Alias the Spider
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Alias the Spider was a fairly obscure comic book feature from the Golden Age that appeared in Crack Comics for nearly three years (starting with issue #1 in 1940). He was created by Golden Age great Paul Gustavson, and the book was published by Quality Comics.
The original, Golden Age version of the character is currently in public domain, but the rights to all subsequent versions are owned by DC Comics.
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[edit] Fictional character biography
[edit] Golden Age
The Spider was, in reality, playboy Tom Hallaway. Hallaway had tired of seeing criminals have their own way harassing and murdering honest citizens, so he adopted the guise of The Spider to settle the score. The Spider fought crime in a yellow shirt and blue shorts, looking a lot like a wrestler. He was armed with a fairly ordinary bow and arrows, a special car known as The Black Widow, and the assistance of his valet Chuck (who helped out Hallaway in both of his identities without anyone making any sort of connection). He also had a special arrow he called the "Spider's Seal", which had a flat disc on the end he shot at thugs' hands to disarm them.
Only one adventure of the Spider has ever been reprinted by DC Comics (which acquired the Quality Comics stable of characters in the sixties), the story from Crack Comics #25, which saw print in Detective Comics #441.
The Spider later showed up a few times in the pages of All-Star Squadron and The Young All-Stars, though only in a cameo role. As a Quality Comics character, he was one of the heroes who went with Uncle Sam to protect Earth-X during World War II, becoming part of the Freedom Fighters. This was a fulfillment of a storyline that began in Justice League of America #107 - 108, which introduced most of the Quality Comics' characters to the DC Universe (previously only Plastic Man and Blackhawk had been used). In this version of the DC Universe continuity, it also means that The Spider died on Earth-X, as he was not one of the surviving heroes who were helped by the Justice League and Justice Society in Justice League of America #107 - 108.
[edit] Post-Crisis
In the Post-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity, The Spider is not a nice guy. Tom Ludlow Hallaway did not become the Spider out of an altruistic motive, but rather because he was a nasty person in general - a smuggler, a kidnapper and a murderer - and used the guise of a super-hero as a cover to help him eliminate the competition. Though originally based in St. Louis, Missouri, he is a member of the Ludlow clan from New England. The family inadvertently ran up against The Shade, a near immortal and sometimes-villain from the Golden Age. The family had a history of ill-gotten gains, having originally amassed their vast wealth by killing off their partners in a business enterprise.
Instead of working with the Freedom Fighters, this revised Spider was a member of the Seven Soldiers of Victory (also known as The Law's Legionnaires). The Crisis on Infinite Earths had erased the Golden Age Green Arrow and Speedy from existence, and The Spider helped fill the void in the team. Shining Knight, The Vigilante and his partner Stuff, The original Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy, and The Crimson Avenger were on board with the Spider. As depicted in Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. #9, the final case of the Seven Soldiers had the Spider betraying them to their old enemy, the Iron Hand (who had created the cosmic menace known as the Nebula Man). The Spider killed the Vigilante's friend Billy Gunn, but was stopped by the Crimson Avenger's partner Wing, who went on to save the day against the Nebula Man (though at the cost of his own life).
With the only people who knew him to be a criminal gone, the Spider continued his heroic facade. He became the hero-in-residence of Keystone City after The Flash retired in 1950. Unfortunately, his Ludlow heritage caught up with him, as did The Shade. The Spider had been planning to face the Shade for quite a while and had a plan to defeat the immortal. He had saved fragments and shreds of The Shade's shadow substance with the intention to plant them on the scene of a double murder, that of Jay Garrick (The Golden Age Flash) and his wife Joan. The Spider hoped to lessen The Shade's power by keeping him captive near a roaring fireplace, but the added light only increased the shadows, and The Shade created arrow-casting monsters that quickly turned The Spider into a pincushion of black arrows. The Shade got out of there in time to prevent The Garricks' murders, and even convinced his old enemy, The Flash, to leave him out of the spotlight on the case.
[edit] The Modern Spider
The Spider's son, Lucas Ludlow-Dalt, took up the bow and arrow (and his original yellow and blue costume) in the pages of Starman, helping Culp, The Mist, Dr. Phosphorus, Solomon Grundy and several other villains lay siege to the city with the forces of darkness (during the "Grand Guignol" storyline). This Spider had trained all his life for revenge on The Shade, and came very close to getting it. Matt O'Dare prevented The Spider from killing the Shade, and he was chased off to parts unknown. He was also the assassin who attempted to kill Jack Knight in the final issue of Starman (and nearly killed Mason O'Dare, if not for the timely intervention of the spirit of the deceased magician Zatara). He was already responsible for at least sixteen deaths, and The Shade told Jack Knight that he was going to bring him in (since he was a Ludlow after all).
Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. #9 also depicted the beginning of vengeful activity for another Spider, though this may be the same Spider that was depicted in Starman.
The Spider took up his bow again in the pages of the most recent Hawkman series, facing off against Hawkman, Hawkgirl and Green Arrow. The Green Arrow got the Spider's aiming eye with an arrow, hoping to end the criminal's career by maiming him.
Seven Soldiers #0 featured the advent of yet another Spider, although he spelled the name "I, Spyder". This character, named Thomas Ludlow Dalt, was one of the five heroes brought together by the Vigilante to form a new incarnation of the Seven Soldiers of Victory. This Spider is also the son of Thomas Hallaway, and the brother of Lucas, who usurps the identity by killing his brother. His glory is short lived however, as he is killed by the evil Sheeda and resurrected as their agent.
It turned out, however, that this Spyder did not actually betray the good guys as his father did. In Seven Soldiers #1, Spyder shoots the Sheeda queen Gloriana Tenebrae, knocking her from her floating castle, which inevitably leads to her death when she is hit by a car.
