Superman/Spider-Man #1 – Mark Waid, Tom King, Christopher Priest, Sean Murphy, Matt Fraction, Jeff Lemire, Greg Rucka, Gail Simone, Writers; Jorge Jimenez, Jim Lee/Scott Williams, Daniel Sampere, Sean Murphy, Steve Lieber, Rafa Sandoval, Nicola Scott, Belen Ortega, Artists; Tomeu Morey, Alex Sinclair, Alejandro Sanchez, Simon Gough, Nathan Fairbairn, Ulises Arreola, Marcelo Maiolo, Jordie Bellaire, Colorists
Ray – 9.5/10
Ray: The next act in the great DC/Marvel crossover revival begins here, with DC going first with an all-star creative lineup. First up is our full-length story by Waid and Jimenez, “Truth, Justice, and Great Responsibility”. This story has a team-up between two of our heroes’ smartest villains, Doctor Octopus and Brainiac. Ock has a new AI assistant, which turns out to be our sinister Coluan, looking to purge toxic code from his system. To do that, they create a new radio wave powered by Kryptonite – which threatens to turn the entire city toxic. At the same time, Clark Kent and Peter Parker are teaming up to investigate a theft at a Metropolis laboratory, and that turns into a Supes/Spidey team-up when the villains attack. There are so many great details here – the banter between the two heroes is perfect, and the reveal of why Superman isn’t quite comfortable with how Spider-Man operates is excellent. I like that Ock is given a little more nuance than Brainiac is, as well. Waid has written both these characters previously, and he makes the most of every page here.
“The World’s Finest” by King and Lee teams up Mary Jane and Lois for a short story that finds them hanging out – literally – in a bus while Superman and Spider-Man battle a Sentinel. This is an out-of-continuity tale for a reason that becomes very clear early on, but the dialogue is a lot of fun – even if it’s very clear King is indulging his taste for meta writing more than usual. There’s also a surprise cameo that added a great new wrinkle to the story.
“Pages” by Priest and Sampere is a gleefully surreal story featuring Superboy Prime crashing into Peter Parker’s world just after he’s picked up the black costume. He needs Peter’s newly enhanced Spidey-sense to help him navigate the strands of the multiverse so he can Prime-punch his way out of the cage he’s in. This version of Prime isn’t as far in his reformation as the current one is, but you can see the beginnings of it, and the wild visuals and the presence of a particularly bizarre Marvel villain go a long way to making this a blast.
“Beyond the Cobwebs of Tomorrow” by Sean Murphy is a quick story, only five pages long, but it packs a lot of chaos into that. Miguel O’Hara and a young Clark Kent have both found themselves in the same spot in the future – the Batman Beyond world, where they immediately get into a fight. It’s up to Terry and Bruce to set them on the right path, which just starts the adventure as the story ends. Good art, but I’m not sure the coloring is the perfect fit for Murphy’s art.
“Jimmy Con Carnage” by Fraction and Lieber is as bizarre as you’d expect a Jimmy Olsen/Carnage team-up to be. It’s Jimmy’s first day as a photographer for the Daily Bugle, and JJJ wants pictures of Spider-Man. So Jimmy goes searching for a red guy…and it goes about as well as you’d expect. This story is just silly and surprisingly dark, but it has a great punchline right at the end that only these two would dare to try to pull off.
“The Bridge” by Lemire and Sandoval teams up two of the most important men who made the heroes – Jonathan Kent and Ben Parker. With the framing device of Clark and Peter talking about the men who raised them, we see a flashback tale that shows Jonathan and Ben meeting in the middle of a Kansas storm, planning to get out of there – and then seeing something that makes them stay and risk their lives for the sake of the innocent. Great, emotional way to show just how important these two were.
“Bias” by Rucka and Scott “ pits the Daily Bugle against the Daily Planet, as JJJ debates Lois Lane on Jack Ryder’s talk show. While Lois is obviously the more likable of the two as she defends the rights of superheroes to keep their privacy, JJJ manages to make some good points too – which shows off Rucka’s talent for dialogue, and his understanding of what drives Spider-Man’s longtime rival.
“Blind Date” by Simone and Ortega is the most offbeat pairing here – a Power Girl/Punisher team-up as they meet up at an elite club. Frank is there to get the drop on some villains. Karen is there on a blind date…with Paul Rabin, and Gail Simone knows all the meta jokes about him and leans into them. But as the attack begins and Karen and Frank wind up on the same side as Paul runs, the two form an odd connection. This shouldn’t have worked, but it…did?
Overall, with only one slightly weak story, this was stronger than the first round of crossovers and bodes very well for the future team-ups.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
GeekDad received this comic for review purposes
