The Spider was a crook turned crimefighter, turned British government agent.
History
The Spider (whose real name and origins were never revealed) was a professional criminal who arrived in the United States in the 1960's, operating out of a Scottish castle which he had apparently had transported over and rebuilt stone by stone. His stated aim was to become the 'King of Crooks', though he seemed to pursue his criminal career for amusement rather than financial need (indeed, he seemed to have limitless resources) and he quickly tired of it and turned to crimefighting instead as he found this more interesting. He had a lengthy career as a crimefighter but somehow ended up in Britain (which may have been where he originated, if the castle is any kind of clue) acting as a Government agent during the 1980's. His job then was to round up unusual individuals like himself so that they could be imprisoned at Castle Baaleskine in Scotland and their various weapons and gadgets confiscated, but once his task was done he was betrayed and imprisoned along with all the rest. His jailers had him listed in their files as 'Alfred Chinard', though they appeared to be fully aware that 'A.Chinard' was merely an anagram of 'arachnid' (when US Government agent 'Zip' Nolan visited the prison, he was momentarily exultant that he had discovered this deception, and gotten 'Chinard' to admit that his real name was 'Arthur O'Pod', much to the amusement of the prison's warden). 'Chinard' participated in the mass breakout orchestrated by Penny Dolmann, and was last seen escaping into the ocean at the controls of the giant robot ape Mytek the Mighty, presumably intending to pilot it across the Atlantic.
Powers and Abilities
Powers
Superior intelligence
Paraphernalia
Weapons
Various high tech gadgets of his own design.
Notes
- The Spider's first historical appearance was in the 26 June 1965 issue of the British anthology title 'Lion', published by IPC Magazines. Though created by writer Ted Cowan, most of his adventures from the third serial on were written by Superman creator Jerry Siegel, who reinvented him as a crimefighter.
- He is referred to as 'Alfred Chinard', an obvious alias, throughout the Albion series since the name 'The Spider' is still copyright IPC Media.
- Alternate versions of the Spider have appeared in various issues of the British Sci-Fi anthology title 2000AD, the Image title 'Jack Staff' (which also used the A.Chinard alias) and the Marvel UK series Captain Britain by Alan Moore.
Related
- 5 Appearances of The Spider (Albion)
- 1 Images featuring The Spider (Albion)
- Quotations by or about The Spider (Albion)
- Character Gallery: The Spider (Albion)
Footnotes