Spider-Noir announced that Brendan Gleeson of The Banshees of Inisherin fame would be playing the primary villain of the Sony-produced Amazon series, Silvio Manfredi, aka Silvermane. However, the series changed Silvermane's real name to Finbar Byrne, befitting his new leadership of the Irish mob rather than Marvel's fictional Maggia.
Surrounding himself with supervillains like Sandman, Megawatt, and Tombstone, he aimed to solidify his already ironclad rule over the criminal underworld in New York. But in the final episode of Spider-Noir, "The Man in the Mask," his grip on the superpowered criminals began to slip, until Megawatt began questioning his leadership and asking why they were even following Silvermane's orders when he was weaker than any of them.
It didn't help when Silvermane's forced arm candy, Li Jun Li's Cat Hardy, also betrayed him, confessing that she hired James Addison to burn down his mansion in an attempt to finally end his life. As chaos unfolded, with The Spider fighting Sandman and Megawatt, Cat was free to chase down Silvermane, ultimately ending his life with a single bullet to the chest.
While a priest read his Final Commendation over Silvermane's coffin in the final moments of the season finale, it doesn't entirely rule out his return in Season 2 of Spider-Noir. After all, Silvermane has survived far worse in the comics, returning again and again as a cyborg terror on the criminal underworld.
Will Silvermane Be New and Improved in Season 2?
In the comics, Silvermane was just your average, run-of-the-mill mob boss when a no-name vigilante gravely injured him. But he had made preparations in place to preserve his life if the worst were to happen. When the runaway teen heroes, Cloak & Dagger, later destroyed his life support system for revenge, his underlings worked quickly to integrate him into a new robotic body.
Considering how far Spider-Noir went in portraying the sillier and more outlandish aspects of the comics, including all the superpowered villains, it's not beyond the realm of possibility for Silvermane to return as a cyborg. At its most ridiculous, the series even had Ben Reilly bitten by a mutated man-spider created by the Nazis.
Megawatt's mockery of him for his powerlessness as an old man in the face of real supercriminals could even foreshadow his evolution into a genuine threat. Not to mention, despite being The Spider's archenemy, Silvermane never had a real final confrontation befitting of their heated rivalry implied throughout the season.
Of course, there's plenty to stop this from happening, such as that funeral scene with Finbar Byrne's coffin, which seemingly made his death definitive. However, it was a closed casket, meaning that it's possible he wasn't even in it. It could have even been a way to trick his enemies into thinking he was dead, including Flint and Cat, the two people who would want him gone the most.
No, what could really plug a hole into this theory was Silvermane's reaction to Dr. Faber's experiments. For someone who theoretically looked into ways of extending his life through super-science, he seemed rather shocked and put off by Faber's handywork. However, it's possible that he could have a change of heart after being at death's door and put on life support, forcing him to invest in other unsavory options to save himself, including putting his head on a robot exoskeleton.
