Spider-Noir

SPIDER-NOIR 🕷️🕸️ (2026)

From cameoing as Superman to sidekicking in the Spider-Verse, Nicolas Cage has flirted with the vast world of superheroes since the 1990s, and now he’s headlining his very first solo campaign as Ben Reilly in Prime Video’s SPIDER-NOIR.

For those who don’t know, SPIDER-NOIR first made a major impression in the Academy Award-winning animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), where Cage’s deadpan, trench coat-wearing web-slinger instantly became a fan favourite.

Now, the production team behind Spider-Verse, along with Project Hail Mary, brings the character into live action with an eight-episode detective noir that fully embraces a gritty, old-school style of crime storytelling.

Set in an alternate 1930s New York City, the series follows a retired Spider-Man who has hung up his mask for life as a private investigator. The city is has a moody metropolis energy, that is drowning in corruption, closer in spirit to Gotham than the bright, bustling New York we’re used to seeing in Spider-Man stories.

Across the season, we’re introduced to a rogues’ gallery of gangsters, crooked politicians, and super powered villains while this version of Spider-Man leans less superhero and far more golden-age detective. Think less friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man and more exhausted jazz-club vigilante.

This was a series I expected not to care too much about.

I’m not usually a fan of the heavy transatlantic accents, and the show fully commits to them, so even by the end I wouldn’t say I was completely sold on everything it was doing. But somewhere along the way, I ended up caring about its strange little world far more than I expected to, and by the finale I found myself hoping Nicolas Cage would return in a (hopefully) different capacity. This is where the multiverse comes in handy.

When this strange little world works, it’s in most part due to the incredible performances from the cast.

Nicolas Cage delivers one of his most locked-in performances in years, balancing washed-up cynicism with just enough charm to keep the character human. Lamorne Morris (New Girl) is an absolute standout as Robbie Robertson, finally escaping the typecasting that’s followed him for years, while Brendan Gleeson continues his streak of never once being bad in anything.

Walking away from this, I kept thinking: Cage may not be one of the three live-action Spider-Men to officially wear the red and blue, but he understands Spider-Man just as well as any of them.

That said, the show isn’t without problems. Some of the set design looks distractingly cheap, and the romantic subplot never becomes compelling enough to justify the screen time it’s given. Maybe I’ve just been conditioned to wait for a formidable villain in a Spider-Man story, but here it often feels like Spider-Noir is interested in battling his own restrictive nature more than a truly worthy opponent, which leaves parts of the conflict feeling a little lacklustre.

A cool wrinkle in this series is that it gives viewers the option of watching in either black and white or colour, and honestly, the choice makes a huge difference to the overall experience. I switched between both versions early on, but the black-and-white presentation ultimately suited the series far better. The colour version is vibrant, but sometimes too exaggerated for its own good, while the monochrome presentation gives everything a moodier, more authentic noir atmosphere. And I know I sound like a broken record saying this, but this series absolutely screams to be shot on film with a dirtier, grainier texture.

One thing Spider-Man stories never fail to nail is the origin. No matter the universe, there’s always a slight variation: who their Uncle Ben was, what tragedy shaped them, and learning that with great power, comes great responsibility. SPIDER-NOIR only spends a few scenes touching on it, but it still lands every single time.

Overall, SPIDER-NOIR is a perfectly fine series elevated by a cast that commits far harder than you’d expect.

Whether audiences want to admit it or not, the golden era of superhero storytelling has probably passed, which makes this feel oddly nostalgic, like the kind of genre show that would’ve dominated conversation if it had released in the early 2010s or alongside the Spider-Verse films.

At its best, SPIDER-NOIR feels like a smoky jazz record brought to life: a pulpy, detective-driven Spider-Man story that trades spectacle for grit and swings confidently into a new corner of Marvel’s multiverse. 

Enjoy!

6.3/10 🍿 🎥

Runtime: 45 minutes

Episodes: 8

Where: Now Streaming on Prime Video

The Richmond Reviewer Spider-Noir Review - May 27th, 2026.

#SpiderMan #NicolasCage #SpiderVerse #PrimeVideo