Category Archives: Spider Noir

Spider-Noir S1 E7, E8

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“Nobody’s Hero”

“The Man in the Mask”

The final two episodes of Spider-Noir wrapped up our story with Ben Reilly in the final showdown with Silvermane and the other superpowered henchmen.

This show does a great job of building towards everything. Ben came out of episode six in a bad place, at a bar, drinking heavily, and getting into a bar fight with some loud mouths.

The finale gave us some Spider-Man action, with a big time battle with Sandman and Megawatt.

Nicolas Cage is amazing in this. There is a scene in the bar that Cage is completely stunning with his performance. A shoutout needs to go to Lamorne Morris, whose performance as Joe “Robbie” Robertson was excellent.

There were some great moments in the trope of mirrors, like a funhouse when Cat Hardy is confronting Silvermane. I will say that Silvermane’s death felt a little anti-climactic. Still, I was pleased that Cat was able to get the final shot on Silvermane.

Another shoutout for this series is Karen Rodriguez, who played Ben’s secretary Janet Ruiz. This secondary character was awesome and she felt like she was the glue holding everything together. The montage of Janet finding out the “truth” about The Spider (over and over) was hilarious.

I also loved how this show was full out fil noir without any excuses or apologies. The black & white version that I watched was so beautiful. I am curious about the color version, so I may have to watch that some time during the summer.

Spider-Noir S1 E4, E5, E6

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“A Mistake I’ll Never Make Again”

“Betrayal”

“Nightmare on a Gurney”

I watched the next three episodes of the Amazon Prime series, Spider Noir. I loved the first three episodes of this pulpy-fun and we jump right back into the action.

When episode three left off, Silvermane was shooting someone, and it turned out to be just another guy with Winston.

We are introduced to another ex-army platoon guy, who turns out to be a low-level villain from Marvel Comics named Megawatt. The Spider fought him in public and does defeat him.

We are introduced to actress Amy Aquino’s character, Dr. Faber. She was the connection between the four villains, as she treated them all just before their powers manifested. She was a decent person who made some bad choices trying to save her son, who was another person in the experiment.

We get an origin of The Spider, and see how he is connected to Sandman, Tombstone, and Megawatt. It was one of the scarier moments of horror in the show as Ben got bit by a transformed man-spider.

The third episode, “Nightmare on a Gurney,” felt very much like a sci-fi, B-movie, crazy scientist noir. The show has been great, using all noir tropes in the different episodes.

An interesting point mentioned in that third episode included Faber’s son telling Ben Reilly that they were looking for the Spider, but he had changed his name, so they could not find him. Could Ben have been originally Peter Parker and changed his name to Ben Reilly. We know they could not use the name Peter Parker because of rights and technicalities, but this way covers the base.

Ben Reilly has been playing this character as anything but a hero. He is downright selfish, but it feels as if that came form Ruby’s death more than anything else.

Nic Cage is spectacular in his Cage-i-ness. Brendon Gleeson has been doing a great job bringing the sinister to Silvermane.

This has been great. I can’t wait to watch episodes 7 & 8.

Spider-Noir S1 E1, E2, E3

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“Step Into My Office”

“Tread Lightly”

“Double Cross”

Amazon Prime’s new series, Spider-Noir, starring Nicolas Cage as Ben Reilly, aka The Spider.

The Spider was a character from Marvel Comics, a version of Spider-Man from the 1930s. It became even more popular when the character appeared in the Sony animated film Into the Spider-Verse, voiced by Nic Cage.

In a brilliant piece of business, the episodes of this series are available in both color and black & white. I, of course, chose the black & white version.

This was such a great first three episodes. Ben Reilly was a private detective, struggling, and no longer the Spider, since his girlfriend was killed by drowning.

Our main antagonist is Silvermane, played by Brendan Gleason. Other characters we get are Cat Hardy, played by Li Jun Li, Robbie Robertson, played by Lamorne Morris, Flint Marko (Sandman), played by Jack Huston, and Janet, played by Karen Rodriguez.

This had a real noir tone. We got the Sandman, and also Tombstone. I get a feeling we are getting more too.

The end of the third episode was a solid cliffhanger. I have really enjoyed the story we are starting here, and Nic Cage was in all his glory.

I loved the secretary, Janet. I hope there will be more with her.

The music is great. I actually immediately purchased the theme song, “Saving Grace” by Kirby, on Apple Music.

The dialogue is wonderful. The Nic Cage performance as Ben Reilly is really witty and funny. It is beautiful to watch in the black & white. There are so many awesome shots.

After three episodes, I am a big fan of the series. The whole series was dropped on Prime today.