Why ‘Spider-Man Noir’ needs a Live-action film and how to make it great

The Spider-Man franchise recently celebrated twenty years of the hero's first appearance on the big screen. Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire joined forces to bring the web-head to screens in 2002’s Spider-Man. Since then, the hero has been seen in multiple media projects. However, there is one iteration of the character that is yet to be featured on the silver screen.

That Spidey character is Spider-Man Noir. He first appeared in Spider-Man Noir #1 back in 2009 and has garnered the interest of many fans. The character's most recent appearance was in the 2018 animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, voiced by Nicolas Cage.

Spider-Man Noir first appeared in the winter of 1932 in his comic book, set during the Great Depression. Peter Parker works for The Daily Bugle as a photographer and finds a lead to photograph some illegal activity in a warehouse but is accidentally bitten by a spider which grants him superhuman abilities. With these abilities, he dons the identity of Spider-Man Noir.

Here is why the character needs a live-action film and how to make it great.

Disclaimer: This article reflects the author’s views.

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Make Spider-Man Noir Great

1) Darker Shift for the character

Noir in his comic form (Image via Marvel)

Something that already seems obvious when making a film like this is the fact that it would be much darker than the previous web-head films. The film's noir-esque overtone could be something of an improvement for the franchise and even make it stand out by its tone.

Spidey films, for the most part, are known to be very light-hearted and vibrant. So, it would be a very deep and drastic change to mute the colors and dampen the mood.

The film could easily become The Dark Knight of its respective franchise. With that being said, if a director utilizes its brooding atmosphere correctly, the film could be something of a grim spectacle that will leave fans wanting more.

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2) Good History Lesson

Noir as he appeared in 'Ultimate Spider-Man' (Image via Disney)

Given that Noir is a superhero that resides in 1930s Depression-era New York City, it makes sense that filmmakers would need to brush up on their history to tell a compelling and somewhat accurate story to fit this timeline of events.

It would also make a lot of sense if the filmmakers were able to not just make a standard superhero film but also a film that would give audiences a good history lesson. It makes for better filmmaking when looking at all the terrible events that occurred in 1930s. Of course, there is the Depression, the Dust Bowl and even Nazi invaders coming into power.

Obviously, there is a lot to choose from during the decade and if such a project is greenlit, hopefully these events will not only push Parker in new directions, but also help make a perfect character arc in the run of the film.

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3) Introduction to new Villains

The villains of the web-head (Image via Marvel)

What seems like an exciting venture in a new film centering around the hero would be the idea of possibly having new villains introduced. Seeing a villain like the Kingpin, Jackal, Tombstone or even Hobgoblin would be an exciting notion that seems too cool of an opportunity to pass up.

Given that the wall-crawler has a huge rogue gallery that rivals only Batman, there are a lot of different directions that the film could possibly take. It would be interesting to see what the villains would look like given the timeframe of 1930s.

Only time will tell if this Spidey flick is given the greenlight and has fans falling in love with the new concept.