#the tarantula

[nocontextspiderman]

Amazing Spider-Man #147 (1975)

[smbhax]

Weird Suspense #2, April 1975. Larry Lieber cover pencils, Frank Giacoia inks.

Info from Grand Comics Database

[prince-atom]

You make a persuasive argument, trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

[cherryzombiezz-art]

so there's this mentally ill robotics major ....

[bringbackwendellvaughn]

Sandman's character profile from Who's Who in the DC Universe. Written by Robert Greenberger, Peter Sanderson, Len Wein and Marv Wolfman with art by Michael Bair (he was working on All-Star Squadron at the time and would pencil Sandman's origin in an issue of Secret Origins).

Sandman was one of DC's original Golden Age stars and a founding member of the JSA. Debuting in 1938 as a pulp vigilante character, he was later reinvented during the war as a costumed superhero by Jack Kirby. From 1993 to 1999, he was the title star of the excellent series Sandman Mystery Theatre. In more recent times, his war-time sidekick Sandy Hawkins now operates as the current Sandman taking his mentor's place with the Justice Society of America.

[ufonaut]

What are your favorite JSA designs ?

that's a very broad question given that you didn't specify which incarnation of the jsa but i'll go with a random assortment of some of my favorite members from all over :)

alan scott

there's just no beating paul reinman as far as i'm concerned! a couple designs have come close (paul smith in the golden age 1993 and eduardo barreto in all-american comics 1999 as well as mikel janin's current work on justice society of america 2022 all come to mind) but mr reinman had it all figured out all the way back in comic cavalcade 1942. the ideal alan is old hollywood handsome and just about the biggest guy in the room at all times but with rounded edges too, the kinda physique born out of physical work during his years on the railroad and later maintained by the starheart. james robinson certainly isn't wrong when he says "no one else's that tall" in tga '93 #2!

jay garrick

in contrast to alan, jay's gotta be all thin and lanky (and relatively short although he doesn't quite look it) and john byrne's the man for the job through his jsa arc in wonder woman 1987 #130-133. diego olortegui's work on jay garrick: the flash 2023 is also entirely ideal to me -- that's the jay i know and love!

jonathan law

the fantastic tarantula costume from all-star squadron is already a redesign of his original 1940s costume (which was a bit too kirby-era sandman for everybody's taste) but the gunfighter-esque look paul smith gave him in the golden age 1993 is beyond anything. so good it's unreal.

rex tyler

peter snejbjerg's hourman. perfection. something wildly deeply charming to me about the clean lines and the manic energy of his three-issue appearance in starman 1994 #77-79, perfectly in character for my ol' pal rexy. there's plenty of great hourmen out there, this one's mine :)

ted knight

it's not even worth pretending anyone has ever topped emil gershwin's work on starman or ever will. my god, it's extraordinary. it's something else entirely. emil's brief run on adventure comics 1938 was utter perfection, and that's saying something considering he followed jack burnley whose work on ted was already gorgeous!

johnny quick

mort meskin's sense of motion, his lithe lean playful impossibly dynamic johnny quick... that's the stuff of legends. it doesn't get better than meskin on more fun comics 1936, and the classics are classics for a reason.

jim corrigan

i mean, jim aparo's hard boiled detective throughout wrath of the spectre 1988. what else is there to say!

[superheroes-or-whatever]

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (2023) art Ig Guarra

[chernobog13]

The third, and final, issue of Weird Suspense featuring The Tarantula (January, 1975) from Atlas/Seaboard comics. Art by Rich Buckler.

The Tarantula was a weird combination of Spider-Man (he could climb walls and shoot webbing) with your standard werewolf curse. His "curse of the tarantula" caused the male members of his family to turn into man-spiders and eat people!

The difference between this guy and his ancestors, though, is that he decides to appease his hunger by eating crooks and evildoers. That's right: he fights crime by eating criminals!

How that is considered super heroic is beyond me. Also beyond me is how something like that could be approved by the Comics Code Authority. Then again, it was the Seventies, and the Comics Code was losing a lot of its teeth, but that's a story for another day.