Saturday, February 6, 2010

Alias the Spider

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Photobucket

In 1936 young Thomas Hallaway was a rich, bored playboy with far too much money and no where near enough motivation. His drunken outings and string of inappropriate encounters left him the embarrassment of the upper crust. After getting the daughter of a rather important international financier pregnant, a group of "old money" conspirators got together and decided to do something about Tom.

Using their contacts, they hired a secret group of assassins known as the "Society of the Spider" to kidnap and assassinate Hallaway, thereby having his entire estate fall into the possession of his unscrupulous cousin Howard. The plan went off without a hitch, and Thomas was soon in the clutches of the Society. With all the conspirators there to witness the event, the acolytes of the Society lashed Hallaway to a giant web and called forth a gargantuan spider, that they worshiped as a god, to feed on him.

Unknown to the conspirators or the Society, Hallaway's loyal valet Chuck had followed them and infiltrated the meeting. As the giant spider bit into Hallaway, Chuck lept from the shadows and fired his .45 into the giant spider, killing it. The cultists were horrified but that quickly turned to rage as they swarmed Chuck seeking revenge. No one noticed on the web that Hallaway was not dead. In fact he was better than before. Somehow the spider's venom had transformed him, making him a very peak of human potential.

Leaping from the webbing and joining the fray, Hallaway quickly dispatched of the cultists and tied up the conspirators in the webbing. At Chuck's urging they left the scene, but not before calling the Police to round up the criminals.

Deciding that his life had been spared for a reason, Hallaway decide that he would use his second chance to make something more of himself. Fashioning himself a costume and using his vast resources to acquire various gadgets and weapons for the fight, he called himself the Spider and began his crusade on crime.

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This character is based off the public domain version of "Alias the Spider" thought with heavy modifications added in to make him more than just a boring guy with a bow.

I thought about giving him a crossbow, but am not sure about it. I also debated giving him a gun too.

I see him having a network of spies, street kids, etc which he calls his "web" sort of like the Shadow's network of informants. I also see him being quite obsessed to the point where he eventually becomes that dark loner in a cave, waging a one man war on crime. When the government orders all heroes to unmask in the early 50's, the Spider doesn't even acknowledge them.

I also see him fighting the remains of the Society of the Spider, sort of Spider-Ninjas etc...

So thoughts?

10 comments:

  1. I like the basic origin and the costume...

    personally I don't think you need to tie it to "Alias The Spider" though..I'd file off all the references to that stuff and totally make this your own..

    Did you ever read James Roninson's "Starman"? He turned The Spider into something far beyond "just a boring guy with a bow."

    Great blog!!

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  2. My only worry is that if I see publication I can't have "The Spider" as a name without DC technically being challenged, unless I link it to the public domain character. Or am I mistaken and not understanding how this stuff works?

    No I never read Starman, I wasn't much for deconstructionist hero comics of the 90s. Heh.

    Thanks for the approval of my blog sir. Tell your friends, I could use the followers ;)

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  3. What I meant to say was why not create an original spider-themed name for the hero and a different name than Thomas Halloway for the secret i.d.? you then don't have to worry about any challenge...

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  4. Cause I like the name "the Spider" :)

    Trust me, when dealing with spiders and snakes in supers, Marvel, DC and City of Heroes seem to have done it all ;)

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  5. You like the name? fair enough... :)

    I encourage you to check out Starman though... It might appear to be a deconstructionist take on super heroes..but it truth it is a much more heroic stroy than you might suspect...one of the best superhero comics ever published, and if you love golden age comics than you are in for a treat..

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  6. I had a roommate who was huge into it. I read the first couple of issues, never got into it. Maybe it was the art, I dunno.

    But on that recommendation I will look again. ;)

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  7. First read. I like it.
    It is very much like the origin stories of old. I bits of Batman, Spiderman and maybe even just a touch of the Shadow here.

    I like the idea of the cross bow too.

    If this were a modern age or iron age hero I would suggest adding something about Anasi here too.

    I also like the idea that he calls himself "The Spider" but the comic could be called "Alias the Spider!" or something.

    Now as a twist, maybe the venom is slowly killing him and he needs to get regular injections of anti-venom. Easy to disguise as insulin, it also become his Kryptonite, or more to the point the yellow to his Green Lantern Power ring.

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  8. I like the idea of the venom/anti-venom. Good call! :)

    Still not sure on the crossbow, though Huntress had one... hmmmm... let me think about it.

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  9. The cross-bow would also be a nice tip of the cap towards the original character...

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