TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN: When Titans Tussle Tuesday with Ross Andru

Tuesday, February 11, 2025

When Titans Tussle Tuesday with Ross Andru

Since I don't know how long I can drag out SPIDER - MAN MONTH and this could be my last post of that series I thought it should be a good one.

Now every visitor who has been coming to TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN over an extended period of time knows that I am a huge fan of the late Ross Andru but also that I have already written a number of posts about his run on AMAZING SPIDER - MAN. So since I couldn't make this just your run - of - the - mill Ross Andru Spider - Man post we are going with one of the greatest Spider - Man stories of all times which was one of the ten essential Ehapa Verlag comics of every decent afficionado's collection.

At least from my generation. Back in 1976 I was still relying on german translations for my comicbook fix and there were ten comics from Ehapa everybody had in his collection no matter if he was into super heroes or not. You may ask yourself which comics those were and I haven't made a definite list since I guess those ten comics are different for every person but besides SUPERMAN GEGEN SUPER - SPIDER ( which is what the comic had to be called in Germany because Ehapa did not have the rights to use the name Spider - Man or Die Spinne ) two that definitely belong on that list are SUPERMAN VS MUHAMMAD ALI and THE UNTOLD LEGEND OF BATMAN. Speaking of Batman another worthy contender was of course BATMAN SUPERBAND 3 which contained the complete Bat - Murderer ! story ( Batman Unter Mordverdacht in german ) which was pretty rare in these days. Written by comicbook legend Len Wein and pencilled for the most part by my favourite Batman artist of all times Jim Aparo - Ernie Chan draws the final issue - it still is one of the best Batman stories ever.

Coming to Batman's best pal ( at least back then ) who is one part of the inspiration for the name of this very blog there are several SUPERMAN SUPERBAND who deserve a spot on the list like number 12 which includes the first three issues of the newly created DC COMICS PRESENTS drawn magnificently by Jose Luis Garcia - Lopez with the most reprinted first issue that has one of the most famous races between Superman and the Flash. Another Jose Luis Garcia - Lopez bonanza is SUPERBAND 8 where Superman has one of his most memorable fights against Solomon Grundy.

Who was called Solo Morasso in german for some reason. Then there are several issues - 7, 10, 13 and 21 - about The Legion Of Super - Heroes ( one of the greatest concepts in super hero comics ever ) but if I had to pick one I would have to go with 13 which contains one of the greatest Legion of Super - Heroes sagas from All - New Collector's Edition C - 55 called The Millenium Massacre in which a perplexed Superboy returns to the 30th century only to find out the future is not how he remembers.

This 76 page slobberknocker written by Paul Levitz, pencilled by Mike Grell with inks by Vince Coletta has it all including a showdown with the nefarious Time Trapper and the wedding of Lightning Lad and Saturngirl.

Speaking of Superman and the Legion of Super - Heroes, THE UNTOLD LEGEND OF BATMAN was published in Germany as just THE LEGEND OF BATMAN as the second book of DIE GROSSEN SUPERHELDEN with the first book being THE LEGEND OF SUPERMAN which includes material from the 500th issue of Action Comics, Action Comics 514 and Superman 213 and the final installment being THE LEGEND OF THE LEGION OF SUPER - HEROES which includes the three part series Secrets Of The Legion Of Super - Heroes and the story The Secret Origin Of Blok from The Legion Of Super - Heroes 272. All three comicbooks were published in softcover and hardcover although the hardcovers were a bit more difficult to find.

Staying with the man of steel there are of course those two timeless Superman stories by Alan Moore with For The Man Who Has Everything reprinted in SUPERMAN SUPERBAND 28 and Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow ? which can be found in SUPERMAN TASCHENBUCH 79.

Changing things up a bit we have Ehapa's series DIE GROSSEN PHANTASIC COMICS which published such great fantasy series like WARLORD by Mike Grell, Don Lawrence's STORM, Mike W. Barr and Brian Bolland's CAMELOT 3000, ARAK SON OF THUNDER ( although in Germany it was called AROK ) by Roy Thomas, Ernie Colon and Tony DeZuniga, AMETHYST PRINCESS OF GEMWORLD inked by Ernie Colon, BLACK DRAGON by Chris Claremont and John Bolton and even Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson's SWAMP THING.

And just to show you that Ehapa Verlag did a plethora of books outside of super heroe comics there was the imprint EHAPA COMIC COLLECTION which published everything from DONALD DUCK and MICKY MAUS to AGENT 327, ASTERIX, BLUEBERRY, DIABOLIK, DICK TRACY, GARFIELD, GIPSY, HAGAR, IZNOGOOD, Moebius THE INCAL, LARGO WINCH, LUC ORIENT, LUCKY LUKE, MAC COY, UMPAH - PAH, WERNER and WITCH.

But that is all I am going to say about that matter since this could well be the topic for another post and let's get back to SUPERMAN VS THE AMAZING SPIDER - MAN. I have seen a few reviews of this book lately and I don't think people who were not reading comics at the time this came out can really understand how groundbreaking and mindblowing it was.

Remember, this was the very first time two publishers - and not some small publishers but the biggest two at that time - put their biggest and most successful super heroes in the same book. Some reviewers give this comic a hard time because of all the tropes of intercompany crossovers it has but this is the very first one that CREATED all these tropes of super heroes meeting for the first time, then having a misunderstanding and fighting to a standstill only to realize that they are on the same side and joining forces to ultimately bring down the bad guys and save their girls.

And if this had not been successful I doubt that they would have made any others. As for the creative team we have Gerry Conway who had already written for DC Comics as well as for Marvel Comics at this point and Ross Andru who also worked at both companies. Both of them were very familiar with the characters and as it has come to light in recent years apparently the great Neal Adams redrew Superman's faces and did a lot of other touch ups when the pencilled pages came across his desk and some say that is the reason why the comic looks as good as it does.

But I think they are not giving Ross Andru enough credit. Sadly he is one of the big underrated, underappreciated and often forgotten comicbook artists but I think he did a great job on this book. Which is why I decided to go beyond my usual 23 pictures per post mandate just so I can include more of his beautiful double pages spreads. With such a lengthy issue it is of course impossible to include all of the pages but I hope I managed to include the most important story beats. And with that said let's check out the very first encounter of the man of Tomorrow with your friendly neighbourhood Spider - Man and of Lex Luthor with Doctor Octopus.