Releasing on Prime Video May 27th, Spider-Noir tells the story of Ben Reilly (Nicolas Cage), an aging and down on his luck private investigator in 1930s New York, who is forced to grapple with his past life as the city’s one and only superhero.
Spider-Noir will be available in both black and white and color.
So, I’ve had a lot of fun with this series from start to finish. The series balances action and drama superbly; the action is amazing, and the comedy is astonishing (okay, I’ll stop with the Spider-Man puns now). But regardless, this show is perfect.
I know over the years that whenever Sony announces a Spider-Man spin-off, people panic because it ends up being subpar. However I am pleased to say that this isn’t the case with ‘Spider-Noir.’
Everyone in the cast is phenomenal. Brendan Gleeson is amazing as the terrifying ‘Silverman.’ Lamorne Morris nails the comedy element of the series as Robbie Robertson, but Nicolas Cage steals the show as Ben Reilly, giving, what I think to be, one of his greatest performances in recent years. He conveys the guilt and pain that Ben has suffered in the series flawlessly, whilst also leaning into the show’s comedy aspects without fail (that the show also nails as a whole).
Speaking of comedy, it works surprisingly well in this series; the jokes always land and are timed perfectly — a few scenes almost made me piss my pants from laughing too hard.
There’s another thing this show smashes out of the ballpark: it isn’t afraid to push boundaries, especially when it comes to swearing and political problems that plagued the 1930s. The body horror is another prominent aspect of the show, so I will warn you that there are some very creepy scenes — a few made my skin crawl and creeped me out. Cool, but creepy.
And now we come down to the question which you are probably thinking about the most: do you watch the show in colour or black & white? My answer is if you have the time, to watch it in both. But if time is an issue then I recommend black & white, because despite scenes in the coloured version being vivid and vibrant, the black & white version offers the true Spider-Noir experience and the feel of the 1950s Noir films which this show is based on (and I mean come on, it’s Spider-Man *Noir* we’re talking about here).
My only problem with this show is that I wish we got more screen time and exploration of Tombstone’s character, but other than that this show is amazing. You should definitely go watch it.
Here’s hoping for a season 2.
I give this show a 9/10
All episodes of Spider-Noir releases on Prime Video May 27
Spider-Man News 