Lost Crossovers: The Forgotten Phantom Lady/Spider Widow epic, Part 2

As we detailed last week, artist Frank M. Borth, who was working on both strips, created a six-part epic crossover between his two series, Phantom Lady, which ran in POLICE COMICS, and the Spider Widow, which could be found in FEATURE COMICS. There wasn’t any promotion for this crossover, so it appears to be something that Borth simply did on his own. But it represents one of the longest cross-title storylines of the Golden Age. And here, we’re surveying the second month of it.

One of the main players in this storyline was the Spider Widow’s sidekick, the Raven, who dressed in Hawkmanlike bird attire and who could fly, or at least glide. He also hadn’t quite gotten the memo that he was the second banana in the pairing, and so he tended to come across in these stories as though he thought he was the lead rather than his partner the Spider Widow. As the third chapter kicks off, Phantom Lady phones the Raven to tell him about a letter she’s received from the jealous Spider Widow, challenging her to a duel in the pages of her own strip. The characters in these stories seemed to think nothing of the fact that they were features in the pages of different comic books.

The letter, however, is a fake, and a similar one has been sent to the Spider Widow purporting to be from Phantom Lady. The true culprit is the mastermind of the attacks on Phantom Lady’s father, Senator Knight, whom the paid almost captured in FEATURE COMICS. He figures that the best way to keep the two ladies out of his hair is to pit them against one another. He also plans to ambush them while they’re so occupied and bump them both off at once.

As the criminals approach, they recognize both of the dueling women as Sandra Knight and Dianne Grayton, respectively, as neither lady has shown up masked. Oops. The gunmen shoot down the Raven before turning their attention to the pair.

The Raven, though, wakes up in time to save Phantom Lady and the Spider Widow from being shot, and the trip mops up on the crooks. But the mastermind is still in the wind, and the Raven needs to be hospitalized for his wounds. The final blurb indicates casually that there’ll be more in both POLICE COMICS and FEATURE COMICS, but in a way that makes it seem as though this particular story isn’t being continued further.

But continue it does, into the pages of FEATURE COMICS #70, the home berth of the Spider Widow series.

This fourth chapter goes to far as to give Phantom Lady the same billing as the Raven–so not quite at the level of a headliner, but a solid second banana. Also, as this chapter opens, the Raven has been released from the hospital.

But presumably the fact that the criminal mastermind behind all of this mayhem learned the ladies’ true identities last chapter comes home to roost, as Dianne is accosted in her home while on the phone with Sandra by a pack of gunsels. They show her a note written by the Raven, who is their prisoner, and force her to accompany them. Phantom Lady hears this all go down over the phone and heads out to rescue her friends.

A couple of surprises await the Spider Widow as she gets to the crooks’ hideout. The first is that the Raven has seemingly thrown in with them. But her partner taps out a message in morse code indicating that this is all a ruse to capture the big boss behind the gang. That boss appears to be Senator Knight, Phantom Lady’s father, who shows up a short wile later.

But the mastermind, Larkin, is simply in disguise as Senator Knight. He intends to take the Senator’s place for some nefarious purpose. Phantom Lady crashes in, but perhaps because this isn’t her strip, she’s quickly overpowered by the gang and then hurled off a convenient nearby cliff.

The trio of heroes finally succeeds in capturing the Big Boss, but he’s killed by a stray shot before the adventure concludes. But that seems to wrap everything up nicely, right? Well, you might think so–but this story went on for two more epilogue installments, as we’ll see in the future.