Customer Reviews

The Spider: City of Doom (Spider (Baen Books))

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The Spider: City of Death

"A man and woman stood rigidly against the wall. The man wore rumpled pajamas; the woman's nightgown was green silk and an inset point of lace dipped between her breasts."


Only Norvell Page could start a novel like that. Right into the action. Break and enter. Death threats. The promise of a far greater evil. The Spider was a perfect character for the 1930's. With the depression full blown, and a tense political situation on both sides of the ocean, only a character with split second decisiveness and total regard for justice, no matter what the circumstance could deal with globe spanning maniacal leaders.

Boy, could Richard Wentworth/The Spider deal with the criminally obsessed. His blazing pistols and total disregard for his personal safety could take out villains with thoughts only of global domination. Consider the first story in this collection, "The City Destroyer". Gotham is struck by a madman who destroys a five square block area with steel eating chemicals just to sell his steel at monopoly prices! "The Faceless One" pits the Spider against master disguise artist, Munro, who masquerades as the Spider, Ram Singh, and the Police Chief in his flight from justice. Six criminals, a girl, and a living dead man band together to destroy the Spider in "the Council of Evil".

Joel Frieman contributes a marvelous foreword to the book that captures the spirit of the Spider and Page.

It's amazing that a character who saw print in the 1930's and 40's, has regained such a following today. Perhaps it's a testament to the concept of quick justice for those who terrify the innocent, or those who want to do something, but held back due to societal expectations. Richard Wentworth would probably be a war criminal today for just wearing his pistols in public and defending himself from a raging mob of the undead! The FBI would love him!

Other than the spectacular Page stories, Jim Steranko contributes a pulp inspired cover and frontpiece. If the Spider were to appear today on a monthly basis, Steranko would be a natural choice for cover and spot art pieces.

Look for this at your favorite bookstore or online at www.baen.com

Tim Lasiuta

The Spider, Master of Men was one of the GREAT pulp magazine heroes and this paperback gives a good sample of his adventures at a good price. I got a lot of reading pleasure for a little money.

Excellent book for all the Spider/Richard Wentworth fans with a very sharp Steranko cover on the book. Contains three Spider adventures in an economical format. Nice reading, better than the small paperbacks. Love to have a Poster of this cover.

Volume two of the Baen Series was even better. These stories had more action than the previous edition. The first one with the sky scrapers is relevant today. I can see how the pulps influenced the creation of the comics. There's non-stop action on each page! What attracted me was the great cover by former Marvel artist Jim Steranko. Every paragraph describes each scene visually in the present tense. I wish someone would print the complete collection of Spiders with orginal covers and illustrations. Del Rey has done this with Robert E. Howard's works and I hope some one does the same collection with the Spider!