Summary: A look at the public domain hero with Spider powers who came before Spider-man.<br> Transcript:<br> Host: She’s not amazing, spectacular or sensational, but she is the first ever web slaying superhero. We’ll tell you all about it as we look at Spider Queen, a hero of the public domain, straight ahead.<br> <br> Spider Queen was one of several script in the short lived the Eagle comics. The first script appeared in issues 2 through 4 and so will take a look at all 3 stories. I should note, that because she is public domain, she has been used in other works by other creators. The character was used actually as a supervillain by Roy Thomas in The Invaders. The whole reason for that and that character’s story is matter we’re not going to get into but we’re just going to focus on the heroic aspects of her golden age appearances.<br> In the first story, it begins with her already a Spider Queen stopping a bank robbery and then flashes back to her origin story and we find her working as an assistant to her husband, who is described as a brilliant, young scientists. However, the artist draws the husband as having white hair and a white moustache. He is killed by criminals and then Shannon, while cleaning out his things, discovers a formula that can be used to make spider web fluid. She then takes the formula and invents 2 bracelets from which she can fire it and combining that with her athletism, she becomes Spider Queen and sets out to war on crime. Well after she knocks out multiple bank robbers including the one with the bag, Detective Mike O’Bell, happens on the scene and arrest the criminals and takes the money to the chief of police. However, the chief of police is actually the head of the gang, which Shannon discovers and he’s determined to take the money back and split it with the gang and just rely on it being his word against O’Bell’s because apparently O’Bell didn’t get a receipt. At any rate, Shannon decides she has to tell O’Bell what’s going on so that he can arrest the chief and in a really funny sequence, Shannon gets O’Bell into her apartment and insist on serving him something to drink and while he’s waiting for her to come back she comes back in as Spider Queen jumps out the window after telling him about the chief and then while he’s leaning out the window runs back in, changes back into Shannon and offers in the tea but Mike excuses himself and goes off to confront the chief, the chief is captured and that’s pretty much the end of the story. <br> In the second story, in a shop there are kidnapping and shenanigans going on and the owner of the shop is being tortured as Spider Queen happens upon it and Mike O’Bell follows quickly behind, confronts Spider Queen, she knocks him out and then she realizes the crooks are still there and she needs to lead the crooks away from O’Bell, less they find him and kill him and so she leads them on a merry chase, jumps out of the window, which confuses the villains and it’s really funny because it’s like she can hear them up there saying, where is she going and she’s saying and she’s actually saying this, teehee. I love it. A superhero who says teehee. Well, O’Bell wakes up and finds the victim gone and asks Shannon for help to try and ask some questions because he figures she would not be suspected, since she’s the little fluffy type. This is his words not mine, and no one would suspect anything. She goes and gets information by swinging in and confronting the criminals and threatening them with providing the information or else, which is one of the worst things you can threaten someone with during the golden age. It turns out she is able to get information to Mike. Mike rescues the victim but he has trouble getting away. Spider Queen gets a boat for them but it turns out that the boat’s motor’s not working. However, she’s able to use her spider web to subdue ...
