Spiderman-Noir

Spiderman - Noir

is a Sony and Marvel web series streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Usually, whenever we hear Spider-Man, it automatically means a Sony production because the Spiderman rights were sold by Marvel Entertainment to Sony Pictures long ago. Since then, Sony has been trying all sorts of experiments with the character. Peter Parker comes, a spider bites him, he becomes Spiderman, reboot. Again Peter Parker comes, spider bites him, reboot. They have repeated this cycle four or five times already. But this time, there is no Peter Parker. Yes, seriously. So let us see what exactly this series is and how the experience felt.

According to the story, this version happens in the 1930s. A Spider swings across the buildings of New York stopping crimes. Yes, the 1930s itself. And before asking How is Peter Parker in the 1930s?, this is not Peter Parker at all. This Spider is Ben Reilly, a former soldier turned private detective. Now that Ben name sounds familiar, right? Yes, like Uncle Ben. They took the Ben from Uncle Ben and the Reilly surname from Aunt May’s original family name. Wait, Aunt May’s surname is Parker right? Yes, but only after marrying Ben Parker. Her original surname is Reilly. So combining those names gives us Ben Reilly, a completely different Spider character. And this version is already middle aged, almost around Uncle Ben’s age.

In this story, Spider has no family or children. His lover Ruby J. Williams was killed by villains, and after losing her, he completely gave up on life. Now he spends his days drinking, smoking, and running a tiny detective office in the middle of the city. He cannot even properly pay the salary of his office assistant Janet. Hearing all this, none of the qualities we usually associate with Spiderman seem to match here, right? Exactly. This is not the usual Spiderman. In fact, nobody even calls him Spiderman. People simply call him Spider. After losing Ruby, he gives up being a hero too. No responsibility, no saving the city, nothing. He just lives sadly as private detective Ben Reilly, drinking in bars and wasting his remaining life meaninglessly.

And naturally, when there is no Spider protecting the city, crime becomes cheap and common. That is where the villain Silvermane comes in. Yes, this character actually exists in the comics too, though not a very impressive one there. Even in most comic versions, Norman Osborn is usually Spider’s major villain. But not here. Here it is Silvermane. He has no superpowers either. His real power is money. He is a gangster with massive influence, almost giving full Godfather vibes. And yes, he is old too. I just said Ben Reilly himself is middle aged, so obviously the villain is not going to be young either. Silvermane is basically a kingmaker. The mayor of New York exists only because Silvermane supports him. That powerful. Murder, robbery, weapon smuggling, liquor smuggling everything runs through him. And remember, this story happens between World War One and World War Two, so imagine that entire atmosphere while watching.

One day, Ben Reilly receives a case. He is asked to find a man named Addison, the person who set Silvermane’s house on fire while he was sleeping inside. But while trying to catch Addison, another private detective hired for the same job beats Ben badly and goes after Addison himself. Remember, Ben has already given up his Spider powers emotionally. No Spider sense, no heroism. Anybody can beat him up now, and he rarely even fights back. But when that detective finally reaches Addison, he discovers something shocking Addison’s entire body is burning like the Human Torch. The detective panics and shoots him dead. Technically, that becomes murder too. So now the case becomes even messier.

Before Ben can process all this, another case comes in. A man hires him to secretly photograph his wife, claiming she is meeting another man at night. At first it looks like a simple cheating spouse investigation. But this one has even more hidden layers. Because the woman is not actually the client’s wife. She is a nightclub singer connected to an extremely powerful man. And yes, that powerful man is Silvermane himself. Realizing the setup is dangerous, Ben returns the client’s money. But since he still desperately needs money to pay Janet’s salary, he decides to blackmail the singer instead. So he follows her secretly and discovers that the man she is meeting is actually the mayor of the city. He even manages to click compromising photographs. But when he tries to use those photos for money, things spiral completely out of control and Ben gets trapped in a massive conspiracy.

First of all, do not watch this expecting a traditional Spiderman franchise experience. Watch it like an old black and white noir detective movie. In fact, the series itself has been released in both color and black and white versions. I already watched the color version once, and now I genuinely want to watch it again in black and white because that noir atmosphere will probably feel even stronger there.

And one more disclaimer. I do not know whether Marvel officially said this, but I will say it myself. This is absolutely not like the usual Spiderman movies meant for kids. Adults only. Not because it contains explicit scenes, but because the dialogue, especially from one of the henchmen speaking in a rough Tirunelveli style slang, swings between comedy and heavily suggestive adult jokes constantly. Usually Spiderman stories are family friendly. This series is definitely not designed that way.

At the same time, you do not need to watch previous Marvel movies to understand this series. Completely standalone. Also, Nicolas Cage, who already played Ghost Rider in Marvel films before, both co produced and acted in this series. And honestly, until the entire series ended, not once did it even register in my mind that this was the same Nicolas Cage who played Ghost Rider. That is how differently he has handled this role.

I will meet you again in the next post.

See ya!