Imagine in 1976, a young child rushes into a local convenience store with two toys clutched in their hand: Spiderman and Superman. They had brought them to school for show and tell but while they were showing them to their classmates, one of the kids claimed that he saw a comic cover of the two heroes fighting. The child was startled, Superman and Spiderman have never met before! The child quickly ran to the store, searching for what their classmate described. They saw a colorful cover with Superman flying towards Spiderman, who was perched on the top of the empire state building with a title saying “Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man”. The child couldn’t believe their eyes. They immediately ran back home to grab as many coins as they could find to buy the comic.

For some people, they might be confused as to why this particular comic is beloved by comic fans. It’s just another crossover comic between two Superheroes isn’t it?

In the comic book industry there are many publishers home to hundreds of beloved characters. But two publishers within the industry stand above all the rest, whose characters are recognized and celebrated across the globe: DC Comics and Marvel Comics.

DC Comics was created in 1934. DC is credited with developing the modern day superhero in the 1938 issue of“Action comics #1” with one of the world’s first superheroes: Superman. Over the next three decades DC continued to dominate the industry with its iconic stories and characters like Batman and Wonder Woman.

Initially founded in 1939, Marvel Comics was one of the underdogs. That was until 1961 when Editor-in-Chief Stan Lee reimagined the superhero with “The Fantastic Four #1” alongside his partner-in-crime, Jack Kirby. Lee and Marvel continued to create iconic characters such as the X-men and Spider-man.

While readers were enjoying the variety of characters and stories being told by both companies, a rivalry over distribution contracts, employees and characters stirred between the two titans that would continue for the next sixty years.

Andrew Wahl, instructor at EvCC and comic book historian described their relationship like that of toxic “exes.”

“Comics are a business and these businesses want money,” Wahl said.

DC and Marvel worked together to create multiple comics, starting first with co-publishing the “Wizard of Oz” comics in 1975 before experimenting with a crossover comic in 1976 featuring Superman and Spiderman. The two companies would stop working together in 1982, before creating more comics together in 1994. But why did they stop working together?

After a dispute over unknown reasons, they stopped working together and swore to never do so again. Once new blood was introduced, they teamed up for a variety of new stories, such as the famous Amalgam Comics of the 1990s and “JLA/Avengers” released in 2003. This would later transform into a recurring cycle of collaboration and disputes.

Local comic shop owner Brandon Ottensberg was a collector during the release of many of these collaborative comics and looks back fondly on books such as “Batman vs Hulk”, the Amalgam comics and JLA/Avengers (the latter of which he highlighted as one of his favorites).

After the passing of legendary comic book creator George Perez in 2022, DC and Marvel put aside their differences to honor their former employee by creating tributes to Perez and his work in their comics. In addition, they also approved a limited reprint of one of Perez’s most iconic books which hadn’t seen a reprint since 2008: “JLA/Avengers.”

After this reprint, the publishers continued to work together, releasing an omnibus collecting multiple previous crossovers in October 2024 and a second omnibus collecting their amalgam crossover in December2024. Then, just a few months later, a brand new crossover was announced.

The announcement featured two one-shot comics: “Marvel/DC: Deadpool/Batman #1” created by Marvel Comics which released on September 17th and “DC/Marvel: Batman/Deadpool #1” created by DC Comics which will release on November 19th. However, more short stories featuring other characters would appear alongside the main crossover.

The excitement for these books from comic fans was at an intensity never seen before by Ottenberg, who had ordered more copies of “Deadpool/Batman” than any other comic before.

“It felt like every time I turned around someone else was signing up for the book,” Ottenberg said. The comic went on to be one of the store’s best sellers and they had run out of copies of the book by the end of the work day.

“The book had two of comics biggest characters with perfect creative teams, to put it simply the book was just fun,” he said.

This seems to be the consensus of the comic community: The book was fun and that’s all it had to be. Not some earth shattering, literary master-piece but a light read, which can be seen in the fan favorite story titled “Catch” which see’s DC’s superdog Krypto play a game of catch with Marvel’s favorite pet landshark Jeff.

“People like cute animals,” Dylan Cantu, comic book fan and EvCC student said.

“Cute animals is how YouTube got big initially and it’s what appeals to the general audience the most so it makes sense.”

Cantu compared the feeling of seeing these two rival companies creating art together like two enemies calling a cease fire to celebrate the holidays.

Coincidentally “Catch” also happened to be Ottenberg’s favorite story in Marvel’s “Deadpool/Batman #1.”

“The book was just plain fun with amazing art,” Ottenberg said.

The word “fun” has been thrown around for this book by retailers, consumers, comic fans and online reviewers alike. It is an important aspect of crossovers like these.

The second printing of “Deadpool/Batman” arrives on comic store shelves like Everett Comic’s on Oct. 28 while DC’s “Batman/Deadpool” releases on Nov. 19. It was recently announced for the 50th anniversary of “Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man,” the book will be reprinted and sold on Jan. 7, 2026. In addition, two new comics featuring Spiderman and Superman will be released the following spring.

“Comics have withstood the test of time since the 1920s and there’s still more material being created with characters and stories that have and will continue to influence pop culture globally with characters old and new,” Cantu said.

We are in an era of peace between these two eternal rivals but it will likely not be long before this era comes to an end.

“As long as it can make money and creators want to create stories we will always get a crossover between Marvel and DC,” Wahl said.

It’s been fifty years since Spidey met his good pal Superman. So long as there is a fan looking for a fun story, an executive wanting to profit and a creator wanting to craft new stories, kids around the world will continue to see Superman flying alongside his webslinging friend Spidey.