Black Spider
Black Spider (German "Black Spider") is the name of several fictional characters owned by the US entertainment company Time Warner. These appear mainly in cartoon productions by Time Warner's film and television production company Warner Brothers , as well as in comic publications by Time Warner's comic book publisher DC Comics .
The first version of the character (Black Spider I / "Eric Needham") is of particular importance in terms of comic and race history. This is namely the first African-American villain character in an American mainstream comic, a role that was previously reserved exclusively for white-skinned characters.
marketing
Black Spider - a registered trademark - is primarily used as a villain character in the comics that appear on DC's Batman label. There, the character usually appears as an opponent ("super villain"), who confronts Batman and other "superhero" characters.
Versions
The original version of Black Spider (Black Spider I) was developed in 1976 by writer Gerry Conway and illustrator Ernie Chan and first featured in the book Detective Comics # 463. Author Doug Moench and illustrator Kelley Jones created a newer version for Batman 518 from 1995.
Black Spider 1 (Eric Needham)
Black Spider I, aka Eric Needham, is featured in its debut story from 1976 as a vigilante junkie who, as a self-proclaimed "avenger", systematically tracks down and murdered drug dealers and their backers in his hometown of Gotham City. Since Needham regards drug criminals as "blowflies", he disguises himself as "natural enemy of the flies" during his hunting activities. H. as a spider. Although he calls himself "Black Spider" ("Black Spider") he wears an orange-purple colored costume (reminiscent of Marvel Comics Spider-Man in its cut ). In further imitation of his namesake, he mounts a firing device on his wrist that can fire small bolts, which he calls "spider sting". As a motive for Needham's actions, it is finally revealed that he blames the drug community for the death of his father, whom he himself shot and killed while he was drugged during a robbery.
Batman, the self-proclaimed protector of Gotham City, finally becomes aware of Black Spider through the series of murders in the drug milieu. In his first attempts to put an end to Black Spider's deadly private war ( Detective Comics # 463 and # 464), the Spider Man proves himself to be an equal opponent of Batman and is able to escape - believed to be dead. In Batman # 306 from 1978, Batman finally succeeds in arresting Black Spider, while the latter is chasing after drug lord Hannibal Hardwicke - who tries to instrumentalize Black Spider to eliminate his competition.
Other stories describe Black Spider being freed twice in mass escapes from Gotham City prison, only to be arrested again soon after by Batman ( Detective Comics # 526, 1982, and Batman # 400, 1986). In Shadow of the Bat # 5 from 1992, Black Spider is finally killed when he and a gang of drug dealers - the Needham's divorced Linda Morrel, also a drug addict - and his son Michael murdered himself with a homemade bomb in order to kill him hit - blows up.
In the comic series Sandman , Needham is brought back to life by Lucifer , together with other inhabitants of the realm of the dead (# 23), and returns to the surface of the earth (# 28). In the Sandman comics, he subsequently appeared as a businessman who was hinted at in league with the devil. He was last seen as a visitor to a nightclub run by Lucifer himself (# 57 and 59).
Black Spider 2 (Johnny LaMonica)
The name Black Spider survived Needham's demise, however, when a contract killer in the service of the Gotham mob named Johnny LaMonica appropriated him as nom de guerre .
LaMonica was an egomaniacal narcissist who deeply loathed the masking of his pretty face. Still, he masked himself with a stocking mask-like face mask that vaguely resembled a spider's head. Otherwise, however, he did not wear a costume, but normal street clothes (black, metal studded leather jacket, jeans, motorcycle boots). LaMonica entered into this compromise in order to be accepted into the Brotherhood of Wrong Faces, a Gotham crime syndicate, which obliged each of its members to wear a mask after joining in order to acquire a new identity.
He was acting on behalf of a competing gang that hoped to infiltrate the Brotherhood from within. LaMonica's primary goal was to assassinate the Brotherhood leader, sectarian sociopath Roman Sionis aka Black Mask . After this black spider had already killed several of Sioni's gang members, Batman's intervention prevented her from completing her mission: Sionis escaped while LaMonica was defeated in a duel with Batman.
The killer fell into the shards of a broken mirror, his formerly flawless face was cut many times and was left behind as a "web of scars" (US Batman issues # 518-519, 1995). Then LaMonica was taken to Blackgate Prison, where he shared a cell with Val Kaliban (aka Spook) ( Gotham Knights # 46 [?]). LaMonica was later fatally wounded by the latter in a shootout with detectives Renee Montoya and Crispus Allen ( Gotham Central # 23, 2004).
The character Johnny LaMonica is named after Doug Moench's neighbor of the same name, whose name the author found particularly melodious.
Black Spider 3 (Derrick Coe)
After LaMonica's death, the "Black Spider" franchise was sold to Derrick Coe by a man who only describes himself as a calculator. Coe entered the service of the criminal organization "The Society". He was pushed out of a window by Saviant during an argument with the Birds of Prey and has been missing ever since.
Individual evidence
- ^ John Wells: The Racial Justice Experience. Diversity in the DC Universe. 1979-Today, in: Fanzing 32, March 2001.