(Pep Comics 010, 1940)
A vile villain known as the Tarantula is extorting the young wealthy women of London and then murdering the ones who don't pay up, and Inspector Bentley is on the case after two significant pieces of evidence fall into his lap: the latest body is left on the steps of Scotland Yard and then the latest extortion attempt is made against Deborah Morgan, whose father went to school with Bentley's boss and you can't beat the old boys' club when it comes to swinging the forces of law into action.
The usual parade of suspects that fills the pages of an Inspector Bentley story is a bit thin on the ground in this one. Don't get me wrong, the numbers are there, but at least two of them are clearly padding - they don't even say anything. The only credible suspects are BJ Morgan, his daughter Deborah (assuming some real 4D chess moves on her part), her fiance Bill Barnes and, in a big reach that the comic is not afraid to make, Bentley's boss. I'll say right now that the boss is a complete red herring set up by a walking stick.
(please take note of the Tarantula's little spider signature, which I love)
Bentley goes to meet a potential witness, at which point w get the most important revelation of the episode: the Tarantula is not just some murderer but a proper super-villain, with a proper costume and everything! Sure, some spider fans might quibble about the inclusion of antennae (not to mention the use of fairly mild tarantula venom as the murder vehicle) but it's been so long since I've seen a villain who wasn't just wearing a mask that I literally cheered when I saw this dude.
The Tarantula turns out to have about the right constitution for a basement dwelling spider breeder and goes down under the attacks of a heavily tied up Bentley. He's smashed into his case of tarantula containment orbs in a way that would usually signal a villain's ironic end via their own murder method, but I've reread the ending of this story a couple of times now and I have no clue whether the Tarantula is dead or alive at the end.
The Tarantula turns out to be Deborah's fiance Bill Barnes, who did it all because he was insecure about marrying a wealthy woman while not having much money himself. Moderately sweet, until you remember that he expressed this insecurity by extorting and murdering other young women. Wotta creep, am I right?
More importantly is the question of exactly why Bentley was suspicious of Deborah's circle: because when he went to interview his acquaintance Charlie about a possible Tarantula sighting he found him murdered and the only ones who knew about the potential witness were Deborah and her intimates. But did Bentley set a trap using the life of an innocent beggar or is he just so bad at infosec that he got a man murdered by accident?
No comments:
Post a Comment