Grant Stockbridge

This is an omnibus edition -- the first of Carroll & Graf's eight reprint editions from 1992 -- containing two unconnected Spider novels. It was my first exposure to the Spider; while I've read a fair amount of other pulp novels from the same era (e.g., Doc Savage, The Avenger, The Shadow), I had not read any of the Spider's adventures prior to this book. The cover art is from one of the Spider novels included here ("The Painmaster").

The first novel is "Secret City of Crime," originally show more published in February 1943. I was concerned when I first started reading the book because it begins somewhat in media res and I was unfamiliar with the Spider and his allies (the fiance of his alter ego -- a kind of proto-Bruce Wayne -- and a Sikh bruiser). The dialogue also started off relatively stilted. Both the dialogue and the plot got better fairly rapidly. A criminal has set up a secret facility where other criminals are trained to perfection and then used to carry out extremely well-disciplined and coordinated crimes. He's a nasty guy; they almost succeed in pulling off a subway train collision as a mere decoy operation! The Spider stops that with an excellent gun battle in the subway tunnels. Eventually the Spider locates the eponymous "secret city" and matches wits against the main criminal while breaking into his base. Oh yes, and the police commissioner is a friend of the Spider's alter ego -- and suspects him of being the Spider -- but can't prove it. He's still willing to bring his friend to justice if he's guilty, so the Spider must constantly be on guard against the police as well as the criminals. Imagine if Batman had to contend with Gotham PD as well as his foes.

The second novel is "The Painmaster," originally published in January 1940. Normally respectable citizens begin committing horrible crimes -- thefts, murders, etc. -- for no apparent reason. As it turns out, a villain who calls himself "Red Feather" (he's not a Native American, his calling card is a feather dipped in blood) has been blackmailing them by kidnapping their loved ones and threatening to torture and murder them if his instructions aren't followed. An insidious plot that seems pretty hard to solve. Red Feather also has his own criminal henchmen who wield flamethrowers. And they aren't afraid to use them. The Spider gets into several gunfights with Red Feather's men and RF and co. manage to burn to death and torture several victims (including the heartbreaking murder of a newspaperboy and his sister). For the early '40s, I have to imagine that this was really edgy stuff. Eventually, the Spider figures out where RF's headquarters is and manages to infiltrate before his fiance is tortured to death.

I heartily recommend this omnibus, despite my initial reservations. The Spider is an excellent, exciting pulp hero, surprisingly brutal in his methods and facing truly despicable foes. The Spider is very willing to kill, as are his opponents. This was a really fun read.

Review copyright 2008 J. Andrew Byers show less

This is an omnibus edition -- the third of Carroll & Graf's eight reprint editions from 1992 -- collecting two unconnected Spider novels: "Death's Crimson Juggernaut" (originally published in November 1934) and "The Red Death Rain" (originally published in December 1934). Oddly, the cover art is from a third Spider novel ("The Council of Evil"), which I'd really like to read because goons in gas masks are always cool.

"Death's Crimson Juggernaut" involves some pretty edgy, brutal villains show more ("The Torture Trust") who crucify and torture their victims before killing them. I was actually a little surprised that the murders were so violent. There's a nice climactic scene on a sinking cruise ship. As with most of the Spider's foes, the crimes are committed by unscrupulous businessmen willing to commit mass murder to make a quick buck.

"The Red Death Rain" involves a plot that proves that smoking really *does* kill. Tobacco is being chemically poisoned and because it's the 1930s, everyone smokes. And dies. Lots and lots of people die. The plot was cooked up my an evil Oriental mastermind.

SPOILER ALERT:

The climax in the mandarin's lair is really, really good. It involves a threat to Nita van Sloan (the Spider's fiancee) involving a lecherous orangutan. This beast -- shockingly -- ends up raping and killing the evil female Chinese seductress who was working with the mandarin. This was probably the best Spider story thus far, probably because of the outre plot.

As with the first two omnibus editions, I highly recommend this one. In fact, these were two of the strongest Spider novels I've read thus far. Both novels included here were fun reads with good plots that made sense and absolute brutal action scenes.

Review copyright 2009 J. Andrew Byers show less

This is an omnibus edition -- the fourth of Carroll & Graf's eight reprint editions from 1992 -- collecting two unconnected Spider novels: "Death Reign of the Vampire King" (originally published in November 1934) and "The Pain Emperor" (originally published in December 1934). Oddly, the cover art is from a third Spider novel ("Master of the Night-Demons").

"Death Reign of the Vampire King" concerns a series of deaths of horse-racing-related individuals caused by vampire bats. As it turns out, show more someone is dressing up like a bat man -- complete with glider wings -- and has a flock of vampire bats with poisoned fangs and a whole tribe of South American Indians armed with blowguns working for him. There are some good bat man/aircraft duels and lots of blowgun action. I had really been hoping for a plot by evil jockeys with a flair for the dramatic, but it didn't quite turn out that way. The criminal scheme falls apart a bit in the end; ultimately, it doesn't really seem to matter much *why* these murders have been committed. That's a mild-to-serious flaw, depending on how much you require your pulp fiction to have coherent plots. This is one of the three Spider novels collected in Baen's 2007 Spider omnibus ("Robot Titans of Gotham"); I wish they had chosen one of the harder-to-find Spider novels than this one, but that's an issue I have with Baen, not with this omnibus.

"The Pain Emperor" is the second novel in this collection and it has a staggering death toll of about 25,000 or so! The plot involves a fake vigilante called The Avenger who solves crimes like the Spider, but yet he always seems to come out ahead, both financially and in the press. The crimes involve mass killings and maimings of civilians, including food and drug tampering as well as make-up that permanently disfigures women. Nasty stuff, and it's all just a side-show for what's really going on. The Spider comes very close to hanging up his hat (or cowl) since his every step is dogged by police, newspapermen, and private citizens and he is unable to operate freely. This is probably the Spider lowest point I've seen yet. The death toll of the villain's various schemes is outrageous and there is a *major* development for one of the Spider's sidekicks which I won't spoiler here.

I recommend this one, as both stories are good, though the second is a little on the depressing side, since right up to the very end, the Spider seems to have more than met his match.

Review copyright 2008 J. Andrew Byers show less

This is an omnibus edition -- the second of Carroll & Graf's eight reprint editions from 1992 -- collecting two unconnected Spider novels: "Dictator of the Damned" (originally published in January 1937) and "The Mill-Town Massacres" (originally published in February 1937). Oddly, the cover art is from a third Spider novel ("Dictator's Death Merchants").

"Dictator of the Damned" concerns a criminal mastermind who has been assassinating every newly appointed Commissioner of Police for New York show more City. The plot involves multiple frame-jobs: a common trope of Spider novels seems to involve framing either the Spider or an innocent person who the Spider then has to protect for a crime that the evil mastermind has committed. Inevitably, the Spider is then hunted by the police force. There's an amusing scene where the Spider's sometime ally, Kirkpatrick, has been framed and sent to a mental asylum where he is about to be subjected to hideous torments. The plot turns out to have been perpetrated by a Russian count who had plastic surgery to disguise his appearance; he planned to place an ally in the commissioner's office to provide the criminal ring free reign in the city. A relatively forgettable Spider adventure, but not bad.

"The Mill-Town Massacres" takes place outside the city in a mil town where otherwise solid steel mill workers unexpectedly start killing people randomly in an "epidemic of murder madness." (As it turns out, hypnotism is the cause.) The town is cordoned off by the army and police (who otherwise don't do anything to solve the problem, oddly enough). Fortunately, the Spider sneaks into town. The Spider raises an army of mill workers who combat the criminals who have infiltrated town. Many, many people are gunned down with tommyguns and the like. There are a couple good scenes involving tugboats and gun battles as well. As is often the case, the scheme has been dreamed up by a cabal of evil industrialists who plan to make a lot of money by sending their competitors' stock prices into the toilet (perhaps we need the Spider again in 2009?). Of the two, this was the better story.

As with the first Spider omnibus, I heartily recommend this collection. Fun, fast, action-packed.

Review copyright 2009 J. Andrew Byers show less