
Episode 37 - The Battle of the Century! Superman vs The Amazing Spider-Man
From It All Comes Back to Superman by Michael Bailey
January 26, 2026 · 1h 28m
About this episode
The episode discusses the historic comic book crossover between Superman and Spider-Man, celebrating its fiftieth anniversary.
Fifty years ago Marvel and DC teamed up to bring their, at the time, flagship characters together. Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man was a tabloid sized comic that saw Superman and Spider-Man not only fighting each other, but also taking on the titanic team-up of Lex Luthor and Doctor Octopus. To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of this book and to, down the road, ride the coat tails of the new version of Superman and Spider-Man teaming up I did a team-up of my own. Joining me to talk about this book is my good friend and co-host of The Overlooked Dark Knight , Andrew Leyland. Andy is one of the biggest Spider-Man fans I know and this seemed like it would be a fun time. And a fun time it was. Andy and I go over how this wasn't the first crossover between Marvel and DC, how the book came together, how Stan Lee is a lot wordier than Carmine Infantino, the writing, the art, the bits that eventually ended up in Superman The Movie , how Spider-Man's hero identitification was a bit lackluster, the weird way Lex and Doc Ock escape from prison, the parts they liked, the parts they didn't like, and what it's like when Spider-Man notices how hard Superman has become. (snicker) Feedback…
People in this episode
Host: Michael Bailey
Guest: Andrew Leyland
Topics covered
- comic book crossover
- Superman
- Spider-Man
- Marvel
- DC
- comic history
- character analysis
Keywords
- Superman
- Spider-Man
- comic crossover
- Lex Luthor
- Doctor Octopus
- Stan Lee
- Carmine Infantino
- comic history
- superheroes
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man, Superman The Movie
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- Episode 41 - Moving Kryptonian Images Part 24 - Superman (2025) · March 4, 2026 · 1h 55m
- Episode 40 - A Conversation With Mark Waid · February 25, 2026 · 1h 9m
- Episode 39 - Many Lives, Many Origins Installment 2 - Superman: Birthright Part 2 · February 18, 2026 · 1h 33m
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