Retro Review Month: Spider-Man Noir - A Brilliant Reimagining

"If those in power can't be trusted, it's the responsibility of the people to remove them."

In the late 2000's, Marvel briefly published the "Noir" imprint of miniseries placing their heroes in a darker 1930's setting. As with most alternate universes like 2099 and Ultimate before it, Spider-Man was at the forefront when the Noir imprint began. At the time, I knew about this series but didn't really look past the covers, as good as they looked. My interest in Spider-Man Noir didn't really come about until he and his world were announced to be part of the upcoming "Spider-Man: Shattered Dimension" video game in 2010. The mood was very dark and the gameplay for his levels were reminiscent of "Arkham Asylum", which had just come out a year before. I became very interested in this character that I bought the first miniseries and the sequel "Eyes Without A Face" before the game came out. I remember my thoughts being that this is as realistic and gritty as Spider-Man can get, since at the time, that was all the rage.
Noir disappeared for awhile after that until 2014 when the "Spider-Verse" event began in the comics. He was reintroduced with his own one-shot story before being recruited for the multiversal Spider-Army, and is currently part of the cast of the "Web Warriors" book, featuring a team of alternate Spider-People from across the multiverse, who lend help to worlds that had lost their Spider-Man during the Spider-Verse event. In a recent issue, after my feeling he's been overshadowed in the book, Noir had a little bit of a spotlight shined on him, narrating a story from his childhood, and stealing a piece of the Venom Symbiote from Spider-Man India's world. While I'm looking forward to see where that goes, it was that focus that made me want to revisit the miniseries that started it all to see if it still holds up.

To get one thing out of the way though, I was somewhat disappointed that the cover art by Patrick Zeacher didn't really match up with the actual art by Carmine Di  Giandomenico.

Now don't get me wrong, Carmine's art is still good in the book, but I usually like it when the cover of a comic matches what's inside, so I was kind of expecting it to look detailed and somewhat dirty. Besides that, I did kind of assume that the art would be black and white to, you know, fit the Noir art style of its name. Instead, there's more of a sepia tone to it, which given the 1933 setting, still fits.
That said, let's jump into the story.

The story begins with police rushing into the Daily Bugle after receiving a call from J. Jonah Jameson claiming that he'd been shot. They bust in and see Spider-Man holding his gun and beside Jameson's body. Spider-Man tries to explain that it's "not what it looks like" and sprays web at the cops to make his escape out the window while still being fired at.
The comic flashes back to three weeks ago, with narration not by Peter Parker, but Bugle reporter Ben Urich. Urich visits a shantytown where social activist May Parker trying to rally the downtrodden. The Enforcers (muscle for Norman Osborn, a crime boss known as the Goblin) then show up to put an end to May's speech, harming her and Peter in the process. Urich shoots a picture of them, threatening to publish the picture if they don't leave. Ox wants to smash the camera but Fancy Dan tells him that Urich's "off limits". Urich takes the Parkers home, where we learn that they run a shelter for the homeless and that they had to put up fences after Ben Parker had been killed by the Goblin's mob. May goes to bed, leaving Peter to vent to Urich, angry about being harassed by mobsters for attacking the system. Urich then takes Peter to a speakeasy for called "The Black Cat" run by Felicia Hardy, where he shows Peter that those in the system, cops, politicians, and industrialists, are just as corrupt and that they even hire gangs like the Goblin's to silence those attacking them. The point Urich is trying to make to Peter is that there's a very gray area when it comes to good guys and bad guys, and that good doesn't always win. Despite this, Peter still wants to do what he can to help. Urich talks Jameson into hiring Peter on at the Bugle as a photographer, but will actually be accompanying Urich on assignments. Urich shows Peter a lot of the injustice and seediness in the city, but while he had hoped this would disenchant Peter like it did him, it only fueled Peter's rage and need for justice. Peter then opens up to Urich that he was the one that found his uncle dead, his body mutilated and torn into by wild dogs. However, Urich's narration reveals that he actually works for the Goblin, who pays Urich so he can feed his drug addiction. Not only that, but Urich was there with the Goblin and his men when they killed Ben, and that it wasn't wild dogs that ripped into him. One of the Goblin's men, the Vulture, had been a former circus geek who developed a taste for human flesh. I think you can put it together from there.
The first issue is really straight-forward, setting up the tone of the story and introducing the characters. I do feel it ends rather abruptly though with the flashback to Ben's murder, although the last page is a pretty decent splash page of Vulture beginning to feast on Ben, a lot of blood splattering, with the Goblin and his men looking on, unaffected while Urich is horrified in comparison. On a side note though, it may seem morbid, but this may actually be favorite alternate version of the Vulture.

Issue two begins with Urich and Peter in a crowd taking pictures of a fire burning down an overcrowded tenant building, the only casualty being a little girl.. Urich tells Peter his theory that the landlord set it up that the building would burn down and he would collect the insurance, fueled by the fact that one of the pictures they took puts Fancy Dan at the scene. Peter, still passionate and believing in justice, thinks they should turn what they know over to the police, but Urich reminds Peter how "everyone takes their cut" and "the corruption goes all the way to the top", saying that there's nothing they could do. Urich then sends Peter to take the pictures to the Bugle. When Peter returns, he finds Urich strung out from his drugs and unresponsive. Urich's phone rings and Peter answers. It's someone called "the Fly" looking for "Spider". Suspicious, Peter pretends to be "Spider" and Fly informs him of the Goblin's men picking up a shipment at the pier.
At the pier, Kraven and the Enforcers are picking up a statue resembling that of a spider god for Goblin's personal collection. Ox and Fancy Dan carry the crate holding the statue but drop it. After that, many spiders begin coming out of the statue's now open mouth and swarm on Fancy Dan, killing him. As someone who's (ironically) scared of spiders, that's pretty horrific. Peter is watching from the support beams above in horror when one of the spiders comes down from a web and lands on his hand. Taking a break for a second, I have to wonder how one of those spiders strayed from the group, climbed up to the ceiling, and lowered itself down to Peter. Now maybe one of the spiders got knocked upward from Fancy Dan's flailing, but I doubt it would be able to stick to the ceiling. Then again these are supposed to be magic spiders, and as we all know, if it's magic, we don't have to explain it (Quesada Logic).
So comes the part of the story we all know: the spider bites Peter. What's pretty interesting is that the panels of the spider biting Peter and Peter's reaction to it are connected by a mystic white energy, connecting the spider to Peter's head. Peter then gets a vision from a giant horrifying spider-like god. "Why do you tremble, little man?", it says to Peter. "My bite brings death only to those of evil intent...I will bestow on you a greater torment...the curse of power."
Peter then awakes hanging upside down from the beams in a cocoon. When he emerges, he finds his senses and agility heightened, followed by a look on his face of certainty, like he knew what he had to do.
Urich goes to see Osborn at this office, where we see that he not only has his statue, but somehow was able to capture all the spiders and place them in a glass case. Be it sharks, snakes, or spiders in this case, I guess all criminal masterminds need to keep some form of deadly creature nearby. Urich had gone there to turn over the picture linking Fancy Dan to the building fire as well as get paid for his fix. Suddenly, Peter, wearing a mask to cover his face, crashes into Osborn's office, using his new skills to knock out Kraven and Vulture, as well as use his organic webbing to keep Montana at bay. He tells Osborn that he's going to put an end to him, to which Osborn taunts that the only way to stop him is to kill him. Peter then sees the picture of Fancy Dan and realizes Urich was there. Peter catches up to Urich and berates him for being a druggy and working for Osborn. Osborn, Montana, and Kraven come out shooting at Peter, who escapes. Osborn wants Urich to find out who the masked man is, but Urich throws Osborn's money back at him and quits. Osborn realizes that Urich needs to be dealt with, but he needs everything Urich has on him. Urich then calls Jameson to tell him that he has all the evidence and files to expose Osborn. Jameson tells him he'll come to him so that Urich doesn't risk taking the files outside.
Peter returns home and breaks out his uncle's military items from World War I (still known as the Great War at this point in time). He takes Ben's service revolver and his aviator cap and goggles, sewing more cloth to it to create full mask to cover his face.

At Urich's apartment, he answers the door, only to be shot by Jameson.
Issue two is where I really feel things pick up, especially with Peter getting his powers and his costume. I like the idea that this version would receive his powers through magic, rather than radiation which was the main cause of a lot of Marvel characters' powers during the 60's. His powers are also limited too, only having enhanced ability, spider-sense, as well as the organic webbing, which sprays out rather than shoots a straight line (for those wondering, wall crawling and web-slinging were only given to the character in "Shattered Dimensions" and the "Ultimate Spider-Man" animated series to make him more similar to the mainstream version, which is no problem for me personally). The creation of his costume is nice to see too, and I love its simplicity, with his mask from his uncle's aviator gear and wearing simple clothing in addition, but still looking similar to what you would expect from Spider-Man. I've even thought of what a modern day Noir suit would look like.
If there's a couple problems I had with the issue, it's that Peter didn't make his costume before threatening Osborn. Also, I find Urich's codename being "Spider" a little too coincidental.

Issue three begins with Spider-Man heading toward Urich's to confront him, while also trying to figure out a scientific explanation for his powers. I didn't mention it until now, but Peter wants to go to college to be a scientist. That remains in spirit with the character, and I do like how he doesn't except magic for an answer (hear that, Quesada?). Anyway, Spider-Man enters Urich's apartment to find him dead. Peter, still torn up about his death despite his anger towards him, calls the police, who write it off as a drug deal gone bad. But yeah, so much for Spider-Man's christening moment.
The next day at Osborn's, he's angry at Jameson for not finding Urich's files on him, and wants to know who Urich would trust with them. It turns out that person was Felicia Hardy, who has Peter meet her at the Black Cat, where she reveals that she has the files and that Urich was planning to expose Osborn. She gives Peter the files and says that Urich said he would know what to do with them. Peter figures that "Ben must have told Felicia I'm Spider-Man." A little bit of nit-picking here, but I doubt that was Urich's exact words, since the Spider-Man had not become publicly known yet, so Urich must have just told Felicia about the abilities he saw Peter perform.
So as the Spider-Man, Peter begins to take down every operation and associate that works for the Goblin, and in true Spidey fashion, he leaves a calling card, with a pretty cool design.

A frustrated Osborn realizes that the Spider-Man must have Urich's files on him and wants anyone associated with Urich brought to him, including Felicia Hardy and Peter Parker.
At the same time though, Jameson has been running a smear campaign against the Spider-Man (but what else is new with JJ?). Well, what is new in this version is that Jameson is apparently working for the Goblin, so Spider-Man goes to confront him about what dirt Osborn has on him. Spider-Man enters Jameson's office to find him shot and barely alive. Jameson comments that "It must be open season." Spider-Man tries to question him but Jameson dies, and then the police bust in as we round back to where the story began.
Peter returns home and begins looking through Osborn's files again and finds something interesting. He then goes to the city morgue as Spider-Man to look over Jameson's body and tests his theory by pressing his hand down on Jameson's face and leaving a massive imprint. It turns out Jameson had been replaced by the Chameleon, Kraven's half-brother and another freak show attraction as a man who could morph his head into anybody's appearance like clay. This is a pretty cool take on Chameleon, even though Clayface have been a more appropriate name in this case.
The real Jameson is revealed to be held prisoner by Osborn as the Enforcers bring down their latest captive, Felicia Hardy. Osborn says they're waiting for "one more guest" as the issue ends showing Vulture looming over Aunt May, both looking for Peter in his room.

Vulture pounces on May as issue four begins, commenting how her "husssband had more meat on him" and "wasss delicious". Jeez, how horrifying would that be to hear? Spider-Man then appears in the doorway ordering Vulture to let her go. Vulture brags taunts Spider-Man that he isn't fast enough to stop him from "sssnapping her neck", so Spider-Man pulls out his gun. May begs him not to, but Peter's memory of finding Ben's body brings him to shoot Vulture three times dead. May then berates Spider-Man for thinking he's above the law, leaving Peter confused about why she would be concerned about the man who killed her husband and tried to kill her. "I don't want to live in a world where people kill one another like animals", she tells him. May wants Spider-Man to give her his gun, but realizing that his work isn't done, the conflicted hero leaves.
Spider-Man then infiltrates Osborn's "torture house" in the meat packing districts to find Osborn, his men, and his captives all there. We find out that Felicia had been at Urich's apartment, hiding when Chameleon as Jameson killed him, and that she was the one who shot "Jameson" at his office. Spider-Man leaps into action, webbing up Montana, taking out Ox, saving Jameson from Kraven's tiger, and knocking Kraven himself into the glass case holding the spiders from the statue. As this was going on, Osborn escapes into the sewer with Felicia as his hostage. Spider-Man catches up and knocks the gun out of Osborn's hand. In a struggle, they each remove the other's mask. Not only does Osborn find that Peter is the Spider-Man, but that Osborn actually has green scaly skin, hiding it under more human mask. It turns out Osborn was also a circus freak called the Goblin. Osborn recounts how he was ridiculed when he was young, but that now the name Goblin is one of fear and respect, and that those who see his true face don't live to tell anyone. Osborn taunts Peter to kill him, but with May's words still hanging over him and realizing that there's been enough death, he forgoes his vengeance and wants Osborn to stand trial. I didn't really appreciate this moment when I first read it, but I like how much of an influence May can be in Peter's life, sometimes even more so than Ben was. Despite blood already being on this Peter's hands, May does seem to keep Peter from going too far. However, a mangled Kraven covered in spiders arrives on the scene begging for help, but both he and Osborn fall into the water current and disappear, believed to be dead.
In the aftermath, things in New York have begun to take an upturn, with the corrupted officials being brought in and charged, the Goblin's operations in shambles with his remaining men in custody, and people feeling hope again. However, this doesn't mean Peter hangs up his suit. "The monster are always with us. But that's okay, because there will always be good guys too...and in the end, when all's said and done...good guys always win." That's a perfect line to end on, especially since this story began with the belief that being the good guy doesn't mean you win in the end.

Being my first time reading this in awhile, I feel "Spider-Man Noir" still holds up, maybe even more so. Since I feel I've become more politically inclined over the years, I've grown to appreciate the setting of the story during the Great Depression and kind of understand the views of socialism more between May's soapbox speeches and Franklin Roosevelt's election looming at the time of the story. Plus, between Obama and Sanders, socialism is still a hot debate.
During my first reading of the story, I was more interested in Peter's character and his actions as Spider-Man because I was wanting to get the idea of the character before playing him in the video game. This time around, I enjoyed seeing Peter's internal conflict more as well as the theme of corruption and the other characters involved.
As I said before and still feel, this is about as realistic and gritty as Spider-Man can get. It's not as fantastical as the mainstream Spider-Man universe, but it works. The villains are believable while Spider-Man's abilities are limited despite being still outlandish. I would like to think that if Spider-Man had been created during the Golden Age, this is probably how it would be done. At least aesthetically. The gore and grisliness wouldn't be there, but everything else, probably.

Spider-Man Noir is probably my second favorite alternate universe version of the character after Ultimate Spider-Man. Between this story, the sequel "Eyes Without A Face", and the "Shattered Dimensions" game, I even thought of potential stories set in the universe that would introduce Venom and Hobgoblin. I'm glad that Noir is back in the spotlight with the "Web Warriors" book, but I kind of hope he may get his own solo series at some point. Fingers crossed.

Overall, if you like alternate takes on well-known characters (and darker ones at that) or period pieces, I definitely recommend checking out Spider-Man Noir.

STORY RATING: 8.5/10
RECOMMENDATION RATING: 10/10

Next week, we learn that we really should fear fear itself.