The Spider Strikes!

The Spider #1

by R.T.M. Scott, Peter Caras (Cover Artist)

Originally published in the October, 1933 issue of The Spider.

Genres: Pulp, Adventure, Action, Crime, Mystery

159 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 1, 1933

About the author

Form of name used independently by two Canadian writers, father and son, both christened Reginald Thomas Maitland Scott, though the son was usually called Robert and sometimes wrote simply as Maitland Scott. Scott Senior (1882-1966) had been a much-travelled marine engineer and subsequent soldier during World War One, with the Canadian Expeditionary Force, before settling in the USA and turning to writing. His first story, "Such Bluff as Dreams Are Made Of" (April 1920 Adventure) introduced the character of Aurelius Smith, known as Secret Service Smith, who became Scott's best known character, appearing in many stories and novels, and served partly as the basis for the later creation of Richard Wentworth, the man behind the vigilante hero the Spider in a long series of novel-length stories published in The Spider pulp magazine. The first two Spider novels, "The Spider Strikes" (October 1933 Spider; 1969) and "The Wheel of Death" (November 1933 Spider; 1969) were credited to R T M Scott and have usually been assumed to have been written by the father. However there is sufficient difference between the two that it has been suggested by Will Murray and others that Scott Junior (1909-1945) might have written one of them, probably the second. Scott Senior was not a prolific writer and would have found it difficult to sustain the pace of a novel a month so his son, who had become an editor at Popular Publications which published The Spider, may have helped with the second novel before the character was handed over to pulpsmith Norvell W Page who wrote the novels under the House Name Grant Stockbridge. Whilst the first two novels create the character of Richard Wentworth and his ruthless crime-fighting alter-ego the Spider, neither revel in any of the more fantastic and eccentric plots that Page later created.

Reviews

[Benjamin Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Richard Wentworth has been on the trail of a master criminal, an expert is disguise, for two years now, chasing him from one city to the next, from the US to France and back again, and now he’s finally getting close. But first he will have to go through a number of adventurous encounters including kidnappings, disguises, police suspicion, and plenty of gunplay before the final confrontation.

This very first novel in the Spider series is not an origin story. In fact, we get the impression that it’s been going on for years prior to this story. First published in October of 1933, this one and the second novel were written by R.T.M. Scott, the well-known creator of “Secret Service Smith” with the idea that his name would bring instant credibility to the new Spider character and drive initial sales. After that the reigns were handed over to “Grant Stockbridge”, a house name that was most often used by prolific pulpster, Norvell W. Page. The Spider character would change a lot over the course of the first several novels before settling into his most recognized persona. Here at the beginning, he is a fairly straightforward millionaire playboy but with a need to pursue justice as a criminologist. His vigilante streak is strong though, often taking the law into his own hands to dispense justice.

Even though the character would change a lot over the first several novels, many of the standards of the series are introduced here in the first book. Characters such as Police Commissioner Stanley Kirkpatrick, faithful servant Ram Singh, and girlfriend Nita Van Sloan are all present as are the Spider’s practice of leaving his mark on the forehead of his dispatched foes.

I enjoyed this one. Despite a rather basic premise, it was a fun romp of pulpy adventure just as I’d hoped. I understand the novels from Norvell Page are even better, as Wentworth morphs into a more interesting character, so it would seem my experiences with this character are just getting started.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Spider was Richard Wentworth, who fought crime in 118 pulp magazine adventure novels for a decade from 1933-1943. I've read quite a few of them, but had never read this first one, which appeared in the issue dated October, 1933. The first two stories were written by R.T.M. Scott, but the rest were all published under the house pseudonym Grant Stockbridge, the majority of which were written by famous pulp writer Norvell W. Page, who wrote pulp novels in a no-hands-on-the-wheel-at-a-frenzied-pace style the way Steve Gerber wrote Marvel comics in the 1970s. Scott's pace and style are much quieter and slower than Page's, and I preferred the later novels. This introductory one is not an origin story, though we meet most of the major characters and gimmicks that would continue throughout the run, and Scott is to be commended for creating and establishing an iconic infrastructure. Wentworth is aided by Police Commissioner Stanley Kirkpatrick (who suspects Wentworth's alter-ego but can't prove it), his faithful servant Ram Singh, and his girl friend Nita Van Sloan, a plucky and intelligent young lady who was the equal of The Shadow's Margot Lane and The Avenger's Nellie Grey, and who would have given Doc Savage's cousin Patricia a run run for her money. (On page 22 of the book we learn that Wentworth keeps his riding crop in Nita's bedroom, which little bit of TMI surely caused an eyebrow or two to raise in 1933!) Wentworth is on the trail of a master criminal, on shipboard from Europe to New York at the start of the story, and his pursuit of the evil genius and master of disguise is a good introduction to the character. The Spider wasn't quite up to full swing yet, but it's still a good, action-packed pulp adventure.

[David B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Millionaire criminologist Richard Wentworth moonlights as The Spider, a vigilante who executes his opponents, leaving a spider mark on the body as a calling card. This first adventure is no origin story; The Spider has already been active long enough to make him famous and wanted by police throughout the world. Wentworth’s friend Inspector Kirkpatrick suspects him of being The Spider and is fully prepared to “send him to the death house” should he ever be able to prove it, yet they work together with mutual respect. We also meet the rest of The Spider’s supporting cast: plucky girlfriend Nita van Sloan, trusty assistant Ram Singh, and Professor Brownlee, Wentworth’s personal Q (in the Bond sense, not the Star Trek or the crazy conspiracy sense). This story is mostly set in New York and, like many of the city-bound pulp adventures I’ve read, this one becomes an undifferentiated sequence of breathless rushing from building to building with an occasional side foray to a dock or a warehouse. The most vivid part of the story is the opening sequence aboard a transatlantic ocean liner, which is a perfect introduction to our hero. Nevertheless, there is a lot of fun in these pages, and I’m looking forward to some of the more apocalyptic tales to come.

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[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Norvell Page gets a lot of praise from fans of "The Spider," since he wrote the majority of the books in the series and maintained a fairly consistent level of quality, but after reading the first Spider novel, I have to give a lot of credit to R.T.M. Scott. He set the tone of the series perfectly, creating a swashbuckling gentleman criminologist vigilante hero named Richard Wentworth and setting him loose in a wild plot that includes a mass poisoning attempt, a masked master-criminal who is just as much a master of disguise as Wentworth, and a treacherous femme fatale, as well as the cast of characters who surround Wentworth, Nita van Sloan, the woman who loves him, Stanley Kirkpatrick, the New York police commissioner, and Ram Singh, Wentworth's faithful Hindu servant.

A great start to the series, and an utterly enjoyable Depression-era pulp novel.

[Leothefox · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a lot of good stuff here. Our hero is Richard Wentworth, a millionaire playboy and amateur crime-fighter who lives in a luxurious penthouse apartment and he has a man-servant named Ram Singh. He has a fancy girlfriend named Nita Van Sloan who is quick and helpful when needed and gets kidnapped when that's needed too. As The Spider, Richard Wentworth kills criminals and stamps a red spider seal on their foreheads (kinda like The Green Hornet, only with more murder). There is safe-cracking, poison gas, a dude with a hook-hand, a masked villain, multiple secret-hideouts, clever bluffs and ruses, a good share of close shaves, and when we first meet our hero he's being terribly fancy aboard a luxury liner on a trans-Atlantic voyage!

In short, it's some good old 30s pulp.

Before this I read two of Norvell W. Page (as Grant Stockbridge)'s later novels which were awesome, and here in the first adventure Scott sets up many of the elements that made those other stories work. The character is very much fully formed, a seriously rich guy with a serious lust for justice. Still, it's not quite yet the breathless bullet-fest that was to come.

First and foremost is the small detail that Wentworth never really appears in a The Spider costume. He spends a lot of time on the job of fighting villains and all, but he's just wearing what he had on... not that any of the people he fought with lived to tell about it. Also, in the later books The Spider is always behind the 8-ball, a continual victim of Murphy's Law, because his sheer awesomeness seems to attract brilliant and relentless villains who tend to be his match, or nearly so. In the first outing our hero has some close shaves, but he does get time off to get a breather and lounge in his sweet pad a little.

Oh, and the cops hang around Richard Wentworth quite a bit. Commissioner Kirkpatrick is his pal, despite the fact that he's 90% convinced that Wentworth is really The Spider. Sure, this and a lot of other plot points are a tad transparent, but they're rolled out at a good pace and there are just enough of them.

I'll get into book two just as soon as Amazon brings it to me.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

In an odd coincidence, this first Spider story begins the same way as the first Shadow story, with the hero rescuing a would-be suicide. But they then take very different directions, and I have to say The Spider pulls off a much more impressive opening adventure.

The story hits the ground running and barely pauses at all. It probably helps that the action stays focussed on the title character, where the early Shadow stories really suffer from the titular hero being so utterly mysterious that he hardly appears at all. The Spider also features a strong female in the supporting cast, where women generally only appear as femmes fatale or victims in The Shadow and Doc Savage.

I'm definitely going to be reading some more of this series.

[Professor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first ever read of a literal pulp magazine novel* and I must say I enjoyed it a great deal. Not so much for the story (which is a now fairly standard superhero tale and probably preceded by many similar adventure stories) or the characters (who are fun but feel almost like someone played mix and match with detective and masked avenger type pulp hero cliches) but because of the form itself. While it would undoubtedly wear thin were I to read nothing but pulp crime fighter tales, it’s always fun to encounter a genre/format for the first time. More rough than the radio masked adventurers that would follow and certainly than the serial adaptations of these characters, there’s still a touch of Arthur Conan Doyle’s influence here-The Spider identity is purely a seal placed on victims, Wentworth never even dons a mask. Without committing to thorough research on the origins of superhero cliches many elements of later characters can be seen here first. The plot moves along briskly and the audiobook version is read with an ear for using classic Hollywood actor imitations for a quick feel of the character, with a newsreel announcer style for the narrator that attempts to give this an OTR feel. The result is entertaining, but I would drop the rating at least a star if your are not a fan of 1930s adventure and crime fighter stories.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

The copy I've got of this initial Spider adventure is a reprint put together by Altus Press as it turns its hand to bringing this pulp hero back to the present. Sanctum put out a handful of double volumes, as well as Girasol in years past. I've started to collect these with Sanctum ending its run (I had started gathering those along with their Doc Savage and Shadow reprints).

Altus appears to plan on running the entire 100-plus series from start to finish in order, hence this being the first volume I've read from their run. It's a rough read. Sanctum started with a double-volume the collected The Citadel of Hell and The Sons of Satan, the former being the sixth Spider story, penned by Norvell Page.

I don't know who Scott was, and the record is unclear, but he writes the Spider more like a gentleman detective more than the rogue and vengeful crimefighter you find in Page's stories. It's language is overblown but the Spider's actions -- Richard Wentworth's action --- are not up to that level yet. I'll have to see how the next volume, The Wheel of Death, comes across before I get to Page's first entry, Wings of the Black Death.

[Gilbert Stack · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first book in a series first published back in 1933. The Spider is the crime fighter alter ego of Richard Wentworth, a criminologist who lives on the adrenalin rush that comes from putting his life, his reputation, and his freedom in peril by pursuing criminals right under the noses of the police. This sort of series is fun if you don’t think about it too much and if you can overlook the 1930s attitudes. You do have to suspend a lot of disbelief. Wentworth always goes out as himself, interacts with people, and then suddenly kills one of the bad guys and puts his spider seal on the corpse’s forehead and yet—even though Wentworth is under suspicion of being the Spider—no one seems to make the connection. But it was still fun.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

You have to know what you are getting here. The Spider is pure pulp violent melodrama, but it is fun!

[Victor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Slow, rough, and oddly awkward beginning to the classic Spider series.

[Keller Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good pulp novel. Good story telling. Lots of adventure and action. It was a fast enjoyable read.

[KDS · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent start to an iconic pulp serial, although his masked vigilante persona is barely in evidence here until the third book. But it sets the basics for what's to come later

[Michel Siskoid Albert · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Spider Strikes is the first pulp novel starring the Spider, whom I've long liked in the comic book medium (the recent IDW series, but also the crazy Tim Truman project in the 90s). Having gotten my hands on the Girasol "Pulp Doubles" reprint of the original 1933 story, I was keen to see how the R.T.M. Scott novel made out. As far as prose goes, the pulp style takes a few chapters to get used to. Scott seems to have an aversion to pronouns, so there's a fair bit of repetition, and either Girasol reproduced the story complete with typos, or they introduced new ones of their own. Nothing major though. The reproduction does have the original drawings, which aren't bad, and interestingly, an editor's note that mentions the publication asked the author to describe the Spider's CPR technique in full in case it might save lives some day. I don't think it replaces an actual CPR course, but it's a fun period detail. Once you get into it, the story moves at pretty fast clip, with lots of twists and turns and chances for the Spider - not yet a masked man, more like a suave Bruce Wayne who doesn't mind killing - to do detective work, get into fights, cleverly escape jail cells, and so on. I was struck at how well that all worked and that the 80 years separating me from the publication date didn't give me a sense of déjà vu throughout. The Spider's battle of wits with disguise artist Mr. X was full of surprises and I didn't feel like I'd seen it all before. My favorite character is very much Nita Van Sloan, an extremely competent "Girl Friday" who could have spun off into her own stories right then and there. I'm ready for more action of the kind!

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like the Shadow and Doc Savage, the Spider was one of those pulp heroes from the 30s whose exploits were reprinted in paperbacks in the late 60s. I remember owning this book as a ten or eleven-year old, but nothing beyond the names of the characters stuck with me after all this time. The book covers were illustrated with a Zorro-like character, but Richard Wentworth, the "hero," never dons anything like a costume. While a master of disguise, he frequently finds himself in jams with the police, who he does not want to know that he acts as the serial killer known as The Spider. Of course, he only kills criminals who either have murdered or intended to murder or intended to allow somebody else to murder. And he always imprints a little image of a "hideous" spider on the foreheads of his victims. Basically, he's a psycopath, but that doesn't mean we can't just enjoy the pulp thrills and goofy situations. You have to ignore the fact the Scott ain't no Maxwell Grant or Kenneth Robeson - he plots intricately, but uses pretty stock dialogue and a handful of adjectives such as the word "quite" merely to add words to his quota. Also, you will cringe when he tries to describe the essence of women and Hindus. I would never say this is first tier pulp, but it moves along fast, has a realistic dog character, and keeps the pages turning.

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the very first Spider novel, we get a crime fighter much different from the one all pulp fans love.The basic elements are there: Richard Wentworth hates criminals and actively opposes them. He has the little spider seal he imprints on the foreheads of his victims. Police Commissioner Kirkpatrick is suspicious of his friend. The Spider is aided by the big Sikh Ram Singh and the lovely Nita Van Sloan.

But here The Spider uses an air pistol, at least until near the end, doesn't wear the cape and disguise, and the fangs and fright wig later in the series. He is good at disguise though.

His opponent is the mystery killer known as Mr. X and Wentworth has traced him across Europe. He's been gone for six months on his mission.

I liked this version. R.T. M. Scott was only to do one more Spider novel before a change was made to pick up the pace.

[Billy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a fun read. It's action-packed and filled with interesting characters. Every chapter some major revelation/event seems to occur and there is no shortage of bad guys which the Spider does in. All that said, my one criticism of the book is that Wentworth, The Spider, is just too perfect. The book really relies on twists and turns, because Wentworth can seemingly solve any problem with simplistic ease. Of course, it's unfair to criticize this book for that, because most fiction of the time features these supermen. It's just something to keep in mind if you're not familiar with this type of fiction. If you love pulps, I would recommend you read this. If you haven't read a pulp before, I would say this is a good place to start. All in all, a good book, though the plot got a bit tedious at points.

[Éric Kasprak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intrigued by the pulp hero genre, I sought out an unfamiliar character and discovered The Spider, often described as a grittier, more violent, and over-the-top version of The Shadow. While reviews and articles overwhelmingly focused on Norvell Page's contributions, I opted to begin at the true starting point with R.T.M. Scott's "The Spider Strikes."

I'm happy I made that choice, as I thoroughly enjoyed this initial story. The groundwork for The Spider's character is remarkably well-established: he's decisive in action and doesn't hesitate to eliminate threats when necessary. The supporting cast surprised me with their depth, and the writing style matched my expectations for the genre perfectly.

Next up, I'll delve into Norvell Page's first Spider story and see firsthand what all the excitement is about.

[Michael P. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book begins and ends very well, but the vast middle is a disappointment. Scott had enough material for a novella, at best, so he pads, pads, and then pads some more with ridiculous scenes and sometimes repetitive scenes. I mean, how many times does the hero need to confront the villain so that they can boast that each will stop the other? This is a bad book overall, but there is genuine excitement early and late and in some of the writing. There is the added interest in seeing how a series of over 100 novel length magazine stories began, and added interest for those of us trying (sometimes futilely) to grasp the popularity of pulp writers and their work.

[B. Reese · Rating 3 out of 5]

not bad, but not great.

serves as a good intro the spider series.

it's interesting that you can see the beginnings of the need for secret identities and superheroes kind of starting in books like this. still, Wentworth/The Spider gets away with a good amount more than I would expect and it's no wonder that in later books the commisioner gets suspicious of him.

this book is not as good as the first shadow story, or even the spider's own "prince of the red looters" but it's a decent enough first book.

I've found it easier to find the spider's novels than I have the shadow's. there is a difference in quality, but not terribly so.

[Ed [Redacted] · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. This one was OK. As it turns out, this was by the original Spider author, RTM Scott. He was fired after two novels because his stories were too slow. He was replaced by Norvall Page, who apparently wrote things much more catchy. In the end, I agree with whoever fired mr scott. His writing is much, much too slow and not all that engaging. I can't wait to try a Spider novel from an author who has more of a sense of pacing. I have purchased a couple of later Spider novels from Mr. page and I can't wait to try them out.

[Jeff J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read dozens of the Spider pulp novels, finally got around to reading his first appearance. I'm impressed at how fully realized the character was from the start, and at how the writer didn't get bogged down introducing the characters rather worked it into the story almost organically. The Spider wasn't in disguise at this point, but the need for that would come later. Recommended!

[Hunter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This first Spider story is much slower paced than those that came after it, but it also provides a more coherent narrative and acts as a good introduction to the series cast of characters. While it doesn’t have the more over the top characteristics of later stories, it’s still worth reading for fans of The Spider and pulp detective heroes.

[John Kilgallon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it. Getting back into classic pulp, you know, Doc Savage and The Shadow, but I had heard The Spider was grittier. True! Plus, Wentworth is a swordsman and my daughter is a fencer, so another uptick in my book! So many more to read will be starting the second one soon!

[bluetyson]

The Spider Strikes! by R. T. M. Scott

[John Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent start, but can see why author Scott was fired from the series.

[Ronald · Rating 2 out of 5]

probably read in fall 1969

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: Richard Wentworth, millionaire and amateur sleuth is The Spider. His girl-friend gets kidnapped and he's out to find the criminals.