A few weeks ago, I blogged about the new Amazon Prime miniseries Spider-Noir, which takes the Spider-Man story and plants it into a 1930’s era crime noir drama. It’s almost as if Stan Lee and Steve Ditko had lunch with Raymond Chandler and Dashiel Hammett, and this was the result of splitting the dining check.
The show itself is presented in two different formats, in a black-and-white version and in a “true-hue” color version.
And yeah, I started to watch the black-and-white iteration of the show …
I mean, it’s an incredible take on the superhero genre as blended into film noir. I got the same vibe from this as when I watched WandaVision a few years ago, which essentially morphed from a take on sitcom television culture into a superhero struggle for identity. I like reiterations. I like interpretations.
But the black-and-white version of Spider-Noir kept reminding me of something.
And it had nothing to do with web crawlers or the like.
It had a lot to do with this.
Yeah. I was getting Sin City vibes. And it was bugging the snot out of me.
So I switched over to the “True-Hue” color version.
And … I like this version better. Instead of seeing a black-and-white film noir version of the superhero story, I’m seeing a 1930’s-era comic book interpretation with comic-book colors. It’s gritty and simple and striking.
And honestly, this works better for me.
As for the show itself? Stunning. Nicolas Cage should have indigestion from all the scenes he chews, and he plays The Spider (the film noir version of Spider-Man) as an older, rougher, battle-worn superhero who doesn’t want to be a superhero, but instead enjoys the rush of danger and the thrill of battle. If this show doesn’t pick up at least an Emmy for cinematography and/or special effects …
Also, as existing outside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there’s no lingering attempt to try to merge this iteration into a cameo in an Avengers movie. So it can stay in its own timeline and storyline.
That is, until this character returns in 2027 as part of the sequel to the Spider-Verse animated movie trilogy.
Although we have to make that one teeny adjustment – in the Spider-Noir series, he’s the Spider, and his real identity is Ben Reilly. So unless we want to bring back the vintage Marvel concept of a “No-Prize,” someone needs to do a judicious bit of overdubbing to fix that little discrepancy.
That, or maybe it can be explained if Spider-Noir gets a second season.
Which I would like very much to happen.
In color. Or in black-and-white, if that’s your preference.
Chuck The Writer 