Silk (character)
Silk is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos, she first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #1 (April 2014).[2] Silk is the alias of Cindy Moon, a Korean-American student who was bitten by the same radioactive spider that gave Peter Parker / Spider-Man his powers.[3] She was a member of the Spider-Army / Web-Warriors and the Agents of Atlas.
Silk
The Amazing Spider-Man #1 (April 2014)[a]
Dan Slott (writer)
Humberto Ramos (artist)
Cindy Moon
Human mutate
Silk
Silkworm
Spider-Woman
Spider-Girl
Spider-Bride
Spectacular Spinning Jenny
- Superhuman strength, speed, agility, equilibrium, reflexes, stamina, and durability
- Ability to cling to solid surfaces
- Organic web generation
- Precognitive silk-sense
- Expert hand-to-hand combatant
- Eidetic memory
She is portrayed by Tiffany Espensen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and the extended cut of Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021). The character will also appear in the Gwen Stacy spin-off solo film Spider-Woman, set in the Spider-Verse franchise, focusing on three generations of female Spider-related characters.
Publication history[edit]
The character first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 3 #1 (April 2014) as a faceless cameo and was created by writer Dan Slott and artist 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.[4] Silk volume 1 came to an end during the Secret Wars event. After the event, a second volume began which concluded with issue #19.[5]
Silk was part of the new Agents of Atlas team, which debuted in a War of the Realms tie-in and later got their own five-issue limited series.[6]
A third Silk ongoing series was set to be published in July 2020 by writer Maurene Goo and artist Takeshi Miyazawa,[7] but it was withheld due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The series was released in March 2021 as a five-issue limited series.[8]
A fourth Silk series was released in January 2022 by writer Emily Kim with Takeshi Miyazawa returning as artist.[9]
A fifth Silk series was released in May 2023 with writer Emily Kim returning and Ig Guara as artist.[10]
Powers and abilities[edit]
Cindy gained her superpowers when she was bitten by the same radioactive spider as Peter Parker,[51] possessing similar abilities as his, including superhuman strength, speed, durability, reflexes, and equilibrium, the ability to cling to most surfaces,[52] and the ability to shoot webs out of her fingertips.[53][54] On their first meeting, Peter observed that she was faster than him, though not as strong. Her "Spider Sense" is called "Silk Sense" and is far stronger than Peter's.[12][13][55] Additionally, she has an eidetic memory.[19][53]
In her comic series, Silk has fought different enemies of her own:
Other versions[edit]
Earth-65[edit]
In the crossover event Spider-Women, it is revealed that Cindy Moon of the Spider-Gwen universe is the head of a nefarious spy organization called S.I.L.K., the romantic partner of Matt Murdock / Kingpin, and 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.[60]
The Earth-616 Silk had managed to meet the parents of her Earth-65 counterpart.[61]
Spider-Man: Fake Red[edit]
In the manga Spider-Man: Fake Red, Cindy Moon / Silk appears as the best friend/partner of the missing Peter Parker, on whom she nurses an intense crush. On confronting Yu Onomae for using Peter's suit to fill in for him as Spider-Man on finding it in an alley, initially suspecting him as having something to do with his disappearance, Cindy guides Yu on his journey, continuing to look for Peter alone.[62]