the unbelievable spectacle of seeing two foundational comic heroes together on the page for the very first time. A few pages in, I began feeling a surge of something I can only call "joy," a deep sense of satisfaction just absorbing the fun, thrilling nature of the narrative I was diving into. This is a book for comic fans, particularly for those readers, like myself, who struggle to leave sophistication at the door and need a reason to sink into the fantasy of a comic.
Conway and Andru spend a decent time building to the inevitable confrontation between our boys in red-and-blue, and the prologue scenes are necessary in shaping the story to come. The issue's length of 100 pages means we have more than enough time to introduce our characters, heroes and villains both, and allow Conway and Andru to provide two action-packed fights before we've reached the halfway mark! These opening pages provide enough fun even before the main event, with an immediate sense of adventure and thrill as Superman battles (and captures) Lex Luthor and Spider-Man does the same with Doc Ock. A bit of "Silver Age silliness" can be found in the form of giant robots each hero has to contend with, ratcheting up the stakes while allowing Conway and Andru to lean into the campiness of the times. Nothing here is too serious and much of it is fun.
The most impressive aspect of the whole issue, outside the fighting, is how well Conway nails the characters, particularly in how he compares and contrasts Peter Parker and Clark Kent. Each man is a member of the fourth estate, which Conway capitalizes on in places, especially in a fun scene where Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson chats with then-Daily Planet owner Morgan Edge, a character introduced by Jack Kirby during his time at DC. Peter and Clark don't meet until later, but moments where both men engage in a bit of business and cobble together excuses for why they disappear partway through the story enhances the connections between them. A cynical reader may argue that both heroes were selected for their enduring popularity…and though that notion may be correct, Conway finds enough commonalities to make you feel there were significant character similarities–such as the similar day jobs and shared emphasis on protecting their secret identities–and story reasons for why the Web-Head and Man of Steel were selected for this first crossover.
In the aforementioned Jameson/Edge conversation, Conway insinuates these two are old friends, or at least competitors, and the scene helps create a sense of unification between the Marvel and DC aspects on this shared universe. This is a world where Marvel's New York and DC's Metropolis exist simultaneously; no cosmic shenanigans draw our heroes together, and I feel it's for the best. Instead of stilted exposition or a half-baked MacGuffin drawing one hero into the world of the other, we get immediate synchrony between Superman and Spider-Man's existences, as if they've always been together. This is Conway's greatest trick, making this pairing believable. You can trust that, in this universe (designated as Earth-7642), Spider-Man and Superman could plausibly coexist, that their villains could occasionally team up, that their heroic paths could periodically cross.
And how those paths cross! The cover and splash page tout this as the absolute can't-miss throwdown. The story's title is "Battle of the Century!" It's a huge promise to fulfill for readers, and I'd argue it mostly works. As I noted, the fight is built on an idea which is commonplace: our villains manipulate our heroes into slugging it out. Ignore however far-fetched that may appear to you for a moment (it's just a storytelling tactic, after all), and you can more than find the fun in this tussle. My only real gripe is the fight's too short, lasting a little over a tenth of the total narrative. Yeah, I said the build-up was necessary, and it is, but even just a few more pages would have been appreciated.
A small narrative trick enables Spidey to go face-to-face with Superman, which is a necessary development in order to make this fight anything other than one-sided. But seeing a souped-up Spidey slug the nigh-invulnerable Superman is a thing of beauty–I don't hate Superman (I even really enjoy a story or two of his), but I'm a Spidey fan in the deepest recesses of my soul, and so seeing him wallop the Big Blue Boy Scout is an absolute treat. Superman, naturally, gives as good as he gets, yet he works with a certain care and consideration, while Spidey uses vigor, gusto, anger, and a bit of trickery to get in a few good licks. Spidey, as much as I am loath to admit it, has a penchant for giving into his feistier emotions, propelled by a sense of righteous indignation at moments. It's apt characterization by Conway–who also made Spidey nearly kill the Green Goblin after the death of Gwen Stacy–and serves as a clean contrast between the characters.
I'll also admit that, while I would have liked the fight to continue a bit longer, I utterly doubt Spidey's ability to beat Superman. This isn't a "Who would win?" kinda competition. Were this a knock-down, drag-out, no-holds-barred battle, the winner would be clear. It's Superman, the answer's Superman. I won't begrudge him that. In a darkly humorous moment, Spidey breaks his hands while repeatedly punching the Man of More-Than-Steel. Superman pulls a punch during their fight, knowing he'd otherwise murder my favorite Web-Head. And for that, I thank Clark Kent's superhuman alter ego. Spidey, for all his bravado and stick-to-it-ness, and even for all his own strength, doesn't possess the same raw power as Superman…which is why I think the moments where Spidey gives into his anger or breaks his hands works well for him as a character. They show his humanity, yet they also show what he has to resort to so he can be a hero. Superman, in pulling his punch, still generates a force strong enough to hurl Spidey backwards through a building. Spidey can't do that, and so he needs to rely on his canniness and his heart to drive him forward.
The fight is the main draw of the issue, and so once our heroes resolve their differences and band together, the rest becomes fairly standard. They go up against Lex Luthor and Doc Ock, who have kidnapped Lois Lane and Mary Jane Watson, to stop whatever mad scheme they have against the earth. They evade insidious traps, engage in fisticuffs, do all the standard superhero comic fare. Nothing too unique here. The villains themselves, though appropriate for this narrative, seem to get short shrift in favor of our red-and-blue, bad-guy-busting buddies. They're evil, they're geniuses, same as they've always been. A bit of characterization from Ock near the end of the issue twists his motivations in a slightly more complex way, but other than this singular moment, he and Luthor feel more like window dressing. We need a reason for Superman and Spidey to eventually team up, and Conway and Andru went with both heroes' greatest foes.
As I noted above, this isn't a complicated story, and it was never meant to be. In the same way Marvel's original Secret Wars was invented to sell toys, or similar to how Contest of Champions was originally meant to celebrate the 1980 Summer Olympics, Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man is a publicity stunt, on the surface, and I don't think that's a cynical take. A literary agent dreamed up the idea! And according to Paul Levtiz in an introduction to the omnibus, it did sell well, even at $2.00 an issue. This one-shot is, however, an incredibly fun publicity stunt, crafted fairly carefully by men who understood and appreciated the characters. I don't know if that same sense pervades the other crossovers, but I'm willing to give them a try. This issue isn't perfect, nor is it all too deep, but it does provide a sense of wonder as two titanic heroes band together against their arch-enemies in a fun team-up that's a joy to read. Bring on more Earth-7642!