CABLE | Nicolas Cage Investigates 'Spider-Noir' on Prime Video

"You'd be surprised at how much people will fight for what little they have."

Sony Pictures Television / Amazon MGM Studios

Spider-Noir, the live-action television adaptation of Spider-Man Noir, the 2009 Marvel Comics alternate-universe spin-off webslinger character most widely seen in the Oscar-winning animated film, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and famously voiced by Nicolas Cage, who reprises his role in the flesh this time, is a fun throwback to the hard-boiled detective film genre. Developed by Oren Uziel (with Steve Lightfoot serving as co-showrunner) and executive produced by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the television series overtly but lovingly leans heavily into classic film noir influences.

Cage's trademark unique acting style and presence fit the pulpy tone of the 1930s New York City setting to a tee as this version of Spider-Man (aka "the Spider"), with Lamorne Morris, Li Jun Li, Brendan Gleeson, and a host of guest stars co-starring as period-appropriate, otherworldly versions of his famous supporting cast of sidekicks and rogues' gallery turned into noir archetypes like the femme fatale or big heavy. Ben Reilly, a Peter Parker substitute, has long given up the superhero mantle after the tragic death of his wife and now spends his days as a disillusioned P.I., investigating a series of criminal conspiracies involving super-powered individuals with mysterious ties to a group of WWI POW soldiers.

Broadcast in both high-contrast, "authentic" black-and-white and "true-hue" full technicolour, Spider-Noir is chock-full of cinematic influences, from The Big Sleep to Double Indemnity to Depression-era detective gumshoe yarns starring the likes of Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, or Edward G. Robinson, by way of Bugs Bunny, within the television structure of Perry Mason and the loosest of ties to the greater Spider-Verse. While everybody commits to the costume genre schtick, over the course of a season of eight episodes, the shadowy comic book film noir series loses its freshness outside the familiar confines of a sub-two-hour period movie.

Spider-Noir's eight-episode season is available to stream on both MGM+ and Amazon Prime Video.


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