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The Spider vs. The Empire State: The Complete Black Police Trilogy
THEY SAID IT COULDN'T HAPPEN HERE. THEN THEY SAID ONE MAN COULDN'T STOP IT! Richard Wentworth spent his vigilante career as The Spider always in the shadows. Now evil acted in broad daylight. The Party of Justice swept into office, rewriting the laws of New York state overnight to benefit their criminal backers and make slaves of its people. This American Reichstag gave itself sweeping powers and raised a private army to exert its malevolent will. How could The Spider hope to stop a criminal conspiracy as big as the state itself? This time The Master of Men would go beyond taking the lives of evildoers... by bringing Hope to the tyrannized citizens of the Empire State! The "Black Police Trilogy" is author Norvell Page's classic pulp fiction Nazi allegory from 1938. Originally published in three consecutive months of The Spider Magazine, the novels "The City That Paid To Die", "The Spider at Bay", and "Scourge of the Black Legions" are collected in book form for the first time! If you are interested in finding out more about this book, and seeing lots of "extras" check out the Age of Aces web site at: http://www.ageofaces.net/our-books/th...
- GenresPulpPulp Adventure
430 pages, Paperback
First published July 15, 2009
7 people are currently reading
82 people want to read
About the author
Norvell W. Page
212 books14 followersNorvell Wordsworth Page (1904–1961) was an American pulp fiction writer, journalist and editor who later became a government intelligence worker.
He was born in Virginia the son of Charles Wordsworth Page (1880 – 1947) and Estlie Isabelle Bethel Page (1880 – 1946). The name Norvell came from his maternal grandmother Elvira Russell Norvell Page.
He is best known as the author of the majority of the adventures of the ruthless vigilante hero The Spider, which he and a handful of other writers wrote under the house name of Grant Stockbridge. He also contributed to other pulp series, including The Shadow and The Phantom, and supplied scripts for the radio programs based on the characters he wrote, science fiction and two early sword and sorcery fantasy novels under forms of his real name, Norvel Page and Norvell W. Page. His 1940 Unknown novel, But Without Horns is considered an early classic explication of the superman theme. Under the pen name of N. Wooten Poge, Page wrote the adventures of Bill Carter for Spicy Detective Stories. His works only saw magazine publication during his lifetime, but his fantasies and some of the Spider novels were later reprinted as paperbacks.
The Spider was a crime-fighter in the tradition of The Shadow, wanted by the law for executing his criminal antagonists, and prefigured later comic book superheroes like Batman. Page's innovations to the series included a hideous disguise for the hero and a succession of super-scientific menaces for him to combat. One of these, involving an invasion of giant robots, was copied by an early Superman story and helped inspire the movie Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.
The setting of Page's sword and sorcery novels is central Asia in the first century A.D., when the legendary Prester John supposedly established a Christian kingdom there. In Page's conception, the man behind the legend was hard-bitten Mediterranean adventurer Hurricane John, or Wan Tengri, a hero in the mold of Robert E. Howard's Conan, though more humorous, verbose, and exaggeratedly omnicompetent as a warrior. He comes close to taking over two cities in the course of his travels, but the series concludes before he establishes his empire. He was featured two stories Flame Winds and Sons of the Bear God. The magic John encounters is unconvincingly rationalized
He was born in Virginia the son of Charles Wordsworth Page (1880 – 1947) and Estlie Isabelle Bethel Page (1880 – 1946). The name Norvell came from his maternal grandmother Elvira Russell Norvell Page.
He is best known as the author of the majority of the adventures of the ruthless vigilante hero The Spider, which he and a handful of other writers wrote under the house name of Grant Stockbridge. He also contributed to other pulp series, including The Shadow and The Phantom, and supplied scripts for the radio programs based on the characters he wrote, science fiction and two early sword and sorcery fantasy novels under forms of his real name, Norvel Page and Norvell W. Page. His 1940 Unknown novel, But Without Horns is considered an early classic explication of the superman theme. Under the pen name of N. Wooten Poge, Page wrote the adventures of Bill Carter for Spicy Detective Stories. His works only saw magazine publication during his lifetime, but his fantasies and some of the Spider novels were later reprinted as paperbacks.
The Spider was a crime-fighter in the tradition of The Shadow, wanted by the law for executing his criminal antagonists, and prefigured later comic book superheroes like Batman. Page's innovations to the series included a hideous disguise for the hero and a succession of super-scientific menaces for him to combat. One of these, involving an invasion of giant robots, was copied by an early Superman story and helped inspire the movie Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.
The setting of Page's sword and sorcery novels is central Asia in the first century A.D., when the legendary Prester John supposedly established a Christian kingdom there. In Page's conception, the man behind the legend was hard-bitten Mediterranean adventurer Hurricane John, or Wan Tengri, a hero in the mold of Robert E. Howard's Conan, though more humorous, verbose, and exaggeratedly omnicompetent as a warrior. He comes close to taking over two cities in the course of his travels, but the series concludes before he establishes his empire. He was featured two stories Flame Winds and Sons of the Bear God. The magic John encounters is unconvincingly rationalized
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
October 3, 2017
The Spider is my favorite pulp character (even ahead of Doc Savage and the Shadow).
Richard Wentworth is a wealthy playboy (Bruce Wayne anyone? probably more like Jay Gatsby though). He has a butler (hmmm), a girlfriend, Nita. A servant who is a Sikh (resplendent with turban and knife), and a former wrestler as his chauffeur.
This book is a trilogy of three stories published consecutively in 1938 based upon what was going on in Nazi Germany at the time. Police dressed in black (more like Mussolini's Italy), concentration camps, executions without trial, etc in New York State.
It is extremely fast paced and over the top which most pulp characters were. They were the inspiration and progenitors behind much fiction written in the 50s and 60s as well as the Superhero comics we are all enamored with today.
Richard Wentworth is a wealthy playboy (Bruce Wayne anyone? probably more like Jay Gatsby though). He has a butler (hmmm), a girlfriend, Nita. A servant who is a Sikh (resplendent with turban and knife), and a former wrestler as his chauffeur.
This book is a trilogy of three stories published consecutively in 1938 based upon what was going on in Nazi Germany at the time. Police dressed in black (more like Mussolini's Italy), concentration camps, executions without trial, etc in New York State.
It is extremely fast paced and over the top which most pulp characters were. They were the inspiration and progenitors behind much fiction written in the 50s and 60s as well as the Superhero comics we are all enamored with today.
April 10, 2013
"THE CLASSIC PULP FICTION NAZI ALLEGORY FROM 1938"
Well, that's what the cover blurb says, but for inspiration Norvell Page did not have to look to Berlin, or any of the other foreign lands where despots were on the rise. He needed look only as far as the political machines of Chicago or Trenton, to the State Houses at Albany or St Louis...or, for that matter, to Washington DC.
The Spider was one of many two-gunned crime fighters during the Great Depression who appeared in a self-titled monthly pulp magazine, his lasting from 1933 to 1943, for 118 issues. In 1938, the magazine featured three consecutive novels, "The City That Paid to Die" (Sept), "The Spider at Bay" (Oct), and "The Scourge of the Black Legions" (Nov), comprising the so-called "Black Police Trilogy," and are collected in this omnibus from Age of Aces Books, The Spider vs The Empire State.
Normally, The Spider found himself pitted against either a crime lord on a rampage or a madman instituting a reign of terror. In these three cautionary novels, however, he finds himself set against politics gone wild and cast in the role of revolutionary, freedom fighter and military commander. After a legal election (it was rigged!), the Governor of New York and the State Legislature enact a series of laws that bring about ruthless taxation and confiscation of private property. By Executive Order, the Governor empties the prisons, garbs the convicts in black (the "Black Police" of the sub-title), and gives them absolute power to collect taxes, seize property and summarily execute resistors. Because it's all being done by the State's "legal" government, The Spider and his allies are cast as outlaws, and Federal intervention is all but impossible.
As with most of The Spider novels, the true "power behind the throne" is hidden. Striking against the Governor and other State officials is not only seen as treasonous, but accomplishes little because they are but minions. Normally, the revelation of the true villain is the denouement of the novel, but here Page had to keep "The Master" in the forefront of the action while at the same time keeping his identity hidden over the course of three books, a clever trick of plotting and pacing.
The America in which these three novels first appeared was very much different from our own time, and yet there are eerie similarities. Morale was low, the economy was depressed, lawlessness was rampant, society was divided, strange sects and cults were on the rise, extremists were trying to transform America, the country was beset by enemies foreign and domestic, and a Democratic President was in power who not only wanted to make sweeping taxation changes by legislation and executive order, but who was being advised on all sides to nationalize industry and assume dictatorial powers, something portrayed in the FDR-idolizing film Gabriel Over the White House (1933).
Looking back with the 20/20 vision of hindsight, it's a bit easier to see that Page, even though he was taking cues from foreign events and symbolism, he was probably writing about his own America, that he was issuing a warning that "it can't happen here" really could. At the time, however, many readers probably just saw it as another adventure of The Spider, only this time the villains had been elected. If the readers were at all confused by this new path for their hero, they only had to wait for the end of the third novel, when, with the crooked politicians replaced by honest ones (as if that would ever happen), all the freedom fighting heroics of The Spider were forgotten and he was once more a hunted vigilante, the status quo restored.
In addition to being a paean against totalitarianism, the Black Police Trilogy is an adventure story. The action is non-stop, and the plot does not stand still for any length of time. Action. Action. Action! Even the writing is action oriented, with adjectives few and verbs aplenty. And don't forget the ubiquitous exclamation marks!!!!!! It's common now to look down on "pulp writing," just as it's common to dismiss current popular fiction (if for no other reasons that it actually tells a story and is popular), this is great storytelling. The reader can't help but be pulled along. Novell Page was one of perhaps a half-dozen Depression Era writers who wrote very well, even when writing very fast, and at times transcended the medium in which they practiced their craft and the readers for whom they wrote.
Well, that's what the cover blurb says, but for inspiration Norvell Page did not have to look to Berlin, or any of the other foreign lands where despots were on the rise. He needed look only as far as the political machines of Chicago or Trenton, to the State Houses at Albany or St Louis...or, for that matter, to Washington DC.
The Spider was one of many two-gunned crime fighters during the Great Depression who appeared in a self-titled monthly pulp magazine, his lasting from 1933 to 1943, for 118 issues. In 1938, the magazine featured three consecutive novels, "The City That Paid to Die" (Sept), "The Spider at Bay" (Oct), and "The Scourge of the Black Legions" (Nov), comprising the so-called "Black Police Trilogy," and are collected in this omnibus from Age of Aces Books, The Spider vs The Empire State.
Normally, The Spider found himself pitted against either a crime lord on a rampage or a madman instituting a reign of terror. In these three cautionary novels, however, he finds himself set against politics gone wild and cast in the role of revolutionary, freedom fighter and military commander. After a legal election (it was rigged!), the Governor of New York and the State Legislature enact a series of laws that bring about ruthless taxation and confiscation of private property. By Executive Order, the Governor empties the prisons, garbs the convicts in black (the "Black Police" of the sub-title), and gives them absolute power to collect taxes, seize property and summarily execute resistors. Because it's all being done by the State's "legal" government, The Spider and his allies are cast as outlaws, and Federal intervention is all but impossible.
As with most of The Spider novels, the true "power behind the throne" is hidden. Striking against the Governor and other State officials is not only seen as treasonous, but accomplishes little because they are but minions. Normally, the revelation of the true villain is the denouement of the novel, but here Page had to keep "The Master" in the forefront of the action while at the same time keeping his identity hidden over the course of three books, a clever trick of plotting and pacing.
The America in which these three novels first appeared was very much different from our own time, and yet there are eerie similarities. Morale was low, the economy was depressed, lawlessness was rampant, society was divided, strange sects and cults were on the rise, extremists were trying to transform America, the country was beset by enemies foreign and domestic, and a Democratic President was in power who not only wanted to make sweeping taxation changes by legislation and executive order, but who was being advised on all sides to nationalize industry and assume dictatorial powers, something portrayed in the FDR-idolizing film Gabriel Over the White House (1933).
Looking back with the 20/20 vision of hindsight, it's a bit easier to see that Page, even though he was taking cues from foreign events and symbolism, he was probably writing about his own America, that he was issuing a warning that "it can't happen here" really could. At the time, however, many readers probably just saw it as another adventure of The Spider, only this time the villains had been elected. If the readers were at all confused by this new path for their hero, they only had to wait for the end of the third novel, when, with the crooked politicians replaced by honest ones (as if that would ever happen), all the freedom fighting heroics of The Spider were forgotten and he was once more a hunted vigilante, the status quo restored.
In addition to being a paean against totalitarianism, the Black Police Trilogy is an adventure story. The action is non-stop, and the plot does not stand still for any length of time. Action. Action. Action! Even the writing is action oriented, with adjectives few and verbs aplenty. And don't forget the ubiquitous exclamation marks!!!!!! It's common now to look down on "pulp writing," just as it's common to dismiss current popular fiction (if for no other reasons that it actually tells a story and is popular), this is great storytelling. The reader can't help but be pulled along. Novell Page was one of perhaps a half-dozen Depression Era writers who wrote very well, even when writing very fast, and at times transcended the medium in which they practiced their craft and the readers for whom they wrote.
April 13, 2011
It helps to keep in mind when this was written and for whom. The writing is lurid and overwrought, the logic and characterizations not even up to comic book level. But this was a Nazi allegory aimed at frightened Americans in the late 1930s, putting forth the caped hero as the agent of death to a fascist, police state not unlike Nazi Germany at the time. It's pure pulp and clearly targeted toward an adolescent audience. The conclusion is foregone even at the beginning of these three mini-novels, and the action staggers along in charge after predictable charge. It's all very tiresome, but fascinating when you allow yourself to detach yourself from the cliche action and ponder on the climate of the world at that time.
May 19, 2024
I've never cared for the Spider, a C-list Shadow (YMMV), and not much for Page's writing (not only his Spider but his Conanesque Flame Winds). Here, however, he hits it out of the park.
As we learn in the first book, a criminal conspiracy has taken over New York State government and established a dictatorship — all legal, so the federal government can't intervene. Richard Wentwork, AKA the Spider, leads the resistance against "The Master," who's behind everything.
As pulp adventure this is a thrill-a-minute, with battles against incredible odds. Frequently quite grim. Innocent people hung or killed in the streets. A dam destroyed to distract the federal government, killing thousands. A bioweapon unleashed that kills people like a quick-acting leprosy.
As an warning about dictatorship, mixed. The Master and his lackeys don't have any ideology, it's simply a big criminal scheme to enrich themselves.
Overall, though, a winning one.
As we learn in the first book, a criminal conspiracy has taken over New York State government and established a dictatorship — all legal, so the federal government can't intervene. Richard Wentwork, AKA the Spider, leads the resistance against "The Master," who's behind everything.
As pulp adventure this is a thrill-a-minute, with battles against incredible odds. Frequently quite grim. Innocent people hung or killed in the streets. A dam destroyed to distract the federal government, killing thousands. A bioweapon unleashed that kills people like a quick-acting leprosy.
As an warning about dictatorship, mixed. The Master and his lackeys don't have any ideology, it's simply a big criminal scheme to enrich themselves.
Overall, though, a winning one.
August 20, 2019
Clearly a product of it's times (that is to say, it's a juvenile adventure novel written in the first years of the second world war, for all the good and the bad that comes with that) The Spider vs The Empire State tells the story of a New York City beset by fascists, run by criminals. It tells the story of the resistance, fighting back against terrible odds and worse consequences. It tells a story of Sacrifice in the name of Justice. And it's a fun little adventure story to boot.
June 21, 2023
Brilliant. Entertaining. Prescient.
January 6, 2013
The Spider Vs. The Empire State
The Spider Vs. The Empire state is a true pulp novel set in 1938, in fact it was actually written then as part of ‘the Spider’ pulp series of books that appeared every month. This is actually a compilation novella s it contains all three original monthly novels in one volume (‘The Spider- That City That Paid to die’, ‘The Spider- The Spider at Bay’ and ‘The Spider-Scourge of the Black Legions’) All written by Norvell Page.
This novel is an allegory concerning the Nazi movement of the 30’s that was sweeping Germany. It also touches on socialism as well, mentioning the horrors of Soviet Russia several times.
This is a hard core novel with the Spider going through hell and back to save New York State, which had fallen under a puppet governor whose strings were being pulled from the shadows by a man only known as ‘The Master’. A new state-wide police force was instituted called the ‘Black Police’ who collected tax upon tax and find upon fine on the backs of the citizenry. There are hangings, whippings, bombings and various other methods of death being instituted upon the populace by the rogue government.
This is an exciting and thrilling novel written in a different era, but in a writing style we should all be envious of. Colorful and exciting, the story keeps you mesmerized, wanting not to put the four hundred eighteen page novel down, for the most part.
The middle book at times became overly long it seemed and in spots the story dragged somewhat. There was a portion of the book that became very repetitious with repeated captures and escapes as well as many flights in stolen planes between Albany and Manhattan. That was the only portion of the book I can be critical of, as I felt, even if it did further the story, it was too much of the same, again and again.
All in all this was an excellent book which was like looking through a time machine at a simpler era, though not so far removed that it was unidentifiable. You could feel the fear of the populace as the Master forced his machinations upon the people through his stooges. If I could rate a book 4 ½ stars I would for this one. For fans of the pulp era this is a ‘Must Read’ with its grim and taught storytelling (For most of the volume anyway.) While some of the evils done here would be considered exaggerated and done in the need of fantastic storytelling, this piece can be considered a nervous warning for the times.
A little wordy in spots, and perhaps a bit too long, but a very good read that held my attention throughout. It was like peering into a very frightening world which was just outside the window, but slightly off kilter.
The Spider Vs. The Empire state is a true pulp novel set in 1938, in fact it was actually written then as part of ‘the Spider’ pulp series of books that appeared every month. This is actually a compilation novella s it contains all three original monthly novels in one volume (‘The Spider- That City That Paid to die’, ‘The Spider- The Spider at Bay’ and ‘The Spider-Scourge of the Black Legions’) All written by Norvell Page.
This novel is an allegory concerning the Nazi movement of the 30’s that was sweeping Germany. It also touches on socialism as well, mentioning the horrors of Soviet Russia several times.
This is a hard core novel with the Spider going through hell and back to save New York State, which had fallen under a puppet governor whose strings were being pulled from the shadows by a man only known as ‘The Master’. A new state-wide police force was instituted called the ‘Black Police’ who collected tax upon tax and find upon fine on the backs of the citizenry. There are hangings, whippings, bombings and various other methods of death being instituted upon the populace by the rogue government.
This is an exciting and thrilling novel written in a different era, but in a writing style we should all be envious of. Colorful and exciting, the story keeps you mesmerized, wanting not to put the four hundred eighteen page novel down, for the most part.
The middle book at times became overly long it seemed and in spots the story dragged somewhat. There was a portion of the book that became very repetitious with repeated captures and escapes as well as many flights in stolen planes between Albany and Manhattan. That was the only portion of the book I can be critical of, as I felt, even if it did further the story, it was too much of the same, again and again.
All in all this was an excellent book which was like looking through a time machine at a simpler era, though not so far removed that it was unidentifiable. You could feel the fear of the populace as the Master forced his machinations upon the people through his stooges. If I could rate a book 4 ½ stars I would for this one. For fans of the pulp era this is a ‘Must Read’ with its grim and taught storytelling (For most of the volume anyway.) While some of the evils done here would be considered exaggerated and done in the need of fantastic storytelling, this piece can be considered a nervous warning for the times.
A little wordy in spots, and perhaps a bit too long, but a very good read that held my attention throughout. It was like peering into a very frightening world which was just outside the window, but slightly off kilter.
August 10, 2015
The following was the intro to my old Spider web page - it isn't story specific but it still covers just about any Spider story ever written - just add or minus various degrees of paranoia :-)
Mayhem in the streets....The Death of thousands....Rampant Violence Strikes at the Heart of the Country!!!!!
A maniacal laugh from out of the blackness of the darkest night. A furtive shadow briefly seen...but of WHAT??
A momentary glimpse of a bizarre, terrorizing figure - man or beast?
Only this is known....Death walks the streets tonight, and it's harbinger is a strange caped hunchback with wild eyes and fanged teeth.........
BEWARE the Spider's terrible, swift justice!!!!!
Just Another Day at the Office"
These, then, are the epic exploits of Richard Wentworth and his cadre
of faithful cohorts who fight the scourges of humanity in the only way these
menaces can be fought, outside the law ! Wentworth, forever
buffeted by the forces of fate and society that have cast him into this fearful
mode, fights on in the persona of The Spider, killer of killers. Denied
the joys of hearth and family, he strides across the ashes of the underworld
with only the support of his few friends and with the hostility of the very
people he serves. A Paladin of his age, bloodied, but undefeated until that
inevitable day when his skill and his luck will fail him..........
THE SPIDER's fearful fate:
Mayhem in the streets....The Death of thousands....Rampant Violence Strikes at the Heart of the Country!!!!!
A maniacal laugh from out of the blackness of the darkest night. A furtive shadow briefly seen...but of WHAT??
A momentary glimpse of a bizarre, terrorizing figure - man or beast?
Only this is known....Death walks the streets tonight, and it's harbinger is a strange caped hunchback with wild eyes and fanged teeth.........
BEWARE the Spider's terrible, swift justice!!!!!
Just Another Day at the Office"
These, then, are the epic exploits of Richard Wentworth and his cadre
of faithful cohorts who fight the scourges of humanity in the only way these
menaces can be fought, outside the law ! Wentworth, forever
buffeted by the forces of fate and society that have cast him into this fearful
mode, fights on in the persona of The Spider, killer of killers. Denied
the joys of hearth and family, he strides across the ashes of the underworld
with only the support of his few friends and with the hostility of the very
people he serves. A Paladin of his age, bloodied, but undefeated until that
inevitable day when his skill and his luck will fail him..........
THE SPIDER's fearful fate:
September 13, 2009
Three novels about a criminal named the Master backing a complete win in state elections and forcing through laws that pardoned prison residents to form a new state police to enforce heavy new taxes and set up concentration camps for these "scofflaws" that couldn't pay.
Richard Wentworth and his friend, Commissioner Stanley Kirkpatrick become leaders of the resistance and get $10,000 bounties on their heads, dead or alive, preferably dead,
Originally published in three issues of the Spider magazine in the latter part of 1938, it was an obvious metaphor for Nazism.
Richard Wentworth and his friend, Commissioner Stanley Kirkpatrick become leaders of the resistance and get $10,000 bounties on their heads, dead or alive, preferably dead,
Originally published in three issues of the Spider magazine in the latter part of 1938, it was an obvious metaphor for Nazism.
February 27, 2013
This one was a bit different for a Spider story. Don't get me wrong, the over the top situations and dialog are present, but the Spider isn't his usual homicidal lunatic self. Not that you see much action from the Spider. It's mostly Richard Wentworth out in the field. The introduction was quite interesting as it puts the story in historical context. The other interesting thing is how a lot of what is brought up in the novel is still relevant today, regardless of which side of the political divide you happen to fall on.
November 9, 2010
Gotta love The Spider. I've always considered him the link in the evolution between pulp hero and superhero.
The Black Police Trilogy is as good a Spider novel as you're gonna get. Filled with pulsing dread it once again features Richard Wentworth a.k.a. The Spider beset on all sides by his enemies, barely escaping with his life and saving those who can't save themselves.
If you're into pulp novels, this is a good one to add to your collection.
The Black Police Trilogy is as good a Spider novel as you're gonna get. Filled with pulsing dread it once again features Richard Wentworth a.k.a. The Spider beset on all sides by his enemies, barely escaping with his life and saving those who can't save themselves.
If you're into pulp novels, this is a good one to add to your collection.
January 28, 2012
The more I read, the less I liked it. The casual racism and all got to me. I'm not going to fault the book because it's clearly a product of its time, but I can't recommend it to a modern reader.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews