Post by coke & comics on Jul 7, 2017 16:16:03 GMT -5
The Tarantula is one of Spider-Man's lamest villains, yet Conway seemed obsessed with him. He kept bringing him back and would write dialogue for Spider-Man where Spider-Man was constantly scared of the Tarantula. "Oh no, he has a really sharp foot spike!" constantly fretted the man who can dodge bullets.
"We live as though the world were as it should be, to show it what it can be." ~Angel
"For all their indisputable intelligence, men take this farce as something serious, and that is their tragedy." ~Brothers Karamazov
I thought the Tarantula was pretty cool when I was a kid. Not so much the pointy shoes, but the name and the rest of the costume. One of those things that kind of works on the comic book page (at least for some people, apparently) but would never work on the tv or movie screen.
A weird one was David V. Reed's obsession with Dr. Tzin-Tzin, who wasn't even created by him: Tzin-Tzin was created by John Broome and Sheldon Moldoff. Tzin-Tzin was an extremely minor villain in the DC universe, but Reed seemed to determined to make him a major player in Batman's rogues gallery. He wrote several stories were Batman treats Tzin-Tzin as one of the greatest threats he has ever faced. When confronted with a particularly convoluted crime, Batman even breaks into prison to consult with Tzin-Tzin, as only Tzin-Tzin possessed the genius to unravel the crime.
Needless to say, Tzin-Tzin vanished again once Reed stopped writing Batman.
I didn't realize the N'Garai had appeared so many times. I'd only read their two X-Men appearances and the Hulk one (during his "Crossroads" saga IIRC.)
The Tarantula is one of Spider-Man's lamest villains, yet Conway seemed obsessed with him. He kept bringing him back and would write dialogue for Spider-Man where Spider-Man was constantly scared of the Tarantula. "Oh no, he has a really sharp foot spike!" constantly fretted the man who can dodge bullets.
I totally agree. Tarantula was interesting for his first appearance (I'm gonna say Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #1 if memory serves), but after that he was done. No way he was interesting enough to come back again and again like he did.
Last Edit: Jul 9, 2017 4:47:07 GMT -5 by Confessor
Tarantula was interesting for his first appearance (I'm gonna say Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #1 if memory serves), but after that he was done.
Tarantula's first apearance was in Amazing Spider-Man #134, which had a very similar cover to PPTSSM #1.
Last Edit: Jul 9, 2017 12:44:25 GMT -5 by chaykinstevens
Tarantula was interesting for his first appearance (I'm gonna say Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #1 if memory serves), but after that he was done.
Tarantula's first apearance was in Amazing Spider-Man #134, which had a very similar cover to PPTSSM #1.
And that cover blurb is my point. He's just a normal human, dude. You can dodge his feet like you do bullets. No need to worry about getting SHREDDED!
"We live as though the world were as it should be, to show it what it can be." ~Angel
"For all their indisputable intelligence, men take this farce as something serious, and that is their tragedy." ~Brothers Karamazov
Though a third-rate character in every other respect, Tarantula's backstory as the "super-hero" of a corrupt Latin American regime was interesting. Too bad his power set was lame as hell. The lamoid Enforcers were a bigger threat to Spidey. Turning Tarantula into a human/spider hybrid and killing him off was an act of mercy.
Cei-U! Whether it was mercy for the character or the readership is open to debate!
Tarantula was interesting for his first appearance (I'm gonna say Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #1 if memory serves), but after that he was done.
Tarantula's first apearance was in Amazing Spider-Man #134, which had a very similar cover to PPTSSM #1.
Ah, my mistake. They do have quite similar covers,as you say.
Though a third-rate character in every other respect, Tarantula's backstory as the "super-hero" of a corrupt Latin American regime was interesting. Too bad his power set was lame as hell. The lamoid Enforcers were a bigger threat to Spidey. Turning Tarantula into a human/spider hybrid and killing him off was an act of mercy.
Cei-U! Whether it was mercy for the character or the readership is open to debate!
But look at that costume! I still think it's a better use of the spider-motif than Spider-Man's. Maybe they should have given him a new origin, with "real" tarantula-powers analogous to Spider-Man's.
They should have started switching him from villain to hero and back again according to who was in the White House and their attitude towards Latin American right-wing dictators: a villain during Jimmy Carter's term, a "hero" during Nixon's and Reagan's.
Elliot S! Maggin was constantly bringing Albert Einstein into Superman stories. Even had Einstein save the day once or twice. I remember a guy at a comics convention in the 80s complaining about Maggin having an obsession with Al (although I'm not sure "obsession" was the word he used...).
Maggin one-upped the other creators named in this thread - instead of just comics, this even carried over into one of Maggin's two Superman novels, having Einstein be a critical character.
What?!? No one said they had to be fictional characters....