The Spider Versus The Empire State!

What a bumpy road we are on with this whole Democracy thing. Things that were unstated givens a decade aga now have to be hammered out in detail in public to make the point. No, you don't threaten to attack judges or their aides because you disagree with their decisions. No, you don't join with your allies and storm the halls of Congress to overturn an election which didn't turn out as you imagined it ought to have. Since the publication of this book featuring three Spider pulp sagas from the 1930's, rights have been stripped away from women in regard to their ability to control their own bodies. Medical care has been criminalized. A sliver of society which doesn't conform to traditional gender roles is under attack in state after state for simply wanting to be who they really are. Books have been banned in libraries and schools across the country because they might challenge children (and adults) with offbeat notions such as historically documented state-supported racial bigotry. In the face of this reality, I offer up a book. The Spider Versus The Empire State by Norvell W. Page is a trio of Spider pulp stories pitting the ultra-violent hero against a brutal police state established during World War II in New York City.

The advertising blurb on The Spider volume reads "They said it couldn't happen here." I used to think that too. But I've read the position papers and I've heard the relentless hateful rhetoric and I've seen political leadership quail in the face of implied threats of violence, and I've seen our institutions of jurisprudence waffle when confronted with a demagogue who won't shut up. Yeah, as it turns out it could happen here in these United States, and it is. There is still time to hold it back, but sadly at this point all we're doing is holding it back. We'll know more this time next year. 

On a lighter note, below are the cautionary covers for the pulps the trio of Spider stories originally appeared in. The story of a Fascist government seizing power in America and rearing up a police state might serve as balm for my troubled spirit in these unusual days. Fiction has that power, the power to free the mind, not confine it.
  

Norvell Page really hits it out of the park with this riveting adventure of The Spider. The first of three Spider novels dubbed "The Black Police Trilogy", this story relates how an unknown criminal called "The Master" and "The White Face in Mirror" brings to heal the entire state of New York by installing a corrupt Governor and unleashing on the populace an army of black-uniformed troopers known simply as The Black Police. These thugs use tactics and techniques out of the Middle Ages and any number of oppressive political regimes to render the people terrified to act.

The City That Paid to Die begins in slam-bang fashion as Richard Wentworth alias The Spider rushes to save his former opponent, Police Commissioner Kirkpatrick of New York City from the Black Police who under orders from Governor Whiting and a corrupt Legislature are taking over normal police operations in NYC and across the state in general. After several desperate battles The Spider heads to Albany to confront the Governor only to be driven away. He then sets about to set up a guerrilla operation to fight against the tyrannical forces, while his beloved Nita Van Sloan and his Sikh assistant Singh also join the fight.

The novel is action-packed and breathlessly paced as Wentworth is a veritable dervish of violence, killing Black Police left and right as he chances across them. He leaves the mark of the Spider on their foreheads, but fabricates the fiction that The Spider has given him permission to do so. The war rages for page after page until a dramatic climax brings Wentworth face to face with the Master, a secret criminal who manipulates the events from hiding and in disguise. The novel leaves things up in the air, as The Spider's victories, significant though they are, leave the tyrants in power still.

This is a thrilling adventure, but despite its pulp origins is one which smacks on many serious points. First published in 1938, the novel plays on the very real fears then abroad in the country that Fascism could well indeed rear up and squash the cherished freedoms of the United States. Sadly because of the rigors of the Depression, some folks had even called for such a dictatorial approach to help solve the ongoing economic woes of the nation.

The threat of such a tyranny in these United States seems a quaint idea, but many of the details of Page's novel put me sadly in mind of some recent events. While there is no Black Police army, made up of mostly criminals, abroad in the land today, police have become more and more militaristic over the last several decades as one allegorical war after another has been waged. The shakedown operations conducted from the offices of the Governor in this novel disguised as taxes do unfortunately make me remember how property is seized minus any court order when a drug bust is conducted. People don't demand the rule of law when it comes to dealing with lawless often because they cannot imagine how it might one day impact them too.

So, while the modern America does not in any serious way resemble the nightmare society described in this novel, it is with some reluctance that I do see echoes here and there, at least in part of what Page so ably describes.

The Spider At Bay is the second novel in the infamous 1938 "Black Police Trilogy" from Norvell Page. The action picks up a few months after the last novel which detailed how a criminal cabal had seized control of the state of New York. The Spider battled back against the "The Master" and his allies controlled from the Governor's mansion. The Black Police were criminals running roughshod over the people, stealing their resources through illegal taxation and intimidation and murder.

As this second novel unfolds the whole struggle has become a full-fledged war. Richard Wentworth, The Spider himself, or at least pretending to be in this story leads his troops known as "The Commander". The battles rage in a New York almost reduced to Medieval standards though the fight is waged with modern weapons.

One of the most insidious weapons is a plague similar to leprosy unleashed on the people. In a weird bit of propaganda the rumor is spread that only those who struggle against the Black Police will contract the disease. Needless to say it makes the ability to gain support difficult. Some help from the outside does appear in the form of a G-Man by the name of Miller.

The Spider even manages to slip out of the state to meet with The President of the United States but since the veneer of authority still clings to the Governor's Black Police forces, the PotUS  is limited in what he can do. The Spider returns to his people only to fall victim to the evil forces. But that's not the end of the struggle.

This novel really reads almost like some fantasy adventure, there's a distinct ancient feel to the nature of the struggle. The Spider and his forces seem much like Robin Hood and his Merry Men, with Nita Van Sloan becoming Maid Marion. There's even a priest named Father Flower who serves the rebels.

The Plague too gives the story an ancient feel and the idea that modern people would believe the hokum about how it was contracted seems weird until you take a moment and remember that even today folks still fall all too quickly for demagogues who claim that all manner of calamities are the result of some moral failing.

New York seems almost like a pocket universe in this story, apart from the greater U.S., a land of death and mayhem and murder. Page's relentless storytelling doesn't let the reader pause to reflect much. But I was put much in mind of what it must be like to try and survive in modern day Syria, a land torn by endless struggle left alone to fight it out
   

The Scourge of the Black Legions from the November 1938 issue of The Spider is the third and final chapter in what is called "The Black Police Trilogy". In the previous two novels we were introduced to the evil "Master" who uses corrupt politicians to seize power in the state of New York and bring about a tyrannical rule which uses extortion, biological warfare, and blatant murder to terrorize the populace and under the disguise of constitutional authority hides these crimes from the federal government. In those two novels Richard Wentworth pretending to be The Spider leads a rebel force against the Black Police forces, trying time and again to discover the identity of "The Master" and dispose of him.

In this final installment the pacing is very much like an old-fashioned movie serial, with an episodic plot that takes the Spider from danger to danger with not much aside from the rigors of plotting to connect them. He confronts poison gas in a dungeon, then runs from a cascading deluge, and such as that. The overall impression is one of ever-increasing momentum leading the finale which does reveal the secret of "The Master" and does resolve to some extent the wild and ferocious events.

The story does reach a satisfying resolution, though as is often the case with these romps, the chase is superior to the payoff. The picture of society painted by Page's trilogy is a grim one indeed. Clearly there was a nervousness in the country about the future fabric of society if the wrong people came to power. The creators saw what was happening in Europe and they certainly felt that it could indeed happen in America. There is speculation that The Spider's battle against the Black Police is an adapted tale originally intended for Operator #5 's epic "Purple Wars" series. It's suggested that Norvell Price was considered as a replacement and produced these stories, then when the publishers went another way, used them in The Spider. 

While it likely will not happen in the uproarious fashion detailed in his unruly trilogy, we should all realize that the comity and good order we take for granted is far more fragile than we imagine.

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