Spider-Man Noir #1

History

The concept originated in December 2006 when Fabrice Sapolsky, a French comics journalist and editor of Comic Box Magazine, pitched the idea of a 1930s pulp-noir Spider-Man to writer David Hine; that conversation eventually persuaded Marvel to greenlight an entire Noir imprint rather than a single title. The four-issue miniseries was written by Hine and Sapolsky, with interior art by Carmine Di Giandomenico and a costume design credited to Marko Djurdjević; cover art was provided by Patrick Zircher. The issue carried a February 2009 cover date but was released to shops in December 2008, launching alongside X-Men Noir #1 as the twin opening salvo of what would grow into a line of nine Noir series running through 2010.

Trivia · 8 facts

• First appearance (Earth-90214 / Marvel Noir universe) of Spider-Man Noir (Peter Parker), The Goblin (Norman Osborn), Vulture (Adrian Toomes), Kraven the Hunter (Sergei Kravinoff), Chameleon (Dmitri Smerdyakov), Felicia Hardy, Ben Urich, J. Jonah Jameson, May Parker, Ben Parker (flashback), Betty Brant (unnamed), and the Enforcers — Fancy Dan (Daniel Brito), Montana (Jackson Brice), and Ox (Raymond Bloch) — all in a single issue.
• Written by David Hine and Fabrice Sapolsky; interior art by Carmine Di Giandomenico; cover art by Patrick Zircher; costume design for Spider-Man Noir credited to Marko Djurdjević.
• Cover-dated February 2009 but released to comic shops in December 2008; the Marvel Fandom wiki notes that the cover date and indicia date differ.
• First issue of a four-part limited series (Spider-Man Noir #1–4) that was later collected in trade paperback and hardcover, and subsequently re-collected in the omnibus Spider-Man Noir: Hard-Boiled Origins alongside the sequel miniseries and related Spider-Verse tie-in material.
• The story is set in winter 1932–1933 New York City during the Great Depression; this Peter Parker's origin involves a bite from a mystical spider released from an ancient idol, granting powers through a spider-god vision rather than a radioactive laboratory accident.
• In the Noir universe, Norman Osborn's 'Goblin' nickname derives from a real reptilian skin condition, and his criminal gang — the Enforcers — is composed of former circus and carnival performers, a deliberate pulp-fiction re-imagining of mainstream Marvel villainy.
• The character within the story is called 'the Spider-Man,' not 'Spider-Man Noir'; the 'Noir' designation is an external fan and publisher label used to distinguish him from the Earth-616 version.
• The series served as the foundational text for Spider-Man Noir's later appearances in the 2010 video game Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions (voiced by Christopher Daniel Barnes), the animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (voiced by Nicolas Cage), and the 2026 Prime Video live-action series Spider-Noir.

Cast · 16 characters

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Variants (2)