Spider-Noir premiered on Prime Video last month. Unfortunately, like most series that release every episode on the same day, it feels a little like the Nicolas Cage-led Spider-Man story has already been forgotten.
Reviews were glowing—it has 91% from critics and 93% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes—but it was reportedly an expensive series to produce, and that means Season 2 is far from guaranteed.
Spider-Man Noir debuted in 2009, and was created by writers David Hine and Fabrice Sapolsky, artist Carmine Di Giandomenico, and costume designer Marko Djurdjević. The alternate reality wall-crawler later appeared in 2018's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, but neither that version nor the one featured in Spider-Noir is a 1:1 adaptation of the comic.
Radio Times recently caught up with Hine and asked for his thoughts on Spider-Noir. "I’m impressed by the cohesive world they’ve built," he started. "It’s actually more 'noir' than our comic, though it retains a lot of the pulp origins. The black-and-white version is visually stunning, and everyone involved is so clearly enjoying their work and totally into it."
However, Hine was less impressed with other elements of the series. "I’ll enjoy it for what it is. It can’t take away from the serious, authentic nature of our comic," he mused. "If it brings more attention to our books, that can’t be a bad thing."
"If I looked at it as a direct adaptation of the comic I did with Sapolsky, Di Giandomenico and the others at Marvel, I’d be disappointed," the writer continued. "Our version was explicitly political. We named names. We referenced the Friends of New Germany and the rise of actual Nazism in the US. Everything referenced was historical reality, except for the obvious elements of pulp weirdness."
"Our Peter Parker was a radical communist along with Aunt May and Uncle Ben. The politics of the show are soft left. Aunt May would have been scathing. I’d have been overjoyed if they took a more courageous political stance," Hine added.
Despite that, he was hugely impressed with Karen Rodriguez, Brendan Gleeson, and Li Jun Li, and gave Cage his props for "the way he lets the arachnid side of his powers inhabit him."
Spider-Man Noir was never meant to be a comedic figure on the page, but his transition to the screen has now seen that happen in an animated and live-action adaptation. With that in mind, it's easy to see why Hine might have been a little dissatisfied with Ben Reilly's portrayal in the show.
Spider-Noir is a live-action series based on the Marvel comic Spider-Man Noir. It tells the story of Ben Reilly (Nicolas Cage), a seasoned, down-on-his-luck private investigator in 1930s New York, who is forced to grapple with his past life, following a deeply personal tragedy, as the city’s one and only superhero.
The cast also includes Lamorne Morris, Li Jun L, Karen Rodriguez, Abraham Popoola, with Jack Huston, and Brendan Gleeson. Guest stars include Lukas Haas, Cameron Britton, Cary Christopher, Michael Kostroff, Scott MacArthur, Joe Massingill, Whitney Rice, Amanda Schull, Andrew Caldwell, Amy Aquino, Andrew Robinson, and Kai Caster.
All episodes of Spider-Noir are now streaming on Prime Video.