Jerry Siegel's second serial for the Spider saw another flamboyant super-villain in the form of the Android Emperor, who looked like a mad knight, but was actually a mechanical genius, capable of rapidly building all manner of versatile and powerful robots.

As well as being reprinted in the early 1970s in Lion itself, the story also began a reprint run in Fleetway's classic fantasy anthology Vulcan. However, at the time it started, the title was only being published in Scotland. When the decision was made to switch it to national publication from the 27th September 1975 edition, "The Spider v. The Android Emperor" was heavily edited (along with other stories) so that the nation-wide Vulcan could start its' serials from their respective first episodes (in the Spider's case, "The Spider and the Exterminator").

All I've read of this story is the second and third instalments, found on a filesharing network. These act more as a prelude to the main story as the Spider's activities cause him to tangle with one of the Android Emperor's creations, and end before the introduction of the Emperor himself (possibly right before, though I'm not going to guess and make a fool of myself). Many thanks and full credit to whoever scanned the issues of Lion they came from in the first place; seeing as Titan can't be bothered to do a follow-up to King of Crooks and didn't bother keeping the original artwork in the first place, it's only through the efforts of people like this that we get to read these gems. If anyone has any additional parts of the story and wants to add them to the archive, or even just more information, please contact me.