Webs of Intrigue: Sensational Spider-Men

Eric Needham was a troubled youth, under the grip of drugs which led him into a life of crime. Forsaking the addictive influences that held him in their thrall for years, Eric immersed himself into training to make him a skilled assassin in order to remove the gangs fed by the drug traffic trade that poisoned Gotham City of Earth-One.

Scorpion Sykes was originally a gang leader wearing a green and yellow costume who battled and lost to the Vigilante, presumed dead following their meeting. Months later, Scorpion returned as one of four felons patterning their modus operandi after predatory insects. The other three terrors were Cricket Crode and Miss Moth, with their leader being gangster Bugsy Bonner. A fourth recruit Bugsy tried to win over to his new crime cartel was the heroic alter ego of writer Jonathan Law, the Tarantula, who Bugsy suspected of being a secret criminal. When he and his confederates discovered that Law was in fact, on the side of the law, they hatched a new plan to frame him for their felonies.

As the Black Spider, Needham incorporated high-caliber rifles and other weaponry as one-by-one he eliminated the kingpins of crime in his city, bringing him to the attention of his fellow vigilante the Batman of Earth-One. Seeing the Spider's brutal form of justice as irreconcilable with true justice, Batman battled and defeated Black Spider. He later turned to crime himself, allying with fellow foes of Batman.

With Scorpion Syke impersonating Tarantula and committing crimes in this alias while the real hero was knocked unconscious. Thankfully, the real Tarantula was able to corner the crooked quarter, even outmatching Scorpion-Tarantula’s stinger gun with his own web-shooting pistol. 

Bugsy Bonner, Cricket and Miss Moth, whose Earth-One counterparts Dragon Fly, Silken Spider and Tiger Moth were all one-hit wonders like them, only battling the caped crusaders who opposed them once before disappearing. As was the pseudo-Tarantula, who failed to live up to the infamy of his own doppelgänger Black Spider in either his spider or scorpion costumed capers.