Prime Video is flooding the zone with superheroes this year. The Boys returned. Invincible didn’t miss a beat. And now Nicolas Cage is swinging into the noir era.
If you are ready, it drops tomorrow.
The Gritty Details
Ben Reilly. That’s his name in this iteration. Played by Cage. He isn’t your spandex-wearing hero from Queens. No. He is a washed-up private investigator. Stuck in the mud of 1930s New_York. He hung up the mask after something bad happened. The kind of thing that breaks people.
He has help though. Or at least company. Lamorne Morris plays Robbie Robertson, a beat journalist and Ben’s closest friend. Then there is Li Jun Li. She plays Cat Hardy, a nightclub singer with more trouble than she lets on. Karen Rodriguez is Janet, Ben’s secretary. The cast thickens with Jack Huston. Brendan Gleeson. Abraham Popoola. It feels dense. In a good way.
“Aging private investigator… who abandoned his superhero alter-ego.”
It comes from the Marvel comic Spider-Man Noir. Not a tie-in to the Spider-Verse movies, even though Cage did lend his voice to the character in 2018’s Into the Spider-Verse. This stands alone. An eight-episode dive into a darker web.
Black and White Or Color?
You have a choice. A visual one. Prime Video offers two cuts. One is “Authentic Black & White.” Pure film noir aesthetic. The other is “True-Hue Full Color.” Brighter. Perhaps more accessible? Watch the trailers if you are stuck. See what looks better to your eyes.
When To Stream
Stop guessing. Just mark the calendar.
The US gets the entire first season at once.
Wednesday. May 27.
At midnight Pacific time. Three a.m. Eastern. If you stay up late. Which you probably should. Given the show runs till morning in New York.
Why wait for subtitled clues? Watch it tonight. If you can handle the night owl hours.
It might not be for everyone. The tone is heavy. The shadows are long. Cage does Cage things.
We will see where the web leads next.
