Eric Needham was a small time crook who was addicted to heroin. Eric was first sentenced to prison after mugging and nearly killing an elderly woman but, as a minor, he was out in three years. Over the next twenty-four months, Eric married his friend Linda Morrel and they had a son, Michael. Desperate for money to buy more drugs, Needham continued to steal to support his habit, culminating in a fateful liquor store robbery. Gunning down a customer who’d lunged for him, Eric realized far too late that he’d just murdered his own father. After being arrested, he kicked the habit out of remorse and began a vigilante war on the drug trade.

Donning a costume, he became a self-styled vigilante and began killing those suspected of dealing drugs. Months later, Gotham’s drug dealers found themselves marked for death by Needham. At the site of the second killing, Batman confronted the sniper and was stunned to hear the man in the dark purple body-suit declare that “I’ve been trying to emulate you, Batman, to do as you do — bring scum to permanent justice –justice without recourse! …. The drug-dealers — the superflies — are the dregs of the Earth — and what better man to catch and kill a superfly — than a Black Spider?” This soon brought him into conflict with Batman. Needham believed that the two should be allies, as he saw common purpose in their war against criminals. His murderous methods however continually put him at odds with the Dark Knight.

Batman again failed to stop the rampage at the Gotham International Airport. Here, the Black Spider displayed the latest addition to his arsenal, a gun mounted on the top of his wrist that fired a deadly “sting” at his targets.

The conflict came to a head atop a speeding commuter train, where the Spider, whose background had finally been unearthed by the Dark Knight, was attempting to bomb the car carrying another dealer: “That motorman’s gotta die, and if some punk commuters gotta die, too — that’s TOUGH!” A lurch of the train sent the Black Spider and his bomb flying from the car. Needham was presumed dead when the bomb was detonated. (Detective Comics #463-464)

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