The Tarantula

Origin - Amazing Spider-Man #135

by Ross Andru, 1974

Anton Miguel Rodriguez was a member of a revolutionary band, working to free an unnamed South American country from its oppressive dictatorship. He was an enthusiastic soldier and together with the other members of his small 'army', Rodriguez and his small army terrorized the ruling class by kidnapping politicians, holding them for ransom, and executing them if the ransom wasn't paid. They also participated in blowing up supply trains and financing themselves through robberies. Rodriguez was particularly bloodthirsty. During a robbery, he gunned down a guard in cold blood, and his fellow revolutionaries expelled him.

Rodriguez then went to work for the dictatorship of the country he was originally working to overthrow. he was given a commission, and because of his already disreputable reputation, he was given a new name and became the Tarantula, a force for fear and terror, and was intended to stand as his country's twisted counterpart to Captain America. He was then sent on a mission to hunt down his former comrades.

However, Rodriguez still revealed in death and destruction. During a particularly brutal interrogation, he turned on and killed a guard who wouldn't let Rodriguez beat a helpless prisoner to a pulp. In this way, he finished himself with his former friends and ally and left South America in a hurry.

Six months later, after a series of unrevealed adventures, he smuggled himself illegally into New York. For four additional months, he haunted bars and pool rooms in the shiftier parts of the city learning the ins and outs of the city's underworld and organizing his crime-team...