The Spider 113: Secret City of Crime by Grant Stockbridge

The Spider 113
February 1943; v29 #1
Secret City of Crime
by Grant Stockbridge (Norvell Page)

The Spider infiltrates the underground city of Easy Street, run by Perfect Crimes, Inc, where hoods can learn new skills while they hide out on the lam. The mastermind, The Brain, stages disasters like train accidents to cover up for bloody bank robberies. Nita, Jackson, and Ram Singh are captured and held hostage.

At one point, The Spider instantly hypnotizes a hood to let him into a secure area, reveal secret information, and stand guard to shoot any other criminals who come in the room. Completely lets the air out of the rest of the story - why doesn't he just keep doing that through the whole story?

Ebook available from Radio Archives 

The Spider 111: The Spider and the Flame King by Grant Stockwell

The Spider 111
The Spider and the Flame King
by Grant Stockwell (Norvell Page)
December, 1942

Oil wells are being exploded in a protection racket by the giant, masked Flame King.  Some diminishing returns on this series by the forties.  There's one good scene of Nita handcuffed behind the wheel of a runaway truck of nitroglycerin, heading towards town center during a demonstration.  She does the math and decides its better to run over scores of innocent people and drive the truck into the lake than to let the truck blow up in the center of town.

Also noticed Page used the term "oppressed minority" to describe Mexican migrant workers, certainly a step up in ethnic terminology for the pulps.

Available in ebook for Kindle from Amazon

The Spider 15: Red Death Rain by Grant Stockbridge

The Spider 15
Red Death Rain
by Grant Stockbridge (Norvell Page)
December 1934

The Red Mandarin infects cities with a chemical that enhances other poisons, making tobacco, alcohol, and even coffee deadly.  The Spider runs around like Yul Brynner screaming "Don't smoke!" while Nina is threatened with orangutan rape.

The Spider vs The Empire State

The Spider vs The Empire State
by Norvell Page as Grant Stockbridge
Originally from the Spider #60-62

The Spider 60, 9/1938
The City That Paid To Die

http://www.philsp.com/

The Party of Justice has been elected into power in New York State.  The Black Police, criminals released from prison, patrol the towns, demanding tribute to be paid on the spot.  The Spider, Richard Wentworth, rescues a store owner from extortion, which turns out to be the beginning of a revolution.

From here the story reminds me of both the video game Freedom Fighters and the TV series V.  Wentworth and his growing army attack targets of strategic importance, growing their numbers from freed prisoners.

The Spider 61, 10/1938
The Spider at Bay

http://www.philsp.com/

More of the same, but with the added peril of germ warfare.  Captured revolutionaries are given diseases to discourage aid from the frightened citizens.

The Spider 62, 11/1938
Scourge of the Black Legions

http://www.philsp.com/

Wentworth is shot in the lung.  He disperses his large army - I guess Page got tired of that gimmick.  He attempts to infiltrate the Party of Justice with a someon's twin and it just kind of fizzles out.

Available collected in paperback.

The Spider 23 - Master of the Death-Madness

Master of the Death-Madness
by Norvell W. Page as Grant Stockbridge
The Spider 23
August 1935

Mass suicides by members of an Anubis death cult, controlled by a drug similar to our own loco weed.  Pretty good scene of a wave of suicides jumping off a bridge, trying to take the Spider down with them.  Nita gets in on the action, donning the Spider's cape and killing a few folk.

The Spider 21 - Hordes of the Red Butcher

Hordes of the Red Butcher
by Norvell Page as Grant Stockbridge
The Spider 021
June, 1935

A horde of neanderthals roam rural America, immune to bullets, slaughtering everyone before them with spears and hammers.  The first part has pretty strong action, and it's interesting to see the Spider in a rural setting.

Wentworth is framed for murder and arrested, leaving Nita and Ram Signh to prove his innocence.  Nita goes full Dexter and orders the torture murder of a hood to gain information.  When chauffeur Jackson calls her on it she says she'll murder twenty men, including him, to free her man.

This development turns out to be a cop out, as Ram Signh is ordered things like "Go to Europe, find the suspect, and bring him back to New York", which all occurs off page.

Commissioner Kirkpatrick is now governor but Wentworth refuses to ask for a pardon.  This leads to a lot of heated drama between Kirkpatrick and Nita about who loves Wentworth more.

Spider 014 - Death's Crimson Juggernaut

Death's Crimson Juggernaut
by Norvell Page as Grant Stockbridge
The Spider 014
November 1934

The Spider is framed in a series of crucifixion murders in a tenement block.  To add to his troubles, his apartment headquarters is compromised and he's been blinded.

The blinding starts off pretty good as a plot device.  This graduates into "you can use your sight, but if you overdo it you'll be blind forever" before it's forgotten about altogether.

Aside from the part where he's blind, a mostly meh entry in the series.  The villain's motivations are more incoherent than usual with random carnage being piled up arbitrarily until it completely loses affect.

Audiobook available on Audible.

Spider 007 - The Serpent of Destruction

The Serpent of Destruction
Grant Stockbridge (Norvell Page)
Spider 007
April 1934

The Spider faces his most daring scourge yet, the soul killer of...COCAINE!  Liquor bootleggers have turned to dope and nobody is safe.  White collar workers, financiers, even politicians have been trapped by its spell.

So basically, the 1980s.  Tame stuff after the usual nation-threatening plots of other Spider entries.  In addition to be tamer, it's also more convoluted and out of character, to the point where I had to check if Page was still writing.  My least favorite of the series so far.

Some random notes (and spoilers) -

The Spider 006 - Citadel of Hell

The Spider 006
Citadel of Hell
Norvell Page as Grant Stockbrdge
March, 1934

The Spider faces a conspiracy of firebugs that threaten to destroy America's food supply.  Not a lot of detection in this one - the first full half of the book is one extended action sequence as the Spider tries to find clues while evading the police, who are after both the Richard Wentworth and the Spider for murder.  He gets close, gets captured by the police, does something clever to escape, his ruse falls through, gets captured by the police, wash, rinse, repeat.

The scale of the menaces the Spider faces has been steadily increasing as the magazine goes on, and by this issue thousands are killed and the entire nation is starving.

Aside from the manic pace, what stands out is massive car chase involving the police, the gang cars, the Spider in a double decker bus, and an absurd amount of firebombs and explosions.