Silk (comics)

Publication history

The character first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 3 #1 (April 2014) as a faceless cameo and was created by Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos. She made several other faceless appearances throughout the volume's first story arc, before making her full debut in The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 3 #4 (July 2014), as part of a tie-in to the Original Sin storyline. An ongoing title featuring Silk started publishing in February 2015, with scripts by Supernatural writer Robbie Thompson and art by Stacey Lee. Silk volume 1 came to an end during the Secret Wars event. After the event, a second volume began.

Fictional character biography

Thirteen years ago during a demonstration on the use of radioactive rays at a science exhibit, a spider is accidentally exposed to large amounts of radiation. In its dying moments, the arachnid bites Peter Parker. As a result, the young teenager gains amazing powers and becomes Spider-Man. However, this is not the end. Mere moments after biting Parker, the spider bites another young student named Cindy Moon. Soon after, Cindy’s abilities manifest but she is unable to control them. Some time later, Ezekiel approaches the Moon family to offer his help and guide Cindy in controlling her newfound abilities. After six years training to use her powers, Cindy is locked up inside a facility by Ezekiel to protect her and the other “spiders” from Morlun and his family called the Inheritors.

Original Sin

Seven years later during the "Original Sin" storyline, Spider-Man is exposed to the energies of the Watcher’s eye. He receives a vision of the radioactive spider that bit him also biting Cindy Moon, and learns what happened to her afterwards. Spider-Man immediately goes on to search for Cindy to break her out of the facility Ezekiel had kept her. After freeing Cindy, she attacks Spider-Man in a fit of rage saying that he has doomed them all. Spider-Man calms Cindy down by telling her that Morlun is dead. Cindy makes her way out of the facility to finally see the city of New York, stopping only to make a costume out of her webbing. She tells Spider-Man to refer to her as Silk. Silk is heartbroken to find that her family has moved. Silk and Peter also find that they are powerfully attracted to each other due to their shared Spider-Sense. Silk finds out that Morlun might be still alive, which causes her to attack Peter. However, their attraction to each other leads to sex. Peter stops as soon as Cindy begins to remove his mask, after which they move back to Peter and Anna Maria’s apartment. Afterwards, Peter and Cindy go to the Fact Channel’s news station where they are attacked by Black Cat and Electro. While Silk is easily able to dodge Electro’s lightning bolts thanks to her “hyper-spider-speed and senses,” Spider-Man isn’t as lucky. Black Cat then goes after the paralyzed superhero and begins to unmask him in front of live TV. Thankfully, J. Jonah Jameson hogged up too much space in front of the camera, preventing the camera (and anyone else) from seeing Peter’s face. Silk quickly spins a temporary mask for Peter and escapes with him back into Peter and Anna Maria’s apartment. At the waterfront where Parker Industries will be holding the demonstration for their new device meant to cure Electro, Cindy spins Peter some Electro-insulated webbing to prevent what happened during their last fight with Electro from happening again. When the fight begins, Black Cat sabotages the machine which causes Electro to go out of control and hit a helicopter. Silk hurries and begins spinning porous webs to catch the crashing helicopter. She then creates an insulated web-pod to contain the inevitable explosion of energy coming from Electro. The entire incident ends with a depowered Electro and a missing Black Cat. Afterwards, Cindy gets accepted for a job at the Fact Channel where she intends to use the information center in order to find her family.

Spider-Verse

During the "Spider-Verse" storyline, Spider-Man and Silk discuss their problem in which whenever they get close, they feel the need to have intimate interactions as well as possible solutions to this. They end up fighting Looter and his henchmen where they are stealing equipment and Spiderling costumes from Spider-Island II. Spider-Man and Silk managed to defeat them with the help of Spider-Woman, Spider-Girl, and Spider-Man 2099 as the final henchman is defeated by Spider-Girl of Earth-982, Spider-UK, and Spider-Ham. Silk accompanies the other spider-themed heroes through the portal to Earth-13. When Spider-Man wants Silk to be among those to accompany him to gather the other spider-themed heroes, Old Man Spider-Man of Earth-4 advises that Silk should stay behind. Silk ends up following anyway which later angers Old Man Spider-Man when they arrive on Earth-928. He mentioned that Silk shouldn't have left her bunker. After Daemos was slain, Superior Spider-Man (Doctor Octopus' mind in Peter Parker's body) blames Silk for Daemos' attack and suggests that they kill her. When Brix, Bora, and a Daemos clone arrive and kill Old Man Spider-Man Silk steals Spider-Man's portal device, intending to set right the deaths she caused and opens a portal while attracting the Inheritors' attention. Spider-Woman volunteers to follow Silk while Superior Spider-Man sends Spider-Man Noir to accompany them. After Spider-Man of Earth-90214 was badly injured, Silk and Spider-Woman take him back to Earth-90214 so that he can die recuperate. Superior Spider-Man expresses concern since the Inheritors have already been there, but Spider-Man says Silk should be safe as long as she keeps moving and takes one of Superior Spider-Man's cloaking devices. Spider-Gwen and Spider-Girl (Anya Corozon) were to supervise Silk, but runs off on her own with Brix and Bora hot on her trail. Her teleporter is broken and she's surrounded by the Inheritor twins, so she dives into Earth 001 to escape. She then finds Jessica Drew 616 impostering that dimensions Jessica Drew. She uses her teleporter to escape, but ends up in Earth 3145-the only world the Inheritors cannot attach due to a post-thermo nuclear war. Silk is able to survive when she creates a web-suit. She finds her way to this dimensions SIMS building and finds that dimensions spider totem in a nuclear bunker—Ben Parker. She then sends clues to the other Spiders of the safe zone and goes back to Earth 001 to save Jessica Drew, but gets captured by the Inheritors. She is one of the three key totems, The Bride. During the final sacrifice of her, Benjy Parker of MC2, and Kaine, the Spider Army are able to stop the Inheritors and save her and Benjy. After Superior Spider-Man kills the Grand Weaver, she volunteers to take his place, but Karn decides to be the new Weaver, since through a time paradox he was the weaver all along. Silk, Jessica Drew, and Spider-Man return to Earth 616.

Silk solo series

After arriving back in New York, Silk begins a career of crime-fighting while searching for her family after ten years, as well as continuing her job as a Fact Channel intern. Wanting to move focus on the search for them, Cindy moves out of her friend's apartment and moves back into her old bunker, which she uses as a base of operations. Discovering that her family has no official records of being around, save for some old files, she goes to her old neighborhood. Here she runs into her high school boyfriend, who is now engaged. Unbeknownst to Silk during all this, two mysterious figures are watching her whenever she is in the bunker.

As seen in the first issue of the Silk comic book title, she engages in battle against a costumed villain called Dragonclaw (whose name she says sounds like a Pokémon), and also engages in antagonism with Black Cat.

Spider-Man thinks she is not well and asks the Fantastic Four to check her. Silk consents to the check up but becomes annoyed when she finds out Peter revealed the history about her bunker and Ezekiel to them. It is revealed that Silk is physically fine, but is dealing with anxiety issues, and is referred to a therapist (who she eventually visits in the seventh issue). She and Human Torch also go on a date of crime fighting despite Peter's protests.

During the "Last Days" part of the Secret Wars storyline, Cindy Moon begins her run as Silk and comes across Dragonclaw and defeats him. Later, she finds out Dragonclaw did this because he was in the debt of Black Cat. This was the reason for his misdeeds and the tries to help him out by enlisting the help of Spider-Man to find Black Cat's gang causing a show down between Silk and Black Cat which leads to Silk cutting her hair to escape. While this was going on, it is show that Silk is still very confused as to what has happened to her family and ex-boyfriend which leads her to take a job under J. Jonah Jameson at the Fact Channel who takes an immediate liking to her as she suggests that they start taking photos of silk. One day, J. Jonah Jameson looks at Cindy Moon's screen to find out that she was trying to find where her family is which also leads her to tell him everything about her. A couple of days pass and it is shown to be the final incursion between Earth-616 and Earth-1610 as time is running out. J. Jonah Jameson gives Silk a case file of a young boy who seems to be Silk's brother as he tells her this. She runs straight out going to that location where she meets her brother now with a 'X' shape scar on the left side of his forehead embraces him. As the world is ending, Silk tells her brother "I'm sorry. For everything. And I love you, Albert. I love you."

As part of the All-New, All-Different Marvel branding, Silk is on a stakeout at a skating rink. Silk's Spider-Sense goes off as a group of Goblin Nation grunts rob a bank. Monologuing to herself, Silk reveals she'd been tailing the Goblin Nation for two weeks in order to avenge her brother who was infused with Goblin Formula and now has no memory of what happened to their parents. Extending claws, Silk slashes the Goblin Nation grunts' getaway car and webs them up, taking their loot, a safety deposit box containing Parker Industries tech. Thinking to herself that she has no idea what's in the safety deposit box just that her boss wants it, Silk returns to her now-employer Black Cat, who she is working with despite their earlier antagonism, who scolds her for showing mercy and tells her that being good is bad for business.

During the events in the Spider-Women event, Cindy learns her counterpart from Earth-65 (home of Spider-Gwen) is the cause of Gwen's powers, and has traveled to Prime Earth to steal and reverse engineer the technology of the greatest minds of the universe for war mongering. Upon confronting Cindy-65 with Spider-Gwen, Gwen loses her powers from Cindy-65's nanobots and Cindy-Prime's name as SILK is tarnished as a villain, so much so that her S.H.I.E.L.D. handler Mockingbird thinks she actually did the crimes she's accused of. After Black Cat's freeing of Silk from a S.H.I.E.L.D. prisoner convoy, Cindy chooses to stay with Black Cat (cont. undercover), and later went back to help Gwen and Jessica win the boss fight with Cindy-65, who utilized a gauntlet which replicates the abilities of the universes most formidable superhumans. Cindy, as a result of her Earth-65 counterpart's defamation, earns more of Black Cat's trust to gain deeper intelligence of her criminal operation, still intending to complete her mission and get whatever S.H.I.E.L.D. has on her family's whereabouts. Eventually, Black Cat discover her alliance with Mockingbird, prompting Silk to fight her. During the ensuing fight, Cindy falls into one of the dumpster, and was saved by a mysterious figure called Spectro, who was revealed to be Cindy's ex-boyfriend Hector.

It is revealed that Hector actually died (while Cindy was being held in the bunker) when a neighbor attempted to summon a demon in his apartment block, resulting in him wandering the Material World and only able to manage tangibility when in combat. Cindy's colleagues Rafferty and Lola at Fact Channel News discover her secret identity and Cindy embraces this opportunity to open up to them, which helps relief some of her feelings of loneliness in the world. Rafferty reveals that they have discovered Dr. Kapoor's lab, which has been abandoned for months but has a secret benefactor continually paying the rent. The three of them travel to the labs location, which unbeknownst to them is part of a trap for Silk by a villain called Fang. Shortly after they arrive at the lab, they discover a dimensional doorway which leads they to the Negative Zone. Upon journeying to the Negative Zone, Silk, Rafferty, and Lola relish the adventurous experience and befriend a medieval dragon called David. David explains the continuing war of the Red Knight against the evil forces of the Ash King and his army. He caught the scent of their arrival, which mimicked the arrival of a previously three (from the outer world) years ago. The three aid the Red Knight. After the battle is won, with the defeat of the Ash King, the Red King is revealed to be Cindy's mother Nari Moon. Nari explains to Cindy that she and her father, who has become a prisoner of the Ash King some time previously, had originally traveled to the Negative Zone in search of a blue substance they believed could be synthesized into an antidote for the spider bite that Cindy received and which would have nullified her powers, thus removing the threat of the Inheritors. Cindy's father Albert Moon Sr. is soon liberated from his prison and soon after the five say there goodbyes to their friends in the Negative Zone and re-enter the dimensional doorway. Mockingbird gives financial help to the family in the form of an abode in which to live, and the family begin building bridges with each other which places Cindy at a crossroads on what to do with her life next. What Cindy doesn't know is that Albert Moon Sr. is in possession of the mysterious blue substance and delivers it to Fang who claims it is time to "put an end to Silk once and for all..."

During the Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy event, Cindy is glad to have her family back, but still feels distant from them and doesn't make as much of an effort to spend as much time with them. When J. Jonah Jameson wants one of his workers to investigate the New U Technologies scenario in San Francisco, Cindy volunteers to go to get away from the city as Hector (now calling himself Spectro) accompanies her. Jameson is enthusiastic for her that her family is back together and leaves for dinner, but Cindy found something off about his behavior. She and Hector decide to investigate Jameson's room in New U Technologies and she uses her powers to create a different costume from her Silk outfit to avoid suspicion. Hector calls her new identity "Silkworm" much to her annoyance. Cindy's suspicions are confirmed when she finds Jameson talking with his formerly deceased wife Marla while Spectro finds a room with a number of test subjects in capsules. Spectro triggers the intruder alert, prompting Cindy to escape. Before Cindy can leave, she's attacked by the resurrected Spider-Woman Mattie Franklin. Silk fights Mattie Franklin on the top of the roof of New U Technologies. When Mattie Franklin claims to Silk that New U Technologies is doing things for good purposes and offers her a tour in exchange for removing her mask, Silk gets away. At Fact Channel, Rafferty and Lola look more into New U Technologies and tell Cindy they'll update her with more information. Cindy is then approached in her apartment by J. Jonah Jameson. Cindy gives her Rafferty and Lola's research to voice skepticism on the New U Technologies and Jameson invites her to join him on a quick trip to the facility. He tells Cindy that he believes they're doing good work and introduces her to Mattie and Marla. After J. Jonah Jameson and Marla leave for Marla's treatment, Mattie tells Cindy that she knows she's Silk and takes her to investigate the facility. Mattie tells her that she's suspicious of the whole experiment as some of the other resurrected characters have been showing slight behavioral glitches and takes her to a place called "Haven" where they find Hector back in his own body. Back at Cindy's home, Mr. Moon has hidden a package that Cindy wanted Albert to open and tells Rafferty and Lola to stay out of their business while receiving instructions from a mysterious woman. At "Haven," an alarm goes off and starts affecting all the resurrected clones. Hector starts becoming Spectro again and prepares to attack Cindy. J. Jonah Jameson's broadcast causes the Carrion virus to start spreading worldwide. Mattie helps Cindy deal with Hector who reverts to his ghostly form after his cloned body disintegrates. The three of them head up to the broadcast center, where the Carrion Virus quickly spreads due to Marla Jameson opening the doors. Spider-Man and Anna Maria Marconi arrive to stop the broadcast as Mattie reveals to J. Jonah Jameson her superpowers. Silk holds the door back to prevent more infected hosts coming in and Mattie saves her from one of the carriers infecting her and passes out in the process. After Spider-Man sends out the Webware Emergency Signal, J. Jonah Jameson and Silk find Marla and Mattie reduced to dust. After the incident, Cindy quits her job at the Fact Channel and contemplates what she wants to do with her life. After a discussion with her brother, therapist, and helping a child free his kite in the graveyard (which she was visiting to see Mattie's grave), she decides to enlist in S.H.I.E.L.D. academy.

Powers and abilities

Cindy gained similar abilities to Peter Parker when she was bitten by the same radioactive spider that gave him his abilities, though her spider-sense (dubbed by her as "Silk Sense") is far stronger than Peter's. She also has the ability to shoot webs out of her fingertips and an eidetic memory.

Reception

Cosmopolitan referred to Silk as "Marvel's badass Asian-American superheroine with Spidey-Sense".

Earth-65

In the crossover event Spider-Women, it is revealed that the Cindy Moon of the Spider-Gwen universe is the head of a nefarious spy organization called S.I.L.K., and serves as the main antagonist of the event. Cindy of Earth-65 almost had a similar spider bite accident to the main one, but a teacher swatted it with a newspaper. Dissatisfied with her life, she joins S.H.I.E.L.D. as a researcher in spiders. There was a spider-related incident in which Jesse Drew was nearly killed, but Cindy's research saves his life and gives him spider powers, with Agent Drew making it up to Cindy by becoming one of her top agents. She eventually recovers the altered spider back from S.H.I.E.L.D. with Jesse's help and releases it into the open, where it bit Gwen Stacy and led to her becoming Earth-65's Spider-Woman. During the Spider-Women event, Jesse steals Gwen's interdimensional teleporter and travels to Earth-616, where she steals a large amount of technology while framing her 616 counterpart. When she encounters Gwen and her counterpart, she uses her technology to take away Gwen's powers. When she returns to her hideout after Jesse's betrayal, she is ambushed by Jessica Drew, Gwen, and her counterpart and is defeated. S.H.I.E.L.D. locks her up for her crimes and her counterpart teases her by sending her a care package with all the things she had in her bunker.

The Earth-616 Silk had managed to meet the parents of her Earth-65 counterpart.

Video games

Figures