"anyone read The Spider?" Topic

I just started reading this series and am a little put off by the fact that all his enemies know his secret identity but the police are clueless. Also his foes seem to go to absurd lengths to put him out of the picture instead of just shooting him.

But isn't that standard in the Pulp World?

I mean, that's not always the case, like, I don't think the Fly ever knew the Spider was Wentworth. The Spider is also more of a superhero than similar pulp characters like the Shadow or Green Hornet. He's where we get robot invasions, a certainly-not-the-Nazi Party violent takeover of New York state, that good stuff. His enemies are basically super villains, shooting the Spider would be like if Green Goblin said enough and pulled a gun on Spider Man.

Continue to enjoy the Spider! :)

I've read one novella of the six I have on-hand (two triple-novella collections), I found it a bit slow going, which makes me wonder if reading a chapter a week is a better way to go. I'll stick with it though because as 3Acres says, it's a wild ride.

The Spider is one of my favorite pulp magazines. The yarns can be totally wild, but that's what makes them interesting. Norvell Page wrote most of the stories, but many were written by Emil Tepperman, who was a very good choice as his writing can be just as over the top as Page's. I don't expect *any* pulp magazine hero to be anywhere *near* realistic. I don't *want* the stories to be realistic. It ain't literature. It's lurid and violent fantasy.

The Spider's opponents have no compunction about blowing up skyscrapers full of innocent civilians, ocean liners, airplanes, or just releasing a plague that will kill everyone in New York City.

Great stuff!

The Spider isn't even the craziest. Check out "Operator #5", especially the "Purple Invasion" sequence. The U.S. is in peril in every issue! Chip, of the Jacksonville Garrison club in Florida, worked out a great and "huge" scenario, revised from one that I had written, that was from one of the "Purple Invasion" stories. The Purple Army had taken over New York City and captured Jimmy Christopher's girlfriend or sister, I've forgotten which, and were about to chop off her head in the middle of Union Square Park!, when Jimmy and his band of rebels attacked the Purple Invaders and saved the day! I supplied Chip with my written scenario, maps of Union Square and the streets of the surrounding area, and Chip revised my scenario to have many small bands of pulp era heroes, like Doc Savage and his crew, fight the invaders! He also supplied all of the buildings and automobiles, and set up a recreation of the park! It turned out great! And I was lucky enough to be in Florida at the time to play in it leading Doc and his crew. :-)