There’s something about Nicholas Cage that makes him the perfect lead for a noir. His hangdog face calls back to Humphrey Bogart – as does his ability to turn that frown upside down at the right moment to show us that he’s got just enough game to pull a gorgeous dame (while still mourning the loss of the love of his life, of course). But you wouldn’t necessarily think of Cage in terms of a superhero like Spider-Man (or, in Spider-Noir, The Spider). There was that one attempt to play Superman back in the 90s (check out the messy The Flash movie if you want to see that dream of Cage’s come to fruition, albeit only for a moment), but Cage as a superhero just doesn’t compute in my mind.
Which is why I was so impressed that so much of Spider-Noir, the new Prime series that takes Cage’s Spiderman variant as seen in animated form in the Spiderverse films and turns him into flesh-and-blood, worked for me. Including the superhero moments (which one assumes didn’t have Cage under the Spidey suit). The series isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel here, which is one of its greatest strengths. It’s telling us, first and foremost, a noir story. There’s a local gangster, Silvermane (Brendan Gleeson, clearly having a blast), who runs the town. There’s a local reporter, Robbie Robertson (Lamorne Morris), trying to get to the bottom of the gangland activity – and discover the reason so many super powered individuals seem to be appearing while The Spider is conspicuously absent. There’s a femme fatale who sings in a nightclub, Cat Hardy (Li Jun Li), who finds herself all messed up in everything. And there’s a trusty secretary for Ben Reilly (Cage, the real identity of The Spider), Janet (Karen Rodriguez), who knows more than everyone and doles out that information only when needed.
All the classic elements of a great noir are present, and for the most part, they meld pretty seamlessly with the superhero beats of the story. The basic superhero story is also pretty classic: Ben has gotten out of the superhero game following the tragic death of his wife, which he wasn’t able to prevent. However, strange happenings begin around town when a group of men who all share one key piece of their past start developing super powers of their own. Reilly wants to get to the bottom of this without needing to resurrect The Spider, but with great power comes great responsibility and it seems like he might just be pulled back into fighting crime while trying to solve mysteries as a PI.
The series isn’t flashy – although it is offered for viewing in either black and white or vibrant color* – and the story sometimes drags. There are a lot of characters who essentially serve the same purpose, which means it can be hard to distinguish them and there’s not a ton of time spent on character development. Which tends to happen with noirs, where the mystery and mood are more important than mining the emotional depths of the characters we’re meeting. And while it’s much more violent that your typical Spiderman fare (throats are slashed on camera, which doesn’t pop in black and white, but is pretty visceral in color), the action sequences feel very much of their genre and might frustrate viewers more attuned to the modern superhero fight choreography.
*I watched all but one episode in black and white (episode two was only provided to me in color, so I had to watch it that way), and while the color looks just fine (in order to make the black and white pop, vibrant colors needed to be used which makes the color extra bright), the feel of the black and white really serves the genre and story a lot better. I won’t tell you how to watch, but my vote is black and white all the way.
But those aren’t big enough issues to make me not recommend this one. In an entertainment landscape that is supersaturated with superheroes, it’s rare that something comes along that doesn’t feel like just another installment of the same general story. Spider-Noir is something different. Something interesting. And Nicholas Cage is clearly having a ball playing this character – reminding us just how good of an actor he can be when given the goods. Even if you’re suffering from superhero fatigue, Spider-Noir is a fun diversion.
Spider-Noir premieres on May 25. All episodes were provided for review.
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