Spider-Noir: Season 1 Spoiler-Free Review

Spider-Noir debuts domestically on MGM+ on May 25 and then globally on Prime Video on May 27 as a binge release.

While not a part of the MCU, Spider-Noir is the most fun and best-looking Marvel streaming series in years. The show cleverly reimagines some of Marvel Comics’ most popular heroes and villains as Prohibition Era gumshoes and gangsters squaring off in a New York City that, until 1933, has only ever known one super-powered figure: the crime-fighting vigilante called The Spider. But no one has seen hide nor hair of The Spider – whose secret identity is private eye Ben Reilly (Nicolas Cage) – for five years when the show begins.

The sudden, mysterious emergence of four super-powered criminals – Flint Marko, aka Sandman (Jack Huston), Lonnie Lincoln, aka Tombstone (Abraham Popoola), Dirk Leydon, aka Megawatt (Andrew Lewis Caldwell), and fire-wielding Jimmy Addison (Jack Mikesell) – prompts Ben to suit back up as The Spider. While Ben’s sleuthing will reveal who these men are and how they got their powers, only The Spider can stop them from wreaking havoc on the Big Apple.

Ben soon discovers the super-powered quartet are connected to the city’s most powerful mob boss, Silvermane (Brendan Gleeson, playing an Irish version of an Italian character in the comics). He also becomes entangled with Cat Hardy (Li Jun Li), a sultry singer at Silvermane’s nightclub (she’s the show’s riff on Marvel femme fatale Felicia Hardy, aka Black Cat).

The further Ben sticks his nose where it doesn’t belong the more trouble he gets into – and the more he’s forced to wrestle with the inner demons he’s spent years stifling with booze. While the show boasts a solid, charming ensemble, it’s Cage’s “70% Humphrey Bogart, and 30% Bugs Bunny” Ben Reilly that anchors this quirky and highly entertaining jaunt through a sumptuously reimagined corner of the Spider-Verse.

(Speaking of the Spider-Verse, those animated movies’ overlords, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, are executive producers on Spider-Noir; it should also be noted that Cage’s character in those films was a Peter Parker variant and not Ben Reilly.)

Spider-Noir offers Cage the chance to play everything from melodrama to slapstick to action hero fisticuffs to even body horror. The Oscar winner makes a meal out of every opportunity and the joy he’s clearly having proves infectious to the viewer as well.

Ben’s arc sees him struggling with powers he never asked for and a superhero mantle he never wanted. Once he did gain his powers, Ben claims he used them just for fun, and not because he wanted to be some do-gooder. It’s clear, though, that Ben is a better and braver man than he’s willing to admit.

When a chance to lose his powers is presented, Ben is eager to accept it. “With no power comes no responsibility,” he says. Alas, New York City will always need some sort of Spider-Man to protect it…

Cage receives great support across the board from co-stars who find the humanity in their characters, all of whom are riffs on film noir archetypes: Gleeson’s pragmatic, brutal Silvermane, Li’s duplicitous yet vulnerable Cat, and Huston and Popoola’s wounded, maybe not-so-bad-after-all henchmen.

The actors playing Ben’s allies also get their moments to shine: Lamorne Morris’ dogged reporter Robbie Robertson finds himself (often hilariously) drawn into the action, Karen Rodriguez is the show’s secret weapon as Ben’s assistant and smartalecky voice of reason Janet, and child actor Cary Christopher gets his fair share of yuks as street urchin hustler Frankie (think of him as Spider-Noir’s version of Charlie Korsmo’s “Kid” in Dick Tracy).

On a technical level, Spider-Noir is a handsomely produced affair across the board, from its lived-in period sets and costumes to the moody cinematography, all of which create a suitably glamorous yet corrupt film noir setting. The show’s writing – overseen by showrunners and exec producers Oren Uziel and Steve Lightfoot – is sharp, funny and even moving as we discover the tragedies behind the show’s anti-hero and super-villains.