The Battle of the Century (1976)
By Gerry Conway, Ross Andru, Dick Giordano
So, What Happens? In Metropolis, Superman fights and defeats a giant robot piloted by Lex Luthor, but not before Lex can steal and stash away a small programming circuit for space satellites. Eventually, Superman finds Lex's undersea lab and captures the mad scientist, but once again not before Lex can safely hide his stolen circuit. Soon afterwards, Clark leaves for a conference in New York together with Lois Lane and the rest of his colleagues. In Manhattan, Spider-Man stops two thieves associated with Dr. Octopus and has a run-in with the supervillain himself. Initially defeated, Spidey nevertheless manages to find Ock's secret base and capture him in the end, shortly before leaving for the same conference Clark is going to. Unbeknown to both heroes, Doc Ock and Lex are imprisoned in the same penitentiary and become fast friends before escaping together thanks to Luthor's hidden devices. At the World News Conference, Peter Parker has an angry argument with J.J. Jameson and quits, before deciding to take a few pictures for himself. By doing so he meets Lois Lane, who in turn is angry at Clark for his meek personality. Lois and Peter have both heard of each other and immediately get along, much to Mary Jane Watson's annoyance, but before things can develop any further a fake Superman arrives and makes both women disappear in front of Peter and Clark. The heroes separately pur their costumes on and get on the scene, where Spidey thinks the fake Superman was the real deal, and Superman thinks Spider-Man is involved due to his dubious reputation. Clark quickly understands Spidey is not involved, but the frustrated younger hero is much more aggressive and volatile, refusing to listen to reason. Spying from a safe distance, Lex hits Spider-Man with a red sun ray, briefly making him capable of going toe to toe with a dumbfounded Superman and even gain the upper hand. Eventually the Kryptonian starts fighting back just enough to push Spidey away, and when the red radiation ray wears off a now severely overpowered Spider-Man is forced to stop and listen long enough to understand they have both been tricked. The heroes agree to join forces and follow the energy residue to an abandoned rail station, where they survive a number of death traps and discover the identity of their foes, as well as the coordinates for Mount Kilimanjaro. There, with some help from the locals, they find an empty rocket silo pointing Superman towards the satellite headquarters of the Injustice Gang, where Lex is using the stolen circuit to gain control of Comlab, a satellite equipped with a special laser gun. Superman stops the first laser ray from critically affecting Earth's atmosphere but is knocked out in the process, and Spider-Man - arriving on a space shuttle - is quickly captured too. Inside the Injustice Gang satellite, Lex explains his plan to blackmail the planet with a newly created giant tidal wave, but the heroes recover and, working together, start a counterattack. Eventually, Octopus realizes he doesn't want the planet destroyed and rebels against Luthor, tipping the scales enough for Spider-Man to capture them both while Superman flies back to Earth and stops Lex's tidal wave. The battle won, Superman and Spider-Man depart as friends, having also got enough of the battle on film to get back in the good graces of their respective bosses.
