Review by Frank Plowright
Although published in the oversized ‘treasury’ format both Marvel and DC used for some reprinted material during the 1970s, at a hundred pages of continued story Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man was a graphic novel before such terms were applied. The format signified the event, which is a snapshot of the times. In 1976 it’s Superman, not Spider-Man who gets the top billing, soon to be star of the first superhero movie of the 1970s, and perceived to be the more important character. By the time this was published, though, filming had started on a Spider-Man TV show.
Gerry Conway had written both heroes, and Ross Andru drawn the solo adventures of both, so safe hands, and both are on form for what’s still an entertaining romp. Conway plays up both title stars having connections with newspapers in their civilian identities, Clark Kent as a Daily Planet reporter and Peter Parker as a freelance photographer for the Daily Bugle, and each location has charismatic supporting characters. The opening is Superman battling Lex Luthor solo, followed by Spider-Man tangling with Doctor Octopus, efficiently establishing both characters for readers possibly new to them.
The team-up aspect begins with the villains, both scientific geniuses of course, and jailed in the same facility, so if you want to win that trivia quiz, the first characters from Marvel and DC to actually meet and have a conversation are Doc Ock and Luthor. They escape together and it’s seven pages later before Peter meets Lois and another four pages before the heroes meet in costume.
Andru puts considerable effort into the establishing scenes, taking advantage of the larger page size, and his spreads of the heroes meeting are iconic. It was traditional at the time that heroes always fight each other before teaming up, and there are some stiff poses here, but the cliché is a little diminished by the protagonists being who they are and meeting for the first time. However, as the sample art shows, this might have been a prestigious publication for both Marvel and DC with a then unheard of $2 cover price, but that didn’t extend to better quality paper than the standard comics, and the art from the following or previous page bleeds through.
Aspects have dated, the use of a space station not the thrill it was in 1976, and computers the size of rooms are antique, but the plot zips along viably and the threats still shock. This has been reprinted both as a paperback and as part of Crossover Classics, but the paper quality notwithstanding, surely you’d want this at the original larger size. Even the DC vs Marvel Omnibus version doesn’t manage that.
This paved the way for several further Marvel and DC team-ups continuing through to the early 1980s, including a less successful rematch for these title stars.
