Silk (comics)

Silk (Cindy Moon) is a fictional superheroine appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

Publication history

The character first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 3 #1 (April 2014) as a faceless cameo and was created by Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos. She made several other faceless appearances throughout the volume's first story arc, before making her full debut in The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 3 #4 (July 2014), as part of a tie-in to the Original Sin storyline. An ongoing title featuring Silk started publishing in February 2015, with scripts by Supernatural writer Robbie Thompson and art by Stacey Lee.^[1]

Fictional character biography

Thirteen years ago during a demonstration on the use of radioactive rays at a science exhibit, a spider was accidentally exposed to the radiation and absorbed large amounts of it. In its dying moments, the arachnid bit the nearest living thing to it, Peter Parker. As a result, the young teenager would gain amazing powers and become Spider-Man. However, this was not the end. As mere moments after biting Parker, the spider bites another young student by the name of Cindy Moon.^[2] Soon after, Cindy’s abilities manifested but she was unable to control them. Some time later, Ezekiel would approach the Moon family to offer his help and guide Cindy in controlling her newfound abilities. After six years since getting bit and training to use her powers, Cindy is locked up inside a facility by Ezekiel to protect her and the other “spiders” from Morlun and his family called the Inheritors.^[3]

Original Sin

Seven years later during the "Original Sin" storyline, Spider-Man would be exposed to the energies of the Watcher’s eye alongside his fellow heroes. As secrets began to flow into his head, Spider-Man saw that the radioactive spider that bit him managed to bite another before it died—a girl named Cindy, and learned what happened to her afterwards. Spider-Man immediately goes on to search for Cindy to break her out of the facility Ezekiel had kept her in. After unlocking the door to Cindy’s room, Cindy attacks Spider-Man in a fit of rage saying that he’s doomed them all. After a quick tussle, Spider-Man calms Cindy down by telling her that Morlun is dead and as such, is no longer a threat to them. Ecstatic about her freedom, Cindy quickly makes her way out of the facility to finally see the city of New York after hiding in her bunker for so long. Spider-Man quickly stops her as she’s about to go outside while wearing her civilian clothes, which prompts her to quickly spin an outfit made out of her webbing and tells Spider-Man to refer to her as Silk.^[3] Silk swings around the city and goes to her old home, hoping to find her family there. Her heart breaks as she finds another family living in what once was her home, with her family nowhere to be found. Realizing just how much she’s lost, she asks Spider-Man when exactly Morlun died. Spider-Man lets slip the fact that the Ancient had died twice—revealing to Silk the fact that Morlun could come back to life. Furious, Silk attacks Spider-Man once again as she realizes that her 7 years in the bunker were wasted knowing that Morlun could still kill them. During their fight, however, both Silk and Spider-Man feel the powerful connection from their Spider-Senses and end up sharing a passionate kiss. Continuing their moment of passion, both Peter and Cindy are unable to let go of each other due to the strong, primal connection they feel for each other. Peter stops as soon as Cindy begins to further remove his mask, after which they move back to Peter and Anna Maria’s apartment. Afterwards, Peter and Cindy go to the Fact Channel’s news station where they are attacked by Black Cat and Electro. While Silk is easily able to dodge Electro’s lightning bolts thanks to her “hyper-spider-speed and senses,” Spider-Man isn’t as lucky. Black Cat then goes after the paralyzed superhero and begins to unmask him in front of live TV.^[4] Thankfully, J. Jonah Jameson hogged up too much space in front of the camera, preventing the camera (and anyone else) from seeing Peter’s face. Silk quickly spins a temporary mask for Peter and escapes with him back into Peter and Anna Maria’s apartment. At the waterfront where Parker Industries will be holding the demonstration for their new device meant to cure Electro, Cindy spins Peter some Electro-insulated webbing to prevent what happened during their last fight with Electro from happening again. When the fight begins, Black Cat sabotages the machine which causes Electro to go out of control and hit a helicopter. Silk hurries and begins spinning porous webs to catch the crashing helicopter. She then creates an insulated web-pod to contain the inevitable explosion of energy coming from Electro. The entire incident ends with a depowered Electro and a missing Black Cat. Afterwards, Cindy gets accepted for a job at the Fact Channel where she intends to use the information center in order to find her family.^[4]

Spider-Verse

In "Spider-Verse", Spider-Man and Silk discuss their problem in which whenever they get close, they feel the need to mate as well as possible solutions to this. They end up fighting Looter and his henchmen where they are stealing equipment and Spiderling costumes from Spider-Island II. Spider-Man and Silk managed to defeat them with the help of Spider-Woman, Spider-Girl, and Spider-Man 2099 as the final henchman is defeated by Spider-Girl of Earth-982, Spider-UK, and Spider-Ham. Silk accompanies the other spider-themed heroes through the portal to Earth-13.^[5] When Spider-Man wants Silk to be among those to accompany him to gather the other spider-themed heroes, Old Man Spider-Man of Earth-4 advises that Silk should stay behind. Silk ends up following anyway which later angers Old Man Spider-Man when they arrive on Earth-928. After Daemos was slain, Superior Spider-Man (Doctor Octopus' mind in Peter Parker's body) blames Silk for Daemos' attack and suggests that they kill her. When Brix, Bora, and a Daemos clone arrive and kill Old Man Spider-Man Silk steals Spider-Man's portal device, intending to set right the deaths she caused and opens a portal while attracting the Inheritors' attention. Spider-Woman volunteers to follow Silk while Superior Spider-Man sends Spider-Man Noir to accompany them.^[6] After Spider-Man of Earth-90214 was badly injured, Silk and Spider-Woman take him back to Earth-90214 so that he can die there. Superior Spider-Man expresses concern since the Inheritors have already been there, but Spider-Man says Silk should be safe as long as she keeps moving and takes one of Superior Spider-Man's cloaking devices.^[7]

Silk solo series

After arriving back in New York, Silk begins a career of crime-fighting while searching for her family after ten years, as well as continuing her job as a Fact Channel intern. Wanting to move focus on the search for them, Cindy moves out of her friend's apartment and moves back into her old bunker, which she uses as a base of operations. Discovering that her family has no official records of being around, save for some old files, she goes to her old neighborhood. Here she runs into her high school boyfriend, who is now engaged. Unbeknownst to Silk during all this, two mysterious figures are watching her whenever she is in the bunker.^[8]

As seen in the first issue of the Silk comic book title, she engages in battle against a costumed villain called Dragonclaw, whose name she says sounds like a pokémon.^[9]

Powers and abilities

Cindy gained similar abilities to Peter Parker when she was bitten by the same radioactive spider that gave him his abilities, though her spider-sense (dubbed by her a "Silk Sense") is far stronger than Peter's. She also possesses an eidetic memory.^[10]

Reception

Cosmopolitan referred to Silk as "Marvel's badass Asian-American superheroine with Spidey-Sense".^[11]

Other versions

Earth-4

Since Spider-Man was killed before he could find out about Cindy's existence, Cindy was never let out of the bunker.^[6]

In other media

Video games

• Silk appears with her previous and new uniforms as a playable character in Spider-Man Unlimited.

References

External links

• Silk at Marvel Wiki
• Silk at Comic Vine