WELCOME TO THE WILD, WILD WEST! Silk’s old nemesis Saya Ishii has her trapped in a dream world that keeps resetting. In the latest dream, Silk is a web-slinging, train-robbing outlaw in the Wild West. Why is Silk trapped? And what’s the deal with the monstrous creature that keeps showing up to terrorize her? Silk #2 is written by Emily Kim, with art by Ig Guara, colors by Ian Herring, and letter’s by Ariana Maher.
With Cindy Moon being held captive by the Ishii siblings and trapped in different dreams, you have to wonder whether anyone can rescue her. Yet Cindy Moon has never been completely alone and this is demonstrated as the issue opens in a flashback to Cindy’s younger brother Albert.
Albert has just finished watching a horror movie with his female friends Marty and Lane. As they discuss the film, they mention that Albert would’ve been a character who died first because his personality is too low-key to be heroic. Up until this point, Albert has mostly been a background character in Cindy’s story, a fashion student and sibling who waits for her to come home.
This is driven home even more when Cindy shows up in front of Albert as Silk because she was worried about him since his phone was turned off. Her actions are understandable, given that he used to run with a bad crowd called The Goblin Nation and the two were separated for a decade. Although Albert understands, he also feels she is a bit overprotective. Cindy probably feels she has to make up for lost time by keeping small tabs on Albert, but Albert reassures her that she already does okay as a big sibling.
There is also a tender moment between Albert and Cindy that occurs later that night as Albert puts a blanket over his sleeping sister and removes a leaf from her hair. It really demonstrates how close Cindy and Albert are despite their different lifestyles and it’s great writing on Emily Kim’s part.
Then, the story moves to the present day, where Albert returns to their apartment to find that someone has left the door open. He looks in Cindy’s room to find Saya Ishii and her brother Max monitoring an unconscious Cindy’s vitals. I really like the “Oh crap” facial expression on Albert’s face in one panel on this page. The blueish white coloring done by Ian Herring adds to the Ishii sibling’s mystique.
Before Albert can do anything, Max appears behind him and traps Albert in a force field made from one of Saya’s drones. To add insult to injury, Saya Ishii appears and calls Albert a “loose end, a useless appendage who’s in the way.” Her harsh words are emphasized by the lettering done by Ariana Maher. It’s one thing to have your friends tell you that you aren’t hero material, but to have a villain straight up call Albert useless is pretty cruel.
Meanwhile, in Cindy’s dream world, Wild West Silk is about to blow up a train with dynamite. As dire as Cindy Moon’s situation is, it is cool to see a dream-version of her in different settings. Cin Cassidy is a cool Wild West outlaw name and it’s nice to see another villanious version of herself given her past experiences with temporarily being a bad-guy double agent for Black Cat. IG Guara did yet another great costume change for Cindy.
Just as Cin Cassidy robs the train of its loot, a familiar demon monster makes an appearance. What in tarnation indeed, Cin Cassidy. As she attempts to wrangle this critter with some rope, Cindy starts to realize she is dreaming again.
In the real world, Saya Ishii is panicking a bit to Max as she realizes that Cindy’s dream isn’t resetting. Of course, this means that no one is paying attention to Albert, who searches in his backpack for something he can use to escape. After remarking that fashion students don’t carry a lot of weapons, he pulls out a big sheet of reflective satin waves and holds it up to the drone.
In the other room, Saya is fiddling with Cindy’s brain stats on a tablet, which causes Max to warn her not to send Cindy into a psychic cascade. This would cause Cindy to become delusional and mess up whatever plans the Ishii siblings have. However, Saya successfully manages to reset Cindy’s dream so that Cindy is now a bad-ass looking pirate named Captain Silk.
Just then, a clang from the other room causes Max to check on Albert, only to find that he has escaped. The sheet of reflective silk messed up the drone, allowing Albert to run to The Sactum Sanctorum. The issue ends as Wong opens the front door and asks Albert what he can do for him.
Perhaps Wong was the first superhero that Albert considered going to for help since Cindy helped Wong a week earlier. Maybe Wong can help Albert astral project into Cindy’s mind to help his sister fight Saya’s dream and the orange demon. Whatever the case, we’ll see what happens in the next issue.
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.
