The Unofficial Biography of...

Alter Ego: Jonathan Law
Occupation: writer, adventurer ( retired )
Marital Status: presumed single
Known Relatives: none
Group Affiliation: All-Star Squadron
Base of Operations: New York, NY; Bludhaven, NJ
Current Status: retired
Height: 5'10" ( later 5'7" ) Weight: 180 lbs.
Eye Color: blue Hair Color: Blond ( now grey )
First Appearance: Star-Spangled Comics# 1, October, 1941.

.....Growing up on a southern Missouri farm, John Law knew that he was destined for great things. A tinkerer and a voracious reader, the youth discovered that he had a flair for writing and after attending college, made his way to New York to find his way as a writer. Striking gold on his first book, Web of Hate, Law settled in and began to pound out several best-sellers over the course of a couple years. Becoming financially secure, he turned his thinking over to another area that had caught his imagination in recent months...the "mystery-man".
.....In the summer of 1941, Law turned his researching onto the new phenomenon of the super-powered crimefighters that began sprinning up in America over the last couple of years. A chance meeting with another author, Dian Belmont, led to his deciding to follow-up in a unique way, to become a crime-fighter himself. He guessed that Belmont was connected to The Sandman, and after using a "rejected" costume design, tracked them down only to see Dian horribly injured while pretending to be The Sandman. The Sandman, who at this time had also adopted the costume designed by Dian, led Law to believe that Dian had been killed so as to distance her from the Sandman's activities. ( Law later learned that he had been tricked. )
.....Taking the name Tarantula, as the spider was "the hunter of the insect world" and aided behind-the-scenes by his clear-thinking ex-patriate German housekeeper Olga, The Tarantula soon joined up withThe All-Star Squadron. Law fell in with the crowd of All-Star "regulars", and used them as sources for his work in progress on the super-hero.
.....As time took its toll on his body, The Tarantula soon went into semi-retirement, when in 1950, Law was called before the House Un-American Activites Commission. He was called to testify and reveal any and all known Communists or Sympathieisers he knew of in the New York writing community. Refusing to do so, he became "blacklisted" and found no publishers wanted his detective novels anymore. Years passed as Law survivied writing for first the dying pulp publishers and then for the cheap-end paperback publishers, mostly under psuedonyms. As his income dwindled, he moved down the scale, from posh New York apartments to his three-room flat in Bludhaven, where he survives on his Social Security check and the meager royalties from his cheap adventure paperbacks. One bright spot, however, was the publication of his book Altered Egos: The Mystery Men of World War II in the 1970's.
.....At some point in the past, Law was disabled and now walks with the aid of a "walker cane", living in the second floor of the brownstone owned by Dick ( Nightwing ) Greyson.

.....The Tarantula possessed no super-abilites, but relied on several gimmicks and his quick wits. He was trained in hand-to-hand combat, as well as some acrobatics, and had a passing interest in stage make-up and stage magic.

..... He used suction cups attatched to the soles on his boots to allow him to walk up walls and hang from ceilings. He also used a "web-gun" which fired a string of fast-hardening nylon that could be used to swing from one anchored point to another and ensnare its victims.

Listing of Comic Book Appearances

Star-Spangled Comics(v1) #1-8
All-Star Squadron #18-20, 22, 24-25 February 8, '42
All-Star Squadron Annual #2
ASSq #27 February 13, '42
Star-Spangled(v1) #9
ASSq #31-32 Febraury 22-23, '42
ASSqAnn #3
ASSq #38, 41-44 thru early March '42
Star-Spangled(v1) #10 ASSq #46-47
ASSq #64 March 31, '42
ASSq #50, 53 beginning April 1, '42
Crisis #5
ASSq #57-61 ending April 15, '42
ASSq #66
Star-Spangled(v1) #11
Young All-Stars #2-7 thru early May '42
Star-Spangled(v1) #12
YAS #9, 14
Young All-StarsAnn #1/1 May 23, '42
Star-Spangled(v1) #13/YAS# 27/Secret Origins(v3)# 29 early June '42
YAS# 30-31 thru early June '42
Star-Spangled #14-19
Nightwing #14, 16, 21, 31, 42, 48, 54-55
Titans(v3) #37
Nightwing #64

This Page Created November 22, 1999.
This Page last Updated March 12, 2002.

Thanks to "steveb" for appearance info!

© 2002 dotymo@webtv.net

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