Manspider

ARACHNID FANTASY - Issue No. 15 PAGE SUBTITLE: MANSPIDER – Inspinity and Beyond. COVER DESIGN: This month's front cover is particularly fantastical. I'll try and describe it to you:- Imagine a spider wearing a humanoid mask, done out in garish human style clothing with slip-on leatherette bootees on all eight of its tiny feet. This is the featured superhero MANSPIDER. You can tell it's him by the large letter "M" embroidered on the front of his knitted jumper. He is swinging through the trees, leg over leg, whilst being pursued by his evil nemesis, that feathered fiend, Robin Black Breast. MANSPIDER is the story of a comic book hero who inspires a young spider called RODOLPHO to become a real life superhero. In this, he is ably assisted by his ant friend ADAM. Rodolpho's is part of a large family that lives in an increasingly overcrowded city where battles are fought out nearly every night. After one particular incident his father decides it is now time for them to move. So begins an epic adventure into a world of dangers unknown. All in all, fifty-six spiders and one ant ventures forth to find a new home. A crucial factor in their ability to survive out in the open, is their ability to "shape change." This is achieved by the simple action of spiders linking together like "organic meccano." Initially, they take the form of a military tank; largest spiders forming the base of the tank, with smaller spiders above, finally finishing off with the smallest of spiders creating the turret. In this they have a secret weapon - Adam Ant's FAB (Formic Acid Blaster) which proves crucial in fending off squirrels and robin redbreasts. Through the busy streets they trundle, from one adventure to another. They are one minute washed down the gutter in a rainstorm, the next, building a spider silk suspension bridge whilst fighting off squirrels and robin redbreasts along the way. But the big turning point is reached when they are caught out in the open in a snowstorm and have to take refuge in a Bug Hotel. Rodolpho has read about Bug Hotels in "Arachnid Fantasy." There was one particular story, set in a bug hotel, where they had these glass lifts. It was the one where Manspider had trapped the squirrel in the glass lift pod, attached a rocket to it and launched the squirrel into outer space. Armed with this "knowledge" he takes charge of negotiations and manages to secure the entire top floor "penthouse suite" of the Bug Hotel for his family. But this proves to be a grave mistake as the top floor is the first layer to be deconstructed by the HUMAN as fuel for his wood-burning stove. Rodolpho and Adam are now separated from the rest of the family and become convinced that they have all been burnt to death in the wood-burning stove. Rodolpho, of course, blames himself and goes into a deep depression. It now falls to Adam to keep them both alive in the freezing winter weather. Meanwhile, Rodolpho's family have escaped the log basket and venture back outside, heading back for the Bug Hotel. They need to know for sure, the final fate of Rodolpho and Adam. They find the hotel in an advanced state of demolition; this once luxurious Bug Hotel now just a diminishing pile of logs having collapsed into a dangerous heap. Now convinced of Rodolpho and Adam's unfortunate demise, they once more set forth for the final destination of their new home. Along the way, they take refuge from the weather inside a car's wing mirror and are transported off to another world - a supermarket car park - and on their return journey are attacked by a giant monster with flailing tentacles that shoots out jets of hot air- an automated car wash. Eventually the car is driven back home but instead of being parked back in the front drive, it is parked on the other side of the street. Our spider family now have to find a safe way to cross this street if they are to reach the safety of their final destination. And so we reach the beginning of the dramatic ending. Rodolpho learns of his family's survival and is immediately lifted from his depression. This is where fact and fiction become blurred when he takes on the guise of superhero MANSPIDER. And then a robin attacks. But this is no ordinary robin. It is a Robin Black Breast with unnatural super powers. In a suitably over the top ending, Rodolpho constructs a giant wing from spider silk and fights it out in the skies with his evil nemesis. In a final series of "dog fights" Rodolpho collapses the great wing to encase the Robin Black-Breast in a silk cocoon. They both fall to earth to a certain death. But Rodolpho has one last trick up his sleeve. He slips out of his vest, which rises up in the air and snaps into a parachute shape. The Robin Black Breast falls to its death as Rodolpho gracefully descends to earth, the letter "M" clearly visible, embroidered on his silken parachute.