These are my own thoughts, memories, and speculations about the character.

The Face That Nightmare Wears

  The Spider is one of those characters that strikes chords in some readers' minds that resonate decades after they were created, sometimes in ways that the authors never consciously intended. Where did Norvell Page get the idea to have Wentworth adopt The Spider's famous disguise?

Dr. Wentworth and Mr. Spider?

  Norvell Page may have consciously or unconsciously drawn upon a number of popular culture sources and images. The Spider's disturbing vampire vigilante persona brings to mind John Barrymore's Mr. Hyde.  A gaunt, hunch-backed fiend intended to be spidery rather than the usual ape-like concept, this Hyde is genuinely creepy, instead of just beastly. In one great scene after Jekyll has stopped taking the transforming potion, a ghostly giant spider crawls on top of the sleeping doctor, and dissolves into him. Jekyll wakes as Hyde - his soul has been corrupted, and Hyde is becoming the dominant personality.         
One wonders what Wentworth dreams…

  In London After Midnight Lon Chaney plays a police inspector who dons a skin -tautening make-up, fangs, wig, beaver hat, and cloak. Scuttling around hunched over with a frozen grin on his face, Chaney's character is posing as a vampire to uncover a murderer. This modus operandi is quite similar to Wentworth's - although he would substitute a wide- brimmed fedora or a slouch hat for the topper.
  (Interestingly, Wentworth did work with Scotland Yard fairly extensively. One could easily imagine a story in which Wentworth learned of this caper - or perhaps in "reality" he was the Man from Scotland Yard!)