Superman Spider-Man #1

DC Comics/Marvel Comics

Written by Mark Waid

Art by Jorge Jimenez

Colors by Tomeu Morey

Letters by Tom Napolitano

The Rundown: Spider-Man and Superman team up to bring down a villain team up.

Dr. Octopus laments that his genius is not appreciated when he is contacted by Brainiac who offer needs his help to purge a virus from himself. At the same time, Peter Parker and Clark Kent team up to investigate a break in at a local lab which causes them to suit up when they discover that something is effecting the population mentally with kryptonite at its core.

The heroes fight to protect the people of the city while they also locate their mutual threat and must bring them down before they destroy the world.

Waid crafts a thrilling, engaging and intense story in this issue. I love everything about the premise and the concept of these heroes just knowing each other exists and not having to deal with a bunch of parallel dimension, alternate reality tropes. The banter between the characters is great and I love the art from Jimenez. I need more of these!!

Lois Lane & Mary Jane

Written by Tom King

Art by Jim Lee

Inks by Scott Willaims

Coplors by Alex Sinclair

Letters by Pat Brosseau

Superman and Spider-Man take on a sentinel rampaging across a bridge while Mary Jane and Lois Lane escape from a crashed bus and discuss their relationships with the men they love. As the two heroes fight the giant robot, they find someone else not running away from the danger and in need of their help as the Sentinel proves harder to beat than the heroes thought.

Conceptually, this is a fun story with some great dialogue between Mary Jane and Lois. There are some issues I have with most of their dialogue being about the men in their lives, but it’s still a fun story with a great cameo towards the end. I also love seeing Jim Lee’s art in this issue along with the brilliant inks and colors by Williams and Sinclair.

Superboy-Prime & The Amazing Spider-Man

Written by Priest

Art by Daniel Sampere

Colors by Alejandro Sanchez

Letters by Willie Schubert

Superboy Prime breaks into Peter Parker’s apartment to get him to put on his symbiote suit and help him stop a multiversal threat. As the pair make their way between realities, they find themseleves facing off against the High Evolutionary and Superboy Prime uses that moment to offer Spider-Man as a compromise to allow his own escape. As Spidey fights back, he convinces Clark to team up and escape together, but they need to stop the High Evolutionary first.

There’s some great diagloue throughout the story and some fun banter between the main characters. Unfortunately, there isn’t much story here that grabbed my attention. It’s a fun concept, it just feels unfinished. I did really like the art in the story a lot.

Superboy & Spider-Man 2099

Written and Drawn by Sean Murphy

Colors by Simon Gough

Letters by Andworld Design

Spider-Man has traveled to the past to stop a merger between LexCorp and Alchemax and his attack on a LexCorp office will get the attention of Superboy who has traveled by the future to stop the same plan. As the two clash, Batman Beyond is watching the events unfold and has to convince the pair that they are on the same mission before the three of them team up and head to outer space for the next part of their mission.

This is a terribly fun and inventive story from Murphy. There’s great dialogue, an awesome concept and it builds to a point where its ending makes me excited to see more. The art is fantastic and I love the character designs.

Jimmy Olson & Carnage

Written by Matt Fraction

Art by Steve Lieber

Colors by Nathan Fairbairn

Letters by Clayton Cowles

Jimmy decides to take a job at the Daily Bugle and his first assignment is to take pictures of Spider-Man. After getting some advice from Peter Parker, Jimmy takes to the streets. When he finds webs down a dark alley, he follow. Unfortunately, he doesn’t find the hero he’s looking for, he finds Carnage who has just discovered his next victim.

This is a dark, but funny little short story from Fraction that I was not expecting, but enjoyed a lot. I really like the art from Lieber and the tone of the imagery doesn’t prepare you for the violence that story reveals.

Jonathan Kent & Ben Parker

Written by Jeff Lemire

Art by Rafa Sandoval

Colors by Ulises Arreola

Letters by Becca Carey

A young Ben Parker finds himself stranded on a road trip through Kansas during a storm when a young Jonathan Kent stops his truck to give him a ride into town. Unfortunately, the storm is really bad and a tornado is on the way. As they prepare to leave, they hear voices beneath the bridge and the two team up to rescue a boy and his sister trapped beneath them.

A fun, sweet heartwarming story that solidifies the type of people who can create heroes. The art is beautifully detailed throughout.

Daily Planet & Daily Bugle

Written by Greg Rucka

Art by Nicola Scott

Colors by Marcelo Maiolo

Letters by Ariana Maher

On Jack Ryder’s show, two representatives of the press duke it out over bias in the press with J. Jonah Jameson squaring off against Lois Lane with Clark and Spider-Man watching from the audience. The two discuss the role of heroes as well as the role of the press to hold those in power accountable and both heroes consider the words spoken as well as the sentiment behind them.

An entertaining short story from Rucka that beautifully captures the personalities of the characters alongside Scott’s beautiful art.

Power Girl & Punisher

Written by Gail Simone

Art by Belen Ortega

Colors by Jordie Bellaire

Frank finds himself guarding a villain bar in Suicide Slums when a woman approaches for a blind date. As he watches the date not go well, he decides to get her and the date out so he can take out the villains gathered within it. After making his presence known, he discovers the woman is Power Girl and the two team up to have a date of their own taking out the assorted creeps trying to kill them.

First of all Gail Simone, how dare you shove a character into this story that would make me laugh out loud as soon as he introduced himself. This was a thoroughly fun and entertaining story with great action, beautiful art from Ortega and an unexpected ending I wasn’t prepared for but fully endorse.

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