The Spider And The City Of Doom!

In Baen Books second and final Spider volume titled The Spider - City of Doom we get three more vintage Spider yarns from the heyday of the pulps the 1930's and 1940's. These tales are drawn from nearly a decade of Spider adventures. As with the previous volume, we are treated to an amazing Jim Steranko cover with one dynamite interior illustration as well.  

The City Destroyer was published in early 1935 and offers up a wild and ferocious tale of the death of thousands of citizens as a villain has got hold of a secret formula that destroys the integrity of steel resulting in the collapse of great buildings and famous bridges. The death toll is beyond imagination and only penetrates my psyche since I've seen such villainy in the attacks on New York nearly a quarter century ago. What was the fruit of a wild imagination, became a stark and deadly reality of the modern world. 

The Spider and the Faceless One is from 1939 and pits the Spider and his allies against Munro for the first of three encounters. Despite being the initial encounter, this story feels as if the two have already met, but that's not the case as far as I can make out. Munro is a murderous villain with a cadaverous mug who is running a fire protection scheme and killing hundreds. He seems a step ahead of Richard Wentworth pretty much though out this whole misadventure though as must be, justice is dealt eventually. Whereas the deaths of thousands was the stuff of early tales, the death of single woman in a car brings the emotional high in this story. 

The Council of Evil is from late 1940 and pits The Spider against old foes who have banded together to commit slaughter and high-end robberies. They are led by a man Spider believes to be dead. This is a story which sees Wentworth assisted by a gang of young boys who fancy themselves as part of a Spider Club of sorts. This story also has the bizarre notion that mobs of old folks being used as ruse to assist in the nefarious schemes of the villains. The Spider is robbed of his aids for the most part as Nita is stricken with amnesia and Chief Kirkpatrick is replaced with a cop who is even more committed to hunting down The Spider and slapping him behind bars. 

(The real "Grant Stockbridge" Norvell Wordsworth Page)

These three novels are bracketed by an alluring pseudo-biographical yarn about Norvell Page and has him battling Nazis who are out to kill him to claim a bounty offered by a rather surprising source. Cameos are the order of the day with famous writers, actresses, and industrialists putting in quick appearances. 

This a great package and a wonderful way to get a heady sample of The Spider. 

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