The Spider was one of the pulp’s more successful series, cropping up well over 100 adventures, mostly written by Norvell Page (using the house alias of Grant Stockbridge). I’ve never particularly cared for the stories I’ve read, nor for Page’s other work (I have one of his Conanesque fantasy novels, The Flame Wind). Nevertheless, he and his creation hit it out of the park in THE SPIDER VS THE EMPIRE STATE, a collected edition of the Black Police trilogy in which New York state is taken over by a dictator.
In the first installment, The City That Paid to Die, a criminal cabal has somehow taken over the state government. They’ve recruited a new police force, the Black Police, which will carry out ruthless extortion under the guise of tax collecting and punish anyone who crosses Gov. Whiting, the front man for the cabal. Richard Worthington, AKA the Spider, tells his best friend, Commissioner Kirkpatrick (who suspects but doesn’t know Richard’s identity) about the conspiracy and that because its legal the federal government has no more recourse than it can interfere with Huey Long (the authoritarian governor of Louisiana at the time). Kirkpatrick is skeptical but it’s soon obvious his buddy is right. Off they go to launch the resistance and unmask the Master behind it all.
While the legend of the Spider rallies the populace, it’s The Spider At Bay in V2, after the Master unleashes a bioweapon (fast-acting leprosy) and spreads rumors that it strikes down whoever defies the Black Police. The Spider turns things around by the end but at the start of Scourge of the Black Legions his allies are captured, his forces ground under and his efforts as a freedom fight seem doomed. His one chance is to confront the Master and destroy him — but how?
As pulp action, it’s a thrill a minute and holds up to the end (though the Master’s identity is such a forgettable character I felt underwhelmed by the climactic reveal). As a political allegory, it’s mixed. It does give the feel of a government that’s blatantly and openly run without a pretense of justice; however the injustice is straight out of The Adventures of Robin Hood: brutal tax collections, hanging the defiant on trumped-up charges, though with concentration camps added.
Despite my title, the threat isn’t really fascist. The Master is pure criminality with no political agenda, though one character compares the courts to Stalinist show trials. Nor is there any sense that collaborating is morally questionable. The National Guard follows orders when called in. People cooperate with the new government out of fear. There’s no suggestion the regular folks of New York would support the Master for any reason. The possibility V explores that some people will suck up to power — as history and the present time shows us they will — isn’t touched on. We readers can safely divide the characters into saints and sinners. Indeed, one military officer who allies with the Master reforms out of love for a pretty woman; I’m much less forgiving of him than Wentworth is.
Even so, this was way more fun than I expect from the Spider. If you’re into pulp fiction, it’s worth a try.
