Review: Silk #1

Spider-Verse is done and two characters introduced in that comic event now have their own series: Spider-Gwen, which I’ll be reviewing as well, and Silk.

We have a 5-issue rule here at Project Fandom. When we take on a new series, we review the first five issues (6, if it’s needed to complete the first story arc), and if it’s good we’ll continue. I’m committing to the first five issues of Silk (and Spider-Gwen) because I loved both characters in Spider-Verse. 

Cindy Moon was bitten by the same spider that bit Peter Parker, and she too developed Spider powers, though not all of them are exactly as Peter’s - she can make webs out of her fingertips, which she has used to make clothes. Coolest.Power.Ever.

The fact that they were bitten by the same spider also makes them connected, and even attracted, to each other - this comes into play twice in this issue. To keep The Inheritors (Spider-Verse villains) from being able to sense Silk, Ezekiel Sims convinced her to live in a bunker, cut off from her family and the rest of the world. And she did this for ten years before the events in Spider-Verse. Now Ezekiel is dead, Silk has helped to defeat The Inheritors, and she’s struggling to have a normal life while she hunts down her missing family.

Cindy takes a job at The Fact Channel hoping it will grant her access and resources to find her parents and little brother. Unfortunately, she actually has to do the job and J. Jonah Jameson - who isn’t even her boss - pressures her into pitching him a story. Even though her inner voice is telling her not to, Cindy shows him video footage of Silk fighting a villain and being saved by Spider-Man. He’s intrigued and instructs her to get more info on this Silk - especially if it’s something which will make Spider-Man look bad.

Her relationship with Peter Parker is complicated. The issue opens with him saving her from a villain named Dragonclaw, but she is annoyed by his help and doesn’t want to stick around for small talk. A few days later, after she loses Dragonclaw in their second encounter, she calls Peter to ask how he does it. How does he drown out the Spider senses in this city, which is in constant need of saving? He suggests balance, finding other things in life to focus on. Then he asks if she wants to come over - I guess to give her something else to focus on - and she declines, even though she wants to.

The only place quiet enough is the bunker where she spent ten years of her life. She leaves her apartment to set up there, hoping to find clues to her family’s whereabouts. The place was pretty much a prison, but she feels safe there.

Too bad someone is watching her.

Overall Thoughts: 

• This is the kind of set-up issue I feared I’d get when I started Spider-Woman #4. There, I was pleasantly surprised. While this issue is an establishing one, it wasn’t nearly as slow as I predicted. The flashbacks to Silk’s pre-Spider life helped paint a picture of the guilt she feels for not just leaving her family, but the way she left them.
• Cindy and Peter have a relationship that fascinates me. It’s interesting that being bitten by the same spider doesn’t link them as siblings, but lovers. It was nice to see that despite her strong physical attraction to him (thanks, pheromones!), she was able to resist him and stay focused on what’s important: finding her family.
• So, who’s watching her in the bunker? Two people discuss her return and one refers to it as Silk coming home. They don’t seem to be connected to the issue’s villain, the person Dragonclaw reports to, a woman referred to as The Cat.
• I wasn’t a huge fan of the art in this issue, but I’m wondering if what I didn’t like about it was purposeful. The colors seem dull, the pages sad and sometimes depressing. Again, that might be the point since Silk spends nearly the entire issue with inner-turmoil. We’ll see if this look is something I can get used to.