Comic Book Review: King of Crooks

Comic Book Review: King of Crooks by Jerry Siegel, Ted Cowan & Reg Bunn

A master safecracker is surrounded by the police after a job gone wrong, when a mysterious man in black offers him safety and wealth, in exchange for his absolute obedience.  This is the Spider (no relation), a master criminal of great strength and cunning.  He’s putting together a gang to steal a million dollars in uncut diamonds  Soon, he has also recruited a criminal inventor and acquired a permanent enemy in police detectives Peter Gilmore and Bob Trask.

The adventures of the Spider started in 1965, in the pages of the British comic paper, Lion.  His background was never explained, especially not his resemblance to Black Adam.  Mutant?  Alien?  Brilliant misanthrope driven to crime by his unfortunate appearance?  Never revealed.  After the first storyline, the emphasis shifted from the Spider committing crimes as such, to his competition with other, lesser criminals who challenged him for supremacy.   This became even more obvious when Jerry Siegel (as in Superman) took over the writing chores.

Being somewhat of a megalomaniac, the Spider lived in a castle he’d had brought over from Europe, and tended to announce his goals in public (while keeping the actual plan a secret.)  He seldom killed, preferring to have his victims suffer the humiliation of defeat while still alive.

This volume collects the first three storylines.  The art is serviceable, though clearly rushed in places (this was a weekly serial, after all.)  The writing is also typical of the boys’ comics of the time.  Some nice moments of the Spider demonstrating his wrath, though, and the Mirror Man is a memorable character.

This book is mostly of interest as a historical curiosity, unless you grew up reading the Spider in the pages of Lion.