Well, at least it seemed to me like the earth stood still, or rather two earths stood still when Superman and Spider-Man appeared in the same comic together. It was 1976 and I was 15 and though I had been reading comics for years, I now had enough money from working to buy nearly every comic book published by Marvel and DC.
During this time the companies were very competitive, though Marvel clearly dominated in sales. When I was younger I was totally a DC fan due in large part to the fact that most of their comics were self contained stories while the Marvels tended to have very dramatic soap opera style endings. With my limited budget, I never knew if I would be able to purchase the next issue and see how the story resolved. So, I opted for Superman, Batman and the Flash for the most part.
Well, as I mentioned earlier, when I was 15 I had an actual income and could afford to buy comics on a regular basis and really embraced the Marvel Universe whose comics I definitely preferred, though I still had quite a soft spot for my old favorites from DC.
I don’t know if I could make someone who was never a fan of comics back then truly understand the magnitude of Superman and Spider-Man actually meeting in the same publication. To put it into perspective with other significant world events and using a ranking system from 1-3 it would look like this. 1) Man lands on the Moon 2) Berlin wall is torn down 3) Superman vs Spider-Man. Okay, maybe not quite that big of a deal, but I really really liked comic books once upon a time!
Though I was pretty flush with cash, the $2.00 price tag was still somewhat daunting. The going rate for a comic book was 25 cents making this volume worth eight comics(thank you 3rd grade math) and quite a financial sacrifice. Fortunately, I was spared having to foot the bill when my younger brother purchased it as my birthday present that year. I’m pretty sure I did not so much ask for the comic as I more or less told him that would be his gift to me that year. Either way, it was greatly appreciated. Thanks, Gary!
The two comics publishing giants did several other crossovers in subsequent years, but none were as exciting to me as that first colossal event.
Actually…
In 1976 Superman & Spider-Man meeting was a much bigger deal to me than the Berlin Wall or the moon landing.
For the most part I was always more attached to the DC characters than to the Marvel heroes. I started really following comics at about the time Jack Kirby went to DC, so most of the key Marvel creations were past their glory days at that point.
While at DC, with Jack, plus Denny O’Neil & Neal Adams on Batman and Green Lantern, Denny & Curt Swan on Superman, Len Wein and Berni Wrightson on Swamp Thing, things were really at a peak.
I still have 2 copies of Supes vs Spidey, by the way.
We were both still quite young when Jack went to DC, but I remember being fascinated by his fourth world stuff and loved his take on Superman in The Jimmy Olsen comics, but was only able to read them at the barber shop since I still was not able to purchase, but one or two comics a month.
Despite his limited work with the character Jack’s take on Superman is one of my favorites. I also liked his handling of Clark Kent, eliminating the annoying (to me at least) milquetoast aspects of the character.
It was certainly the only period when I ever looked forward to reading Jimmy Olsen. And I always thought that he did a great job with him in Forever People #1. Few if any writers, at least in my days reading the comics, caught the stranger-in-a-strange-land quality that Jack did.
But after 40 years I’m still annoyed at the way DC had the faces redrawn but other artists…grr!