In the early 1970s author and literary agent David Obst suggested to Marvel publisher Stan Lee and DC editorial director Carmine Infantino that there should be a movie crossover featuring Marvel Comics' Spider-Man and DC Comics' Superman characters. However, there was already a Superman movie planned by Warner Bros. (the first Superman movie in that franchise), and a series of Spider-Man TV Movies, so instead the two companies settled for an oversize comic book entitled Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man: The Battle of the Century. The comic was published in 1976 and featured the two title characters, Mary Jane Watson and Lois Lane, Jonah Jameson and Morgan Edge and the villainous Doctor Octopus and Lex Luthor. It was the second time the two U.S. comic book giants published a joint venture, the first being 1975's MGM's Marvelous Wizard of Oz.[1]

The writing was done by Gerry Conway and the penciling by Ross Andru. Both of these creators had worked on Superman and Spider-Man before in their own titles. The editing was done by a variety of individuals, including Sol Harrison, Stan Lee, Carmine Infantino, Marv Wolfman, Len Wein, Roy Thomas and others. According to a piece written by Daniel Best on this comic (based on his interviews with Marv Wolfman, Len Wein, Carmine Infantino, Mark Evanier, Neal Adams and John Romita) Neal Adams did some finished art on Superman in the comic and John Romita did some finished art on Spider-Man (in his Peter Parker guise.)