Fans of Spider-Man Noir, aka “The Spider,” aka “Voiced/Acted by Nicolas Cage,” are most likely to have fallen for the crime-noir version of Spidey via Into the Spider-Verse or (if you’re like me) the Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions video game where Noir was one of the four playable dimensions (alongside Amazing Spider-Man classic, 2099, and the Ultimate Universe). There’s not an especially deep comics history beyond those adaptations, but as always, the story does start in Marvel Comics, and I’ve put together a guide to all the Spider-Man noir comics!
The Spider-Man noir comics are set in an alternate Marvel Universe (Earth-90214) and the stories begin in the early 1930s during The Great Depression. Some great comparative 1930s noir reading here would be Dashiel Hammet’s Red Harvest (inspiration for the Coen Brother’s Blood Simple) and Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep.
Likewise, if you just want the best noir comics in the game, check out Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips Criminal!
