As the adventures of Spider-Noir weave entertainingly back and forth between superhero slug fests and noirish brooding, we find the show hitting its midway point on something of a thoughtful mood. If episode one introduced us to this wacky mash-up of genres, and the second gave us a full dose of two-fisted, 30s style heroics with a Marvel twist, the third went deeper into those film noir stylings as Ben Reilly used his spider-sense to dance between those criminal rain drops. But with episode 4, we discover that, with an awful lot of cards on the table, it’s time to settle into a contemplative mood to hear a couple of typically tragic backstories to set the scene.
But not to worry, this steaming serving of pathos comes with a side-order of superheroics, as yet another super powered heavy arrives on the scene to literally shock some action into our rumbled protagonist. Oh, and speaking of shocks…
It turns out that the other bullet Silvermane fired at the end of the previous episode was for Gio – the compatriot of the recently slain Winston – so both Ben Reilly and Cat Hardy live to fight another day even though it’s Cat who has been trying so hard to take Silvermane out. While the pair mull over their brush with death, they share tragic backstories to both explain themselves better and Cat’s motive for tipping off police and hiring a fire-flinging assassin is because not only is she utterly under the mobster’s thumb, he also had a lover of hers murdered after he proposed. In response, Ben tells the equally traumatic tale of the murder of his beloved Ruby (leaving out the bits where he’s the Spider, of course), but as the two bond, they’re spotted by Cat’s current lover, the superpowered Flint Marko, who in a fit of jealousy, goes back to work for Silvermane.
Using his Sandman powers to help intimidate a Mayor who has slipped his leash and is trying to end prohibition, Silvermane isn’t about to let anyone think he’s gone soft in his old age. But while he gets what he wants from one metahuman, Robbie Robertson and Janet the secretary end up getting what they need from another. Coaxing out an origin story of sorts from fellow metahuman Lonnie Lincoln, we start to get a feel for why there’s suddenly such an explosion of super people in New York and it has something to do with WWI.
As if to prove this point, when Ben takes up the mantle of the Spider to tackle what he thinks is a rampaging Marko, he’s confronted by a completely new metahuman in the form of the bank robbing, electricity flinging Dirk Leyden. But after a hard fought victory that unwittingly announces the official return of the Spider back to the world of crime fighting, it seems that Cat has finally figured out Ben’s secret. After all, what self-respecting Spider-Man can resist a falling damsel?
“A Mistake I’ll Never Make Again” finds Spider-Noir in something of a reflective mood as it temporarily presses pause on both of the more extreme ends of its genre leanings in order to spend more intimate time with our leads. The main thrust of the episode sees Li Jun Li’s Cat Hardy finally confessing her motives after we discovered that it was she who unsuccesfully sicced Addison onto Silvermane and she was also responsible for the tip off that nearly got the crime boss nabbed by the cops. As Ben listens intently within the run down theatre where Silvermane first discovered Cat singing, she relates the sad story of exactly how controlling and vicious the mobster can be. Suffocating while in the clutches of this power trip, it’s no wonder the lounge singer had to resort to such extreme measures in order to feel free again. However, while she give Ben the full force of her sob story, it ironically drives the latest man in her life – the malfunctioning metahuman Flint Marko – back into the arms of his former boss which is exactly the opposite reaction Cat has been fighting for.
While she’s been a major part of the show from the start, Li Jun Li really gets to stretch her legs in this episode as her character not only pours her heart out to Reilly, but has to defend her actions face to face with the volatile Silvermane himself. Speaking of Silvermane, it’s actually getting to be quite fun to watch the growing relationship between Reilly and his nemesis now that the P.I. as inadvertently ended up within the gangster’s very narrow trust circle and even ends up getting reluctantly drunk with him in his club which leads to some classic, Nic Cage gurning.
In an attempt to prove that he isn’t being corrupted by his new “friend”, Ben offers up a bit of quid pro quo to the lounge singer and gives us a more detailed account of the great loss that ultimately led to him giving up on the Spider. I’m guessing that the death of Ruby is Ben Reilly’s Ben Reilly moment (aka. Uncle Ben) and the fact she was murdered by an ex to truly hurt him results in the interesting quirk of a powerful death stopping someone from being a Spider-Man, rather than inspiring it.
Of course, all this soul searching doesn’t mean that Spider-Noir has forgotten that it’s a superhero show and with the introduction of the electricity storing Megawatt (not Electro as some have surmised, but it’s close enough) we get yet another spider brawl. While not as expansive and flashy as the setpiece from episode 2 (despite there being plenty actual flashes) and often veering into the sort of camp usually reserved for the Adam West Batman show, it’s still a Hell of a lot of fun seeing the Spider in full get-up go toe to toe with an untouchable foe and use his smarts to take him down. It’s classic Spider-Man stuff with that cheeky noir twist, but it’s not the only famous aspect of the character that gets a Spider-Noir tweak.
At the end of the episode, Cat seems to have put it all together and figured out that Ben Reilly is the Spider, but while the way she chooses to smoke out the truth may seem absurdly melodramatic (hurling youself out of a window is something of a risk no matter which way you slice it), it grafts two very famous comic book elements into one memorable whole. For example, if you’ve not used your webs to save a falling woman, are you even a real Spider-Man? But while the image of Spidey snatching someone from the jaws of death is pretty on brand, the whole act of forcing a hero to reveal themselves by putting themselves in mortal danger is something right out of the Lois Lane Superman II playbook. Better yet, it works, but could it be that that the world of film noir is seeking to usurp the superhero stuff? In the world of spandex and capes, this is usually a sign of virtue in women, but in the world of gumshoes and duplicitous femme fatales, could this mean that a double cross is in the horizon?
As Spider-Noir reaches the middle of its eight episode swing, we find that the dual genre approach to web-related crime fighting is still going strong. All the pieces are lining up nicely and everyone is obviously having a whale of a time trying to make this kooky concoction work, so heres hoping that that the show keeps enthusiastically operating in shades of grey – even if you’re watching it in colour…
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