Publication History
In the early 1970s author and literary agent David Obst suggested to Marvel publisher Stan Lee and DC editorial director Carmine Infantino that there should be a feature film crossover featuring Marvel's Spider-Man and DC's Superman characters. However, there was already a Superman movie planned by Warner Bros. (the first Superman movie in that franchise), and a series of Spider-Man TV movies, so instead the two companies settled for an oversize comic book entitled Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man: The Battle of the Century. The comic was published in 1976 and featured the two title characters, Mary Jane Watson and Lois Lane, J. Jonah Jameson and Morgan Edge and the villainous Doctor Octopus and Lex Luthor. It was the second time the two U.S. comic book giants published a joint venture, the first being 1975's MGM's Marvelous Wizard of Oz.
The writing was done by Gerry Conway and the penciling by Ross Andru. Both of these creators had worked on Superman and Spider-Man before in their own titles. The editing was done by a variety of individuals, including Sol Harrison, Stan Lee, Carmine Infantino, Marv Wolfman, Len Wein, Roy Thomas and others. According to a piece written by Daniel Best on this comic (based on his interviews with Wolfman, Wein, Infantino, Mark Evanier, Neal Adams and John Romita) Neal Adams redrew the major Superman figures. It was also confirmed by inker Dick Giordano, who said:
| “ | the pages were sent to Continuity and were mostly left on my desk... and Neal took it upon himself to redraw the Superman figures without telling me that he was going to do it. I didn't complain, but also I also never mentioned it to anyone at the time and I never spoke of it until now... mostly of for respect for Ross and his work | ” |
Superman and Spider-Man have teamed up together several times over the years. Other foes they have battled together include: Lex Luthor's African Guardian, Doctor Doom, Parasite, a Super-Robot, Hulk, Kingpin, the "Brothers," Venom, Doctor Strange, Professor X, Doctor Fate, Krona, Grandmaster and Metron. They also essentially joined each other's teams in JLA/Avengers #4, when the Justice League of America and the Avengers merged into one unit under Captain America's leadership. During the JLA/Avengers cross-over, the Scarlet Witch's powers became extremely powerful due to her time in the DC Universe, and she becomes at least temporarily insane and corrupted by them. It is quite possible that this was the event that caused the destruction of the Avengers shortly thereafter at her hands.
Though it is not considered canon, bits of the story have been shown in some of Marvel other titles:
- What If? #1 (Feb. 1977): Uatu The Watcher shows glimpses of the various universes. Among them show's Spider-Man about to receive a punch from Superman (showing his sleeve and fist only). Uatu even poses the question as to whether the event happened in the mainstream continuum or an alternate reality.
- Avengers Forever #8 (July 1999): The scene with Doctor Octopus carrying Lex Luthor out of prison.
Read more about this topic: Superman Vs. The Amazing Spider-Man
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