REVIEW: Silk (2021) #4

Sexy As Silk

With Miles Morales, Gwen Stacy and all the other spider-themed heroes in the Marvel multiverse, it’s easy to forget about Cindy Moon (Aka Silk). Her costume isn’t just a female Spider-Man; instead, it sports more of a sleek ninja look compete with a red scarf to conceal her face. While her backstory of being locked in a bunker for years is uninteresting, what she starts doing once she comes out of that bunker is anything but.

These days she works as a reporter in Manhattan while moonlighting as a superhero to stomp out corruption spider style. This issue sees her meeting with prominent Spider-Man villain Silvermane for the scoop of a lifetime. It turns out he’s not more than a head floating in a jar hooked up to a clunky robotic body complete with claws for hands. He proceeds to tell Cindy of his daughter Saya and her upbringing.

It’s A Flashback Issue, Folks

Let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way with now; this is a flashback issue. Most of the thirty or pages are dedicated to fleshing out Silvermane’s little girl, her talents and details about her upbringing. It’s a serviceable backstory that shows just how resourceful Saya is, with that resourcefulness underlined by resentment towards her parents. Her father, who is absent from her life for the first sixteen years, returns only when he requires cybernetic enchantments only Saya can create and maintain.

They go through the motions of a broken family and a daughter learning the family business of running rackets in New York City. Saya excels, possessing more of her old man’s tenacity than she cares to admit mixed in with her mother’s intelligence making her a forced to be reckoned with. The flashback is intercut with what Saya is doing today, and this is where things get good.

They Fight Demons!

Yes, you heard that right; we see Saya, not Silk fight a massive cat demon to prevent him from resurrecting an evil demonic deity. She uses an army of flying drones controlled by her smartphone to overwhelm the hulking cat in order to prevent the unholy resurrection. Given Spider-Man normally fights things themed after science gone awry, I like the direction Silk is taking to explore supernatural enemies to give this hero a different feel. Doubling down on this direction going forward could really set her apart from her spider-themed ilk.

The issue wraps up with Silvermane issuing Cindy a warning before ordering his goons to break her fingers to prevent her from typing the story at her publication. Which begs the question of why he told her the story in the first place? It seems like a slight oversight that was hastily written in as an excuse for our hero to learn about Saya. It’s here we catch a glimpse of Silk kicking ass in a way that actually protects her identity by using pepper spray to dispatch the goons instead of showing off her super strength; this is something a lot of superhero writers forget, and I’m glad Maurene Goo displayed here.

SCORE: 3/5 Stars

“This one feels like it’s building to something, but you should read the prior issues first.”

Writer: Maurene Goo
Artists: Pyeong-Jun Park, Takeshi Miyazawa
Publisher: Marvel