All language subtitles for Slugfest.S05.WEBRip.x264-ION10

- NARRATOR: Spider-Man made
his debut in Amazing Fantasy
number 15 in 1962.

Stan Lee and Steve
Ditko wanted to create a
character the teens could
identify with.

An ordinary kid with
extraordinary powers.

It was a massive hit,
becoming Marvel's top selling
comic.

And by the '70s, it
even surpassed Superman

to become the top
seller in the industry.

Fourteen years from the
web-slinger's debut,

Spider-Man had just as
many fans as Superman.

And they often wondered
what would happen

if these two superheroes
went head-to-head.

[triumphant music playing]

In the midst of the 1970s,
in a quiet, unassuming home,

one casual encounter
with friends

was about to forever change
the course of comics
history.

- KID: Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad.
- Oh, hey, sweety.

- DAVID: The
year was 1976.

I was a troublemaker and was
looking for my next project.

- Which one's your favorite?

- Oh, they're both my favorite.

- DAVID: I was at a friend's
house, and their kid said to
me...

- My... my friend Connor,

he said that Superman would
beat Spider-Man in a fight.

Who do you think
would win in a fight?

- I know someone who
could take them both.

- Me, too.

- You know, that's a
really good question.

[dramatic music playing]

- DAVID: The next day
coincidentally, I was having
lunch with Stan Lee.

- STAN: I have a
friend who's an agent.

And he said to me one day,
"Hey, why don't you do a book f
Superman and Spider-Man?"

And I said,
"You're stupid."

We've had so much mail
from readers who've said,

"Gee, we love Superman,
and we love Spider-Man.

Wouldn't it be great
if they got together?"

- This is an idea that
every single person who's ever
read a comic has had.

"Why can't Superman meet The
Hulk? Why can't Batman punch
Thor?"

This is something that
people have dreamed about

for years and
years and years.

- In 1970, I went to my first
comic book convention in New
York.

There was a panel where a kid
got up and asked DC and
Marvel,

"Will there ever be a comic
book where Superman meets
Spider-Man?"

For the next five
minutes, they told that kid how
stupid he was

to think that they
could ever do that.

We're two separate companies.
We don't intermingle.

We're in competition with
each other. That's
ridiculous.

- REED: Stan Lee's position
was, "Well, we're beating DC in
sales.

They're old hat. They have
all these old aged
characters.

We're the hot, young thing.
Why would I wanna team up with
Superman?"

- It's just that we take the
work a little more seriously.

But don't you go telling that to
DC. - INTERVIEWER: Okay.

- Superman, at that stage,

was one of the three most
famous fictitious characters in
the world.

- At many times, comics

were considered finished,
over with. - INTERVIEWER:
Mm-hmm.

- Well, Superman has
outlived Titans. In fact, he's
stronger than ever.

- ROY: So, to have Superman
versus Spider-Man was just
wonderful,

because to me, right away,
that meant somehow

it's like Spider-Man
is coming of age.

He's now on a plane with
Superman, and they're, they're
kind of admitting it.

- They are the two arch-rivals
in the comic industry.

- DAVID: Carmine was the
boss, and Stan was the boss on
the other side.

I took it to the powers that be
at both companies.

- So, I was talking to Stan,

and he says
you guys would never go for it.

- Of course, he would.

I mean, the last
thing he'd wanna see

is their most prized character,
eh, get destroyed by Superman.
[laughs]

If Superman so much as shook
Spidey's hand, he'd crush it.
Mm.

- As a comic fan,
I'm the first guy that goes,

"How are Spider-Man and Superman
really gonna fight?"

- You put Superman against
anybody and Superman's gonna
win.

He can just stop the
rotation of the Earth,

and then, you're
basically screwed.

- STAN: Dave said, "Well,
suppose I talk to Carmine, and
he okays it?"

I said, "Sure, I'll okay it
'cause Carmine never will."

- So, Stan says we'd
never go for it, huh?

- You know Stan, bada-bing,
bada-boop, bada-beep.

- Yeah. Stan's world.

- Carmine was always trying
to one-up Marvel in some way.

- I think Carmine thought,
"Well, we wanna maybe get some
of those Marvel readers."

"We should do it."

- GERRY: It was a kind
of game of chicken

where they both ended up
crashing into each other.

- I had enough juice
with both companies

so that they were willing
to throw the dice.

Little did I know, that was the
easy part. Much harder to put
the story together.

- It would seem like with the
two publishing companies, DC,
and Marvel,

that there'd be so many problems
to overcome.

- There was. The
problems were numerable.

- Stan, listen, Superman has
to be named first on the cover.

- We need a few ground rules,
okay. They both have to be the
same size.

- The name of the book is
Superman-- - Neither of them can
win or lose.

- He's been around longer...
- They can...

- ...he's more legendary. - They
can hit each other, of course.

- DAVID: Our first
meeting was very testy.

Veins in people's
necks bulging.

Ecumenical Councils
in the Middle Ages

weren't as divisive
as these two groups.

- You're basically, you're
in a... a no-win situation.

- If Spider-Man got to punch
Superman, Superman got to punch
Spider-Man.

They had to do it exactly 50-50.

- PERSON: It's a terrible
balance you gotta hit

because you can't favor one
or the other. Both companies
were watching it carefully.

- There was a number of
times where I was sure it was
just gonna blow up.

It never happened because nobody
had ever done anything like this
before.

It finally ended up with the
DC people saying, "Screw
it."

They were walking out of the
room. So, I went, "Whoa! Wait,
sit down.

How about it's just a
big fake. They're not really
fighting each other."

- Heroes meet, fight,
and then make common cause.

- And at the end, they shake
hands. Everyone's a winner.

- That's just fine.

- CARMINE: This thing
we concurred up and down the
line.

- STAN: And before I
knew it, we had a book.

- IVAN: It was
very special.

It was special in a way that I'm
not sure there's anything like
that now.

- MICHAEL: For me, Superman
versus the Amazing
Spider-Man

is my desert island comic.

It is so special. It's
a dream come true.

- REED: When this thing
appeared on newsstands,

to a lot of people who were
buying comics, it was a complee
surprise.

- A magazine that rocked the
comic book industry recently.

There it is. Superman
takes on Spider-Man.

- REED: Seeing these
two characters together

blew their mind. They could
not believe it was
happening.

- REPORTER: The collectors
are buying up this book
all over.

The book, which is now
selling for two dollars,

is selling up five and six
dollars. They can't find it.

- NARRATOR: DC and Marvel's
first official team-up was a
shared success.

[phone ringing]

But it may never have made
the shelves if it weren't for
one final compromise.

- ACTOR: Stan,
about the handshake.

I had one more idea
to make it a bit more realistic.

- The image of Superman and
Spider-Man shaking hands is
iconic.

- NARRATOR: But Carmine
wasn't going to let it go

without one last reminder
who had the stronger grip.

- GERRY: Carmine was
extremely competitive.

I don't think Stan
really cared... [chuckles]

...one way or the
other, to be honest.

- Well, you're a real son of a
bitch, Carmine, you know that.

- Excelsior! [laughs]

- NARRATOR: Superman versus
Spider-Man was a landmark
comic

that pulled off the
seemingly impossible:

getting two rivals to come
together for the greater good f
their fans.

Aside from their brief
moment of harmony,

their need to compete with
each other continued to push te
industry forward.

But little did they know,
a record-breaking winter

and an injection
of new blood

was about to dramatically
change life at DC Comics.