[@KatherinWinter]

I should begin by saying that none of Arachne's powers are based off any particular hero, at least none that I know of. I would dare say that everything about her is original, though more than likely I've inadvertently cribbed the style of other heroes that I just don't know about. So without further ado, in the order given:

1. Essentially, Arachne gained her powers from a sort of quasi-cosmic force that is similar to the Greek Gods. In this instance, her powers were a "curse" from this force, since she challenged them by not leaving the forest when they were near (It's where the storm came from). The power doesn't quite come from the masks, so much as the masks gives the curse inside of her a sort of focus. It has to be a white, round mask with three black dots because it's actually suppose to be a skull, or at least the upper portion. A simple white mask with three dots is just easier for Arachne to get her hands on, and it's good enough for the Black Beast to awaken.

2. While Black Blob is certainly accurate, Black Beast was chosen because it's more fearsome. Calling it "The Black Blob" makes it sound like some sort of cheesy sci-fi monster you'd expect to beat with an Aesop about recycling. Black Beast at least makes it sound like the sort of thing you'd expect to be going around eating livestock and occasionally people.

3. As I said above, the mask is symbolic for a skull, because the Black Beast wants a face. It has a rather... Peculiar idea of what a face is, since as far as the Black Beast knows, the flesh and skin that you'd call a face is just a mask to a skull, which the Black Beast feels drawn towards.

4. I never really intended for the similarities, and as I said, I'm not basing Arachne off any particular superhero or villain. I suppose you could say she has similar origins to the [url=http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Blue_Beetle_Scarab]Blue Beetle Scarab[/url], though again Arachne is more pseudo magic than alien science.

5. The beast didn't choose Arachne, it's a curse. The beast is actually a sort of manifestation of Arachne's own "hunger", in this instance, a hunger to be more than human. Arachne wanted to be special It is of course a double-edge sword: now she is special, because she has a ravenous monster inside of her that hungers for what she wants, as well as developing it's own personality to give itself desires of it's own.

6. Technically speaking the mask is a weakness because when you destroy the mask, the Black Beast goes back inside of Arachne and she gets forced out. And Arachne isn't exactly Batman level of tough. I guess you could say that Arachne is the Black Beast's weakness, since killing Arachne would effectively kill the Black Beast too. And yes, Arachne can just use any mask to summon the Black Beast, but if you destroy the mask after it's summoned the Black Beast goes away. Additionally, the Black Beast can't make the mask any tougher than what it's already made of. So yeah, while Arachne could just make a paper mask to summon the Black Beast whenever she needs too, that also means the mask is about as tough as paper, so anything from being hosed down or a hot summer's day could damage the mask and banish the Black Beast.

7. Right, so as I was saying the hunger that the Black Beast craves for represents Arachne's own desires. See, Arachne is a chill person, but she lacks the drive to achieve her dreams or goals. She just kinda lays back and let's things happen, picking up whatever is good whenever it comes pass. She wants to do more, achieve greatness, but simply lacks the motivation. The Hunger is suppose to change that. Right now the Black Beast is still young, juvenile, and doesn't quite know what it's doing. It wants to eat meat, and Arachne has to feed it meat to satisfy it. The reason it wants meat right now because deep inside Arachne wants to become [i]human[/i] again, and the Black Beast (Who remember is still pretty young and stupid) thinks that humans are meat. 

As Arachne refines her powers the Black Beast will also gravitate towards this hidden desire in Arachne. Eventually just eating meat won't be enough and the Black Beast would want to eat the flesh of humans, because it thinks that by eating humans it will be human, which is what Arachne wants. When that time comes, Arachne needs to make a decision: Either she gives into her hunger and becomes a monster who desires to be human, and thus eats human, or accept this curse she's been given and that she'll never be a normal human again. The latter will allow her to no longer need to feed off humans and have a better control over the Black Beast since Arachne is now willing to be the Black Beast, instead of trying to be something different.

Now mind you, Arachne isn't aware of the Beast's true nature or even where it came from. After all, she's at the academy to figure this out. As far as she knows the Black Beast is just some sort of monster inside of her that she can summon when she wears round white masks with three black holes on it, and if she doesn't feed it regularly it'll take over her body. Part of her character development is not just learning more about the Black Beast and controlling it, but for Arachne to have more control over her own life instead of just lazying about and letting life do whatever it wants with her.