As Kirby’s Bondian opening theme swells out of our speakers for the penultimate time, there’s a real sense that Spider-Noir has fully hit its stride and now shows no sign of stopping. Over the last couple of episodes, the show has been leaning heavily on just how weird it can go, and it even seems that the filmmakers and Nicolas Cage are constantly daring each other to see how extreme they can take an already absurdist concept. But with only episodes 7 & 8 left to go, it’s great to see that no one involved seems to be running out of energy just yet.
In fact, if anything else, the show seems to have taken its little detour into 50s body horror and bounced back into the superhero/noir trail fully invigorated for the finale. As the usual thwippin’ and flippin’ of an expected Spider-Man climax seems to be all but imminent, leave it to Spider-Noir to change things up for the better.
After his run-in with the now-late Dr Faber, Ben Reilly has something of an existential conundrum on his sticky hands. Yes, he spent a couple of days getting carved up by a mad scientist for the greater good, but for his troubles he’s obtained a cure for the metahuman condition that Faber extracted from his organs. However, while he seems to be itching to take the cure himself and ditch the life of the Spider completely, there’s still the issue of Slivermane’s trio of superhuman thugs that the gangster is using in his mounting war against the incumbent Mayor.
However, Ben has chosen to mull over his problem and his recent betrayal by Cat Hardy by getting blind drunk in a dive bar, and after a bunch of roustabouts start badmouthing the Spider in front of him, the boozy private eye pulls on his mask and delivers a sizable ass-whupping. However, once the fight is broken up by Robbie Robertson and some much needed pep talks are had, Reilly realises that while he still has powers, he still has a responsibility to cure the group of Flint, Lonnie and Dirk before their various abilities kill them.
Selecting Lonnie Lincoln first, the Spider and Robbie confront him only to discover that Reilly may have overused his ability to make organic webs during that earlier bar fight. There’s also the fact that Lincoln’s unbreakable skin proves to be too tough for the antidote needle, but after Robbie comes up with a squeam-inducing alternative (think of the worst soft point of the body to stick a syringe), Silvermane’s forces drop down to two.
Realising that the Spider is trying to help, a cured Lonnie helps Robbie to get Reilly away from the scene in order to help him recuperate from the fight. But when both Silvermane and the Mayor discover the tide may be turning, they both put out a call for the man who can get them the answers they so desperately need: Ben Reilly!
As we hurtle towards the finale like a Spider-Man with a blood alcohol level that’ll drop a horse, there’s no big surprise that Spider-Noir is leaning more on the more classic superhero parts of its varied DNA as it starts to wrap things up. However, as always, the show never forgets to ensure that even the most basic, superhero urges it has is utterly riddled with the insanity that’s made the previous six episodes so much fun to watch. For example, a more conservative spider-show might force it’s hero to drop some of those bad habits that’s made the character so fun to hang around with, and then smooth them out in order to make that transition from drunken fuck-up to noble hero; but here, Reilly still chooses to get blind stinking drunk and beat the wiseass out of a bunch of rowdy barflies. It’s weird that such a knockabout action sequence would take place so late in the season, but it proves to get us nicely back on the superhero track before the Spider has to face down Lincoln, but even though the sequence is mostly played for laughs (what can I say, drunk superheroes are funny), it’s still incredibly cool and let’s Cage play around imaginatively with his mask.
This gives Robbie an opportunity to talk him down with some good, old fashioned, sidekick confidence building, which not only gives us more welcome bonding between Ben, Robbie and Karen, but it leads to Spider-Noir’s hands-down funniest moment to date after Reilly lets slip that he’s actually the Spider in front of his faithful secretary. It’s here that both we – and Ben – discover that not only has Karen known for a while, but she walked in on him on numerous occasions as he’s been blackout drunk while exihibting various, obvious clues that he’s the web-swinging hero. Be it the sight of Reilly in his underwear, while wearing his spider-hat & goggles while slurring “I Spider…”, to him crooning at his eye-rolling secretary while hanging from the ceiling by his fingertips, once again the crazed gumbo that is Spider-Man, Film Noir and Nic Cage at his most irreverent scores big.
But from here it’s Spider-Man action at its very finest, and while the battle between the Spider and Tombstone may not have the epic scale of, say, the train fight from Spider-Man 2 (although there’s a sizable nod to it when Ben’s webs crap out), the action sequence realises that aside from shooting webs and dodging debris, what really makes a Spidey setpiece work is a sizable dose of humanity. While Tombstone’s entire raison d’être is to beat on the Spider until he’s a smear in an overcoat, Ben’s whole game plan isn’t to vanquish Lonnie, but to cure him. Sure, having Robbie step in at the last minute and inject him in a vulnerable spot is a bit heavy handed (his fucking eye, Robbie?!), but it shows that even a bitter, washed up, boozy Spider-Man like Reilly still has the empathy of his more colourful peers.
From here, all that’s left is the last minute reshuffling that occurs with any penultimate episode. Both Silvermane and the Mayor both require Ben Reilly’s services, which no doubt will lead to conflict, and after the fight with Lincoln, Ben only has a few vials of the antidote left, which means someone isn’t getting cured out of Ben, Sandman and Megawatt. While we can all probably all guess who that’s going to be, that doesn’t mean I’m not crazy excited to see how this all turns out, and as this only is the first salvo of a Spider-extravaganza that’ll encompass the next twelve months (Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Your Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man season 2 are due this year, Beyond The Spider-Verse next year), it seems like Spider-Man’s tangled web is looking pretty ship-shape thus far.
Delivering a ton of action and laughs while still seamlessly moving it’s various parts to wherever they need to be, Spider-Noir’s penultimate episode still sees the show in robust health. With only a single installment to go, there’s basically no chance whatsoever that all involved will suddenly screw up it’s swing so close to the finish line, but the only real question is will Spider-Noir finish great, or will it finish spectacular?
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