“No, a lot of people wonder where the webs connect to sometimes. Even me.”
DC/Marvel Superman/Spider-Man
DC Comics/Marvel Comics (May, 2026)
SELECTED COVER ART: Clayton Crain because that’s what they had. And considering how many @#%#$^ variant covers this had most of the good options were gone. The only one I remember seeing was the main Jorge Jiménez cover but it’s not like any of them were all that fantastic. Might make nice posters, but most were terrible comic covers or didn’t star the two main characters. Or both.
EDITOR: Marie Javins
There are too many consulting editors listed for the back-ups but I think they just wanted their names in the book so I don’t care. Yes, this ends up being an anthology, at $8.99. So I’m going to speed through the back-ups and do the normal review on the story we’re actually here for, which is normal comic-sized. The back-up team-ups take up the rest of the book. This is also the last of the new comics for awhile. I’m out of Free Comic Book Giveaway Day comics for 2026 and this is the last of the purchased comics.
“Truth, Justice, And Great Responsibility”
WRITER: Mark Waid | ARTIST: Jorge Jiménez | COLORIST: Tomeu Morey | LETTERER: Tom Napolitano
Doctor Octopus is upset that Will Magnus and Bruce Banner are considered smarter in their fields than him by the general public. Brainiac, infected by an alien virus as a final middle finger from one of the planets he took over, offers him a chance to be famous among the stars. The process requires Kryptonite as a power source, which draws in the Man Of Steel and the Wall-Crawler. The plan also includes sending the virus into the minds of the people of Metropolis, but our heroes have to deal with the crisis fallout (thankfully not one of THOSE crises) to finally stop the plan.
What they got right: Superman is totally on brand trying to reach Doc Ock. The two work together well, have some good banter, and we don’t have to deal with a “hero versus hero” routine. (Probably in one of the back-ups because Marvel especially can’t help themselves.) There are some minor panel quibbles but otherwise the art is quite good. We get a good reason why Peter stays with the Daily Bugle even though evidence suggests he’d be better off in Metropolis (which seems to happen a lot during these crossovers).
What they got wrong: Just had to slip the “Spider-Man struggles to lift heavy debris” bit in there? The more you homage it the less special the moment is. Given that this is the only major complaint from a guy who once insisted he couldn’t write heroes anymore because the wrong guy into office, that’s not a bad issue. Just obvious.
What I think of this story: It’s not a deep story but most of these crossovers aren’t. There’s still some good heroic action and I like seeing Clark and Peter getting along and joining forces. A bit weaker that the first two meetings all those years ago, but still enjoyable. We’ll see if we can say the same thing about the other team-up short stories, which we’ll be speedrunning through, starting with…
Lois Lane & Mary Jane: “The World’s Finest”
WRITER: Tom King | PENCILER: Jim Lee | INKER: Scott Williams | COLORIST: Alex Sinclair | LETTERER: Pat Brosseau
Trapped on a train while Spider-Man and Superman battle a Sentinel, Lois and MJ bond with their shared experiences until they get out of the train and find the mutant the Sentinel is after, Gambit. Lois gives him her deck of cards because Gambit is too on brand for his own good, and the Sentinel is brought down. I’m kind of neutral on this first one. It is nice seeing the two loves of our main two’s lives getting together but they are too blasé about the crazy stuff they get into and I’m not sure what continuity or time period this is part of. It doesn’t help that you never know what Peter and MJ’s relationship status is from one month to the next. Tone down the meta a bit and this could have been a better story.
Superboy-Prime & Spider-Man: “Pages”
WRITER: Christopher Priest | ARTIST: Daniel Sampere | COLORIST: Alejandro Sánchez | LETTERER: Willie Schubert
Personally I would have gone with Miles Morales, who isn’t in this comic, and I don’t think this Ben Reilly. I think someone just wanted to draw the symbioteless black costume. Superboy-Prime might be able to get home if he can get past the High Evolutionary. The price was going to be the pre-Venom symbiote but he’s a few issues late so he grabs Peter for the “sacrifice”, then changes his mind. It’s really an excuse for Peter to talk some conscience into Superboy-Prime, but we don’t see how the fight ends as the heroes decide to stop this version of the High Evolutionary that managed to end up in between realities, represented by comic pages. It just didn’t work for me, but it’s not terrible.
Superboy & Spider-Man 2099: “Beyond The Cobwebs Of Tomorrow”
WRITER/ARTIST: Sean Murphy | COLORIST: Simon Gough | LETTERING: Andworld Design
Somehow Lex Luthor and Doom 2099 have taken over their respective realities, and the nexus point is in the time period of Batman Beyond. Here’s that hero fight I didn’t want as Jon Kent (I think, though he’s with the Legion Of Superheroes so it could be pre-Crisis Superboy) fights Miguel O’Hara before being interrupted by Terry as they try to stop Alchemex and Lexcorp from getting together. We have another story without an ending, which is disappointing. The model for whatever Superboy Murphy is using doesn’t look very good, either, while Terry’s a bit too muscular and spends half the story playing color commentator with Bruce. This also didn’t work for me, but it’s not really very good.
Jimmy Olsen & Carnage: “Jimmy Con Carnage”
WRITER: Matt Fraction | ARTIST: Steve Lieber | COLORIST: Nathan Fairbairn | LETTERER Clayton Cowles
I have to give Fraction credit. I was worried more about Tom King’s story, and yet that one oddly worked. This supposed tribute to Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen isn’t. It’s actually very dumb. Jimmy transfers to New York and the Bugle where he’s sent out alone to get pictures of Spiderman (because I guess you can hear the lack of a “hyphen”, marking Jimmy as a tourist). Peter just leaves him to his own way while walking off with two women. Matt, have you HEARD of Peter Parker? Jimmy also doesn’t listen about avoiding blind alleys and ends up running into Carnage. Carnage kills Jimmy because his Superman signal watch is getting a firmware upgrade and Jameson gets his hands on the pictures, framing him as Spider-Man to prove he really is a menace. The only menace here is the writer. This is was just stupid and a waste of a story where Jimmy has a turn working for Jameson when usually it’s Peter getting a better payday from Perry White.
Jonathan Kent & Ben Parker: “The Bridge”
WRITER: Jeff Lemire | ARTIST: Rafa Sandoval | COLORIST: Ulises Arreola | LETTERER: Becca Carey
Can we stop with the captions where we don’t know who’s speaking? We did it with Terry and Bruce earlier and we’re doing it here again. It turns out to be Spider-Man and Superman talking but it has nothing to do with the story. Ben is passing through Smallville when a bridge is washed out by a sudden storm. (Obviously this is a story from the past.) Jonathan comes upon him and they rescue some kids for a flood, everyone hiding out at the Kent farm until the storm blows over. Having the two father figures meet and learn something about the men that raised a pair of superheroes is a neat idea but I don’t think it had enough time to fully flesh it out.
Daily Planet & Daily Bugle: “Bias”
WRITER: Greg Rucka | ARTIST: Nicola Scott | COLORIST: Marcelo Maiolo | LETTERER: Ariana Maher
Jack Ryder (secretly the Creeper) hosts a debate between Lois and Jonah about Jonah’s coverage of Spider-Man. You’re confusing with time periods again. I think Lois is still the Planet chief after Perry retired currently in comics, but Perry was in charge in the main story and Jimmy’s story, so who cares? Seeing Jonah and Perry debate their various superhero biases would have been interesting. It’s one sided as Jonah has to defend his coverage of Spider-Man, which boils down to wearing masks, which also makes him distrust Batman, as if there is no reason for a superhero to not unmask. He even mentions the “protect loved ones” reason and dismisses it. It’s an okay story if you want to focus on Jonah but only a passing mention to the Planet‘s own Superman bias. It’s a good idea that sadly doesn’t go far enough.
Power Girl & The Punisher: “Blind Date”
WRITER: Gail Simone | ARITST: Belén Ortega | COLORIST: Jordie Bellaire | LETTERER: Lucas Gatoni
There are crossovers I would have liked to have seen. Miles Morales and Jon Kent, maybe. Connor and Ben Reilly, maybe with a fun nod to Spider-Boy of the Amalgam universe if not the regular Marvel universe Spider-Boy. You could have even matched Power Girl with Silk, though Supergirl might have been more fitting. She just gets an ad for her comic when she has a movie coming out. I’d even accept Spider-Woman even though she’s only barely tied to Spider-Man. You know who wouldn’t come to mind? Frank Castle! Jason Todd, sure but this isn’t a Batman crossover. The Punisher debuted in a Spider-Man comic but he has less connection to Spider-Man than Jessica Drew. Sorry, needed a whole paragraph to vent on some of the crossover choices in the comic and this was the weakest pairing of the book.
That behind me, the story is kind of meh on its own. Karen is on a blind date at a place about to be filled with criminals for Frank to shoot at. The villains somehow confuse her date for Vandal Savage so the two heroes fight them off, the date (who is a bore with a ponytail) decides to return to his ex, and I should probably tell you it’s the infamous Paul, so you know what redhead he’s about to run back to (I hear he’s actually dead now in the comics) and Power Girl and Punisher decide to have a more…private encounter in Mongolia. I think Gail just wanted to trash Spider-Fans’ least favorite blockade to the Spider-Marriage and I don’t care about PG and P hooking up. Sadly, this is also the story we end on.
overall
I wasted a good chunk of the day on this one. The only good stories are the main one and the Lois/MJ meetup. The rest are either incomplete or should never have started. Kind of makes it not worth the price for the quality. Should have ended on the heroes’ wives or given some more room to Ben and Jonathan, or the crossovers I mentioned earlier.
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