What do you think?
Rate this book
The Spider #5: Empire of Doom!
America faces certain doom as its citizens fall in screaming thousands before the noxious death vapors loosed upon them by the Green Hand. How can the Spider, harried and threatened by a hundred new and deadly perils, check the rising power of the next Dictator—and lay bare the scheming, criminal mind which seeks to enslave the nation?
220 pages, Paperback
Published February 15, 2019
3 people want to read
About the author
Norvell W. Page
212 books14 followersNorvell Wordsworth Page (1904–1961) was an American pulp fiction writer, journalist and editor who later became a government intelligence worker.
He was born in Virginia the son of Charles Wordsworth Page (1880 – 1947) and Estlie Isabelle Bethel Page (1880 – 1946). The name Norvell came from his maternal grandmother Elvira Russell Norvell Page.
He is best known as the author of the majority of the adventures of the ruthless vigilante hero The Spider, which he and a handful of other writers wrote under the house name of Grant Stockbridge. He also contributed to other pulp series, including The Shadow and The Phantom, and supplied scripts for the radio programs based on the characters he wrote, science fiction and two early sword and sorcery fantasy novels under forms of his real name, Norvel Page and Norvell W. Page. His 1940 Unknown novel, But Without Horns is considered an early classic explication of the superman theme. Under the pen name of N. Wooten Poge, Page wrote the adventures of Bill Carter for Spicy Detective Stories. His works only saw magazine publication during his lifetime, but his fantasies and some of the Spider novels were later reprinted as paperbacks.
The Spider was a crime-fighter in the tradition of The Shadow, wanted by the law for executing his criminal antagonists, and prefigured later comic book superheroes like Batman. Page's innovations to the series included a hideous disguise for the hero and a succession of super-scientific menaces for him to combat. One of these, involving an invasion of giant robots, was copied by an early Superman story and helped inspire the movie Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.
The setting of Page's sword and sorcery novels is central Asia in the first century A.D., when the legendary Prester John supposedly established a Christian kingdom there. In Page's conception, the man behind the legend was hard-bitten Mediterranean adventurer Hurricane John, or Wan Tengri, a hero in the mold of Robert E. Howard's Conan, though more humorous, verbose, and exaggeratedly omnicompetent as a warrior. He comes close to taking over two cities in the course of his travels, but the series concludes before he establishes his empire. He was featured two stories Flame Winds and Sons of the Bear God. The magic John encounters is unconvincingly rationalized
He was born in Virginia the son of Charles Wordsworth Page (1880 – 1947) and Estlie Isabelle Bethel Page (1880 – 1946). The name Norvell came from his maternal grandmother Elvira Russell Norvell Page.
He is best known as the author of the majority of the adventures of the ruthless vigilante hero The Spider, which he and a handful of other writers wrote under the house name of Grant Stockbridge. He also contributed to other pulp series, including The Shadow and The Phantom, and supplied scripts for the radio programs based on the characters he wrote, science fiction and two early sword and sorcery fantasy novels under forms of his real name, Norvel Page and Norvell W. Page. His 1940 Unknown novel, But Without Horns is considered an early classic explication of the superman theme. Under the pen name of N. Wooten Poge, Page wrote the adventures of Bill Carter for Spicy Detective Stories. His works only saw magazine publication during his lifetime, but his fantasies and some of the Spider novels were later reprinted as paperbacks.
The Spider was a crime-fighter in the tradition of The Shadow, wanted by the law for executing his criminal antagonists, and prefigured later comic book superheroes like Batman. Page's innovations to the series included a hideous disguise for the hero and a succession of super-scientific menaces for him to combat. One of these, involving an invasion of giant robots, was copied by an early Superman story and helped inspire the movie Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.
The setting of Page's sword and sorcery novels is central Asia in the first century A.D., when the legendary Prester John supposedly established a Christian kingdom there. In Page's conception, the man behind the legend was hard-bitten Mediterranean adventurer Hurricane John, or Wan Tengri, a hero in the mold of Robert E. Howard's Conan, though more humorous, verbose, and exaggeratedly omnicompetent as a warrior. He comes close to taking over two cities in the course of his travels, but the series concludes before he establishes his empire. He was featured two stories Flame Winds and Sons of the Bear God. The magic John encounters is unconvincingly rationalized
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 2, 2024
Empire of Doom was the fifth Spider adventure; it was published in the February issue of the titular pulp magazine in 1934. It was the third one that was written by Norvell W. Page, who wrote the majority and the best of the 118 Spider novels that appeared during its ten-year run from 1933 through 1943. It's quite a bit longer than the later stories, with Richard Wentworth operating on his own more often than not; his aid Ram Singh plays a somewhat minor part as chauffeur and auxiliary pilot, and fiancé Nita van Sloan has a minor role. She's not even featured as a damsel in distress on the cover wearing her signature red dress. In the story a mysterious super villain who calls himself the Green Hand holds the nation hostage by deploying a deadly gas on cities who refuse to pay ransom. His ultimate goal is to take over the country and eventually, one presumes, the rest of the world. Wentworth enlists Prof. Brownlee to devise an antidote but has to save Cleveland and Ashtabula (?!) before a furious showdown in Washington DC in which he cleverly tricks the madman to reveal his true identity. It's a good pulp story, but not among the best of the madcap Spider romps.
June 21, 2019
Volume five in this latest Spider series!
The Spider is Richard Wentworth, a wealthy criminologist. Backed up by his manservant Ram Singh, his old war pal Jackson, and his fiancé Nita van Slone, Wentworth takes on crime at the street level.
The Spider has no scruples about killing. The criminals who cross the Spider die and their foreheads are marked with a scarlet spider.
The Spider is wanted by the police, and his friend Commissioner Kirkpatrick suspects Wentworth. Hardly surprising, as everyone seems to know the Spider’s secret. Proving it is another thing entirely…
Empire of Doom
This story was originally published February 1934 in the Spider Magazine
A new crime lord has risen, one who calls himself “The Green Hand.” Entire cities are being held hostage, with stupendous amounts asked for ransom! Should the money not be paid, a dreadful death is unleashed. It is a thick, green gas that is death to breathe and on contact, it eats away flesh like acid! The Spider is helpless against the gas unless something can be found to nullify it.
One man seems able to counteract the poisonous fog, heading a small army using giant fans to disperse the clouds of gas. Failure to call him in on a case means certain death! To many embattled cities, he seems godlike and a savior! The question is why he alone can battle the gas even if others are armed with similar fans…
The story follows a line often used in pulp fiction, but it does it brilliantly. The story moves well, with any number of red herrings and concealed plots. The climax is a bit predictable yet remains enjoyable.
I give this novel four stars…
Quoth the Raven…
The Spider is Richard Wentworth, a wealthy criminologist. Backed up by his manservant Ram Singh, his old war pal Jackson, and his fiancé Nita van Slone, Wentworth takes on crime at the street level.
The Spider has no scruples about killing. The criminals who cross the Spider die and their foreheads are marked with a scarlet spider.
The Spider is wanted by the police, and his friend Commissioner Kirkpatrick suspects Wentworth. Hardly surprising, as everyone seems to know the Spider’s secret. Proving it is another thing entirely…
Empire of Doom
This story was originally published February 1934 in the Spider Magazine
A new crime lord has risen, one who calls himself “The Green Hand.” Entire cities are being held hostage, with stupendous amounts asked for ransom! Should the money not be paid, a dreadful death is unleashed. It is a thick, green gas that is death to breathe and on contact, it eats away flesh like acid! The Spider is helpless against the gas unless something can be found to nullify it.
One man seems able to counteract the poisonous fog, heading a small army using giant fans to disperse the clouds of gas. Failure to call him in on a case means certain death! To many embattled cities, he seems godlike and a savior! The question is why he alone can battle the gas even if others are armed with similar fans…
The story follows a line often used in pulp fiction, but it does it brilliantly. The story moves well, with any number of red herrings and concealed plots. The climax is a bit predictable yet remains enjoyable.
I give this novel four stars…
Quoth the Raven…
April 23, 2023
A decent, fast paced early Spider story that is tarnished by an absolutely ludicrous climax. Richard Wentworth must discover the true identity of the Green Hand, a master criminal who has forced a kidnapped scientist to create a toxic, flesh-eating gas. Using the gas as a terror weapon, the Green Hand holds cities hostage as part of an intricate plot to install a puppet dictator in the White House.
The climax comes in Washington in a set of events that strain the suspension of disbelief, as The Spider manages to get himself all the way up to an audience with the President of the US before tricking the Green Hand into revealing his identity to the public. By the end of the story, there is no way anyone involved wouldn’t know that Wentworth is The Spider.
Norvell Page provides a decently exciting story in this outing, but it’s obvious he’s still getting a feel for the character and things aren’t properly fleshed out yet.
The climax comes in Washington in a set of events that strain the suspension of disbelief, as The Spider manages to get himself all the way up to an audience with the President of the US before tricking the Green Hand into revealing his identity to the public. By the end of the story, there is no way anyone involved wouldn’t know that Wentworth is The Spider.
Norvell Page provides a decently exciting story in this outing, but it’s obvious he’s still getting a feel for the character and things aren’t properly fleshed out yet.
March 9, 2025
Despite the lack of masked avenging in this one (seems to be something that develops later), I can't fault the pulp action. A non-stop ride of plane chases, punch ups, shoot outs, subterfuge, disguises plot twists and villainous deeds, as Richard Wentworth battles to save cities against a devastating, poisonous gas weapon let loose by The Green Hand!
Fabulous stuff and a good palette cleanser between heavier reads. I could imagine this particularly being a lot of fun for people back in the days of reading pulp magazines 0ver 90 years ago.
Fabulous stuff and a good palette cleanser between heavier reads. I could imagine this particularly being a lot of fun for people back in the days of reading pulp magazines 0ver 90 years ago.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews