All dreams must turn to waking in Silk #5 written by Emily Kim with art by Ig Guara, colors by Ian Herring, and letters by Ariana Maher.
At the end of the previous issue, we saw Silk’s younger brother Albert running from the demon form of Saya Ishii in a literal nightmare. At the same time, Silk, who is currently at Saya’s headquarters, has realized that Albert is in danger.
As dire as the situation is, I found Silk’s brief flashback to Albert as a little kid adorable and endearing. It provides a new perspective for Cindy’s overprotectiveness as a big sister because it shows that she still sees Albert as a vulnerable child.
Since Albert is currently sleeping back at The Sanctum, Silk wants to rush back there and save him. However, Saya’s brother Max dissuades her by saying she won’t reach him in time. He also offers a different solution: use Saya’s prototype dream inducer to have Silk enter Albert’s dream.
Using the dream inducer would not only allow Silk to rescue her brother, but also allow Max to literally contain Saya’s demon form once she is weakened enough. Although Silk is understandably reluctant to be put to sleep again, working together with Max is her only option. At least Wong decides to keep an eye on Max in case he double crosses her.
Once she’s in Albert’s dream, Silk thwips through the woods to search for her brother but finds an unusual sight. The horde of zombies that were chasing Albert in the previous issue are attacking demon Saya. Artist IG Guara and colorist Ian Herring do a fabulous job showcasing this using a mix of heavy inks and splashes of greens and orange.
Albert is sitting in the trees above gleefully watching Saya and the zombies when Silk appears by his side.She explains the plan to weaken and trap Saya and Albert wisely says, “Knowing when to stay out of a fight can be exactly how you win it.”
At this point, I want to compliment writer Emily Kim again for doing such a great job fleshing out Albert and Cindy’s sibling dynamic in this mini series. As Cindy says to Albert, she is so used to literally fighting her way through physical, mental, and emotional pain and for a time, she was used to doing it alone.
Since Albert ended up separated from Cindy and their parents sometime after Cindy locked herself away in a bunker, she doesn’t want Albert to feel like a lost and scared little kid. However, as Albert tells Silk of his plan to weaken Saya, Silk is finally realizing that Albert is more than capable of looking after himself and her.
Soon, Albert puts his plan into action as he lets himself fall from the tree and the dreamscape changes into a pink, candy-filled wonderland. The dream is inspired by a sequel to a movie Cindy and Albert watched as kids, but Saya’s presence dampens the mood a bit. Saya gives chase as Albert and Silk run while a group of cute flying mice cheer them on and then urge them to jump off a cliff.
When they jump, Albert’s dream changes again so that Silk and Albert are in a high-speed car chase. Albert can reset his dreams just like how Saya reset Cindy’s dreams from the outside. A key difference is Albert is in control because he is aware he is dreaming. By resetting his own dreams, Albert figures he can tire Saya out because she is a human-demon hybrid using a lot of energy to follow him and Silk through the dreams. In this particular dreamscape, the lettering of Ariana Maher is cool because besides horror, action movies suit comic style sound effects quite nicely.
Speaking of Saya, she emerges from the car directly behind Albert and Silk, prompting Silk to take the wheel using one of her webs to send their careening through a guardrail. Just then, Albert changes their dream to a musical parade setting that has Albert and Silk sitting on a cute Spider-Man balloon float. This makes me wonder if one of Albert’s favorite movies is Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
Anyway, Albert’s plan is working because Silk notices that Saya is getting weaker. From there, Silk, Albert, and Saya continue moving through Albert’s dreams until Saya is finally tired out in a haunted house. Silk lands one final punch before signaling Max to activate the mechanism to capture her and to wake Albert and Cindy in the real world.
Soon, Max watches the trapped demon Saya on a laptop as Silk remarks that keeping Saya in the dreamscape is just a temporary solution. Wong decides to use his resources as an agent of W.A.N.D. (i.e. the magic division of S.H.I.E.L.D.) and take the device holding Saya captive to research a way to reverse her transformation.
As for Max, it is not certain where he ends up. He helped Silk save her brother but he is also the reason he and Silk got captured in the first place. He wants to make things up to Silk, but the only way he could start atoning is by doing what Silk suggested and turn himself into the authorities. I doubt he will though. In the meantime, Cindy and Albert decide to get to work cleaning up their apartment, which was trashed by Max and Saya. Maybe Max could pay their rent to make up for it.
The issue and mini series ends as Cindy and Albert have a nice conversation on the roof about their relationship. Cindy now wants to work together with Albert during future superhero adventures, as she finally sees him as an equal and a hero in his own right. It would be cool if he got his own costume and codename.
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.
