My hopes were high for the new Prime Video superhero series Spider-Noir, based on all those amazing trailers. But I also had some trepidation. Could the actual series live up to the hype?
As it turns out, it could. Spider-Noir is a triumph, fusing fast-paced storytelling, compelling characters, gorgeous cinematography and production design, and whip-smart dialogue into a hugely entertaining, loving homage to a magical bygone era.
(Some spoilers below, but no major reveals.)
Marvel Comics created its “noir” line in 2009, reinterpreting familiar Marvel characters in an alternate universe, usually set during the Great Depression in the US. A version of the Spider-Noir character, voiced by Nicolas Cage, briefly appeared in the animated masterpieces, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) and Across the Spider-Verse (2023). (He is set to reprise that role in the upcoming Beyond the Spider-Verse.) Cage’s portrayal was so compelling that we now have an entire series built around it.
Co-showrunner (with Steve Lightfoot) Oren Uziel is a film noir fan, so that Marvel series naturally appealed to him. The live-action series is still set in 1930s Depression-era New York, but the spidery superhero is not Peter Parker. Uziel thought the Parker character was too closely associated with a boyish high school type, which didn’t really fit the noir vibe. So Cage is playing Ben Reilly, a hard-boiled PI with a secret superhero identity, The Spider.
