posted
^ Thanks guys. I'm glad you resisted the temptation to spoil. It was fun posing a question about a topic that most people seemed familiar with but just couldn't get the right answer to.
I was definitely running out of ideas for clues though (I think I was only about 1 clue away from saying "His initials are B.S." ). And with Uni starting again next week I needed this question answered soon - which is why I amended the older clues to make them a lot easier to identify him.
I'd love to hear from Gaiman about why he chose to use that particular character in his story that way. I couldn't find any info online. Does anyone have Absolute Sandman? Is Black Spider mentioned in the annotations in there (if they have them?)? Or know of any Sandman annotation websites that might mention it?
From: Australia | Registered: Dec 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Blacula: Not The Wrath, Exnihil, but good guess.
But someone does finally put me out of my misery and get the answer (it was getting harder and harder to come up with those clues) -
Well done Kent! It was the Batman-villain Black Spider, otherwise known as Eric Needham, who briefly dated Lyta Hall at the end of Neil Gaiman's Sandman run!
(Did you work it out from the clues or did you have to look it up?)
the revised clues did inspire an epiphany - the 70s descriptions and connecting it to Lyta's date. Black Spider had once been a bat-villain I'd really liked way back when, but had forgotten about until now.
So with that epiphany, I did a quick google to see that there had been more than one Black Spider, and see the name Eric Needham (which I wasn't 100% sure was the Sandman character I was thinking of. It sounded familiar, but I wasn't sure) made me comfortable guessing. I didn't look to see if all the other details fit.
great Q! and annoying in that I thought I knew all the Easter Eggs Neil threw at us, and had never heard of that one!
From: Vancouver, BC, Canada | Registered: Dec 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Chaim Mattis Keller: This site has good Sandman annotations, and does not recognize Eric as the Black Spider.
Thanks CMK. Good site but the annotations didn't seem as exhaustive as they could have been for that book. Shame no mention of Black Spider - maybe they were just unaware? Would be good to hear what Gaiman has to say about it one day.
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As for Kent's question, random guess - the Crimson Avenger?
From: Australia | Registered: Dec 2003
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posted
nope! character in question came about long after CA and the original western Vigilante, but before more recent skimask Vigilantes.
From: Vancouver, BC, Canada | Registered: Dec 2003
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And the killer of Ben Williams was Nemesis's brother (whose name I can't recall). This is from the B&B stories, if I'm right.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
Sounds like Cobalt Kid is pretty confident - but it would have been funny if it'd turned out to be Spider-Man, and Ben Williams had been Uncle Ben's alternate real name from some story or something
the bro was Craig Tresser, Tom (Nemesis)'s bro, who'd been brainwashed to assassinate his mentor. all 3 were government agents.
From: Vancouver, BC, Canada | Registered: Dec 2003
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posted
Nemesis is a character I love from his Suicide Squad days so I was delighted when I learned his early stories were in B&B and got to read them.
Along similar lines, which hero was inspired by the death of Earl Clifford?
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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![[LOL]](graemlins/lol.gif)
). And with Uni starting again next week I needed this question answered soon - which is why I amended the older clues to make them a lot easier to identify him.
