19/06/2026

LYFE FRIDAY | JUNE 19, 2026

23 Web worth getting caught in

TV SHOW REVIEW

Ű BY AMEEN HAZIZI

A GAINST all reasonable expectations, Spider-Noir turns out to be one of the strongest Spider-Man projects Sony has produced in years. That alone is surprising. Sony’s live-action Spider-Man adjacent universe has spent years testing audience patience through Venom , Morbius , Kraven the Hunter and Madame Web , films that often seemed more interested in exploiting brand recognition than building compelling stories. Spider-Noir , however, arrives with a firmer sense of identity. It has mood, texture, style and a lead performance that understands exactly what kind of strange comic book pulp this needs to be. Pulled back into the mask The premise is solid from the start. Nicolas Cage plays Ben Reilly, an older private investigator in 1930s New York City who once operated as the vigilante known as the Spider. He has since walked away from that life after the death of Ruby, the woman he loved. Five years later, another case drags him back toward the mask, the webbing and the violence he thought he had left behind. Noir with real bite What makes the series immediately engaging is how seriously it takes its noir setting. This is not just Spider Man dropped into a fedora and trench coat. The show leans into depression-era New York with real attention to the conditions around its characters. The city is shaped by organised crime, prohibition bootlegging, poverty, racial tension, weak institutions and people trying to survive under pressure. That social backdrop gives the superhero elements more weight than expected. City of smoke and shadows Visually, the show has plenty of character. The cinematography makes frequent use of dutch angles, giving the frame a peculiar and unstable feeling without making it look like empty affectation. Split diopter shots are used well too, often to emphasise distance, suspicion or the relationship between characters sharing the same frame but not the same truth. The set design is also strong, filling the world with smoke, shadows, offices, nightclubs and city corners that feel built rather than digitally assembled. Cage in full swing Cage is the main attraction and he knows it. His Ben is rugged, cynical and deeply theatrical, a quippy private eye who seems pulled from a 1930s crime picture before being

o Nicolas Cage brings hardboiled grit to Spider-Man mythos

Cage brings a strange, pulpy charm to Ben, a worn-down private eye pulled back into life as the Spider. 0 Showrunner: Oren Uziel, Steve Lightfoot 0 Cast: Nicolas Cage, Lamorne Morris, Li Jun Li, Karen Rodriguez, Abraham Popoola, Jack Huston and Brendan Gleeson. E-VALUE 8 ACTING 9 PLOT 8

white, the effect can simply look like rough skin. The same issue appears when Ben becomes jaundiced and turns yellow, a detail that black-and white viewers would likely miss until Janet Ruiz (Karen Rodriguez) points it out. Few cracks in the case The show is not without problems. For a noir story, there is not much actual mystery to solve. The mood is noir, the language is noir and the world is noir, but the detective element could be better. There is also a recurring logic issue in how easily the Spider seems able to fight through Silvermane’s men, which makes it harder to believe he could not simply confront the crime boss much earlier. The stunt double for the Spider also does not always match Cage’s frame, which becomes noticeable in some action scenes. Pulpy winner Even with those flaws, Spider-Noir succeeds because it feels distinct. It has a strong lead, a memorable world, good action, stylish photography and side characters worth following. The eight-episode streaming format feels too limited for a show this dense. A project this visually rich and narratively promising could have used more room to breathe. The ending leaves enough space for a second season and the period setting could naturally move closer to the Second World War. If the creative team can keep the quality intact, there is real potential here for an even stranger and more ambitious continuation. For now, Spider-Noir is a rare surprise from Sony’s Spider-Man corner – stylish, pulpy, flawed and far better than expected. With eight 45-minute episodes, Spider-Noir moves like a hard-boiled case file rather than an overextended superhero saga.

man in pre-civil rights America. The show gives its side characters enough personality and purpose that the world feels populated by people rather than plot devices. Loose comic ties Some comic changes are stranger. Lonnie Lincoln, usually Tombstone, the gangster with impenetrable skin, is more reptilian here than stone-like. Dirk Leyden is used as Megawatt, who was a one-off villain from the comics, instead of the more familiar Electro, though Megawatt as a name does sound more suitable for a 1930s villain. The show also links many superpowered individuals to the same First World War prison camp, a choice that simplifies the mythology but gives the story a cleaner internal logic. Two ways to watch The dual-version release is one of the show’s most fascinating features. Audiences can watch in black and white or in full colour. The black-and white version gives Spider-Noir an old-school mood and makes the lighting, shadows and skyline feel closer to classic cinema. The colour version, however, reveals how vibrant the production really is. It is richly lit and saturated in a way that feels refreshing when so many modern Hollywood projects look flat and grey. The black-and-white version has limits. Some visual details are harder to read. Flint Marko’s (Jack Huston) sand-textured skin, for instance, has more impact in colour. In black and

same Spider-Noir from the Spider Verse films, despite Cage voicing that version as well. The name change also seems useful on a practical level. Spider Man writers have spoken before about Marvel being strict with Peter Parker and alcohol. By making him Ben Reilly instead of Peter Parker and calling him the Spider rather than Spider-Man, the series appears to give itself more freedom to present a harder noir lead who drinks, smokes and starts drunken bar fights. This version also has far fewer moral restrictions than the usual Spider-Man. He seems to lack a strict no-kill rule and his darker organic webbing makes him standout among the spider-folk. Strong players in the shadows The supporting cast is one of the show’s biggest strengths. Brendan Gleeson makes Silvermane feel like the Kingpin of this universe, a crime boss defined by power, appetite and the need to surround himself with dangerous men. Li Jun Li’s Felicia “Cat” Hardy functions more as a classic noir femme fatale than a direct adaptation of the antihero Black Cat. She has little in common with the comic version, with hardly any cat motifs beyond the name but the performance is strong enough that it hardly matters. Lamorne Morris adds texture as Robbie Robertson, a freelance reporter navigating a city where superpowered incidents are rising while also dealing with life as a Black

bitten by comic-book absurdity. There is a moment where Ben mouths along to an old film in a cinema and it feels like pure Cage, whether scripted or not. His love for old cinema seeps into the performance. That performance will not be for everyone. Cage can be absurd, cartoony and almost animalistic in his body movement, especially when Ben slips closer to the Spider. For fans of Cage, it is a gift. For general audiences, it may occasionally feel jarring. Even so, the choice to cast a 60-year-old Spider-Man pays off because the show is built around age, regret and physical weariness. This Spider is rougher, blunter and less friendly than most versions, but he still has a good heart. Different Spider The changes to Spider-Man lore are also interesting. In the comics by David Hine, Spider-Man Noir is Peter Parker, a teenager who fights social injustice in 1930s New York after his Uncle Ben is killed by the Goblin’s mafia. Here, Ben Reilly is a First World War veteran turned private eye who gained his powers during the war and later gave up being the Spider. The name Ben Reilly itself has a different comic history, usually belonging to Peter Parker’s clone, whose name comes from Uncle Ben and Aunt May’s maiden name Reilly. The show hints that Ben Reilly may not be his original name, which leaves room for future reveals. What is clear, however, is that this is not the

Li brings classic noir glamour to Cat, a nightclub singer with secrets of her own. – ALL HANDOUT PICS

Morris plays Robbie, a Daily Bugle reporter chasing danger and the truth.

The Spider is older, grittier and far less polished than the usual friendly neighbourhood hero.