For many it seemed as if the universe completely realigned when earlier this year Marvel and DC announced omnibus editions of their many crossover stories!  With both companies now being directly controlled by their parent corporations, what was already a difficult process to untangle and made for a lot of red tape to wade through, reprinting any of these seemed like an impossible uphill climb.  To the surprise of many including myself, such was not the case! 

I picked up a copy of the first of the two omnibuses, which contains all of the crossover stories between 1976-2000, not including the Amalgam/contest stories.  Most of the books collected in this volume are absolutely fantastic and are of great merit in their own right, but for our purposes here I’m going to share some thoughts exclusively on those that involve the Man of Steel.  

Enjoy!

1. Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man (1976)

Over the years I have heard a great deal about this story and have even seen it on some all-time favorite lists for both characters, but had never actually read it myself.  The 1970s were definitely a period of transition for the comic book industry and I generally find the stories to have pretty much vanilla art and writing, more often than not churning out rehashes of stuff from the Silver Age without moving anything forward in any meaningful way.  In the 1980s we saw character-defining runs and stories that are now looked at as high water marks for both companies.  1970s, not as much.  As such, I wasn’t in any hurry to try this book out.

How did it fare?

Pros:

This book was fantastic!  A lot to like here!  Gerry Conway and Ross Andru had already worked together on a lengthy Amazing Spider-Man run, so their contributions gelled well and the story flowed beautifully!

I have read in the past that although Andru’s art wasn’t exactly photorealism, he did make great effort to depict cities and backgrounds realistically, which worked really well for this story.  It adds a grandeur that amps up the epic-ness of this yarn, in which the two most famous characters at the time (for that matter, the first time ANY characters) from the Big 2 meet.  The layouts of the panels are also terrific, which makes sense as Neal Adams had a hand in them.  There are some great splash pages, fight scenes, and character moments as well.

Not only is the overarching story really solid, but there are some great moments in which supporting characters from both worlds meet as well!  For the life of me, despite reading both characters for basically my whole life, it never even dawned on me that both Superman and Spider-Man work for newspapers.  There’s some great fun in seeing the dynamics of Perry White, Lois, Jonah, etc as the plot moves forward.

Finally, I read afterwards that there was tremendous editorial oversight for this story, which makes sense as both companies wanted to make sure “their guy” was just as prominent as the other guy (do you remember a time when Superman was the PREMIERE character for DC?  Good times…).  According to Tom Breevort’s afterward, and I am not even joking, if you go back and count, Superman and Spider-Man are featured in the exact same number of panels, and same size panels- small, medium, large!  John Romita- Marvel’s house style artist- touched up all of Peter Parker’s face shots, and Adams and others made sure Superman was on point as well.  Despite all this, you can’t even tell that there were so many cooks in the kitchen as the story works really nicely.  Very impressive!

Cons:

Not too much to complain about here, and really my only hangups are exclusively my own, but I’m just not a fan of 70s DC status quo.  I never thought that news anchor Clark Kent made any sense at all- how can he run off to an emergency if he’s on the air?  And won’t people recognize him if he’s on tv every day?  TV stations and newspapers are two entirely different things, and I’ll take mild-mannered reporter for the Daily Planet any day.

Lex Luthor is also very much Superfriends edition Lex, with purple spandex, crazy science plots and take over the world schemes.  I know I’m a kid of the 80s and 90s, but I just think Machiavellian, evil businessman Lex is a much more formidable adversary for Superman and much more interesting.  And yes, the final battle takes place in outer space, which is cool for Supes but not so much Spider-Man in a mini spaceship (not kidding).

All that being said, this is just preference.  If you’re a fan of Bronze Age DC, I don’t really think you’ll have a problem with any of it.  All in all, a great story!

2. Superman and The Amazing Spider-Man- Marvel Treasury Edition #28 (1981)

Five years after the success of the initial Superman/Spider-Man crossover, for some reason it took Marvel and DC five years before releasing another special. Once again, Superman and Spider-Man took the lead in a special seemingly produced exclusively by team Marvel (concurrently, team DC handled the Batman/Incredible Hulk crossover).

Pros:

It is thrilling to see the legendary John Buscema drawing Superman and other DC characters. As an exclusively Marvel guy for almost the entirety of his career, and really there are few artists who were the face of the Marvel style more than he was, it is really cool.

This special also has even more interactions between the supporting cast, and lots of time at the Daily Bugle and WGBS. We get more Mary Jane, Lois, Jimmy, and everyone else, and some great scenes of our heroes in their secret identities.

Peter Parker and Jimmy Olsen comparing notes about photos is just great!

Cons:

Oy.

This comic starred two superheroes who kind of go well together, two villains who do not, and a bunch of other characters that seem randomly included.

I have never looked at Doctor Doom as a Spider-Man villain, nor is his take-over-the-universe the most compelling plot compared to other, far more interesting Doom stories. The Parasite is also not exactly the most spectacular Superman villain, but was probably included because the character’s creator, Jim Shooter, wrote this story.

On top of all that, DC and Marvel wanted the Incredible Hulk and Wonder Woman included because they were both on tv at the time and were more recognizable commercially.

I was amazed that the previous Superman vs The Amazing Spider-Man special worked as well as it did despite all the cooks in the kitchen. This comic was the exact opposite. It largely didn’t work because it was trying to do far too much. The plot was all over the place in a lot of ways, and some motivations are extremely thin.

Nice art, fun moments, and a nice celebration of the characters, but ultimately not a great comic.

3. Silver Surfer/Superman (1996)

The 1990s were a boom period for comics, and interestingly enough it was especially a boom for inter company crossovers. After a hiatus of roughly a decade, things picked up very quickly, and Superman was once again featured in a special.

Pros:

This special takes place smack in the midst of the Triangle Era of the Superman books, and for me it is great nostalgia. It reads and feels very much like any of the other books of that time.

Plus, it was a rare occasion, but any time I see George Perez’s name on a Superman comic, I get excited. He wasn’t drawing, but even his writing the book puts it in a solid space as he has a great grasp of the DC universe.

Cons:

As fun as it is to see DC and Marvel heroes interacting, this story doesn’t exactly do service to Superman, or anyone else for that matter. Ron Lim is a great Silver Surfer artist, but a lousy Superman artist. His more cartoony look doesn’t fit Superman for me, even if it fits the Surfer’s perfectly.

I don’t know about anybody else, but I’m okay with a Mr. Mxyzptlk story once in a while, but no more than that. It inevitably devolves into silliness, as does an Impossible Man story at Marvel.

It makes sense to do a story with both of them together, but it’s a little too much goofball humor for me. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t counting how many pages I had left as I was reading it.

Overall, a decent story though.

4. Superman/Fantastic Four (1999)

Pros:

A Superman story done by Dan Jurgens is always going to be pretty good. He’s a great artist and of course he gets Superman, so the story is just fine, which is expected.

Also, by this point in the collection we’ve reached the late 90s, where advances in digital coloring have taken place and are very much to the benefit of a cosmic opera story.

Cons:

Quite honestly, this was the story I was most looking forward to reading in this collection, but it was a pretty big letdown. It suffers from another case of trying to do way too much. Galactus is a great villain and he goes perfectly with the FF, but it was entirely unnecessary to include the Cyborg Superman. Either because editorial mandated a DC villain or because Dan loved his creations, it just made the story feel like it was all over the place.

Dan has also done plenty of great Marvel work in his career, but I’m sorry to say that Galactus and the FF just feel off in this story. Their dialogue and motivations felt pretty out of character, and even Superman being in this story at all just feels shoehorned in. Unlike his Thor or Captain America runs, it unfortunately seems like Dan doesn’t get the Fantastic Four and their world. The story didn’t flow well, and certainly was far from his best work.

The book also felt like it was extremely rushed, which could have been why it didn’t flow well. By 1999, Jurgens was in the thick of his Thor run, so I have no idea if maybe he didn’t have the bandwidth for writing and penciling a full-sized graphic novel at the same time.

All in all, decent enough, but a pretty disappointing story. Maybe my expectations were too high.

5. Incredible Hulk vs Superman (1999)

You all know by now how much I love Steve Rude drawing Superman. Any time he has been on a Superman book it is for me an event, and he’s awesome on Marvel characters as well. Which brings me to…

Pros:

I think Rude the Dude has become most well known as a homage artist to Jack Kirby, which isn’t quite fair as I believe he is also much more. That said, he does a great job on Kirby’s characters, and this book firmly takes place in the design and world of those very early Hulk stories. The Hulk, the supporting cast, all the tech, and even the Southwest desert setting, are all in the spirit of King Kirby. And it works! It’s bombastic and fun, and fans of the Silver Age will enjoy it very much.

Rude also does a fantastic job of drawing Superman and his supporting cast in the wonderful style of Joe Shuster, as he always does. While that style gets swallowed up a bit in all the Kirby, it actually gels pretty well together. We also get some nice scenes at the Daily Planet, Clark and Lois’ apartment, etc, so DC fans will find a lot to enjoy here as well.

Finally, Roger Stern is the writer of this yarn, and he is certainly no stranger to Superman (or the Hulk, for that matter). Unlike several other stories in this collection, Lex Luthor’s presence here fits perfectly well- he is a weapons manufacturer who sells to the US military. Clark Kent’s being on the base as a reporter makes sense too. Nothing feels forced or out of place for a change, which makes for an extremely good crossover!

Cons:

The only con I can think of for this story is that it is primarily a Hulk story. It is set firmly in the Hulk’s world, not really in Superman’s, and Superman for me works better in “life in the big city” or outer space stories. Rocks, sand, remote highways, etc work really well for Bruce Banner wandering the US or the Hulk fighting the army, and this is definitely in that vein.

Not a bad thing, just feels different from a typical Superman setting.

I didn’t even mention the Galactus vs Darkseid story, which I enjoyed tremendously and debated including, but was kind of a stretch to consider a “Superman story,” per se. Regardless, it is an enormous treat to the fans for this work to be published after many years of these stories being out of print. If I were to pick a favorite Superman story, I would say either the first with Spider-Man, or the Incredible Hulk vs Superman.

If you add the two of those, plus the rest of the Superman stories and the many other highlights in this book: New Teen Titans/Uncanny X-Men, Batman vs Punisher, Green Lantern/Silver Surfer, and others, you have a very special gift to the fans.

If you have a chance to pick this edition up, do it! I’m sure you will find a lot in here to enjoy.