Warning: contains spoilers for Edge of Spider-Verse #1!
DC's Jurassic League, a dinosaur version of the Justice League that reimagines the DC superheroes as vicious beasts, pales in comparison to Marvel's recently-released Spider-Man dinosaur variant. The new Edge of Spider-Verse series, spearheaded by writer Dan Slott, showcases some of the most popular Spider-Man variants in addition to new heroes from across the multiverse. In Edge of Spider-Verse #1, one of those heroes is the Amazing Spider-Rex, who single-handedly undermines the entire Jurassic League by leaning in to the sheer absurdity of a Tyrannosaurs Rex Spider-Man.
In Jurassic League, readers are introduced to supersized dinosaur variants of Earth-Prime's most important superheroes: Supersaur, Batsaur, Wonderdon and more. The trio meet one another to stop enemies such as Jokerzard and the Reverse-Slash from attacking the "small beasts" on the ground: proto-humans who have very little chance at surviving a dinosaur rampage. The Jurassic League series also contains oddities regarding the jurassic nature of the heroes: Batsaur operates during the daytime, and the dinosaur Superman was raised by humans but looks absolutely nothing like them.
Marvel has elected to try their hand at creating a dinosaur version of Spider-Man in Edge of Spider-Verse #1. In the story Spider-Rex! written by Karla Pacheco with art by Pere Perez, Norman Osborn is in hot pursuit of Peter Parker - or rather, "Norrannosaurman" is chasing "Pter Ptarker" - through a dense jungle. The art showcases the T-Rex Osborn chomping on the wing of Ptarker seconds before a meteorite covered with spiders smashes into the Rex's jaw. Later that day, Pter Ptarker and Norrannosaurman find they have transformed into different dinosaurs - and are armed with superpowers.
The sheer absurdity of the dinosaur-superhero is downplayed in Jurassic League, but is on full display in Spider-Rex! The ridiculous names (Norman Osborn's is a standout) combined with the functional yet funny dialogue results in a story that is wholly in on the joke. It also doesn't overstay its welcome; Jurassic League is quite thin on plot after four issues (the heroes don't even meet each other until Issue #2), while Spider-Rex manages to recount Spider-Man's entire origin story in just a few pages - even the tragic death of "Uncle Bten" and "Aunpt May" and Pter's realization that his own hubris led to a deadly mistake.
Out of the many superheroes-as-other-beings alternate universes in comics (the Marvel Apes and Marvel Zombies worlds immediately come to mind), the dinosaur worlds are the most outlandish for both publishers. Unfortunately, Jurassic League lacks brevity and thus wit; Spider-Rex knows exactly what it wants to be and tells a quick succinct story with plenty of humor. Marvel's new Spider-Man is just as funny as the old, while DC's dinosaur Justice League lacks the humor of its Marvel counterpart.