Quick Critique: Silk: The Life and Times of Cindy Moon (Patreon)

Silk seems like a great addition to the Spider-Man world. She has a great costume, some really good powers, and reminds me of a lot of what I liked about Ultimate Spider-Woman, and I'm totally indifferent on most of the normal Spider-Women. Silk is similar to Spider-Man but with her own twists and is the most interesting "female Spider-Man" in the mainline Marvel universe. It also really helps that the art is fantastic. Stacey Lee is immediately in my top ten comic artists thanks to this book. But then in issue 4 and the finale, the artist changes and it gets bad. I can't stand this about Marvel and DC comics. I understand why they would need to change artists from time to time, but get two artists that look vaguely similar. You go from issues that look really stylish and vibrant to an artist whose work has neither of those things.

The need for Silk to quip is a bit annoying and hurts the series and character from trying to distinguish itself from Spider-Man. It seems like a "Spider-Man quips so we're required to have lady Spider-Man quip too" mandate rather than something that feels natural. They do a decent job of her pop culture references though, as she mostly calls back to things that are now older due to her not being in society for a decade. I was all annoyed with her making references to Seinfeld and Pokemon given that she was locked up for ten years until I realized Seinfeld ended in 1998 and that's also the year Pokemon Red/Blue came out so those absolutely would be up to date references for her. And then I felt old and sad about my own life. Silk has a well-written female lead that can do awesome things going up against a cool female villain and it never feels the need to constantly remind you of that. I tried giving that Supergirl TV show a shot but after the eighth time they felt the need to reiterate "She's a lady and yet she's competent!", it started to feel more insulting than empowering. I'll gladly add Silk to my super hero comics but only as long as Stacey Lee is on it or they get artists that can reach her level of quality.