He is a sarcastic, drug-addicted, foul-mouthed, troubled, bitter, but brilliant gonzo journalist with a deep-seated hatred of authority, political corruption, and dogs.
Spider is almost always drawn wearing a set of stereoscopic sunglasses with one lens red and the other green, and he is most often compared to the real-life figure Hunter S.
Spider is a renegade gonzo journalist forced to return to the City after having exhausted a substantial advance from a publisher without completing the books required by contract.
After five years of effective retirement as a long-haired hermit at a compound in the mountains, he returns to the City to complete his books, takes up work for an urban newspaper to support his writing, and finds himself battling political corruption at the highest level.
In addition, Spider's talents earn him unwanted fame and adoration, which clouds his ability to "get at The Truth", often resulting in him experiencing writer's block and depression.
Although he opposed The Beast, Spider is not loyal to any political party or organization, and his initial support of The Smiler was tinged with contempt at his cynical attitude and false altruism.
It is also revealed in issue #38 that he has killed sixteen people, all but one in self-defence; he never specifies how or why (although it could be inferred that he means Vita Severn, as Spider feels responsible for her death).
His body is covered with black tattoos, combining geometric tribal designs and other more Western images (his right buttock is marked "kiss here"), including a small spider on his upper forehead.
He also wears a pair of 'live-shades', sunglasses with built-in still-photography capabilities; the right lens is green and rectangular, whilst the left one is red and circular (the AI that created them was on drugs at the time).
This appearance, and the comic's futuristic setting, has made Spider Jerusalem a cult (albeit fictional) character among rivet heads, in a similar manner to Tank Girl.
Hunter S. Thompson is perhaps the most obvious inspiration for the character of Spider Jerusalem, and the fictional reporter's fondness for weaponry and spectacular consumption of drugs both indicate a resemblance toward the American gonzo journalist.
[4][5] One of Ellis's other titles, Planetary, features a character in its seventh issue named Jack Carter, who is a thinly-veiled pastiche of John Constantine, being essentially identical in appearance, role, abilities and diction.
The issue is essentially a retrospective commentary on the genre of grim, British-penned comics of the anti-Thatcherite 1980s milieu, of which the Carter character is positioned as the apotheosis.
Having faked his own death, Carter reappears in a dramatically altered form with a shaved head and long black coat which he later opens to reveal a bare chest featuring identical tattoos to Spider Jerusalem.
Lacking only the spider tattoo on the head and the trademark shades, this former Constantine-cipher has become the spitting image of Jerusalem and departs with the words: "The Eighties are long over.