I don't know if he was killed off or just forgotten about, but The Black Spider is one of those cool 80's Batman villains that we don't really hear about anymore. That's too bad, I remember thinking that he was an interesting antagonist.
Black Panther here is by the legendary Dave Cockrum. Here's an original sketch by him that I was lucky enough to pick up several years ago:
Is this guy a villain? He sounds more like a vigilante looking to take out bad hats.
ReplyDeleteBlack Spider has been Justice cartoon.
ReplyDeleteYoung Justice I meant to say
ReplyDeleteAs I remember his debut story, the original (pre-COIE) Black Spider was a Vietnam War veteran whose younger brother had overdosed on illegal drugs. So, when he came home to Gotham City after his discharge, he used his military skills to prey on the "super fly" drug dealers throughout the town.
ReplyDeleteBatman, of course, being a firm believer in not becoming a worse monster than those one fights (hence, his incessant--and highly sensible--refusal to go the Punisher route) became determined to stop him.
Excellent sketch by Cockrum, Ross! It's the only Bill Foster Black Goliath costume I ever liked.
ReplyDeleteI consider him more of a '70s character than '80s. He first appeared in 1976.
ReplyDeleteThe "problem" must be serious, for Black Spider to go all the way upriver to Wakanda. (Kinda like a Comment I tried to make the other day, but that refused to post, that Namor must've had a real problem with Coast City, since the last I remembered that was on the Pacific Coast.)
ReplyDeleteOn another note, Black Spider might be an interesting for for our Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.
@Cary: Just an aside, but since you mentioned Batman and the Punisher in the same sentence: I was just thinking last night about how we got a sort of "indirect" team-up between the two in The Accountant, starring Ben Affleck with Jon Bernthal. (Ben gives my overall second-favorite movie portrayal of an autistic person.)
@Bob - Or you could look at it as a DD and Punisher team up! ;-)
ReplyDeleteCool, I was just looking at the original Batman issue from where this Black Spider image is from. Great mash-up. How about Spider-Man VS Black Spider?
ReplyDeleteI'll definitely have to get to Spidey/Black Spider one of these days.
ReplyDeleteCarycomic, I agree. As I'm always reminding people: Batman is not a vigilante. A vigilante does not make the commissioner of the police department his VERY FIRST professional partner! LOL.
ReplyDelete@Bob: maybe Namor feared the people of Sub-Diego had been amphibianized using Dr. Hydro's old process. And that Aquaman was going to use them as the nucleus of an army to overthrow him! So, he wingfoots his way to the West Coast in order to pre-emptively eliminate the only geographically convenient Justice Leaguer powerful enough to aid Aquaman.
ReplyDeleteBlack Spider's been popping up here-and-there in DC over the years. He was in the New 52 reboot of Suicide Squad: https://comicvine.gamespot.com/suicide-squad/4050-42803/object-appearances/4005-5812/
ReplyDeleteGreat cover. Black Spidernis a favorite.
ReplyDeleteFantastic Cockrum commission. Wouldn't have thought to have him do Bill Foster but it turned out terrific. Good call.
@Bob Greenwade: given the near-concurrency of the two characters, it wouldn't be much of a stretch for the Black Spider to find out that the drugs his brother o-d'd on were bought from a cartel headed by Erik Killmonger! One of many ways the latter might have used to finance his efforts to overthrow Prince T'Challa.
ReplyDelete@Cary: I like that!
ReplyDelete