Seeing as Marvel and DC are celebrating the 30th anniversary of their Amalgam imprint with more crossover collaborations, I thought I’d head back to 1996 and check out some of the classic titles from that era.

First up is Spider-Boy, a clear mashup of Spider-Man with Superboy (made a little more confusing these days by the fact that Marvel do now have a Spider-Boy character of their own!).

After taking on Bizarnage (yes, that’s Bizarro/Carnage), Spider-Boy is tasked with bringing King Lizard (King Shark/The Lizard), while juggling a secret life that no one even realises he has, given his celebrity status.

I really wanted to like this comic, as I really dig the concept of two combined, rival universes coming together as one. It leads to some really fun combinations, but this comic just seems to throw as much as it can at the wall to see what sticks, aside from the main character.

It’s an absolute mess of exposition and winking at the audience with characters who are either smooshed together from their Marvel and DC counterparts, or bizarrely unchanged at all.

It tries to shoehorn in way too many people (including the Challengers of the Unknown/Fantastic Four mashup, Challengers of the Fantastic), and through truly atrocious dialogue and weak art, it really doesn’t fulfil its level of promise at all.

What could have been a fun, mostly standalone adventure just gets bogged down in so much unnecessary, incredibly clunky detail. Don’t come for me please, Amalgam fans. I did want to enjoy Spider-Boy, but this ain’t the mashup we deserve.

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