SILK SWINGS BACK INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE! There’s something rotten in Los Angeles, and ace detective Cindy Moon is on the case! Wait…that can’t be right. In this mind-bending new series, Cindy will face old foes and never-before-seen dangers that will take her to the breaking point! Brought to you by all-star writer Emily Kim (SILK, TIGER DIVISION) and Marvel veteran Ig Guara (GHOST-SPIDER, SPIDER-GWEN) with colors by Ian Herring and letters by Ariana Maher.
Given that it’s been a whole year since the last Silk series, it’s great to see Cindy Moon again, along with writer Emily Kim, colorist Ian Herring, and letterer Ariana Maher. The three of them worked on the previous Silk series, while artist IG Guara is a fresh face.
Issue 1 begins in Hollywoodland, with ace detective Cindy Moon driving a sweet 1920’s style car on the streets of Los Angeles. If you’ve followed Silk up to this point, you know that something isn’t quite right since Silk is based in modern day New York.
However, ace detective Cindy Moon has a nice ring to it, so let’s roll with it. Cindy stops the car and steps out to discreetly take photos of two men shaking hands. In a throwback to 1920’s noir films, Cindy’s internal dialogue explains that the men are part of some shady happenings that involve kids being kidnapped and being held for ransom.
Cindy’s signature red and white text boxes really suit the noir genre, but they aren’t the only thing looking good. Cindy herself looks fantastic in a trenchcoat, red headscarf, and black gloves, a look that suits the setting she is currently in.
Cindy’s outfit allows her to inconspicuously investigate, which she does as she confidently confronts one of the men she photographed earlier, a music record store owner. After slyly revealing what she knows, she manages to get the location of a missing kid named Ritchie.
As she drives off to find him, Cindy sees a woman that looks familiar but chalks it up to paranoia. However, the nagging sense of unease remains as she heads into the building where Ritchie is located. Cindy can’t remember how long she has been a detective in the town of LA, but her Silk-Sense (aka her Spider-Sense) goes off before she can consider things further.
It turns out her Silk-Sense was reacting to an orange-looking demon monster that looks like something out of Asian mythology. With a cool greeting of “Hello, ugly.” Cindy throws off her trenchcoat and dons her Silk outfit, which got a fabulous makeover. It’s a 1920’s style dress with Silk’s signature red-white-black color palette and a cute red hat with a veil that looks like webbing.
Going back to the fight, Silk tries to web out the monster only to find it has disappeared and reappeared above her. It jumps down and tries to hit her with its claws, but Cindy dodges and now they are somehow outside in the pouring rain.
At first, Silk thinks that the monster is teleporting them or manipulating the environment. However, Silk suddenly remembers that she has fought this monster before and can predict how it will attack.
Given that Silk’s memory of fighting the monster features Silk in her modern-day costume, we can assume that 1920’s Silk is part of a dream of some sort. Being in a dream would explain the earlier inconsistencies of the familiar woman and Cindy’s loss of time.
Anyway, Silk’s previous experience with this demon allows her to gain the advantage and deliver a great high-heeled flying kick, punctuated by a “WHAM”, and then a “KA THUNK” as the monster falls down.
It is at this point that Silk realizes what I deduced earlier, that she is dreaming and that the demon is controlling the dream world. Unfortunately, her realization is cut short as Silk’s dream changes to a train robbery in the Wild West. At least Silk looks cool as a Wild West bandit.
Wild West Silk plays her part and proceeds to light up the train with what seems to be dynamite as a voice from the outside world comments how Silk is “trapped again” but Silk is catching on to the fact that she is dreaming.
It is then that the scene shifts to the real world, where Cindy Moon lies unconscious and hooked up to some sort of machine that is projecting her dreams. The voice from earlier continues speaking about Cindy Moon’s mental resistance, addressing someone named Saya.
If you’ve read Silk’s 2021 series, then you know that “Saya” is Saya Ishii, a Japanese American antagonist that tried to use a bunch of tech to try and manipulate criminal mobsters with the help of a demon cat. The person speaking to Saya is her brother Max, who posed as Cindy’s therapist as part of Saya’s first evil scheme.
With this in mind, the issue ends as Saya declares that Cindy will help her get what she wants, even at the cost of her life. Saya’s intentions are unclear but her newest scheme is clearly more thought out this time around.
Latonya Pennington
Latonya Pennington is a freelance contributor whose comics criticism can be found at Women Write About Comics, Comic Book Herald, Newsarama and Shelfdust, among others.
