Sony's New Spider-Man Spinoff Makes Morbius And Madame Web Even Worse

Outside the MCU, Sony’s Spider-Man Universe has been one of the most frustrating franchises in modern superhero filmmaking. Although the Spider-Man mythos is full of exciting Spider-variants, supporting characters, and a massive rogues’ gallery of villains to work with, the studio’s live-action execution has almost always been lacking and unable to live up to the potential. That said, Sony has finally managed to make a successful live-action spin-off in 2026 with Spider-Noir, though it honestly makes me even more frustrated with past projects like Morbius and Madame Web.

While the Venom trilogy found some solid commercial success and was relatively popular despite its flaws, Sony’s broader live-action Spider-Man spin-off efforts have largely been major flops and duds. Films like Morbius and Madame Web became punchlines almost immediately, while Kraven the Hunter struggled to get audiences on board with the idea that Sony’s Spider-Man universe had a viable future.

It should also be noted that these failures have much less to do with those particular characters and more to do with an incredibly lackluster execution on Sony’s part, seemingly confirming again and again a major disconnect regarding what makes a superhero movie successful in the first place. It’s what makes Prime Video’s Spider-Noir such a pleasant surprise. Sony has finally delivered a live-action Spider-Man spin-off that critics and fans can largely agree is genuinely good, which makes one wonder why it took so dang long in the first place.

Finally, Sony Has Made A Good Live-Action Spider-Man Spin-Off

Right off the bat, it’s quite evident that the reason Spider-Noir succeeds is that it fully commits, in every sense of the word.

The new Marvel series completely embraces its identity as a noir detective story set in a stylized version of 1930s New York. From the cinematography to the dialogue and atmosphere, everything feels deliberately crafted around that vision, offered in both “authentic black-and-white” and “true-hue color.” While both versions of Spider-Noir work, the black-and-white absolutely elevates the show into something genuinely unique within the overall superhero genre.

After voicing Spider-Noir in Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s animated Spider-Verse films, Nicolas Cage truly was the only choice to bring the character to life. Likewise, he was allowed to give the performance only Nic Cage could give, resulting in one of the most dynamic and wonderfully eccentric Spider heroes we’ve ever seen in live-action.

Cage’s Ben Reilly possesses the perfect blend of cynicism and snark, incredibly captivating with every episode as a private investigator struggling to suppress his more spider-like instincts and decision to retire as “The Spider” after losing the love of his life (only to ultimately take on the responsibility once more).

Just as important, there’s no franchise set-up or even connections to past projects. Case in point, Cage’s live-action Spider-Noir isn’t even the same as his animated version from the Spider-Verse films. Instead, the only priority was to tell a singular, compelling story with a Spider hero front and center. While there’s nothing inherently bad about interconnectivity when it’s done well, Sony never proved itself to…do it well. It may seem obvious that telling a good story first should be the focus, and yet it’s definitely something that had long eluded Sony until this year.

Why Did It Take So Long To Get Something Like Spider-Noir?

Spider-Noir is definitive proof that live-action Spider-Man spin-offs can work without the mainline Peter Parker taking center stage, and that audiences are willing to follow lesser-known characters…so long as the creative vision is strong enough. It actually is possible, and it can be done.

So why did it take so many years to get to something like Spider-Noir?

Part of the problem seems to lie with a reluctance on Sony’s part to fully embrace any of these characters, as it has with Spider-Noir. After all, Morbius tried way too hard to elevate Michael Morbius’ character to something he’d never been on the page. Madame Web clearly had no idea what kind of story it wanted to tell. While Kraven the Hunter took some steps in the right direction, it still struggled to identify whether Kraven was a villain, antihero, or outright hero.

The Venom trilogy came closest to finding a successful formula. Tom Hardy’s commitment to the character is absolutely what carried those films despite their abundance of flaws. Eddie Brock’s dynamic with the Venom symbiote was entertaining enough to keep audiences coming back for more (to a point). Beyond Hardy’s performance, the trilogy still never reached its full potential.

Again, Spider-Noir commits on every level with a story and characters that go all in with this grittier and darker 1930s New York, completely unapologetic in its execution. In this way, Spider-Noir’s success makes past efforts like Morbius and Madame Web look even worse in hindsight. The problem was never the characters themselves, but the lack of effort and commitment in the approach.

Hopefully, Sony learns the right lessons from this exciting new victory going forward, especially with the reported plans to kickstart a newer Spider-Man universe that effectively wipes the slate clean.

All episodes of Spider-Noir are now streaming on MGM+ and Prime Video.