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Fighting: |
Ex |
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Agility: |
Rm |
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Strength: |
Ex |
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Endurance: |
Rm |
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Reason: |
Ty |
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Intuition: |
Gd |
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Psyche: |
Gd |
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Health: |
100 |
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Karma: |
26 |
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Resources: |
Gd |
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Popularity: |
-6 (4) |
Real Name: (I) Anton Miguel Rodriguez; (II) Unrevealed
Occupation: (I) Revolutionary, terrorist, later government operative, later professional criminal; (II) Government operative
Legal Status: (I) Citizen of an unidentified South American country with an international crime record; (II) Citizen of an unidentified South American country with no criminal record there, deported from the U.S. as an illegal alien
Identity: (I) Publicly known; (II) Secret but known to government authorities
Place of Birth: (I & II) An unidentified South American country
Marital Status: (I & II) Unrevealed, presumed single
Known Relatives: (I & II) None
Base of Operations: (I) An unnamed South American country, later New York City and Miami Beach; (II) An unnamed South American country
Past Group Affiliations: (I) Former ally of Lightmaster, Kraven the Hunter, the Jackal, Senor Suerte II, and the Brand Corporation; (II) Agent of his country, temporary ally of Captain America (John Walker)
Known Powers:
Spiked Apparel: Both Tarantulas wore boots equipped with retractable spikes made of Excellent strength material that could do Excellent Edged damage. The first Tarantula also wore gloves equipped with retractable blades of the same material. The blades and point were anointed with poison which was injected when the spike did damage. The poison required the victim to make a Yellow Endurance FEAT roll or be at -3CS on all physical activities for 1-10 rounds. A second dose would require an additional Yellow Endurance FEAT roll or the victim would have to roll on the "Kill?" table. Although it was not common, either Tarantula could increase the dose so that both effects would take place in a single dose instead of two.
Mutated Form: During the period when the original Tarantula was mutated into a giant spider, he possessed the following abilities:
| F | A | S | E | R | I | P |
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Ex |
Rm |
In |
Am |
Fe |
Ty |
Ty |
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Health: 140 |
Karma: 14 |
Talents:
Tarantulas I and II both had a + 1CS to hit with their edged weapons, Martial Arts B & E, and Acrobatics. Both were soldiers and had the Military talent as well.
Contacts:
Tarantula I had been an ally of Lightmaster, Kraven the Hunter, Senor Suerte II, and the Brand Corporation. He had a number of criminal connections in both the Miami Beach and New York City underworld. Tarantula II was a fully-recognized operative of his government and could call upon soldiers from that country to aid him. He was temporarily able to call upon the aid of sympathetic U.S. government officials, but these connections were later revealed and the government forbade any further aid to Tarantula or his country's government.
Role-Playing Notes:
Tarantula I was a ruthless mercenary whose revolutionary fervor and later conversion to government service were a slim excuse for his own excessively violent tendencies. He was extremely bloody and a true mercenary. Tarantula II's first loyalty is to his government, but he still enjoys violence and will go to great lengths to avenge any defeat.
History:
Anton Miguel Rodriguez was a member of a small revolutionary band that opposed the dictatorship of an unidentified South American country. Rodriguez and his associates were terrorists who blew up supply trains, kidnapped politicians and held them for ransom, and then killed them if the ransom was not paid. Rodriguez was particularly bloodthirsty, however, and his fellow revolutionaries expelled him from their organization shortly after he murdered a guard without cause during a robbery.
Rodriguez then went over to the other side and joined the army of the repressive dictatorship. The government created the costumed identity of the Tarantula for Rodriguez, intending him to serve as their country's counterpart to the United States' Captain America. The Tarantula was sent to hunt down his former revolutionary comrades, a mission that gave him great pleasure.
But the Tarantula could still not restrain his love of violence and killing. During the interrogation of a captured evolutionary, he murdered a guard who would not let him beat the prisoner as much as he wanted. As a result, the Tarantula was forced to flee the country.
After a series of unrevealed exploits, the Tarantula arrived in New York City and began familiarizing himself with the city's criminal underworld. He hired accomplices and hijacked a dayliner tour boat on the Hudson River to rob the passengers and hold them for ransom. The costumed crime-fighters known as Spider-Man and the Punisher disrupted the Tarantula's plan, and the Tarantula and his accomplices escaped. Subsequently, the Punisher defeated the Tarantula's accomplices, and Spider-Man captured the Tarantula himself.
Somehow regaining his freedom once more, Rodriguez kept a low profile in the Miami beach area and engaged in smuggling activities. He was finally hired by a representative of the Brand Corporation, a subsidiary of Roxxon Oil, to silence an informer known as "Nose" Norton. Again the Tarantula clashed with Spider-Man and failed in his assignment.
Then, however, Brand representatives offered to bestow superhuman powers similar to Spider-Man's upon the Tarantula if he would use them to kill Spider-Man. The Tarantula agreed, went to Brand's laboratories in Queens, New York, was injected with a mutagenic serum, and was placed in an electrolyte bath while wearing a life support harness.
During the procedure, Will o' the Wisp, who held Brand responsible for his own transformation into an inhuman creature, began wreaking havoc on the machinery in the laboratory, causing power discharges that radically affected the ongoing mutagenic process that the Tarantula was undergoing. As a result, the Tarantula transformed into an eight- limbed being that resembled a humanoid spider, possessing superhuman strength. Spider-Man himself, who had arrived on the scene, and Will o' the Wisp both battled the transformed Tarantula, and the latter two fell into Jamaica Bay, although they survived the plunge. Tarantula continued to mutate and finally, he and Spider-Man met in battle atop a New York City building. By now the Tarantula looked like an enormous spider with no trace of human appearance at all. His mind was becoming increasingly primitive and he could only speak in broken phrases. Horrified at what he had become, and seeing policemen amassed on the sidewalk and street below, the Tarantula committed suicide by hurling himself from the roof the building. He was dead from police gunfire before he landed on the street below.
Several months later the same government that had originally employed Rodriguez recruited a second, unidentified man to become the Tarantula, injecting him with drugs that gave him enhanced fighting abilities and strength. The new Tarantula traveled to the United States to kill those who fled the regime. Tarantula killed Armando Ruiz, an employee at The Daily Bugle, then proceeded to hunt down other refugees. It was revealed that a man called South and assorted allies in other intelligence agencies were supporting Tarantula's government and providing him with aid in the U.S. The new Captain America, John Walker, was assigned to work with Tarantula.
Tarantula and Captain America tracked down Spider-Man and Tarantula engaged the hero in combat. Spider-Man was able to defeat Tarantula and Walker refused to intervene. Tarantula was deported to his native country while Walker revealed to his own superiors that South had been working without authorization to back the South American country. The Tarantula is presumably still active in his native country, quashing dissent.