The next chapter in Spidey’s adventure is here! In order to complete the Super Collider, Spidey must team up with Spider-Man Noir and the cunning Black Cat (voiced by Sara Pezel) to acquire Adamantium from the most ruthless gangster New York has ever seen: Hammerhead! Check out the video below, then keep scrolling for some exclusive behind the scenes content!
Sara Pezel is… Black Cat!
As mentioned above, the ever talented Sara Pezel lent her voice to the Noir version of Felicia Hardy. I had nearly given up my search for a voice actress, but one day I came across a post from Sara on Twitter talking about Black Cat in the latest issue of her solo ongoing. We got to talking about Felicia, and then bells started dinging in my head. Not only is Sara a fellow True Believer, but she has a rich knowledge of the source material and is particularly fond of Black Cat. So I decided to offer her the role, and lucky for me, she accepted! Sara truly brings life to Black Cat, and I couldn’t have asked for a better actress! And make sure you check out Sara’s awesome stuff on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube!
From Comics to Screen
Of course I read through all the Spider-Man Noir comics I could get my hands on when I decided to partner Peter up with his Noir counterpart for this adventure. Thanks Marvel Unlimited. Of course I took liberties with the material to fit my universe, but there are some Easter eggs I sprinkled in the video. Here’s a list in case you didn’t catch them!
-Adamantium: We all know the famous metal fused to Wolverine’s bones to make him indestructible. Now Hammerhead’s head plate is usually some form of steel, but I decided to take a page out of the 90’s animated Spider-Man show (my favorite!) and make it Adamantium. That way getting the stuff would be a challenge for the Spidey gang!
-When Hammerhead says Montana told him that Man Mountain Marko spotted Jonsey singing to DeWolff: That’s Montana from the Enforcers, who worked for Goblin in the books. Man Mountain Marko is just a tall strong guy, but he usually throws in with mobsters like Hammerhead. And DeWolff is a detective in the Noir world. He’s a version of Jean DeWolff, who infamously got killed by the Sin Eater in the 616 Universe.
-Ben Urich: The Daily Bugle Reporter Ben Urich took a liking to Peter and a radical version of Aunt May. He took Peter under his wing, and taught him the ropes about crime, where to find it, who’s who in the underworld. But Urich was no saint. However, Peter inspired him to turn his life around. Unfortunately he was too little too late, and was killed before he could flip on the Goblin, the biggest crime boss in town.
-The Black Cat Club: When Felicia says that Hammerhead raided The Black Cat, she’s actually talking about the night club she runs in the comics called The Black Cat. It was a speakeasy where anyone from criminals to politicians met up and hung out. But it was off limits to being attacked, kind of like an unspoken truce, and everyone knew it. So Hammerhead raiding it is a big deal!
The Idol: In the Noir universe, Peter wasn’t bitten by a radioactive spider. He got his powers from a strange spider idol, with a connection to a spider god. When the army of spiders that came out of it didn’t devour Peter, it deemed him worthy and gave him powers. There was no cat idol in the comics, but I created one to give Felicia abilities!
-Black Cat’s face: In the books, Felicia would… fool around… with folks who would patron her club. Sometimes with Spider-Man Noir (he’ll tell you when you’re older) and sometimes with less savory guys, like the mob boss Crime-Master! But when Crime-Master found out she was fooling around with Spider-Man Noir, he smashed her into a mirror, and then cut her face up with a blade! Yikes! Felicia wore a mask from that point on, never letting the world see what had become of her face.
-Sandman: Wondering why Sandman didn’t use his powers? Because in the Noir world he didn’t have any! Similar to Man Mountain Marko (last name may or may not be a coincidence) Sandman was just a big strong guy. They called him Sandman because he put people to sleep… permanently! He nearly beat Spider-Man Noir to death before DeWolff and his squad emptied their clips into him, and he was still fighting after that! He did eventually die from his wounds, but as we know, a lot of villains have been mysteriously coming back to life after Falcon’s snap!
-Iron Spider: Peter activates the Iron Spider by using Protocol 17A, which is actually what Tony tells Friday in Infinity War to activate the Iron Spider! And as we saw in Far From Home, the suit needs to charge on a dock to stay powered up. Since it is OP and bulletproof, I decided I’d give Peter enough juice to use it once, and this was it! Also, if you watch Episode 1 of Return to the Spider-Verse, you’ll notice the comic Iron Spider suit in the Hall of Armors, where it was in Into the Spider-Verse. At the end of this episode, they’ve replaced it with Peter’s Iron Spider suit, since it’s now a “High-tech paperweight”.
-Shock: Spider-Man 2099 (voiced by Xavier Hernandez) shows up to tell Peter that the Master Planner isn’t who he thinks it is! Unfortunately he’s cut off before he can reveal the Master Planner’s identity, but before that he realizes he showed up too soon, and says “Shock, I’m too soon!” In the 2099 comics, “shock” is like a universal swear word. So you could say “Who the shock are you?” or “What the shock do you think you’re doing!” I know, Captain America would flip out at all the language! I’ll stop.
The Score
I always use music from various Spider-Man productions in my videos to keep it authentic. I mean, say goodbye to monetization, but worth it! Anyways, here’s the songs I had in this one:
Quantum Physics- I used this tune from Into the Spider-Verse during the opening when Gwen (voiced effortlessly as always by Eileen Nestman) is explaining, well, quantum physics to Peter. Nice, right!
Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions- I used one of the Noir level songs from this game in Peter Parker’s PI office. I’m so happy this game had 3 levels centered around Spider-Man Noir, make my life easy!
Spider-Man 3 The Game- Remember Jean DeWolff? Well, in the Spider-Man 3 movie game, there were several levels where you had to help her take down some dirty cops. No, that did not happen in the Spider-Man 3 movie, but movie tie-in games always had a whole slew of comic content thrown into them. Anyways, the music in those levels always gave me a Noir/detective kind of vibe, so I used it during the stakeout, and the action version during the big fight in the end.
Spider-Man 2 The Game- Black Cat was in that game. Not in the movie, but like I told you, these games add all kinds of fun stuff! Anyone that failed a million times to keep up with Felicia will be well familiar with the tune I used while she was talking to the Spiders on the roof. She was very hard to catch!
Bad Luck- A John Paesano hit from Marvel’s Spider-Man PS4 game, I just love that opening little bit that played whenever Felicia showed up in the City That Never Sleeps DLC. So whenever she showed up here, I was sure to use it!
Spider-Man: Edge of Time- The indirect sequel to Shattered Dimensions, this game focused on Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2099. So after he shows up with a dire warning about the Master Planner from the future, of course I slipped in some music from that game!
Well, that’s it from me. I hope you all enjoyed the video, I put a lot into this one as usual. Look forward to Episode 4, which will team Peter up with the Advanced Spidey, aka the PS4 version from Marvel’s Spider-Man! Can’t wait to fill that one up with Eastern eggs. Let me know what you thought of the video below, or what you want to see in the next one! Face Front True Believers, and I’ll see you in the Multiverse!
