AN ALTERNATE REALITY: I SAW SPIDER-NOIR

"With great power comes 

great responsibility."

Though my arduous schedule made it tricky, I did manage to experience Amazon Prime's Spider-Noir. Did I like it? You bet, and against the odds, I wedged in the black-and-white and color versions, preferring the former, but digging the latter almost as much.  

Nicolas (Ghost Rider) Cage plays P.I. Ben Reilly as this saga's Depression-era (1933), friendly neighborhood Spider-man. The Peter Parker variant has been featured in comics and was voiced by Cage in the ambitious, animated feature, Into the Spider-Verse.  

Reilly gained his mutation by being bitten by an experimental, super-soldier "Man-Spider" in the Great War and is managed by Dr. Farber (Amy Aquino) and Mr. Otto (Andrew Robinson/Kai Caster) to quell his heightened skills. He's also reminiscent of an time-honored, pulp character named the Spider. The Amazon series captures the former's flavor, though pulls as well from the nostalgic stylings of Sky Commander and the World of Tomorrow, the Sin City set, The Shadow '94, The Green Hornet '40/'41, Agent Carter, The Untouchables (any acclimation) and on occasion Batman '89, Dick Tracy '90 and Darkman, though with each audacious nod laden by Sam Spade/Philip Marlowe, film-noir/literary tropes. 

This version's Spider (this Noir) is (in light of his other incarnations) a to-the-point, stick-to-it sort, even if packed by impulsion (and a sarcasm to match, as his Edward G. Robinson impersonation proves). To a great, disgruntled degree, his behavior results from the death of his ever-on-his-mind lady, Ruby Williams (Amanda Schull), for whom he holds immense love and guilt (as his damaged dreams invoke), but his secretary, Janet Ruiz (Karen Rodriguez), and Bugle reporter, Robbie Robinson (Lamorne Morris), are there to guide and console him, even as he stays hardheaded at heart. 

Scrambled-minded Mayor Alfred Morris (Michael Kostroff) seeks re-election in the tale. He's no Wilson Fisk. That's for sure. Even so, there's something shady brewing behind (or is it against?) his campaign, someone who bleeds from the margins of crime. His name is Finbar "Finn" Byrne, aka Silvermane, "the man with the mane of silver" (Brendan Gleeson), and he's assisted by his henchman, Winston (Lukas Haas), the investigating confidant, Patrick Donegal (Cameron Britton) and the ridged-skinned informant, Lonnie Lincoln, aka Tombstone (Abraham Poopola). The gang's hands are caked in dirt, with Reilly pledging to wash that grime away, except there's Jimmy Addison (Jack Mikesell) to contend with (if only early on), whose fiery punch would make Johnny Storm blush, not to mention the Electro-fying Dirk Leyden, aka Megawatt (Andrew Lewis Caldwell), who aspires to give Reilly a fatal shock. 

Lovely, lounge singer Felicia "Cat" Hardy (Li Jun Li) fuels the Vought-leaning, super-villain rise, representing the exploit's generous glamour (for the record, stemming from Marvel's long-term, Black Cat mythology). She's the mayor's secret squeeze, but also mistress to Flint Marko, aka Sandman (Jack Huston). Despite the amorous intersection, our nocturnal crusader wins her favor and secures his Spidey-sense fate, swinging high to make all eight episodes stick with impassioned virility and romantic derring-do.  

I like how the concept was handled, maybe because it's not some conceited, allegorical ruse like Daredevil: Born Again, Season 2, The Boys or Preacher. (Spider-Noir even holds a selfless, Casablanca deed toward the end.) In any event, I've had my fill of all that irredeemable stuff, and Spider-Noir gave me what I needed and wanted: a grim but hopeful departure. And yep, you've guessed right. I'm itchin' for more. Bring it on, man! Bring it on!