Spider-Man Noir

Publication history

In 2009, Marvel Comics launched the Marvel Noir line, reinterpreting familiar characters in a hardboiled-crime atmosphere set during the Great Depression. The Marvel Noir version of Peter Parker was created by writers David Hine and Fabrice Sapolsky, with artists Carmine Di Giandomenico (first stories) and Marko Djurdjević (costume design). Though not called "Spider-Man Noir" in the stories, fans and creators use the nickname to distinguish him from the mainstream Spider-Man.

The character shares similarities with the Spider, a pulp-magazine character cited by Stan Lee as an inspiration for the original Spider-Man. In the television adaptation, the character is named "the Spider." Peter Parker first appeared in Spider-Man: Noir #1 (February 2009), a four-part miniseries. Its popularity led to a sequel later that year, Spider-Man Noir – Eyes Without a Face, by the same creative team.

This sequel introduced the fedora hat to his costume. The series addresses political topics such as socialist agitation, American fascism, lynchings, and racism during the New Deal, alongside film noir motifs like the femme fatale. The villains discuss Rudolf Kjellen's theories, particularly biopolitics. The second miniseries alludes to the 1960 French horror film Eyes Without a Face, and its art style resembles Frank Miller's Elektra Lives Again.

Character biography

On Earth-90214 in the winter of 1932, during the Great Depression, New York City is overrun by criminal gangs. Daily Bugle photojournalist Ben Urich, known to some criminals as "the Spider," attends a public oration by May Parker in Central Park and befriends her nephew Peter Parker. Unable to afford university, Peter shares that his Uncle Ben, a socialist activist and World War I pilot, was murdered by criminals working for Norman Osborn, an industrialist believed to be the crime lord called Goblin.

Peter recalls his uncle's words: "If those in power can't be trusted, it's the responsibility of the people to remove them." Peter works for Urich and in December 1932, he investigates a warehouse of stolen antiques. A spider idol breaks open, releasing a horde of spiders; one bites Peter, causing him to dream of a spider-god promising power. He awakens in a black web cocoon and emerges with spider-like powers.

Donning a mask, Peter confronts Osborn and discovers Urich has been blackmailing Osborn in exchange for drugs. Inspired by Peter's determination, Urich decides to expose Osborn but is murdered. Peter creates a costume from his uncle's World War I airman uniform, becoming "the Spider-Man." Felicia Hardy, owner of the Black Cat club, aids his war on Osborn's syndicate.

In January 1933, Spider-Man kills Vulture to save May Parker, but she criticizes him. After Osborn's gang is largely defeated, Spider-Man spares the Goblin for trial, but Kraven the Hunter kills him. Spider-Man Noir continues fighting crime for years, opposing Nazi Germany before the U.S. enters World War II.

In other media

Spider-Man Noir appears in Ultimate Spider-Man, voiced by Milo Ventimiglia, as a serious and brooding hero who severed ties with his May Parker and Mary Jane Watson before the prime Spider-Man helps him value allies. He is the main character in Spider-Noir, portrayed by Nicolas Cage; this version gained powers after being bitten by a mutated half-spider prisoner while liberating soldiers from a German POW camp at the end of World War I. He changed his name to Ben Reilly and became a superhero for ten years, retiring after a criminal killed his fiancée Ruby Williams.

Five years later, while working as a private detective, he becomes a vigilante again after a conspiracy with crime boss Silvermane and a romance with Cat Hardy. Spider-Man Noir appears in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, voiced by Nicolas Cage, speaking in a stereotypical 1930s Transatlantic dialect based on Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, and Edward G. Robinson. Due to his black-and-white universe, he is unfamiliar with colors. He joins Miles Morales' universe with Spider-Ham and Peni Parker to foil Kingpin's plans.

He makes a non-speaking cameo in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and will appear in Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse with Cage reprising his role. He is a playable character in Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, voiced by Christopher Daniel Barnes, where Madame Web improves his web-shooting and tasks him with retrieving fragments of the Tablet of Order and Chaos from his versions of Hammerhead, Vulture, and Goblin. Elements of Spider-Man Noir are incorporated into an alternate timeline incarnation called Slinger in the Avengers Assemble episode "Planet Doom," voiced by Drake Bell.