Lord Spider

Lord Spider was one of the many recurring villains in the Austrian TV-show Die heiße Spur, and even appeared in it after it's name was changed into Tom Turbo.

Die Heiße Spur
"Professor Limosh: Congratulations. You just drank the spider juice you wanted to give me. Brutus: What?"

- Brutus' reaction mere seconds before transforming (translated) Originally, Brutus was the assistant of a scientist called Professor Limosh, who created new juices. Brutus was a very lazy and uncaring assistant who didn't care much about doing his job right, but he was jealous of Limosh, which often led him to attempts of ruining the work of his boss. On one occassion, he threw a spider into a juice that was supposed to give super strength. However, Limosh had observed that and tricked Brutus into drinking it himself, which turned him into Lord Spider. Lord Spider began a criminal career and built his own fortress. As Limosh was the only person who knew his origin as well as the only way to take his powers away, Lord Spider included a dungeon in which he trapped his former boss.

First encounter with Tom
During his crime spree, he soon caught the attention of the show'smain protagonists, Tom Turbo, a talking bike, and his boss, Thomas. They claimed to keep an eye on some valuable jewels, which were actually fake and included a tracking device. When Lord Spider stole the jewels, Tom followed him to his fortress, but Lord Spider trapped him in his dungeon. There, Tom met Professor Limosh, who told him Lord Spider's origin as well as the secret to end his power: If Tom added something that belonged to Brutus to the spider juice and made Lord Spider drink it, he would turn back to his original self. After Tom managed to escape and enter the lab, Lord Spider followed him and caught him in a web to stop him. However, Tom managed to break free and add Brutus' glasses to the juice. When he spattered it into his mouth, the villain returned to his human form, crying out in anger as he couldn't accept to be Brutus again.

Return
"Here it is! The juice that will give me back the power and strength of Lord Spider!"

- Brutus when finding the juice in the safe (translated) At some later point, Brutus learned that Tom and Thomas found the last bit of the spider juice. Planning to regain his old powers, Brutus created a juice similiar to the spider juice that turned him into a giant grasshopper. Brutus also oranized the creation of various doppelgängers of Tom in order to incriminate him. He used his hopper powers to jump into Thomas' office where the juice was kept hidden. He turned himself back into Brutus in front of Thomas before using the hopper juice, which he kept in a spray can, to turn Thomas into a hopper when he tried to stop him. He then finally took the juice out of Thomas' safe, kissing and harassing it before turning into Lord Spider again. When leaving the office, he was confronted by Tom, who had been able to reprogram his doppelgängers, but Lord Spider was able to destroy them via remote control. He was then distracted by the transformed Thomas until Tom was able to retrieve the spray can to turn his boss back into a human. However, Lord Spider was able to escape.

Revenge
Lord Spider later offered the other villains to get rid of Tom Turbo and Thomas once and for all by using a special buttton, but he demanded ten millions in advance. After Tom and Thomas learned of that plan, Tom followed the gathering villains and finally confronted Lord Spider when the money was delivered. Tom wondered why Lord Spider didn't just use the button, and when Lord Spider didn't do anything, he pressed the button himself, revealing that Lord Spider had been bluffing to get the money from the other villains. Tom then left the fortress, leaving Lord Spider angry at him for ruining his plan and the other villains for Tom still being there.

Mixing a new juice
After the show has been renamed into Tom Turbo, Lord Spider returned in one of the earlier episodes where he teamed up with one of the most recurring villains of the show, Dr. Gruselglatz, in order to upgrade the spider juice by adding stolen hairs of various animals as well as various chemicals for which he stole the money first. However, when Tom learned of their plan, he added goat hairs, resulting in Dr. Gruselglatz turning into a humanoid goat when he drank the juice. Meanwhile, Lord Spider had been tricked by Tom, who put a pair on enlarging glasses on Lord Spider's face, to chase after a pony as Lord Spider still needed hairs of a racing horse. After he realized he had been tricked, he took of the glasses and chased after Tom via web-slinging, but eventually got knocked out when hitting a tree.

Bank robbery
He later made one final return in one episode where sent his henchman, Mister Fly, to steal a device that could desintegrate metal as well as shrinking it. With this device, he planned to rob the local bank. Tom witnessed Mister Fly stealing the device and followed him to Lord Spider's fortress, but he got captured. Thomas, on the other hand, learned of Lord Spider's plan when a banker told him about a mysterious man who had been staring at the safe for a while (Lord Spider in disguise). Lord Spider and Mister Fly later entered the bank when Thomas was busy trying to convince the manager, who didn't believe one word his employee said, and captured all three of them before using the device to shrink/dissolve the safe's doors. However, after Tom freed himself and arrived at the bank, tricked the sweets-addicted Mister Fly into following him into the office room where he tied him up. When Lord Spider noticed that, he tried to catch Tom in a web, but Tom used one of tricks to blow a strong winnd, resulting in Lord Spider being caught by his own web.

Notably, Lord Spider's appearance had been completely changed in this episode: Whilst he was looking like a green-black version of Spider-Man in the previous episode, this one featured him showing his face which spotted web-like make-up and yellow teeth, and his costume was now consisting of a green costume with a black web on his upper body, green underpants and a black cape with a green web on it.

Powers/Abilities
Due to the spider he dropped in the juice, Lord Spider obtained arachnoid powers, like climbing on walls or shooting webs, which he also used to trap his enemies. He was even able to fly by swinging a web as a propeller above his head. As the juice was originally supposed to give super strength, it's possible that he obtained that, too, although his strength has never been shown.

Despite being rather uncaring about his work for Limosh, Brutus seemed to have gained at least a bit of chemical knowledge during that time as he was able to create a similiar juice that could turn him into a giant hopper. However he wasn't satisfied with that and preferred to use his new appearance and power to steal the spider juice and become Lord Spider once more.

Personality
Not much can be said about Lord Spider's personality other than that, when he was Brutus, he was rather uncaring and uninterested in the work of his boss, like he didn't care much about bringing him the wrong ingredient, but he was also jealous of his success, reacting ignorant when Limosh told him that to him, fun was more important than money. When drinking the spider juice, Brutus even asked him why Limosh was so good while he wasn't.

However, when becoming Lord Spider, he was extremely arrogant, claiming to be invincible and able to rule the world if he drank a few more drops of the juice. When he was turned back into Brutus, his first reaction was an angry scream as he couldn't bear being Brutus again. Despite being able to create a juice that turned him into a giant hopper, he wasn't satisfied with that and still wanted to become Lord Spider again as his Alter Ego was far more powerful.

Trivia

 * Despite his few appearances in the show, he's considered to be one of the show's most powerful villains. For example, in the episode where some of the greatest villains gather to muster the payment for him using the button, none of them actually dares to enter his fortress, claiming that Lord Spider is more powerful than all of them combined.