Caught in the Widow's Web! was the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth overall story published in DC Comics' Batman '66 title. The story was initially published in Digital Issues #41 and #42, and reprinted in Print Issue #15, with a further reprint in Volume 3 of the Compiled Volume series.
Plot Summary[]
"Caught in the Widow's Web!"[]
The Penguin joins forces with the Black Widow on a new crime spree, reaping millions from conventional robbery as well as sabotage assignments for various power-brokers around the world. One particularly gruesome assignment - which leaves a prominent clean-energy expert practically brain-dead - tips their identities to Batman and Robin, who quickly trace the Black Widow's hideout to an abandoned armory on Gotham's outskirts.
Having anticipated the Dynamic Duo, the Black Widow easily traps them in a massive spiderweb - the fruit of her latest experiments in mass-producing spider silk (for arms interests). With these experiments have come a number of failed breakdown agents, useless on the silk but highly effective for dissolving humans; smugly, she orders a barrelful poured onto the helpless heroes.
To Black Widow's annoyance, however, the dissolvent is too thick to move at anything but a crawl. Impatient, she returns to her other operations and leaves Penguin to oversee the Dynamic Duo's deaths. Batman uses this opening to exploit Penguin's distrust of his new "partner" - who is, after all, styled after an animal that destroys mates it deems no longer useful. Forced to acknowledge that Batman's death will end his own usefulness, Penguin uses a special anti-adhesive to free the Dynamic Duo, on the condition they help him escape.
Upon discovering this uneasy alliance, the Black Widow gleefully unleashes the source of her silk - Lulah, a man-eating spider the size of a tank. Undaunted, Batman and Robin charge into the fray, while Penguin continues spraying the anti-adhesive along Lulah's web. In time, the entire web collapses, plunging Lulah many floors below. Meanwhile, the desperate Black Widow grabs at a small umbrella offered by the Penguin, only for it to come apart in her hands - a "personal" revenge from her would-be victim.
Fortunately, the Black Widow is caught and swung to safety by Batman, who reaffirms his dedication to all life - no matter how violent or treacherous. As always, his idealism meets nothing but incredulity and scorn from the arch-criminals - even as a tear quietly trickles down the Black Widow's face.
Trivia[]
- Black Widow's giant spider Lulah is named after Tallulah Bankhead, the actress who portrayed the Black Widow on the original Batman television series.