REVIEW: ‘Spider-Man Noir’ Issue #5

Spider-Man Noir #5 is published by Marvel Comics, written by Margaret Stohl, with art by Juan Ferreyra, and letters by VC’s Travis Lanham. After traveling the planet in search of justice for a murdered woman, Spider-Man finds himself fighting for his life in Babylon, while an ancient goddess opens the portal to the underworld. His guide, Huma Bergman, is the sister of the murdered woman and has revealed herself to be the goddess Inanna. Now Peter must fight to close the portal as his once deceased foes, the sinister six return from the grave.

Now in Spider-Man Noir #5, the mini-series comes to its climactic end! Spider-Man must figure out how to stop Inanna, as the goddess harnesses the power of the Cicada stone to unlock the door to the underworld with the M’Kraan crystal in the depths of Babylon.

What a brilliantly action-packed issue. A fantastic end to the series, that really sticks the landing on the ending. Stohl’s story and dialogue takes no prisoners in this issue, as this rock’em sock’em plot just drives you straight through fully hooked into the suspense.

The dialect of the 1930’s era, paired with the globe-trotting, and treasure hunting trope just fits so well together. While the issue has an air of predictability about it, Stohl still worked exceptionally hard to have earned the ending. Regardless of whether you can forecast the movement, the story still gives you that uplifting feeling of hope, and courage in the face of adversity.

Bringing back the Sinister Six from the dead was also an exciting addition given they’d been elevated with power from the M’Kraan crystal. The villains giving poor Peter’s keister a good kicking.

It’s also here where you have to admire the visual delivery from Ferreyra, as I’ve never quite seen these villains quite look so nightmarish. This is just more layers into why this issue works so well with Stohl’s plot. Six very familiar, well known Spider-Man villains arise from the grave, and the adaptation that Ferreyra has conjured up is something that truly works in this environment. Almost as if death has twisted them into their forms that best suited their personalities and villainous alter egos.

The color palette employed by Ferreyra was also a fantastic choice as it creates this very menacing, and supernatural tone. There’s a distinct lack of color and shades of grey to give you the feel of an underground tomb in the sand. When the color is then introduced it really demands the readers’ attention, whether it be in the crystals, or the skin tone of the Goblin, or the electrical attacks from Electro.

The lettering was enjoyable but I did find in parts the dialogue bubbles bled into the background so it was a little harder to attach who said what to the origination point. The visual balance of the lettering was good though, and the font choice for utilization of onomatopoeia was dynamic at every use.

All of this combines to create a truly thrilling action sequence, that again was mentioned above, feels earned, and delivers a highly entertaining end to what has been a great series.

This series really deserves to be talked about far more highly, a true hidden gem amongst the giant Marvel titles that are currently flooding shelves. The creative team was able to connect as a singular voice and pen a story that while reminiscent of movies like The Mummy, or Indiana Jones, still warrants utter enjoyment at the final product. I want more from this team, and I’d love to see them come back for more Spider-Man Noir.

Spider-Man Noir #5 is available now wherever comics are sold.