Silk #1 // Review
Cindy Moon is still trying to keep it together. She’s got a lot going on in her life even after the cat demons and the evil tech geniuses are out of the way. She’s got more problems on the horizon, though. An ancient Korean witch is emerging from a museum in Manhattan. She’s going to have to deal with this and more in Silk #1. First-time comic book writer Emily Kim takes over the story weaving for a series once again rendered for the page by talented spider-artist Takeshi Miyazawa. Color splashes across the page courtesy of Ian Herring.
It’s a perfectly ordinary burglary. Silk wouldn’t have a whole lot of trouble with it were it not for the fact that a social media icon happens to be there getting in the way of everything. He’s the type of guy who will risk his life doing something stupid to catch viewers. Now Silk has to deal with him. She’s got the rest of it under control, though. She’s able to make everything sound nice and wholesome and totally healthy for her therapist. She might not be making her boss happy, but seeing as how he IS J. Jonah Jameson, it’s not like that’s a terribly easy thing. Things are about to get a whole lot more difficult for her when she investigates a natural history museum...only to find an ancient evil lurking there.
Emily Kim has written for television in the past. Her first shot at writing for the comics page does a strikingly brilliant job of picking-up all the beats of her previous series without any jarring changes to Cindy or her life as Silk. Kim plays with some fun, little deviations from the standard web-slinger story in a way that feels fresh and contemporary. Kim has a decent rhythm for the issue, which opens and closes with action and leaves plenty of room to briefly explore the rest of Cindy’s life beyond the mask. It’s a sharp writing debut for Emily Kim.
Miyazawa once again shows a clever eye for action and momentum in smart panels that deliver interesting angles to the page. The panel composition is remarkably balanced. The flow of action across the page is as dynamic as ever. Kim throws some interesting challenges at Miyazawa. An overview of Cindy’s life hits the page in five horizontal panels that have to deliver a hell of a lot of different moods. Miyazawa does a brilliant job of rendering drastically different moments that all seem to have depth and life of their own. It’s a very concise look at everything that Cindy’s life has been like since the close of her last series.
Kim seems to be a perfect fit for Cindy Moon. The story that will play out throughout this and the next four issues looks quite appealing. It’s too bad that there isn’t more momentum on a full-length series for Cindy, but it’ll be fun to spend the first half of the coming year hanging out with her.
