Silk (character)

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). 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. She was a member of the Spider-Army / Web-Warriors and the Agents of Atlas.
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 television series Silk: Spider Society produced by Sony Pictures Television for MGM+ and Amazon Prime Video, set in Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU), and the spin-off film Spider-Women, set in the animated Spider-Verse franchise, focusing on three generations of female Spider-related characters.
Publication history
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. Silk volume 1 came to an end during the Secret Wars event. After the event, a second volume began which concluded with issue #19.
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.
A third Silk ongoing series was set to be published in July 2020 by writer Maurene Goo and artist Takeshi Miyazawa, but it was withheld due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The series was released in March 2021 as a five-issue limited series.
A fourth Silk series was released in January 2022 by writer Emily Kim with Takeshi Miyazawa returning as artist.
A fifth Silk series was released in May 2023 with writer Emily Kim returning and Ig Guara as artist.
Fictional character biography
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, it bites teenage student Peter Parker, who, as a result, gains superpowers and becomes Spider-Man. Moments after biting Parker, the spider bites Cindy Moon, another student. Cindy's abilities, including organic webbing (unlike Parker), soon manifest but she is unable to control them. Ezekiel eventually 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, and learns what happened to her. Spider-Man goes on to search for Cindy. At the facility Ezekiel had kept her in, Cindy 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 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 Morlun might be still alive, which causes her to attack Peter. However, their attraction makes them kiss. 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 easily dodges Electro's lightning bolts thanks to her "hyper-spider-speed and senses," Spider-Man is not as lucky. Black Cat goes after the paralyzed superhero and begins to unmask him in front of live TV. However, J. Jonah Jameson takes up too much space in front of the camera, preventing it (and anyone else) from seeing Peter's face. Silk spins a temporary mask for Peter and escapes with him to safety. 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 him from getting shocked again. When the fight begins, Black Cat sabotages the machine, causing Electro to go out of control and hit a helicopter. Hurriedly spinning webs, Silk catches the crashing helicopter. She then creates an insulated web-pod to contain an explosion of energy coming from Electro. The incident ends with a depowered Electro and a missing Black Cat. Afterwards, Cindy manages to get hired at the Fact Channel where she intends to use the information center 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. They end up fighting Looter and his henchmen, who are stealing equipment from Spider-Island II. Spider-Man and Silk manage to defeat them with the help of Spider-Woman, Spider-Anya, and Spider-Man 2099, among other spider-themed heroes. The group then goes through a portal to Earth-13. When Spider-Man wants Silk to be among those to help him 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 angers Old Man Spider-Man when they arrive on Earth-928. After Daemos is slain, Superior Spider-Man (Otto Octavius's 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, 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 is badly injured, Silk and Spider-Woman take him back to his Earth so that he can 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 Corazon) are assigned to supervise Silk, but she runs off on her own with Brix and Bora hot on her trail. Her teleporter is broken, and she is surrounded by the Inheritor twins, leading her to escape into Earth-001. She then finds Jessica Drew 616 impersonating that dimension's Jessica. She uses her teleporter to escape, but ends up in Earth-3145 – a post-thermonuclear war world which the Inheritors cannot attack due to their vulnerability to radiation. Silk survives by creating a web-suit which shields her from radiation. At that dimension's Sims building, she meets its spider totem, Ben Parker, in a nuclear bunker. She sends clues to the other spiders of the safe zone and goes back to Earth-001 to save Jessica but gets captured by the Inheritors. She is revealed to be The Bride, one of the three key totems. During the final sacrifice of the totems, the Spider Army are able to stop the Inheritors and save her. After killing the Grand Weaver, Superior Spider-Man becomes the new new Weaver. Silk, Jessica and Spider-Man return to Earth-616.
Silk solo series
After returning to New York, Silk begins a career of crime-fighting while searching for her family, as well as continuing her job as a Fact Channel intern. She also 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 and runs into her high school boyfriend, who is now engaged. Unbeknownst to Silk, two mysterious figures watch her whenever she is in the bunker.
She repeatedly engages in battle against a costumed villain called Dragonclaw, and occasionally, Black Cat.
Thinking she is not well, Spider-Man asks the Fantastic Four to check her. Silk consents to the checkup but becomes annoyed after finding out Peter revealed her whole history to them. Silk turns out to be physically fine but is dealing with anxiety issues and is referred to a therapist. She and Human Torch also go on a date of crime fighting despite Peter's protests.
During the "Secret Wars" storyline, Cindy Moon defeats Dragonclaw. She later finds out he was in the debt of Black Cat and that was the reason for his misdeeds. She tries to help him out by enlisting the help of Spider-Man to find Black Cat's gang. In the ensuing showdown, Silk cuts her hair to escape Black Cat. At her job, J. Jonah Jameson takes a liking to her after she suggests that they start taking photos of Silk. One day, Jameson looks at Cindy Moon's screen and finds out she is trying to find her family. This leads her to tell him everything about her. Days later, it is the final incursion between Earth-616 and Earth-1610. J. Jonah Jameson gives Silk a case file of a young boy who seems to be her brother. She runs to the location on the file and meets her brother. As the world is ending, Silk tells him "I'm sorry. For everything. And I love you, Albert. I love you."
As part of the "All-New, All-Different Marvel" branding, Silk starts tailing the Goblin Nation to avenge her brother, who was infused with Goblin Formula and now has no memory of what happened to their parents. After two weeks of searching, she webs a group of Goblin Nation robbers up and takes their loot, a safety deposit box containing Parker Industries tech. Having no idea what is in the safety deposit box, she returns to her now-employer Black Cat, who she is working with despite their earlier antagonism. Black Cat scolds her for showing mercy.
During the events in the Spider-Women event, Cindy learns her counterpart from Earth-65 is the cause of Spider-Gwen's powers, and has traveled to Prime Earth to steal and reverse-engineer its technology for war mongering. Silk confronts Cindy-65 with Spider-Gwen, who loses her powers from Cindy-65's nanobots. Silk's name 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 is accused of. After Black Cat frees Silk from a S.H.I.E.L.D. prisoner convoy, Cindy chooses to stay with her in an undercover fashion. She later goes back to help Gwen and Jessica defeat Cindy-65. Silk, 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 discovers her alliance with Mockingbird, In the ensuing fight, Cindy falls into a dumpster and is saved by Spectro, a mysterious figure who turns out to be her ex-boyfriend Hector.
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. Later, Cindy's colleagues Rafferty and Lola at Fact Channel News discover her secret identity. Cindy embraces this opportunity to open up to them, which helps relief some of her feelings of loneliness. 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 trio travel to the lab's location, which turns out to be a trap for Silk by a villain called Fang. At the lab, they discover a dimensional doorway which leads them to the Negative Zone. At the Zone, Silk, Rafferty, and Lola relish the adventurous experience and befriend David, a medieval dragon. 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. Cindy and company aid the Red Knight. After the battle is won and the Ash King is defeated, the Red King is revealed to be Cindy's mother Nari Moon. Nari and her father, a prisoner of the Ash King, had originally traveled to the Zone in search of a blue substance they believed could help create an antidote which would have nullified Cindy's powers, thus removing the threat of the Inheritors. Cindy's father Albert Moon Sr. is soon liberated from his prison, and the five exit the Negative Zone through the dimensional doorway. Mockingbird gives the family an abode in which to live, and the family begin building bridges with each other. Unbeknownst to Cindy, Albert Moon Sr. is in possession of the blue substance and delivers it to Fang.
During the "Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy" event, Cindy still feels distant from her family and does not make a lot of effort to spend time with them. When Jameson wants one of his workers to investigate the New U Technologies scenario in San Francisco, Cindy volunteers and gets away from the city with Hector. She finds something off about Jameson who has recently begun to act in a very enthusiastic fashion. 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. Meanwhile, Spectro finds a room with a number of test subjects in capsules and triggers the intruder alert, prompting Cindy to escape. Before Cindy can leave, she is attacked by the resurrected Spider-Woman Mattie Franklin. In the ensuing fight, Mattie claims New U Technologies has good intentions and offers Silk a tour if she removes her mask. Silk gets away. At her apartment, Cindy is approached by J. Jonah Jameson. Cindy voices skepticism on the New U Technologies, and Jameson invites her to join him on a trip to the facility. He tells Cindy that he believes they are doing good work and introduces her to Mattie and Marla. After Jameson and Marla leave for Marla's treatment, Mattie tells Cindy that she knows she is Silk and takes her to investigate the facility. Mattie tells her that she is suspicious of the whole experiment as some of the resurrected have been showing slight behavioral glitches and takes her to "Haven", a place where they find Hector back in his own body. Back at Cindy's home, Albert Moon Sr. has hidden a package that she 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. 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 go to the broadcast center, where the Carrion Virus quickly spreads due to Marla opening the doors. Spider-Man and Anna Maria Marconi arrive to stop the broadcast as Mattie reveals to Jameson her superpowers. Silk holds the door back to prevent more infected hosts coming in, and Mattie saves her from a carrier, passing out in the process. After Spider-Man sends out the Webware Emergency Signal, Jameson and Silk find Marla and Mattie reduced to dust.
Following the incident, Cindy quits her job at the Fact Channel. After a discussion with her brother, therapist, and helping a child free his kite in the graveyard where Mattie's grave is, she decides to enlist in S.H.I.E.L.D. academy. With S.H.I.E.L.D.'s technology, she investigates her father and eventually confronts him about his secret meetings with Fang. Fang worked for Ezekiel and was the leader of a splinter group of the spider society, and while she claims to Mr. Moon that she will be "curing" Cindy of her powers, her actual plan is to steal Cindy's powers and use those powers to take over the Spider Society. After inheriting Ezekiel's fortune and drugging Mr. Moon, she has kept her eyes on Cindy since her time in the bunker. Silk defeats Fang with the help of Hector, and her father accepts her for who she is. With her family closer, her job at S.H.I.E.L.D., and with Rafferty and Lola married, Cindy feels happiness after a long time.
The Protectors
Silk joins other Asian American superheroes (Amadeus Cho, Shang-Chi, Ms. Marvel, Jimmy Woo and S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Jake Oh) for a fundraiser in Flushing, Queens. Later, while spending the night out in Koreatown, Manhattan, the group is ambushed by the alien Prince Regent Phalkan and his small army from Seknarf Seven. Silk and Company fight off the invaders before they and a large group of bystanders are teleported near Seknarf Seven. Phalkan demands that the group offer a few people for food within a time limit. Dubbing their group "The Protectors", they rally the bystanders into working together to escape, while leading an attack against the aliens. Phalkan and his forces are eventually defeated. The Alpha Flight Space Program arrives to rescue them and arrest Phalkan, who was exiled from Seknarf Seven for treason.
Post-solo series
During the Go Down Swinging storyline, Silk and Miles Morales help Spider-Man in his fight against the Red Goblin (Green Goblin possessed by the Carnage symbiote). They are injured during the fight and later saved by Flash Thompson.
War of the Realms
After taking part in a demonstration for Jimmy Woo's Pan-Asian School for the Unusually Gifted in Mumbai, Silk and the Protectors are offered membership to Jimmy's Agents of Atlas. The group is suddenly alerted by the news of Malekith's invasion of Earth; most of the New Agents of Atlas head to Seoul while Ms. Marvel joins Jake Oh and the Champions in New York. Silk and the others defend Seoul from Malekith's ally Queen Sindr and her Fire Goblin forces from Muspelheim with help from the Korean heroes White Fox, Crescent, Io and Luna Snow. Cindy immediately recognizes Luna, as she is a big fan of the K-pop star. After Sindr threatens to summon a volcano in the middle of the city and kill millions of innocents, Brawn teleports Atlas and their new allies away from the battle, allowing Sindr to peacefully annex South Korea. Brawn eventually summons the Chinese heroes Sword Master and Aero, Filipina heroine Wave, and the Hawaiian Goddess of Fire and Volcanoes Pele from Shanghai to help assist in the fight against Sindr. There is infighting between the heroes, but it stops once they learn that Sindr plans to melt the polar ice caps. After formulating a plan, Brawn confronts Sindr and her forces while Aero, Wave and Luna use Sindr's black Bifrost to travel to the Arctic and decrease its temperature; the rest is teleported to Atlas' ally Monkey King of the Ascendants in Northern China where Shang-Chi begins training them for their final fight. Eventually, the Queen of Cinders arrives in Northern China with a captured Brawn; Silk sneaks up on Sindr and uses her webbing to free Brawn. The agents then defeat Sindr with Shang-Chi's training. Pele (who is revealed to be M-41 Zu, a mystically enhanced Atlas Android) and Monkey King sacrifice themselves in the process. Despite given the chance to surrender, Sindr flees. Silk and the others eventually help Captain Marvel defeat Sindr and her remaining forces at the Great Wall of China. Malekith is later defeated as well.
New Agents of Atlas
Shortly after the War of the Realms event, Silk and some members of the new agents fight in Madripoor one of Sindr's remaining dragons and encounter Isaac Ikeda, the self-proclaimed "Protector of Pan", who uses technologically advanced weaponry to slay the dragon and teleport away with its corpse. Cindy then goes with Aero and Wave to Tokyo to attend one of Luna's rehearsals. At Luna's studio, the four are interrupted when a white light engulfs the city. After reuniting with the other Atlas agents and Giant-Man, they discover the cities they were in (along with other Asian, Pacific and predominantly Asian cities outside of Asia) have been merged and connected together with portals made from Ikeda's technology. Mike Nguyen of the Big Nguyen Company reveals himself to be behind the newly merged city, "Pan", which he states for 24 hours would allow every citizen to easily explore each other's respective cities without any political and economic restrictions. Shortly after the announcement, Pan is beset by wyverns, which the agents and Ikeda confront. After driving the wyverns off, the group is praised by Nguyen for their heroics, who offers to enlist the agents as Pan's protectors along with Ikeda as well as giving them lifetime Pan Passes. A suspicious Amadeus rejects the offer, saying that the group are Agents of Atlas. During a banquet in the Mumbai section of Pan, Amadeus confides with Cindy about his suspicions. Cindy, Brawn, Luna and Giant-Man team up with Ikeda to save several Madripoorian refugees from sea serpents; the refugees were arrested earlier by the Pan Guard before Brawn and Luna intervened. Nguyen clears up the misunderstanding, claiming that the Madripoorians were out of range during Pan's activation and the Pan Guard mistakenly believed they were trespassing with help from invading serpents; Nguyen has the refugees escorted to the Pan Grand Hotel as special guests. When Amadeus summons the team to the Atlas secret bunker in Seoul, they are unexpectedly joined by Ikeda, who Raz invited. When Amadeus objects, Cindy notes that her spider-sense did not go off, making Ikeda trustworthy. When Ikeda is interrogated about his and Nguyen's motives, Issac explains that he was hired by Nguyen due to his expertise in fighting dragons, but offers little about Nguyen. Isaac has his own suspicions of Mike and suggests the agents join him as Pan's protectors as it would be easier for them to gather information about the Big Nguyen Company from the inside. Amadeus reluctantly agrees to have the team continue helping Pan while investigating Nguyen; when the team splits up to different Pan sectors, Amadeus and Silk go to the Pan Grand Hotel and check on the Madripoorian refugees. Unbeknownst to the agents, their actions are being monitored by Jimmy and Mr. Lao, the dragon adviser to the Atlas Foundation. During their investigation, Brawn, Silk and White Fox discover that the central heart of Pan does not correspond with any known location on Earth. Amadeus deduces the city is in a separate dimension. He becomes more suspicious when one of the refugees tells him and Silk about dragons roaring from Nguyen's personal tower. Shang-Chi discovers a photograph of Jimmy and Nguyen together in Jimmy's office in the Mumbai sector of Pan and finds a laptop that broadcasts the sound of a dragon's roar from Nguyen's tower in the Heart of Pan. Silk, Brawn, Sword Master and White Fox break into Nguyen's tower and discover a sea serpent imprisoned in a lab, while Shang-Chi and Crescent discover a secret tunnel in Jimmy's office that takes them to the Atlas Foundation's headquarters in the Pan sector of San Francisco, where they come face to face with Jimmy and Mr. Lao. Nguyen denies that he and Jimmy are in league with each other, other than signing nonaggression treaty between Atlas and Pan, which the agents just violated. Nguyen explains that since dragon scales contain magical properties associated with portals and teleportation, the imprisoned dragon was having its scales harvested to supply Pan's portal and teleportation technology. Suspecting the serpent's identity, Lao and Jimmy order the agents to free her lest awakening the wrath of every dragon on the planet, while Nguyen and Ikeda argue that releasing the dragon will cause the portals to collapse, displacing everyone who had settled in the portal-city. Before a decision can be made, a storm begins engulfing the city. While Ikeda reveals the imprisoned dragon, which he captured a year ago for terrorizing the Mediterranean, is from Atlantis, an enraged Namor emerges from the waters off of Pan's coast and begins invading the city.
Atlantis Attacks
In the Atlantis Attacks storyline, the New Agents of Atlas are summoned by Brawn during his confrontation with Namor. Namor demands the group to return the dragon stolen by the Big Nguyen Company in a day or else face the wrath of Atlantis before making his retreat. The New Agents are then introduced to the original Agents of Atlas by Jimmy. Although the dragon is safely released from captivity, it promptly attacks Atlantis upon returning home. Atlantis' scientists discover the source of its behavior to be an implant embedded in its scales, Namor accuses Brawn to be behind the deception and flies to Pan for revenge, where he violently ambushes Brawn while he and Silk are on patrol and proceeds to attack Nguyen in his tower. After the Pan Guard and Brawn manage to push Namor's assault back to the ocean, Nguyen reveals to the Agents that he has recruited the Sirenas, the longtime enemies of Atlantis, to help defend Pan. After Namor is overpowered and captured by the Sirenas, a meeting is held between Atlas, the Pan guard and the Sirenas. Rather than siding with either the Atlanteans or the Sirenas, Silk chooses to stay and defend Pan. When Ikeda and Wave announce their intention to side with the Sirenas, the disagreement escalates into a brawl. During the commotion, Namor is able to break free from his prison. He subdues the combined group and flies back to the heart of Pan, threatening Nguyen and Pan's citizens as retribution for attacking his kingdom. A hologram of Nguyen offers an alliance between Pan, Atlantis and the Sirenas to Namor; before the king can retort the recovered Agents are able to catch up to Namor and resume fighting him. Brawn talks down the combatants and confronts Woo over the secrets that he has withheld from the team. Woo reveals that for thousands of years, ancient dragons have served as advisors for human rulers, with the Atlas Foundation having its own dragon, Mr. Lao, serving him as well. As fighting each other openly would raze the planet, dragons have used humans as proxies in their own personal conflicts, making them responsible for almost every major war in history. Woo is content with this balance of power, but Nguyen suggests uniting the world under Pan, proposing to Namor and Woo that by harvesting the power of their dragons, they could overtake the rest of them. As Namor returns to Atlantis with Namora, Venus and Aero, the rest of the Agents uncover Nguyen in his personal bunker and confront him. Having anticipated this, Nguyen attaches a Sirena tech implant onto Amadeus, transforming him into the Hulk. Under Nguyen's control, the Hulk makes quick work of the Agents. To prevent any further invasions against Pan, Nguyen commands the Hulk to kill Namor, much to the shock and anger of Pan's citizens. In Atlantis, just as Wave is able to get Namor and Carina to come to a truce, Silk warns the group a mind-controlled Hulk is on his way to destroy Atlantis. With help from the Agents, Namor manages to isolate himself and the Hulk to a deserted island two miles from the Heart of Pan. Despite Namor and the Agents succeeding in reverting Hulk back into Brawn and freeing him from Nguyen's control, the shockwaves emitted by Amadeus as the Hulk have created a tsunami that is heading towards the Heart of Pan. Silk helps the citizens find shelter as Brawn and Namor use their powers to weaken the tsunami. The city is saved, although Nguyen dies protecting a Madripoorian refugee and her young son. One month later at the Heart of Pan, Woo announces to the Agents and Pan's new leadership that Atlantis and the Sirenas have signed a non-aggression pact, recognizing Pan as an independent nation. Still feeling guilty for Nguyen's death and angered with Woo's machinations, Amadeus quits the team but reassures Silk that his comm will still be open to her.
Powers and abilities
Cindy gained her superpowers when she was bitten by a radioactive spider. These abilities are similar to the ones Peter Parker possesses. Cindy has superhuman strength, speed, durability, reflexes, and equilibrium. On their first meeting, Peter observed that she was even faster than him, though not quite as strong. Her "Spider Sense" is called "Silk Sense" and is far stronger than Peter's. Cindy has the ability to cling to most surfaces. She also has the ability to shoot webs out of her fingertips. Additionally, she has an eidetic memory.
Rogues gallery
In her comic series, Silk has fought different enemies of her own:
Ash King - An inhabitant of the Negative Zone who held Albert Moon Sr. captive.
Black Cat's Gang - A group of criminals led by Black Cat.
Black Cat - A cat burglar who leads her own group.
8-Ball III - An 8 ball-themed member of Black Cat's Gang.
Beetle VI - A beetle-themed member of Black Cat's Gang.
Dragonclaw - A dragon-themed member of Black Cat's Gang.
Killer Shrike II - A member of Black Cat's Gang
Melter III - A member of Black Cat's Gang.
Repairman - A mechanic and member of Black Cat's Gang.
Ringer III - A member of Black Cat's Gang.
Shocker - A member of Black Cat's Gang.
Hydra - A terrorist organization.
Goblin Nation - A goblin-themed organizations.
Goblin King - The leader of the Goblin Nation.
Casey - A kid and former member of Black Cat's Gang who sided with the Goblin Nation and was mutated by the Goblin Formula.
Emmie - A kid who joined the Goblin Nation and was mutated by the Goblin Formula.
Other versions
Earth-65
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.
The Earth-616 Silk had managed to meet the parents of her Earth-65 counterpart.
In other media
Television
A live-action TV series based on Silk is in the works at Sony Pictures Television. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller will serve as executive producers alongside Amy Pascal, while Lauren Moon and Amazon Prime Video are in talks to write and distribute the series respectively. Tom Spezialy was hired as showrunner for the series, while also serving as an executive producer alongside Moon. MGM+ and Amazon later ordered to series under the title Silk: Spider Society, with Angela Kang serving as the showrunner.
Film
Cindy Moon appears in films set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), portrayed by Tiffany Espensen:
She first appears in Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) as a classmate of Peter Parker and decathlon team member.
Cindy makes a cameo appearance in Avengers: Infinity War (2018).
Cindy returns in the post-credits scene of the extended edition of Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) via archive and previously unused footage from Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Sony Pictures was developing a film based on Silk set in the Sony's Spider-Man Universe.
Cindy Moon / Silk was originally considered to appear in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, but the filmmakers chose to use Peni Parker instead.
Silk will appear in the spin-off film Spider-Woman.
Video games
Silk appears as an unlockable playable character in Spider-Man Unlimited.
Silk appears as an unlockable playable character in Marvel: Avengers Alliance.
Silk appears as an unlockable playable character in Marvel Avengers Academy, voiced by Victoria Wong.
Silk appears as an unlockable playable character in Marvel Future Fight.
Silk appears as an unlockable playable character in Marvel Puzzle Quest.
Silk appears as an unlockable playable character in Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2.
Silk appears as an unlockable playable character in Marvel Contest of Champions.
Cindy Moon makes a non-speaking cameo appearance in the post-credits scene of Marvel's Spider-Man 2.
Merchandise
Silk received a figure in HeroClix's "Superior Foes of Spider-Man" line.
Silk received an action figure in the Marvel Legends line as part of the Spaceknight Venom Build-A-Figure set.
Collected editions
Reception
Accolades
In 2017, Gizmodo ranked Cindy Moon 3rd in their "Greatest Spider-Women of All Time" list.
In 2017, Screen Rant ranked Cindy Moon 4th in their "28 Marvel Superheroes With Spider-Powers" list and 13th in their "Every Member Of The Spider-Man Family" list.
In 2020, Scary Mommy included Cindy Moon in their "Looking For A Role Model? These 195+ Marvel Female Characters Are Truly Heroic" list.
In 2020, CBR.com ranked Cindy Moon 6th in their "Marvel Comics: 10 Most Powerful Members Of Agents Of Atlas" list.
In 2022, Screen Rant ranked Cindy Moon (from Earth-65) 7th in their "10 Most Powerful Silk Villains In Marvel Comics" list.
In 2021, Dan Slott apologized on Twitter for "playing into racial stereotypes" and that "story choices were a mistake".
Notes
References
External links
Silk at Comic Vine
2014 comics debuts
Asian-American superheroes
Characters created by Dan Slott
Comics characters introduced in 2014
Female soldier and warrior characters in comics
Fictional characters from Manhattan
Fictional characters with eidetic memory
Fictional characters with precognition
Marvel Comics characters with spider powers
Fictional high school students
Fictional reporters
Fictional female secret agents and spies
Korean superheroes
Marvel Comics characters who can move at superhuman speeds
Marvel Comics characters with accelerated healing
Marvel Comics characters with superhuman senses
Marvel Comics characters with superhuman strength
Marvel Comics mutates
Marvel Comics female superheroes
S.H.I.E.L.D. agents
Spider-Man characters
Vigilante characters in comics