Main Cast
Richard Wentworth / The Spider
Richard Wenthworth is a rich playboy who sometimes aids the police, but more often operates outside the law as The Spider which makes him a wanted outlaw.
- Calling Card: He brands the corpses of the criminals he kills with a spider symbol so that everybody will know it was The Spider who killed them.
- The Determinator: Through the series he's riddled with bullets, paralyzed, blinded, drugged, infected with rabies, framed, betrayed, disgraced, and comatose while fascists take over. All of this has an emotional effect on him, but he carries on.
- It's Not You, It's My Enemies: He's engaged to Nita, but puts off their marriage until The Spider's work is done because he doesn't want her to be disgraced in the case he's unmasked.
- Master of Disguise
- Open Secret: A lot of people seem to know he's The Spider, but the authorities have no actual evidence.
- Terror Hero: He dresses up as a fanged hunchback and murders criminals, branding their corpses with his spider symbol.
Nita Van Sloan
Wentworth's girlfriend and partner in his war on crime.
- Action Girl: Takes part in battles, and even acts as The Spider in Wentworth's stead in five stories. In Spider and the Slaves of Hell, she creates her own alias to act under, the Black Widow.
- Damsel in Distress: However, she's often abducted or otherwise victimized by the villains.
- Impoverished Patrician: Her family's wealth is gone because of the war and the Great Deppression.
- Technicolor Eyes: Her eyes are called violet.
Ram Singh
Ram Singh is a sikh who became Wenthworth's aide, after Wentworth saved him and his father from a massacre in India.
- Big Guy: He's a big man, and gets bigger as the series progresses.
- Blood Knight: Enjoys fighting.
- Proud Warrior Race Guy
Supporting Characters
Ronald Jackson
Wentworth's man-at-arms since World War I, Ronald Jackson is now his chauffeur and aids him in his activities as The Spider.
- Back from the Dead: Dies and is buried in The Pain Emperor, but in a rare move he inexplicably returns in Reign of the Death Fiddler.
Jenkyns
Wentworth family's old butler.
- Satellite Character: He's never fully fleshed out, and only has a few lines.
Commissioner Kirkpatrick
Stanley Kirkpatrick is New York's commissioner of police, and Wentworth's friend. But he suspects Wenthworth is The Spider, and will arrest him if he finds irrefutable evidence.
Professor Brownlee
Ezra Brownlee is the Wentworths' family friend, a physics professor, and an inventor. He creates The Spider's gadgets, including the seal ring.
- Killed Off for Real: He's murdered in Dragon Lord of the Underworld.
Apollo
Apollo is a great dane Wentworth gives to Nina to keep her company.
- Killed Off for Real: Poisoned in Laboratory of the Damned.
Villains
The Fly
- Back from the Dead: He appeared to die at the end of Prince of the Red Looters, but returned in "Green Globes of Death''. However, it turns out the man using the identity in his second appearance was hired by the real Fly to take revenge, as the original Fly's seeming death permanently injured him and he couldn't do it himself.
Munro
- Back from the Dead: He appeared to die at the end of The Spider and the Faceless One, only to return in Slaves of the Laughing Death and The Spider and the Deathless One.
- Master of Disguise: Impersonates Kirkpatrick, Wentworth, and Ram Singh at various times.
Tang-Akhlut, the Living Pharaoh
- Big Bad: Of issues 36-39.
The Master
The leader of the fascist "Party of Justice" who takes over New York with his Black Police.
- Big Bad: In Empire State (issues 60-62).
- One-Steve Limit: In an aversion, several unrelated villains are confusingly also called The Master.
