My best friend,
Matt, studies spiders. He specializes in a common but unique spider called the jumping spider (genus
salticidae for you science nerds). He's taught me a lot about this cute little oddball of the arachnid world.
They have style.
When I say cute, I mean it. They're adorable.
Yes those big black things are its real eyes. It sports 6 additional, smaller eyes as well. Their vision is unusually keen for arachnids, and I'm pretty sure it makes them better artists. Just look at their fashion sense:
You don't see that kind of pizazz pulled off very often.
They have honor.
Rather than being gutless sissies that set traps (typical spiders) the jumping spider is a noble warrior that hunts down his prey honorably, and then -- you guessed it -- jumps on them! A dual to the death commences, just like a lion and its prey.
They have strength.
One of the chief characteristics of the jumping spider is his tiny size -barely the size of your fingernail (and that's the big ones). And yet packed in him is remarkable speed, agility, and strength. They set a high standard for their counterparts to compete with.
To sum it up:
In a world full of trap-setting, blood-sucking assassins, jumping spiders are the little guys that fight fair and pack a lot of punch.
As a new addition to the comic book industry, we kind of identified with that.
You see? Not all spiders are gross.
