Amateur criminologist Richard Wentworth, once the notorious masked vigilante The Spider, brings his former alter ego out of retirement to help his old friend, police commissioner Kirk, battle a dangerous, power-hungry maniac called the Gargoyle.

[1] This mysterious crimelord and his henchmen threaten the world with acts of sabotage and wholesale murder in an effort to wreck the national security of the United States.

Besides his frequent appearances in the Spider costume, Wentworth also masquerades as affable lowlife Blinky McQuade, who is friendly with underworld characters and can get inside knowledge of the Gargoyle's plans.

In The Spider Returns, The Gargoyle wears robes which would not look out of place being worn by Flash Gordon's longtime nemesis Ming the Merciless.

Horne keeps the action fairly straight until the last chapter, when he inserts some obvious humor (two henchmen, exhausted from their fistfight, haphazardly swing at each other and then collapse).

The trade reporters apparently hadn't seen The Spider's Web and their reviews did not draw any comparisons, but they seemed to accept Horne's flamboyant approach as standard, exaggerated juvenile action.