For me, one of the biggest questions that exists concerning modern comic book adaptations isn’t so much the pondering of the existence of superhero fatigue, but agonising over how the Hell Sony managed to tank their Spider-Man universe so badly with endlessly ludicrous ideas. When they weren’t driving the franchise into the ground (twice) thanks to the insistence of ever more villains, they were creatively getting bailed out by the MCU in an increasingly tenuous union, or making entire movies about the web head’s rogues galley without there being any actual wall crawler to oppose them.
The mistakes continued unabated and the studio was constantly mocked for every Morbius, Madame Webb or Kraven The Hunter that were each defeated by the power of tepid box office. However, what was most galling of all is that their salvation was staring them in the face all along in the form of the Spider-Verse movies – a franchise that contained an infinite number of Web Slingers that didn’t require an approving nod from the guys at Marvel Studios. Walloping web-snappers, could it be that we’ve entered a new age of Spider-Man adaptions?
Meet Ben Reilly, a hard-nosed gumshoe operating on and above the grimy streets of New York. “Above?” you say? Well yes, when he isn’t solving crimes on the ground, Reilly soars among the high-rises and skyscrapers of the 1930s Big Apple as the Spider, a crime fighting vigilante who is locked in a battle for supremacy with mobster Finn “Silvermane” Burns. Or at least he was…
That was five years ago and these days Ben has renounced his powers after being unable to save his wife from drowning. He’s still a private detective, but these dates he’s more low rent than high flying as he picks up low paying gigs much to the annoyance of his long suffering (and underpaid) secretary, Janet. Of course, bottom feeding his way through unfaithful spouse jobs keeps him from using those powers he now hates so much, but that doesn’t stop old ally and journalist Robbie Robertson from constantly reminding him that an unopposed Silvermane now has the city in his hands and the police in his pocket.
However, after a case leads to a run-in with a man who has the ability to catch on fire, Ben does everything he can to avoid getting involved, especially when he learns that the guy burnt down Silvermane’s mansion and that the mobster’s goons are looking for him. But, Reilly is so desperate to run from this adventure, he ends up running smack bang into another when the husband of sultry club singer “Cat” Hardy hires him to keep an eye on his allegedly unfaithful wife. But after snapping pictures of her with the Mayor, Ben realises that he’s up to his unmasked neck in crap that only gets worse when Hardy reveals she has a superpowered enforcer of her own: a man partially made of sand named Flint Marko. Forced to take some deeply underused powers out of retirement, Ben Reilly realises that whether he likes it or not, he’s now caught in a web of conspiracy.
While it’s worth mentioning that this isn’t the same Spider-Noir who graced the screen in Spider-Verse (no existential musings on Rubick’s Cubes here, sorry), the fact that the show – exectutive produced by Spider-Verse shot callers Phil Lord and Chris Miller – chooses to keep so much of what made that character so fun intact proves to be some of the best Spider-Man related decisions Sony has made in possibly 15 years. Not only have they retained the services of Nic Cage, who seems to be building quite a superpowered resumé these days, but you even have the option to watch the show in either “True Hue” which gives colours as vibrant as the 60s Batman TV show, or “Authentic Black and White” which offers you the monochromatic look of a John Huston film.
Yes, it seems that a lot of time and care has gone into the production of Spider-Noir, which is made all the more wirthwhile by the fact that it’s incredibly fun and while the relief is palpable that Sony finally seems to “get it”, “Step Into My Office” is only an opening salvo in a season that’ll hopefully go from strength to strength. Regardless which version you choose to watch, the 1930s prohibition vibes proves to be incredibly invigorating as we watch the initially counterintuitive sight of a black-clad, figure swinging through a sunny, New York in an overcoat and fedora. However, I’m not going to lie and say that the whole plot of an aging Ben Reilly hanging up the webs set off a few narrative alarm bells as every superhero and his dog these days have had plots that require them to retire a number of times (even the recent Punisher: One Last Kill started with the titular character in a state of stasis) and it usually feels like a cheap trick to cut costs on superpower effects rather than an actual organic character point.
However, Nicolas Cage has proven us all wrong before and while he initially doesn’t strike you as the right sort of guy to don the webs, he wins us over in pretty short order as he delivers a wonderfully endearing slice of hard-drinking self loathing. Seemingly hinging his entire performance on what you’d get if Humphrey Bogart could do whatever a spider can – and hated every second of it – he gets an incredible amount of mileage in the first episode alone from all the off beat line readings and welcome tics he inserts into his world weary hero. Of course, this first episode is mostly an opportunity to showcase this world of alleyways, hulking muscle and dames with questionable motives and director Harry Bradbeer uses his time spent on other, witty shows like Fleabag and Killing Eve to keep things punchy and moving fast. The dialogue proves to be more hard bitten than a $2 steak and the various character introductions deliver a cast that looks like they’re going to be fun to spend time with. Lamorne Morris give this incarnation of Robbie Robertson more to do in a single episode than the character has had for the entire duration of Spider-movies and Karen Rodriguez’s gutsy, underpaid Janet proves to a good character for Ben to bounce off. It’s also nice that, after months of spending time with the Kingpin thanks to Daredevil: Born Again, another member of the Marvel crime fraternity gets a turn in the spotlight in the form of Brendan Gleeson’s Silvermane and while he gets to flex his villainy with a murder here and some barked orders there, he and the slowly growing community of super powered thugs that are beginning to emerge will have plenty of time to shine in the coming episodes.
While it’s far to early to determine if Ben Reilly’s going to get the most momentum out of his live-action debut swing, we’re certainly off to a good start thanks to superhero tropes running headlong into Film Noir. It’s funny, fast and feels quite unlike anything we’ve seen from a Spider-Man property in a while; but in a year that’s also going to see Spider-Man: Brand New Day and season 2 of Your Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man swooping across screens of various sizes, it could be that Spidey’s noir makeover could pay off in (Sam) Spades.
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