Silk #5: Silk Wins Some, Silk Loses Some

Silk hits Kasha with a flying kick, the word "Wham" in blocky yellow letters

When we last saw Silk, she returned to her and her brother’s apartment to find villainous tech CEO Saya Ishii asking for help to defeat the cat demon Kasha. Although Silk is initially reluctant to team up with Saya, she agrees after realizing that Kasha’s attempts to summon a demon god will become a problem. While Silk has worked together with villains such as Dragonclaw and Black Cat in the past, the circumstances and results are different this time around.

Silk #5

Maurene Goo (writer), Ian Herring (colorist), VC’s Ariana Maher (letterer), Takeshi Miyazawa (artist)
Marvel Comics
August 4, 2021

Silk crouched and staring at a giant demon god behind her, who is about to grab her

For one thing, Saya Ishii isn’t some everyday guy doing villain work to take care of his family like Dragonclaw nor a thief with morally grey motives like Black Cat. Saya Ishii outright states that she is doing what she does because she finds it fulfilling and that Silk will never understand her even if Silk empathizes with her past. However, Saya recognizes that Silk’s spider abilities will give her the extra help she needs to defeat Kasha and so grudgingly respects Silk. Silk has this same respect, resulting in the two of them having a mix of banter and serious discussion.

Silk and Saya’s team-up allows for both of their strengths to be showcased together. For Silk, it is not her powers alone that help defeat Kasha, but also backup via her brother Albert and her best friend Lola controlling some of Saya’s drones from a remote location. Given how Cindy tries to handle villain team-ups on her own, it is great to know that she trusts her brother and her best friend enough to ask for their assistance.

Silk and Saya Ishii discuss Saya's motives
Silk and Saya have a serious chat

Saya’s tech abilities are also explained further. In the previous issue, we saw that Saya could control and manipulate drones that transform themselves into different weapons. It turns out that this ability only extends to these drones rather than all tech since Saya made the drones herself out of earrings. Furthermore, Albert and Lola are needed to control her drones so she doesn’t overextend her powers. After Lola uses her job at the United World Defense Council to help Saya modify the drones for remote piloting, Saya and Silk head to the cave to confront Kasha.

It is here that Ariana Maher’s lettering and Ian Herring’s colors are out in full force as the battle commences. Maher’s lettering adds emotional weight to Silk’s clever quips, Kasha’s snarkiness, and Saya’s bluntness. One particularly notable image is Silk yelling a Korean battling cry and doing a flying kick at Kasha before punching her and remarking, “Hope I didn’t knock over your Ouija board!”

Most of the colors here are smoky yellows and greens due to Kasha summoning the demon god. They are also punctuated by light blues representing Saya’s battle efforts, orange letters for the drone’s laser blasts, and black letters for the demon god’s roars. One striking moment color-wise is the use of red and black that is literally an explosive end to the battle.

Drones fire at demon god as Silk attacks Kasha
Silk and Saya’s drones go on the offensive

When the dust finally settles, Kasha is defeated, but Silk still loses to Saya Ishii in more ways than one. In the face of a double betrayal, Cindy Moon is distraught the next day at her work desk until Jonah Jameson offers a kind reminder. He says that it isn’t Threats and Menaces job to catch all the bad guys because we can’t all be Silk. However, this also echoes his issue #2 reminder to Silk that you can’t save everyone. Whether as Cindy Moon or Silk, Cindy doesn’t have to always have a perfect win because she is only human.

In her two previous series, Cindy Moon had to work through the trauma of being locked away from the world for a decade. She was so used to being alone that she felt she had to deal with finding her family, becoming a superhero, and her trauma by herself. Even when Reed Richards diagnoses her with anxiety and gives her a number to a therapist, Cindy doesn’t know it’s okay to ask for help until she hits rock bottom.

With the help of several therapy sessions, Cindy acknowledges her anxiety, gradually processing her anger and realizing that she is no longer alone as she once was. This makes her reunion with her family that much sweeter because she found them with the help of friends and colleagues like Jonah Jameson and Lola. By facing her anxiety and learning to open up to people, Cindy Moon took the first steps toward acknowledging her strengths and flaws and continues to do so now.

Silk swings through the city at night thinking happy thoughts
Silk swings through the city with a new resolve

As a result, Silk can swing through the city with a smile on her face as her internal dialogue remarks that she isn’t going to let betrayal break her. Given how she has anxiety and how she was beating herself up in issue #2 , this is remarkable growth for Cindy Moon as a character. All in all, this issue was a good end to the first of hopefully more story arcs for Silk.

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