During the early 1900’s in New York City, the Prohibition era has already taken affect. Two criminal bootleggers Albert and Miriam Goldman brought their first child Roger into this world. Unfortunately, Albert's illegal activities of selling alcohol robbed him of his chance to play the role of a decent father toward Roger. However, when Roger’s sister Celia was born, Albert’s commitment toward his family changed from bad to worse and this inevitably caused a mental imbalance in Roger’s development in his early childhood.
When Roger was young, he would take his anger and frustration out on small animals which included the family dog. Albert Goldman quickly realized that there was something wrong with his son but Miriam Goldman wrote it off as Roger just acting out like “boys will be boys” and Miriam continued to pamper the boy. The irony of Miriam Goldman is she preferred to live in a world of alcohol and denial instead of facing the reality that her son was cold as well as disturbed. She could not accept the possibility that her beloved son Roger was anything but normal even when he was expelled from a private school for attacking female students and killing one of his teacher's dog.
Albert's failure to raise Roger as a child was only matched by Roger’s failure to mature into adulthood. Roger lost a huge sum of the family’s ill begotten fortune because he accrued gambling debts and like Al Capone, Roger was eventually prosecuted by the Internal Revenue Service for neglecting to report his losses as well as income tax evasion. Fortunately, Albert used his family’s influence to get Roger out of prison. Afterwards, Albert decided to cut Roger off so Roger can finally start taking responsibility for his life as well as his actions.
Albert managed to make Roger the manager of the Evergood Milk Bottling Company which was Albert’s front company for his alcohol smuggling operation. Of course, when Prohibition was repealed by the Supreme Court, Roger could not keep the company going nor could he hide the truth of what really went on inside the company during the Prohibition so he filed for bankruptcy. After his recent failure, Roger learns that his father Albert has been sexually molesting his sister Celia during all those years he spent away from home.
It turns out that as Celia grew older, Albert actually fell out of love with his withering, deluded wife and began to have pedophilic affections toward his own daughter but at the same time, Celia took advantage of her father’s lustful advances. Celia used her feminine whiles and her sexual experience to get anything she wanted out of Albert. Albert’s devotion to Celia drove him to leave all of his illicit holdings to Celia as his final request in his last will and testament which left nothing for Roger or his mother Miriam.
At this point, Albert's sexual infidelities were no longer exclusive to just his daughter Celia anymore. Albert also had an affair with a younger woman than Celia named Catherine Van der Meer. Celia discovered her father's dirty little secret and viewed Catherine as a threat to her inheritance. Celia knew she couldn’t kill her father to inherit whatever was left of the family fortune nor could she stage an accident because it would raise too many questions so she manipulates Roger by pretending to be a victim and asking Roger to exact revenge on Albert. Roger donned a black executioner hood and became the second Tarantula. The original was Taylor Crossart who kidnapped Vivian Dale, a wealthy heiress
Roger stalked Catherine Van der Meer to learn her habits and he finds the perfect time to abduct her is early in the morning when she arrives at her home after leaving the Albert’s secret spot of ecstasy which has a carousel. Roger dragged Catherine to the cellar of his family’s brownstone. Roger bound Catherine in chains which suspended her body from a row of steaming pipes that ran across the ceiling and he gagged her so Catherine’s screams would not disturb Miriam from binge drinking coma. Roger kept Catherine locked up for several days where he would enjoy assaulting her at any given opportunity by any means he found pleasurable.
Fortunately, Miriam heard the struggling coming from the cellar so she released an anonymous letter to the press because she did not want to be implicated in the kidnapping nor did she want her conniving children to know she has been aware of their activities. Miriam’s letter stated that the Tarantula has kidnapped Catherine Van der Meer. Wesley Dodds aka Sandman responds to Van der Meer’s abduction and conducted an investigation to discover the origin of this letter. Dodds could tell from the letter that no demands pertaining to a ransom have been made which makes this abduction peculiar.
Sandman also learns that the local authorities suspect the kidnapping was probably executed by a serial killer who is trying play out some sick fantasy and the letter came from someone close to the killer but they are too afraid to come forward. Sandman’s efforts to work with the local authorities was a constant struggle but he eventually discovers the location of Tarantula's lair.
Sandman arrives just as Roger began to torture Celia as a form of sibling rivalry. Roger pitied Celia for what his father did to her but at the same time, Roger resented Celia because Albert loved Celia more than Roger. Roger was ready to hack Celia and Catherine with an axe until Sandman busted his way through the cellar. Sandman disarmed Roger and the axe flew across the cellar. The axe hit an electrical circuit box in the cellar and the hotwires began to spark across the floor.
Sandman used his gas gun to blur Roger’s vision and Miriam put an end to her children’s twisted existence by releasing a few barrels of liquor into the cellar. Sandman reacts in the knick of time by springing Catherine loose and reaches the top of the cellar stairs. As for the Goldman children, they were electrocuted and the fate of their father Albert has yet to be revealed.
Powers/ Abilities
Roger possessed an average man’s strength, an axe, a handgun and an array of blunt objects.
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