Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Here's Black Spider back in my very first comic at age 6 . Now he's in The Suicide Squad 33 years later

So I just remembered about this photo of me from when I was around 6. What you're looking at is some sort of trade paperback that included the story from Detective Comics 463. This TPB is basically my earliest memory of any kind of comic book I ever opened up. Unfortunately I don't remember what ever happened to it. Back then (mid to late 70s) Black Spider a.k.a Eric Needham was an ex junkie who spent 6 years in jail and came out as a Hell bent vigilante determined to rid the streets of Gotham of criminals, especially dope peddlers. That brought him into conflict with Batman who as you know doesn't believe in killing criminals. You can get a better look at what I was browsing at by magnifying the image above but also at this link: http://dccomicsartists.com/batman/BlackSpider-Tec463.JPG Today, 33 years later in the DC 52 relaunch as most of you should know by now Black Spider is part of Task Force X. And that's one of the things that's always made this book so fun to read because Task Force X was often made up of a non-garden variety of "criminals" which made for so much of the strife within the team through out it's history.
If you've read Suicide Squad #2 then you know Voltaic never got to issue his "receipt" to Black Spider. Instead, by the end of the issue Voltaic got a bullet in the head by Deadshot. Also in issue #2 Deadshot refers to Black Spider as a ninja. At a glance one might think that he's The Squads new Bronze Tiger. But aside from them both being black guys who are martial art bad asses with troubled pasts they don't really have much in common. Like I said in the previous posting (Suicide Squad #5 review) Black Spider is much more of a Punisher like character. In issue #3 it's somewhat implied during a conversation between Diablo and Black Spider that Spider may have had a family that met with tragedy but that has yet to be revealed. But one thing is for certain is that he has an almost pathological hatred of criminals just like Frank Castle. During the chaos of the Belle Reve prison riot in issue #5 Black Spider used the opportunity to kill the other patients in the infirmary despite him still recovering from a broken arm and concussion. And it didn't stop there because the infirmary basically became a temporary "roach motel" (they check in , but they don't check out) for any other felons who wandered inside. Black Spider is just one more thing that's made this such a great book so far. Thank God The Suicide Squad dodged the first round of cuts from the 52 line up so obviously the book currently has a descent sized fan base. Let's just hope they can keep this title around a little bit longer so we can see where the writing this ass kicking crazy train called The Suicide Squad relaunch.

17 comments:

  1. Dave you just don't know how cool this post is man. Nostalgic, Informative, Tough and just aestheticlly pleasing....good job.

    You know I been watching to see how this guy's story is going to unfold. Real to real though I think he's going to go out bad one way or the other. But for right now I like the new look it's Blade2 ninjas meet metal gear solid. Damn I want the action figure.

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    1. oh yeah huh! his costume does kinda have that sun light proof vampire ninja suite look to it like you said from Blade 2 come to think of it. thanks for the props on this posting we both use much of the same design principles and techniques in our respective blogs to make them visually more dynamic and unique. i dunno what came over me but the idea for it hit me late last night when i should have been sleeping already.
      with all the scanning, cropping, color adjustments, writing and arrangement of it all in the work space in this posting it's just another good example of how this blogging stuff often takes up so much time.

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  2. Aww...little David. A nerd from the very beginning. :) I love this post. It's always wonderful for comic fans who've been at it since we were wee ones to see our favorite characters brought back. It's always a flash of.."OH OH! I KNOW THAT ONE!" that makes it feel as if we've reached the point of veteran in the comic book reading industry. Like we've passed a major test.

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    1. oh yeah i got some serious nerd cred. along with this photo i have a bunch more with me in my Incredible Hulk and Superman pajamas showing off some of my toys at the time which were really hot in the late 70s like Star Wars, Micronauts, Shogun Warriors and some DC & Marvel super hero action figures.

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    2. Randomnerd I like you, I wish you come over to my spot every now and then.

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    3. I'll see if I can make it over. ;) Thank you!

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  3. Hey, cool blog. You posted a comment on my King Shark piece on my blog. If you want to throw it up on your blog, that would be cool with me. I had to delete your comment though because it was causing the page to not load for some reason. weird. Anyways thanks for checking my stuff out.

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    1. hey Walter O., thanks for visiting i just sent you an email.

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  5. David, this is the same post.
    What a CUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTEY you were!
    What a big smile for the camera with a comic in your hands!
    That was an omen.

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    1. ya know Aliera i had a feeling the ladies who follow this blog that have kids would like this posting especially. check back here in a couple of days i've got some Squad preview art that's gonna blow your mind.

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  6. This is awesome mr, what a cool post! And for you're first books foe to return in the pages of your current top title, that's just a whole lot of cool right there.

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    1. well of course this is a great posting when are my postings other wise mate? oh Dan ya bugger even at that steep cover price ya shouldn't have been so quick to drop this book from your pull list. in about 20 minutes your gonna see more evidence to that point which is when the next posting gets published.
      some other cool shit that's been going some guy came up with a Starfire/Rom cross over cover concept which in turn inspired me to do likewise with a Iron Fist/Bronze Tiger one which you can see at either of two blogs sites out there. can ya guess which ones?
      i'm watching Cowboys & Aliens right now on DVD. the place i rented it from let me have a freebee for which i couldn't find anything else other then Transformers 3. might as well see how that steaming michael bay shit pile ends. good ta hear from ya.

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  7. Dave - I got that comic book too!!! You sure we are not related mate? I am sure that I had the same rug as you, if not the same pajamas!

    ha!

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    1. what a remarkable coincidence. maybe you're a Jew too and your parents never told you cause they figured life would be easier for you if you didn't know. i'm a big time fan of the whole "ignorance is bliss" philosophy.

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    2. Not about being a jew, but the ignorance can, some times, come in handy :)

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    3. yeah that's why i learned not to ask my past girlfriends how many guys they were with before me. oboy did i ever learn my lesson on that one back in my earlier years!

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