Superman vs The Amazing Spider-Man: The Battle of the Century #1 Review

 

Writer: Gerry Conway

Pencillers: Ross Andru, Neal Adams & John Romita Sr

Inkers: Dick Giordano, Terry Austin & Bob Wiacek

Colorist: Jerry Serpe

Letterer: Gaspar Saladino

Cover Artists: Carmine Infanto, Ross Andru & Neal Adams

Editors: Carmine Infanto & Stan Lee

Consulting Editors: Roy Thomas, Julius Schwartz, Marv Wolfman & E Nelson Bridwell

Producers: Sol Harrison with Jack Adler

Publisher: DC Comics

Price: $19.99/$24.99 Foil

Release Date: January 7, 2026

 

When the temperature falls, the affluent flee Metropolis for warmer climes. But Superman can't leave his adoptive city, because some villain always uses Metropolis as a testing ground for their superweapons. Still, it’s not every day that someone sends a giant robot stomping and crashing through Metropolis.

 

Sadly, the falling mercury in New York City doesn’t discourage criminals from making Spider-Man’s neighborhood less friendly. When Spider-Man notices thieves absconding with priceless artifacts from the Metropolitan Museum, he thwips into the fray. What villains are behind the giant robot in Metropolis and the art theft in Manhattan? And how will they plague Superman and Spider-Man when the two heroes meet? Let’s leap into this 50^th Anniversary Treasury Edition Facsimile issue of Superman vs The Amazing Spider-Man: The Battle of the Century #1 and see!

 

Story

In Metropolis, the towering robot seems resistant to Superman’s abilities. Clark Kent may not be the world’s greatest detective. Still, he soon discovers that Lex Luthor is behind the giant robot. Clark's deductive skills prove an equal partner with his superpowers, whether battling the giant robot or navigating office politics. But impressing Morgan Edge and Lois Lane proves more difficult than shrugging off the effects of Kryptonite.

 

In Manhattan, Spider-Man soon discovers who is behind the art theft. But his wonky web-shooters make apprehending Doctor Octopus difficult. Like Clark, Peter Parker struggles in his relationships. But while Lois gets frustrated with Clark, Mary Jane Watson calls him “Tiger” or “Wolf.”

 

Clark Kent and Peter Parker meet in New York at a World News Conference. While the setting places Superman on Spidey’s home turf, Spider-Man nonetheless struggles. Mary Jane wonders if he had nails for breakfast. Peter makes a better impression on Lois Lane. But when a confusing incident occurs, Spider-Man regards Superman not as a potential ally, but as his enemy.

 

Superman vs The Amazing Spider-Man: The Battle of the Century #1 includes lots of action as the two heroes battle separately, against each other, and together. Gerry Conway contrasts Lex Luthor and Doctor Octopus when the two meet and decide to work together. Like Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot, Superman and Spider-Man criticize themselves when they realize they’ve messed up. But once they join forces, they work together like one of Lex Luthor's or Doc Ock's well-oiled machines.

 

Art

After a credits page in which the two superheroes face off, each section of Superman vs The Amazing Spider-Man: The Battle of the Century #1 opens with a two-page spread or layout. The art also flows across pages when Superman and Spider-Man come to blows. Ross Andru, Neal Adams, John Romita Sr, Dick Giordano, Terry Austin, and Bob Wiacek contribute highly detailed art. Cityscapes contrast modern towers with the architecture of past ages. Even if they don't play a pivotal role in the story, the people in the two heroes' lives make an appearance. The artists showcase the inventiveness of the villains, with high-tech vehicles, robots, and space vehicles.

 

While Superman and Spider-Man wear red and blue costumes, Jerry Serpe adorns Clark Kent and Peter Parker with hints of their secret identities. As Lex Luthor and Doc Ock wear green, it also links the two ladies in the superheroes' lives. But in this brightly colored comic, blue proves the dominant color. It links the villains amid their initial defeat and immediately afterward. Blue also links the superheroes with the pop culture of 1976, as a light-blue and pink Superman evokes the Six Million Dollar Man, and Spider-Man pays homage to a sport growing in popularity.

 

Gaspar Saladino places uppercase black letters in white dialogue balloons and colored narrative boxes. The letters grow bold for emphasis and enlarge for raised voices. Balloons grow spiky in tense situations, while characters’ thoughts float in clouds. Colorful sound effects enhance the action, as Superman and Spider-Man circle the globe through the atmosphere and above it in Superman vs The Amazing Spider-Man: The Battle of the Century #1. Thanks to DC Comics for providing a review copy.

 

Final Thoughts

Clark Kent and Peter Parker are both storytellers. Yet their superhero exploits hamper their journalistic success. In the 50^th Anniversary Treasury Facsimile Edition of Superman vs The Amazing Spider-Man: The Battle of the Century #1, Clark and Peter team up to save the world from Lex Luthor and Doctor Octopus. Still, their bosses wish their most promising employees could live up to their promise.

 

Rating: 10/10

 

To look inside see my preview of Superman vs The Amazing Spider-Man: The Battle ofthe Century #1.

Superman Vs The Amazing Spider-Man Facsimile Edition Preview

 

Clark Kent is a reporter for the Daily Planet. Peter Parker is a photojournalist for the Daily Bugle. Both yearn to impress the women in their lives. But revealing your secret identity as a superhero is a big step in any relationship. How will Metropolis' Superman and Manhattan's Web Warrior get along with they meet? What evil will they confront? And how will their team-up alter their relationships with the woman in their lives?

Here's all the info from DC Connect: 

 

50^th Anniversary Treasury Edition – Superman Vs The Amazing Spider-Man Facsimile Edition

Writer: Gerry Conway

Artists: Ross Andru, Neal Adams & John Romita Sr

Cover Artists: Carmine Infanto, Ross Andru & Neal Adams

Publisher: DC Comics

Price: $19.99/$24.99 Foil

Issue Length: 96 Pages

Release Date: January 7, 2026

 

The Man of Tomorrow and the Wisecracking Web-Slinger take on Lex Luthor and Doc Ock!

 

Lex Luthor. Doctor Octopus. Two diabolical geniuses have joined forces to blackmail the world—and exact revenge upon their two most hated foes! With the Man of Steel and the amazing wall-crawler manipulated into battling one another, can the heroes break free and unite in time to turn the tide on their archenemies?

 

Now, let's take a look inside:

 

 

 

 

Thanks to DC Comics for sharing this preview with us.

Discover Lost Marvels No. 1: Tower Of Shadows

 

Marvel has a long history of telling horror stories. Werewolf By Night is currently on shelves. Varnae, the first Vampire, cast our world into darkness during the recent Bloodhunt crossover event. Check out these earlier, previously uncollected horror tales from some of the iconic creators of Marvel Comics!

 

 Discover Lost Marvels No. 1: Tower of Shadows

The First in a series of Hardcover Collections Featuring Never-Before Collected Comics by Neal Adams, John Buscema, Howard Chaykin, Stan Lee, Jim Steranko, Barry Windsor-Smith, and other Silver Age masters.

Since its founding in 1939 as Timely Comics, Marvel has published some of the most iconic series in American comic book history, including The Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, and X-Men and built an unparalleled library of characters and stories that have shaped pop culture. For over 45 years, Fantagraphics has published the very best comics and graphic novels that the medium has to offer, including Love & Rockets, Eightball, and My Favorite Things Are Monsters.  Now these two publishing titans are teaming up for Lost Marvels, an ambitious series of hardcover releases featuring never-before collected comics by masters of the Silver Age, including Neal Adams, John Buscema, Howard Chaykin, Stan Lee, Jim Steranko, Barry Windsor-Smith, and other masters of the Silver Age.

Fantagraphics will publish three hardcover volumes in the Lost Marvels series this year, all collaboratively produced with Marvel Comics, with more releases to follow in the coming years.

• In April, Fantagraphics will publish Lost Marvels No. 1: Tower of Shadows, collecting all nine issues of the series. In 1969, with its revolutionary superhero line well established, Marvel took a chance on the kind of supernatural, EC-style anthology series that had been banned since the formation of the Comics Code in the 1950s. Tower of Shadows featured a staggering array of artists and writers, including Neal Adams, Jim Steranko, Barry Windsor-Smith, John Buscema, Gene Colan, Wally Wood, Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, John Romita, Johnny Craig, Marie Severin, Gerry Conway, and Bernie Wrightson, to name a few. Freed from the conventions of the superhero adventure, these creators brought their storytelling skills to a more quietly sinister genre, producing atmospheric gems of twisted suspense and sardonic horror, including Roy Thomas and Tom Palmer’s adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s "Pickman's Model" 

• In July, Fantagraphics will publish Lost Marvels No. 2: Howard Chaykin Vol. 1: Dominic Fortune, Monark Starstalker, and Phantom Eagle. When Howard Chaykin broke into comics in the 1970s, there was nothing quite like him. His original characters Dominic Fortune and Monark Starstalker took classic pulp heroes and ran them through a postmodern blender. This new volume collects some of the most exciting, sought-after work by Chaykin from 1975 to 2008, including retro-science-fiction bounty hunter Monark Starstalker’s debut appearance and all the Dominic Fortune stories, including the character’s unexpurgated Max series, published a generation later. Completing the package is the collision between pulp heroism and the devastating, bloody realities of World War I in Chaykin’s 111-page collaboration with The Boys writer Garth Ennis on War Is Hell: The First Flight of the Phantom Eagle. As the artist behind Marvel’s comic adaptation of the first Star Wars movie and the creator of iconic, influential series like the sci-fi satire American Flagg! and the adults only vampire saga Black Kiss, Howard Chaykin has earned his reputation as a prolific and essential cartoonist. 

• In November, Fantagraphics will publish Lost Marvels No. 3: Savage Tales. Best known for Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith’s Conan the Barbarian and the first appearance of Gerry Conway and Gray Morrow’s Man-Thing, 1971’s Savage Tales was a stunning comics magazine in the spirit of Creepy and Heavy Metal. This volume will collect all 11 issues of the series featuring work from Stan Lee, John Romita, Dennis O’Neil, Al Williamson, Jim Steranko, John Buscema, and a host of other legendary creators delivering a high-octane combination of fantasy, horror, and action.  

“Marvel published a surprising amount of work that fell outside its superhero purview in the '60s and '70s and '80s, most of it never before reprinted, much of it "lost" except in the fading memories of fans who bought it and read it for the first time back then when it was originally published,” said Fantagraphics Publisher Gary Groth. “Exceptional craftsmen and artists were often featured — Barry Windsor-Smith, Steranko, John Buscema, Gene Colan, Neal Adams, Howard Chaykin, and others— and one of the goals of this project is to create a carefully curated record of this somewhat more obscure work that so many comics readers have forgotten or are unfamiliar with. Lost Marvels complements our Atlas reprints which features so many of the best craftsmen from the 1950s.”

The Lost Marvels series is dedicated to introducing these vital stories to a new generation of readers and restoring them to their rightful place in comics history. Lost Marvels No. 1: Tower of Shadows will be available from Fantagraphics on April 29, 2025; Lost Marvels No. 2: Howard Chaykin Vol. 1 will be available on July 8, 2025; and Lost Marvels No. 3: Savage Tales will be published on November 18, 2025. For updates Fans can follow Fantagraphics on X, Instagram, Facebook, Blue Sky, and YouTube.

About Fantagraphics:

For over 45 years, Fantagraphics has published the very best comics and graphic novels that the medium has to offer. Our mission is to celebrate great cartooning in all of its incarnations, from the form’s early luminaries to contemporary artists currently forging the future of visual storytelling. Not content to rest on our laurels and extensive roster of talented artists, we constantly seek out fresh voices from across the globe. Thus, we honor the rich history of comics while providing a platform for bold new stories, styles, and perspectives that push the boundaries of the medium. Fantagraphics remains peerless in our commitment to be the publisher of the world's greatest cartoonists.

 

Thanks to Fantagraphics and Superfan Promotions for sharing this news about their latest release with us.

Amazing Spider-Man #36 Review

 

Writer: Zeb Wells

Penciler: Ed McGuinness

Inker: Mark Farmer

Colorist: Marcio Menyz

Letterer: Joe Caramagna

Cover Artists: Ed McGuinness & Marcio Menyz; Arthur Adams & Alejandro Sánchez; Kris Anka; John Romita Jr., John Romita Sr. & Marcio Menyz

Publisher: Marvel

Price: $4.99

Release Date: October 25, 2023

 

Rek-Rap’s back, and he’s causing problems in the Big Apple. Mayor Luke Cage wants to solve them, but will Madelyne Pryor help? And how does Rek-Rap’s idol “Parker Pete-Man” factor into the equation? Let’s fwip into Amazing Spider-Man #36 and find out!

 

Story

Rek-Rap wants to check out a man's attic. Then his nemesis arrives! As Madelyne Pryor says, Rek-Rap means well. The way the Insidious Six keep attacking him makes destruction inevitable. The voters have had enough, so Luke Cage visits the Limbo Embassy. If only the Goblin Queen would put the New York City’s Mayor at ease. Perhaps Luke shouldn't have brought Spidey along.

 

While Rek-Rap conducts his investigation, Peter’s friend Randy Robertson works to help Luke reverse Wilson Fisk’s anti-vigilante law and put pressure on organized crime. But after Spidey unplugged Randy’s future Father-In-Law in the ICU, will Tombstone pour water on gang violence or enflame it? 

 

In Amazing Spider-Man #36, Rek-Rap searches for answers, while Madelyne Pryor seeks to cement her power. Intrigued by Peter’s description of himself to Luke, I also wonder at the identity of Madelyne’s agent. But I worry about her. With Orchis itching for an excuse to invade her Limbo Embassy, should she be making Power Man squirm? Her actions remind me why people believed Orchis’ lies and welcomed the internment and exile of their mutant neighbors.

 

 

 

Art

Muscular Luke balances his big and tall torso on a child-sized office chair while the Goblin Queen reclines in a claw-shaped one. Spider-Man waits in Limbo's lobby, watching Luke leave in his limo before he shows his masked face in public. Sweat pours down Hammerhead’s forehead as he bows before his Maggia master. Madelyne digs in a garden surrounded by foliage-free trees that fail to grow straight. Rek-Rap’s confrontation with the Grave Goblin threatens to make readers turn Amazing Spider-Man #36 sideways. But don’t worry. You haven’t wandered into a ‘90s Image comic. Ed McGuinness and Mark Farmer's Dark Web reunion is all Marvel and 100% Excelsior in Amazing Spider-Man #36!

 

 

 

Gray skyscrapers pale before the reddish hue of Madelyne’s Limbo Embassy. Light streams through an office window, highlighting the grain in her wooden desk. Her golden crown and red tresses glow as her gloved, ringed fingers point down at Luke and Spidey. Light plays across the supplicants as shadows fall on the floor and walls of her office. Hammerhead’s skin contrasts with gleaming metal, while a robotic welder sends sparks flying. Yet nothing compares with the ruined attic's blue-and-purple ceiling. The colors streak and change, suggesting muted watercolor, while Spider-Man dominates in his bright red and blue. Don't worry about Rek-Rap looking his best! Marcio Menyz highlights and shades every muscular inch of the un-sinister symbiote in Amazing Spider-Man #36.

 

 

 

Joe Caramagna’s black letters in white dialogue balloons are easy to read. As Rek-Rap ponders his Spider-Brain Tingle, his white thoughts fill red narrative boxes. Sinister sounds slice through a rooftop battle. Yet Amazing Spider-Man #36 ends quietly with a cowering character fighting to recall another's identity.

 

Final Thoughts

Heroes and villains vie for power, while an aspiring hero seeks identity and purpose in Amazing Spider-Man #36.

 

Rating 9.4/10

 

To preview interior art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.

Amazing Spider-Man #34 Review

 

Writer: Zeb Wells

Artist: Patrick Gleason

Colorist: Marcio Menyz

Letterer: Joe Caramagna

Cover Artists: John Romita Jr, Scott Hanna & Marcio Menyz; Dave Johnson; John Romita Jr., John Romita Sr. & Marcio Menyz

Publisher: Marvel

Price: $3.99

Release Date: September 20, 2023

 

Kraven The Hunter thrust a cursed spear into Spider-Man’s chest. With Gordon Osborn’s sins coursing through him, Peter Parker dons his black Spidey suit and buries Kraven alive. Who will he attack next? Let’s fwip into Amazing Spider-Man #34 and find out!

 

Story

Perhaps no one can better predict Spider-Man’s next move than Gordon Osborn. In Zeb Wells’ story, Gordon begs Mary Jane and Paul to leave New York City. But who might Spider-Man blame if he can’t find the couple?

 

Kraven The Hunter lies entombed beneath six feet of hard-packed dirt. While Spider-Man left him a rifle, Vladimir Kravinoff fights the desire to use it and follow his father's example. But is there nobility in wasting away or asphyxiating?

 

 

 

 

Ashley Kafka contemplates her recent actions upon her throne. Her occult rituals transferred the Green Goblin’s sins into Kraven’s spear. Yet she remains the Goblin Queen. Is she responsible for Peter’s actions?

 

And does she care?

 

Amid the breathless action of Amazing Spider-Man #34, as people flee for safety from a Spider-Man gone wrong, it’s easy to forget Randy Robertson and Janice. With their wedding shattered by violence, Randy sought the mayor’s help to come down hard on organized crime. But channeling his confusion into political action left no time to comfort his fiancée or visit his future father-in-law—and crime lord--Tombstone in the hospital. 

 

 

 

 

Art

Whether it’s Mary Jane scattering a bowl of popcorn, Spider-Man lashing out in anger, or Kraven kicking the side of his coffin, Patrick Gleason unleashes the action in Amazing Spider-Man #34. Tiny scenes pack pages amid darkness as each unique panel increases the drama. Yet Mary Jane and Paul seem nonplussed, unable to recognize the danger they're in. One thing's for sure: Peter's anger and Norman's fear are evident on each man's face!

 

Marcio Menyz colors panels with lifelike realism. Yet light sources, action, and emotion tinge backgrounds. Seeing a character covered in crimson conveys the violence a superhero can unleash when quenching his darkest desires.

 

 

 

 

Joe Caramagna’s colored boxes and balloons reveal character thoughts in Amazing Spider-Man #34. The black and colored words in white dialogue balloons range from tiny to large, yet most are easy on the eyes. Stylized colored letters and enormous transparent ones convey dark revelry, impending doom, and anger unleashed.

 

Final Thoughts

As an Unfriendly Peter Parker settles old scores, Amazing Spider-Man #34 reminds us that heroes act out of love and keep no record of wrongs.

 

Rating 9.7/10

 

To preview interior art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.