Although not the most well-known of Marvel’s Spider-Heroes, Cindy Moon, aka Silk, has gained a fanbase thanks to a handful of solo series, the New Agents of Atlas, as well as Spider-Hero related books. It also helps that Cindy Moon’s journey as a superhero has been a fun and relatable story of trauma recovery and family.
Silk (2022) #1
Ian Herring (colorist), Emily Kim (writer), VC’s Ariana Maher (letterer), Takeshi Miyazawa (artist)
Marvel Comics
January 19, 2022
Now, Silk’s fourth solo series seems to be taking steps to improve Cindy’s future even more. Returning from Silk’s previous run are letterer VC’s Ariana Maher, colorist Ian Herring, and artist Takeshi Miyazawa. They are joined by this series’ writer Emily Kim, who introduces a few new elements to Cindy’s life this time around.
One of the most notable things is social media. Although Cindy was aware of it in her previous comic book series, she was indifferent to it due to being locked away for a decade and missing out when smartphones and social media started to take off. Now, Cindy’s growing popularity in the city of New York has resulted in her being an unwilling participant in things like going viral and seeing people talk about her online.
This scenario is presented through Lucas Young, a young man Cindy saves from burglars at the start of the comic. Lucas Young seems to represent the “annoying millennials” scapegoat since he cares more about being internet famous than the safety of himself or others. This is demonstrated when he records Cindy beating up the robber while he is briefly taken hostage.
Yet Silk’s newfound online popularity also affects Cindy Moon’s civilian life. Since Cindy Moon works as a journalist at Jonah Jameson’s news site Threats and Menaces, and her job is to report on anything related to Silk, having Lucas catch Silk in action gives her nothing to report on. It is here that Emily Kim’s sense of humor shines as Cindy is shown to be utterly confused by hashtags, and Jonah calls Silk “the oldest young person he knows”, a nice nod to Jonah nicknaming Cindy “Analog” during her first series.
While it remains to be seen how Cindy will adjust to her journalist and superhero career being impacted by social media, it may serve as a notable way to present Cindy’s consideration of her future. The question is initially posed by Cindy’s therapist Dr. Sinclair during a session when Cindy more or less says that things are the same as usual. Sinclair replies that Cindy is in a rut and asks her to try new things to consider who she is outside of being a superhero.
This scene is remarkable because Dr. Sinclair has been Cindy’s therapist since her first series but was absent from the previous series due to villain-related stuff. Not only is it relieving to see her return safe and sound, but her suggestion to Cindy is thoughtful because we don’t know much about Cindy outside her life as a superhero and journalist. The most interesting personal fact about Cindy I recall is that she is a Pokemon fan. It would be cool to see Cindy play Pokemon Go while swinging through the city as Silk.
However, before Cindy can consider what she wants for her future, she must deal with a new antagonist rising in the present: an evil Korean life-draining witch. Not much is known about the witch other than its Korean origins via an ancient underground magic temple-looking thing. At the beginning of the comic, the temple was accidentally discovered by some Korean school girls when the ground opened up beneath them. Three months later, some noisy Americans decided to take the coffin containing the witch and some miscellaneous items to New York and open a museum exhibit.
Unfortunately, the witch’s coffin and personal capabilities are displayed when Lucas Young visits the museum at night for an exclusive scoop for his internet followers. His ridiculous antics become dangerous when he goes inside the display case and accidentally awakens the witch, resulting in consequences that Cindy later discovers at the end of the issue. Ian Herring’s colors and Ariana Maher’s letters enhance not the witch’s spookiness, with light bluish grays providing a backdrop, a horror-movie style text for the witch’s dialogue, and sound effect text for words like “CREEEEP.”
Yet as threatening as the witch is, I was a bit more curious about the evil samurai-looking Mortal Kombat guy that Silk glimpses while investigating the museum. I liked Takeshi Miyazawa’s design for them; it evokes an anime influence and has great detail in terms of the headwear and armor. Whether he ends up being a henchman of the witch or a future ally, it will be fun to see him in action.
Speaking of action, a preview of the next issue shows Silk teaming up with K-pop superhero Luna Snow! Given that the two worked together previously as members of the New Agents of Atlas, it will be exciting to see how they interact without half a dozen team members. Since Luna has some experience with fame, maybe she will give Cindy advice on how to handle it.
