Hell is the Hangman!
THE SPIDER-WOMAN — Issue no. 4, April 1978
Book: The Spider-Woman
Issue No.: 4
Published: April 4, 1978
Title: “Hell is the Hangman!”
Cover Price: 35¢
The first issue of this book I read was weird and fun. Unfortunately, the next two issues I read (that’d be no. 3 and this one) have not lived up to that first one.
Spider-Woman is still trying to track down costumed bad guy Brother Grimm, and now a new masked vigilante, the Hangman, is also after Grimm. And Hangman’s methods are much more violent than Spider-Woman’s — he’s one of those comic book characters who disproves the old “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” adage.
Jessica Drew (Spider-Woman’s alter ego) is renting a room from Priscilla Dolly. In this issue Jessica meets Priscilla’s sons William and Jake, who also live with Priscilla. It comes out that William works at Pyro-Technics, a movie special effects company where Jessica’s father used to work. And Jessica is in L.A. because she’s trying to solve the mystery of her dad’s murder. Brother Grimm also has some connection to Pyro-Technics. And having floated the theory that Brother Grimm is actually two guys who wear identical costumes (so Grimm can appear to be two places at once), I am now thinking that those two guys are William and Jake Dolly. But that’s still just a theory.
There’s a bunch of other stuff going on, too. Like I said, this Hangman dude showed up and is after Brother Grimm and is also killing other criminals in the meantime. A SHIELD agent named Jerry Hunt shows up in L.A. looking for Spider-Woman. He is met at the airpot by Bill Foster, a guy who works for Tony Stark (AKA Iron Man). Congressman Wyatt shows up for half a page — he’s involved in all of this somehow. And Grimm is apparently stealing diamonds from jewelry merchants in some convoluted scheme.
Oh yeah, and don’t forget Jessica’s weird friend Magnus, an old dude who might be some kind of wizard.
This book ends with Hangman capturing Spider-Woman to, so he says, protect her from Grimm. And then he says he’s going to lock her up in his dungeon forever so she will be “safe” for the rest of her life. Which is creepy and everything. But he just has Spider-Woman, who is very strong, tied up with ropes, and I’m wondering why she doesn’t just break loose.
I really want to like this book — Spider-Woman is a cool character with a strange and mysterious backstory. But these last couple of issues have been kind of a slog. The hype for next issue promises “‘The Haunting!’ More than a ghost story!” Are we getting a break from Grimm and Hangman? Or is this haunting happening on top of all the other subplots? I guess we’ll see.
Next time — He’s big! He’s green! He’s the king of the monsters! He’s Godzilla!