Spider-Noir: when black (and white) stand out more than Nicolas Cage

Spider-Noir is a rara avis.

A series that blends several concepts and entities to create a unique and different product.

One that, however, is not for everyone, because the proposal goes overboard in several respects.

But let’s start with a general overview: this is an entertaining series, aesthetically superb and considerably simpler in plot than it tries to appear. 

Its eight episodes go down very easily (although if there had been 6, nothing would have happened), it has a huge visual personality and Nicolas Cage fits the character like a glove, mixing pathos with heroism and humor.  

But when you finish this first and only season, the feeling you’re left with is that they put much more effort into how to tell the story than into the story they wanted to tell.

Sadly, we won’t get to see whether the concept improved in later seasons, because Prime Video has canceled Spider-Noir despite its 11 Emmy nominations, a 90% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 2.600 billion minutes watched during its first six weeks. 

Those figures don’t look like a failure. Quite the opposite.

So, is it worth watching?

I’ll tell you now.

What Spider-Noir is about

Spider-Noir takes us to 1930s New York — after the 1929 crash, in the middle of Prohibition and with the mob in full swing —, where Ben Reilly is a down-on-his-luck private detective. He is also the trench-coated superhero known as the Spider.

From there, the series includes almost all the elements you expect in a film noir story: a disillusioned detective, femme fatale, criminals, secrets, characters with hidden agendas and a protagonist who tries to stay out of everything until circumstances force him to act.

Very classic.

In fact, while watching it, the structure, certain scenes and the way the characters behave reminded me of Casablanca. And no, I’m obviously not putting them on the same level. But Oren Uziel, one of the people behind the series, has acknowledged that Rick Blaine was one of the references used to build this version of Ben Reilly.

In any case, Spider-Noir doesn’t go much further either. The plot works because it follows well-trodden paths and has a few interesting ideas -such as everything involving the German laboratory and the origin of the powers-, all very competent. Few surprises here. 

That said, eight episodes may be too many for what it wants to tell. I think they could easily have cut a couple of episodes without the story losing much, and the series would have gained quite a bit of pace.

A different Spider-Man

Where Spider-Noir really works is in the mix.

The series manages to blend the Spider-Man universe and film noir extremely well. Everything belongs to the same coherent world.

Probably because the foundation already existed -Spider-Noir is based on the comics of Spider-Man Noir – but it takes plenty of liberties.

For example, the original character appeared in late 2008 in a Marvel miniseries set during the Great Depression and was an alternate version of Peter Parker. Here, however, Nicolas Cage plays Ben Reilly, a name that in the traditional comics belongs to Peter Parker’s clone known as Scarlet Spider.

So, rather than adapting those comic panels directly for television, the series uses that universe as a starting point to build its own version.

The superhero side works precisely because it isn’t the main thing. Spider-Noir is a detective story with Spider-Man elements, rather than a Marvel series disguised as film noir.

In that sense it reminded me quite a lot of Pennyworth, the series centered on Alfred before he became Batman’s butler. Besides having a similar tone in both production and character construction, it gives the same feeling of first watching a period action story and then being reminded that everything takes place inside a superhero universe.

Nicolas Cage is in his element

Nicolas Cage is a great casting choice.

The role fits him perfectly, just as his hair fits him less and less: tired detective, slightly eccentric, a past full of secrets, deep voice and trench coat -mandatory if you’re a detective in a film noir movie- and a story with enough odd and decidedly unheroic moments for a superhero production.

He’s good and carries the series. Because Spider-Noir is not a particularly brilliant series when it comes to its characters.

To be clear: the cast does its job and nobody feels out of place, but you probably won’t remember any of them in a few years.

And that brings us back to the same point: style matters far more here than substance, meaning the story and characters.

The best of Spider-Noir

There’s no doubt: the aesthetics. No argument.

Practically the entire visual side is top-notch: cinematography, lighting, sets, costumes, composition and the recreation of that film-noir New York.

You can tell where the important part of the production budget went.

Prime Video also allows something novel and ambitious: watching the series both in color and in black and white. 

After trying both versions, I can say they both work, but for me there is a clear winner.

Spider-Noir in black and white or in color?

Black and white.

Don’t overthink it.

The color version is fine and lets you appreciate the production work in another way, but in black and white Spider-Noir has more impact.

In fact, it is one of the main reasons to watch it.

The lighting stands out more, the shadows take us back to the origins of the genre and all that inspiration from classic noir feels much more plausible and appropriate.

And it’s not simply a matter of removing the color from the image. It goes much further.

It is, without a doubt, the element that gives the work the most personality.

The worst of Spider-Noir

Its lack of ambition in everything that isn’t visual. 

It is especially painful when it comes to the plot.

It feels as if the team was determined to make Spider-Noir look spectacular and, once they achieved that, it didn’t matter whether the story lived up to the same standard.

The plot is simple, the characters are archetypes with little development, and the eight episodes stretch a story that could easily have been told in less time.

In fact, I think that if it had been turned into a two-and-a-half-hour film, things would have been very different.

But that wasn’t the case.

It never becomes boring because the universe is appealing, Cage has presence and visually it makes an impact.

But not much more.

And that’s a shame, because there was room to make something much more significant.

Conclusions and verdict: is Spider-Noir worth watching?

Yes, but with caveats. 

Do you like superheroes, Nicolas Cage or light film noir? Go for it. Just don’t expect one of those quintessential noir plots that keeps turning over in your head for days afterwards.

Spider-Noir is an entertaining series with magnificent production values, fantastic aesthetics and a Nicolas Cage who is perfectly comfortable inside this strange detective version of Spider-Man.

The mix of superheroes and film noir doesn’t clash. But the problem lies underneath.

If you strip away the cinematography, the black and white, the setting and Cage’s charisma, what remains is a fairly simple story, with limited character development and a somewhat overlong runtime.

Style clearly beats substance.

That doesn’t make Spider-Noir a bad series. It isn’t.

It simply means that in the future you’ll remember how good it looked much more than what it actually told you.

That was probably the intention.

Spider-Noir technical details

Field	Data
Title	Spider-Noir
Year	2026
Episodes	8
Runtime	Approximately 45 minutes per episode
Showrunners	Oren Uziel and Steve Lightfoot
Directors	Harry Bradbeer, Nzingha Stewart, Alethea Jones and Greg Yaitanes
Main cast	Nicolas Cage, Lamorne Morris, Li Jun Li, Karen Rodriguez, Abraham Popoola, Jack Huston and Brendan Gleeson
Genre	Action and drama
Country	United States
Platform	Prime Video
Status	Canceled after one season
Spoilers in the review	No