I was already writing this post when I saw the news that Amazon has canceled Spider-Noir, meaning no season two will happen. To be honest, I wasn’t too shocked about that revelation. While the show is worth watching, it didn’t tap into its tremendous potential and left me disappointed.
Back when the Spider-Noir trailer first dropped, I was surprised and skeptical they were going to adapt the comics into a TV show. After all, the original comic books were edgy and interesting, giving a fresh spin on a beloved character. However, instead of portraying the 1930s wallcrawler as Peter Parker, Amazon cast a much older Nicolas Cage as Ben Reilly, a New York City private investigator.
Admittedly, I had a little bit of a hard time getting into the series. It has its strong points, mostly in the acting and cinematography. Instead of going for the familiar full-color presentation, I decided to go with the black-and-white, which absolutely was the correct choice. After all, how often do you get such an aesthetic in modern entertainment?
Fair warning, spoilers are coming, so read on at your own risk.
As far as acting, Brendan Gleeson as Silvermane absolutely knocked it out of the park. Sure, you didn’t get to see him rampaging around or doing anything action-oriented, but the man was menacing, calculating, and cold. He was by far the most interesting character.
The rest of the cast was pretty good, with Karen Rodriguez playing Cage’s secretary and Cary Christopher as a street urchin as particular high points.
The decision to not portray Peter Parker as Spider-Man Noir I thought was absolutely the wrong call. I imagine it had something to do with casting Nicolas Cage, a move I was shocked and horrified about from the start.
After all, Cage is known for a certain… style of acting, one I just didn’t see playing well in any kind of Spider-Man adjacent role. What shocked me was that save for a handful of scenes, the actor leaves his usual schtick behind and does something different. It was refreshing, but still fell short. He’s no Spider-Man.
On top of not going with the lovable Peter, there’s no Mary Jane. Instead, we get Cage’s character falling for a sleazy lounge singer connected to Silvermane. Oh, and she’s secretly in love with one of the mobsters, who is secretly Sandman. She lies to Cage’s character, sells him out, and in general is just a horrible, opportunistic person. Mary Jane or even Gwen Stacy would’ve been so much better. Instead of a real love story, we get to see feminine toxicity on full display and it’s super off-putting.
One of my biggest gripes about Spider-Noir is just how little you see the webslinger in action. It’s not until the second or third episode that we see him in costume, except in flashbacks, because Reilly swore he would never be the Spider again. This whole reluctant superhero thing doesn’t play well at all. We get plenty of screen time with Ben Reilly being a crappy private investigator, getting drunk in bars, and in general making bad life decisions. But the character dons the costume too seldom.
That translates into less action in the TV series than I think most viewers who tuned in for a superhero romp were expecting and wanting. One rule you need to know as a writer is to learn what your audience wants and then give it to them. In this case, the production team failed miserably.
The Spider seems slow and weak compared to the Spider-Man we all know and love. The action sequences, what few there are, seem clunky. It’s literally like watching a senior citizen try to move around, making you wonder if Cage is in the suit and not some stunt double.
What’s more, Reilly keeps saying “with no power comes no responsibility.” The phrase is nihilistic garbage that will anger any true Spider-Man fan. People are sick of Hollywood taking beloved characters known for their noble nature and making them depressed, resentful, and worthless.
While the concept behind the show was interesting with supervillains and a superhero who got their powers from a WWI German military scientist experimenting on POWs, there was too little action and too little Spider-Man.
Plus, the super villains didn’t even have real costumes, not even masks. They’re just regular men in suits. The guy who was supposed to be electro was entertaining as an actor, but his physique and dress didn’t make him the least bit menacing. When you contrast that with how the villains in the Spider-Man Noir comics looked and acted, it’s supremely disappointing.
Tombstone is imposing, but he just suddenly becomes reasonable and is no longer a threat, like the villain was barely an inconvenience. Overall, the resolution of the season plot came about far too easily, making for a fizzle instead of a full burn of a climax, making it disappointing instead of satisfying.
That brings me to my final point about this show: had the producers honored the spirit of the source material, the comics, Spider-Noir probably would’ve been a big hit. People love Spider-Man. They also love Mary Jane. Given the opportunity to see the two kindle a romance in 1930s New York City while the webhead fights period-themed supervillains they also know and love would’ve won over audiences. Instead, we got a tired, lonely, depressed, old version of Spider-Man nobody recognized or liked. It was a huge swing and a miss for Amazon. I hope everyone involved with the project learned something of this costly mistake, but too often creators want to just blame the fans.
Know your audience, cater to them, and you’ll have them begging for more.
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Images via Amazon and Marvel Comics
Steven Symes 