Fabian LaMuerto (Earth-982)

Black Tarantula
Name	Fabian LaMuerto
Current Alias	Black Tarantula
Aliases	Scrier Prime
Affiliation and Relationships
Affiliation	Brotherhood of the Scriers
Relatives	Carlos LaMuerto (father) (deceased); Araña (fiancé)
Marital Status	Engaged
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Male
Eyes	Irises: Brown
Hair	Black
Origin and Living Status
Origin	Human possessing abilities gained through magical rituals and passed on from father to son through one such ritual.
Living Status	Alive
Reality	Earth-982
Personal Information
Identity	Secret
Citizenship	Argentinian
Occupation	Crimelord
Base of Operations	Formerly New York City, New York
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz
First	Spider-Girl #64 (September, 2003)
First	Spider-Girl #64 (September, 2003)

History

Fabian LaMuerto

Fabian LaMuerto was the son of the previous Black Tarantula; his early life was similar to that of his Earth-616 counterpart but at some point he joined with his father and took over his role as an international crimelord. Fabian wears a variation of his father's suit, removing the sleeves and using futuristic metal gauntlets and boot-soles, and possesses the same superhuman powers as his father, he is also trained in hand-to-hand combat and martial arts. At some point in his youth he entered into a romantic relationship with Araña who he felt used by as she manipulated and tried to kill him and was the one who killed his father.

Many originally thought he was responsible for the death of Wilson Fisk. It was proven later to be the crime lord Canis and Fabian then confronted him and was about to do away with him, until Spider-Girl intervened. She talked Fabian out of committing the act, after which he departed.

Later, the Black Tarantula started to show an interest in May's crime fighting career. Spider-Girl made the discovery later though, that her benefactor was working with Lady Octopus to replace Canis as the Kingpin of Crime. Feeling betrayed, she accused him of using her which Fabian denied, stating he was fascinated by her and that he believed they were destined to be friends, if not more. Kaine and his team arrived, buying Lady Octopus time to run, while being pursued by Raptor and Spider-Girl. Black Tarantula easily defeated the combined forces of Kaine, Quickwire and Big Man. He then willing surrendered to Spider-Girl, not wanting to harm her before escaping government custody with no difficulty.

Though a criminal, this Black Tarantula had a deep sense of honor, and he had helped support Spider-Girl's crime-fighting career. He did have a hidden agenda, however--he hoped to win her over as "his mate." He attempted to negotiate with the Brotherhood of the Scriers to call off their hit on Spider-Girl, and when this failed, he challenged their leader Raza to mortal combat for leadership of the Cabal. Victorious, he ordered the hit cancelled.

It is later revealed that the Black Tarantula had become the kingpin of crime in New York City and that he was interested in a mysterious item that Mona Carlo was carrying. Mona, a known con artist, stole a disk from her boyfriend and was planning to sell it. The disk supposedly contained information about Wilson Fisk's operations. Black Tarantula and the Hobgoblin were going to start a war to obtain it. Fortunately, with the help of the bounty hunter Mad-Dog, Spider-Girl obtained the disk and left Mona safely with the police.

Chesbro reported to Black Tarantula about Spider-Girl's interference and Fabian decided to move on, but sent a threat to the Hobgoblin, warning him to "back off" from Spider-Girl and intimating that she was under his protection. When Spider-Girl later involved herself in his affairs in such a way that worried him he allowed her to be targeted by the assassin Deadspot although not without some regret. When Spider-Girl was feared dead he was worried for her safety and rushed to New York to mobilise his forces to search for her, he was displeased with his people for beating her while she weakened and severely beat them in return.

He discovered that the Spider-Girl they had found was possessed by the spirit of Araña who he had a sordid past with, the two fought after she reveled herself with a kiss until the real Spider-Girl won back in possession of her body and proved her identity with a kiss of her own. The two then worked together to find Peter Parker who had been kidnapped by the Order of the Goblin before splitting up so the Tarantula could go after Araña. He quickly found Araña who told him what she had discovered about the imposter Spider-Girl before the two worked together to help Spider-Girl fight her possessed father and clone, Fabian was injured in the fight protecting Araña who he still had feelings for.

He healed himself of his injuries and went to join the fight against the hybrid creature Goblin God. Soon after he was challenged for control of the New York underworld again, this time by Silverback who started a gang war and hired Tombstone to kill Spider-Girl. Fabian was also seen to be engaging in a relationship with Araña although he still believed she would kill him given the chance.

Fabian infiltrated Silverback's home with ease to meet with him about his actions, telling him that he wanted to recruit him as a lieutenant in his organisation and that it beat the alternative of killing him. Silverback responded by later bombing the Tarantula's home which he survived unharmed and rescued Araña and Chesbro from. Silverback continued to target businesses and people linked with the Black Tarantula costing him over a million dollars a day in lost revenue, Araña suggested again that he give up crime but he remarked a gang war could get rid of the deadwood like a forest fire.

Fabian heard that some of his people had been attacked by a Spider-Girl and received a call from the true Spider-Girl shortly after to arrange a meeting which Araña suggested might be a trap but which he agreed to attend, it turned out to be a mediation also involving Captain Ruiz of the NYPD who brought Code: Blue backup, Silverback also heard of the meeting from a mole and sent a squad of assassins to take them all out. The assassins attacked before Ruiz and her team had moved in and Spider-Girl helped the Tarantula to fight them off before the Tarantula escaped feeling betrayed and telling Spider-Girl not to contact him again. Araña continued to try and convince him to leave crime, and in particular New York, behind but he was aware of how to beat Silverback, by telling Punisher that Silverback (whom Punisher had left crippled) was again active in New York thus calling him out of retirement.

Fabian then attacked some of Silverback's men, while the Punisher arranged transport to New york, to send Silverback a message to back off of his operations or he'd be forced to respond in kind, Silverback then had some of the Tarantula's operations firebombed. Silverback learned that the Punisher was in town and had both him and the Black Tarantula targeted personally for assassination, Man Mountain Marko hired Mayhem to carry out the job and the Tarantula fought her after she easily knocked Araña out, although Spider-Girl tried to prevent them from fighting in the first place, the Tarantula was thrown off a balcony in the ensuing scuffle and attached to the side of a building to stop his fall by Spider-Girl's impact webbing.

The Tarantula then took Araña to her temple to heal and informed her he was taking her advice and would hand off control of the New York underworld and return to South America where he planned to marry Araña who accepted his proposal. He then contacted Marko who sold him Silverbacks address in return for his life, the Tarantula stopped Punisher from killing Marko and told him where he could find Silverback and offered to pass the mantle of Kingpin to Marko so he could go home and start a family, Marko agreed and Fabian left New York behind.

Attributes

Powers

Black Tarantula possesses;

• Superhuman Strength enabling him to lift (press) up to 25 tons.
• Superhuman Speed
• Superhuman Agility
• Superhuman Durability
• Healing Factor on par with the likes of Wolverine or Deadpool.
• He is immune to all poisons.
• Able to stimulate the healing process in other people's bodies, though he does this rarely.
• He is able to fire laser-like beams from his eyes which are capable of completely incinerating a human body with one blast and which he can bounce and reflect off of surfaces, but this drains his physical resources severely so it is only used as a last resort.

Abilities

Black Tarantula is a master of many different forms of martial arts, some of which he learned from the Hand and has a genius level intellect.

See Also

• 39 appearance(s) of Fabian LaMuerto (Earth-982)
• 1 minor appearance(s) of Fabian LaMuerto (Earth-982)
• 1 mention(s) of Fabian LaMuerto (Earth-982)
• 12 image(s) of Fabian LaMuerto (Earth-982)

Links and References

• Fabian LaMuerto on Wikipedia.org