Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Spider-Man and Tarantula


The golden age Tarantula had a very generic looking costume until Jerry Ordway gave him a makeover in the pages of All-Star Squadron.  I loved the brown and black outfit that was spider-themed while still being a very original design.  It's too bad that the character has all but disappeared since that series ended.

18 comments:

filmsandvidgames07@gmail.com said...

dc the assassin and punisher or vs taskmaster also super adaptoid vs amazo

AirDave said...

I really liked The Tarantula. I liked the diversity of careers of the All-Stars: Johnny Chambers was a newsreel reporter; Jon Law was a writer...I guess All-Star Squadron was kinda like M*A*S*H. They just moved on. But it would be kinda cool to see these characters as supporting cast in a JSA book...

Carycomic said...

Given that he was killed off in the pages of Nightwing's (now cancelled) book, and his superhero-nym adopted by a Bludhaven vigilantrix, it's increasingly unlikely that Jon Law will ever be seen as the Tarantula, again.

Bigby65 said...

Nightwing is not cancelled. Those stories you mention are no longer in continuity. When they (eventually) bring back the JSA he could start appearing again.

ELS said...

Dear stars in heaven, we can't say ANYTHING about continuity anymore. It did happen... it didn't happen... it was pre-Watchmenverse... it happened in the Ultimate universe... I don't think DC or Marvel could screw things up worse if they tried. But they seem to see it as a challenge...

Tarantula's original outfit was so generic that it duplicated the Sandman's second outfit, save for the purple cape (yellow bodysuit... purple trunks, hood, gloves, and boots... my eyes! MY EYES! (There's an idea for a mash up... the Clueless Colors Squad! We can start with Sandman, golden age Green Lantern, Daredevil's original outfit, Captain Ultra, Jack of Hearts... the mind boggles. And the eyes ache. ;)

Anonymous said...

For eight-limb characters, how about Squidward and Squiddly-Diddly? Maybe also Doctor Octopus.

Bob Greenwade said...

Ross, I agree with you on everything you said up there. Tarantula's original costume was lame and generic; Ordway's update was good enough that I kept hoping (and, to an extent, still hope) that he'd get his own solo title set back in the day.

ELS: How about the Golden Age Atom's original outfit? Colors galore... speaking of which, the Sixth Doctor (from Doctor Who) would probably fit in this gang as well.

Anon: There's also Suicide Squid (who, though he never had a comic in the real world, is still a "thing"). And Spider-Man could be a temporary member, from his "six-armed" phase.

Anonymous said...

@Kevin: We could also see Marvel Films bring forth a Submariner flick prior to WB's release of an Aquaman movie. But, I highly doubt it.

Carycomic said...

@Anon: Well, Ross has two time-travelers working for him, today. Maybe they could do something about it!

Anonymous said...

all star squadron was a great book....loved it!!!!!....it also had a great artist too arvel jones....i met him at a comic con in columbus,ohio a few years ago. very nice guy!!! he drew a few sketches for me too!!! one of the golden age superman and batman (with round belt buckel for batman-cool look for batman) and one of the golden age flash!!!!

Wolfhammer said...

Nice. How about this TARANTULA VS the SPIDER-MAN villain of the same name.

David Morefield said...

(JSA) Tarantula vs (Spidey foe) Tarantula was already covered in Issue 1019.

Add me to the list of fans of the Ordway redesign. It was refreshing to see a brown costume in with all those garishly colored characters, and this one always reminded me of Chaykin's Dominic Fortune character, who I loved.

Anonymous said...

@Kevin: maybe not cancelled, per se. But, definitely VERY LONG hiatuses between volumes!

Dylan said...

I both really love that Tarantula costume and at the same time feel it was just a little too "modern" looking to fit in with the rest of the GA heroes.

Wolfhammer said...

@David Morefield

I just looked it up. Awesome!

Don MacPherson said...

Actually, the Tarantula's secret ID, John Law, turned up this week in Doomsday Clock #3!

Anonymous said...

"Doomsday Crock" would be more accurate. Not one comic store in my neck of the woods carried that over-hyped mini-series!

Anonymous said...

OMG. I almost requested this (2 years late). Now all you need is for these two to meet the Web (Archie).

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