Cindy Moon hits the dreamy high seas in Silk #3, written by Emily Kim, drawn by IG Guara, colored by Ian Herring and lettered by Ariana Maher.
Even though Cindy Moon being stuck in a loop of dreams sucks, I like how writer Emily Kim allows Cindy takes a moment to enjoy the fact that she’s a pirate as this issue opens up. As explained in her internal dialogue, she’s wanted to be a pirate ever since she was a kid but she’s also afraid of the ocean.
At least she looks good as a pirate and gets to kick some butt, even if she is fully aware that she is dreaming and keeps getting her dream reset. Until Cindy figures out how to wake up, she decides to go along with the dream for now.
Back in the real world, Saya Ishii is seething in Cindy’s apartment because Saya’s brother Max let Cindy’s brother Albert escape their clutches. However, the drone that Albert was captured with tagged him with an energy signature that can be used to track Albert.
When we last saw Albert, he went to The Sanctum Sanctorum to enlist the help of Wong, Doctor Strange’s second in command. Even though Doctor Strange is currently in another dimension, Wong is more than capable of assisting Albert and Cindy after Albert explains their situation.
After showing Albert a thick magic book called The Mondragone Codex, Wong says that Cindy is up against a sleep demon called a Ja-Li, which has the power to absorb Cindy’s psychic energy. Moreover, Saya has been keeping Cindy in a loop of dreams in order to disguise the fact that Cindy is fighting the sleep demon over and over. The endgame of this is to have the demon absorb enough of Cindy’s psychic energy to enter the real world. I must say, this is a step up from Saya working for an evil cat demon.
While Wong is explaining all this, Cindy is in the middle of battling the demon yet again and she is having a tough time, even as a pirate with Spidey-powers. It’s a shame the demon made Cindy lose the pirate swords because I wanted to see her duel-wield them. At least the action looks great thanks to the dynamic artwork from artist IG Guara. In addition, Ariana Maher expertly weaves Wong’s exposition throughout Cindy’s battle, which heightens the stakes.
In order to save Cindy and stop Saya Ishii’s plan to harness the demon, Wong suggests entering Cindy’s dream and giving her a magic crystal that will stop the demon. Albert is more than willing to do it, and manages to save Cindy just as she is about to get crushed by the sleep demon. My baby’s all grown up and protecting his older sister!
Albert also gives Cindy the magic crystal, but he has to be careful. Wong’s spell has allowed him to enter Cindy’s dream, but if he dies in the dream, he dies in real life too. Of course, Albert explaining this makes Cindy go into protective big-sister mode as she turns the magic crystal into a dagger to kill the sleep demon. It’s no dual swords, but I’ll take what I can get.
To Cindy’s distress, Albert decides to act as bait to give Cindy an opening. In the real world, Max has used one of Saya Ishii’s drones to track down Albert at the Sanctum, just as the sleep demon corners Albert in Cindy’s dream. The juxtaposition of this is quite nice, as is Cindy’s awesome stab into the sleep demon.
Back at the Sanctum, Wong also gets a bad ass moment as he karate kicks the drone targeting Albert after waking him up. This results in Albert fading from Cindy’s dream and the demon left in a dying state.
Just as things seem to be over, the comic cuts to Saya Ishii, who watched Cindy and Albert seemingly defeat the demon. However, Saya uses her own copy of the magical book Wong had to give the demon her own body.
The issue ends as Cindy awakes to see Saya ishii in her new demon form. Talk about a waking nightmare. Things aren’t looking good for Cindy, but we’ll have to wait until the next issue to see how this resolves.
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.
