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Silk by Robbie Thompson

Silk, Vol. 1: Sinister

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Silk is back and badder than ever! Cindy Moon, the other victim of the radioactive spider that bit Peter Parker, has been working to find the missing members of her family since she escaped the bunker that was her home for so many years. But Silk's quest has taken her down a darker path than expected, and now she's in cahoots with the most ferocious feline in the Marvel Universe: the Black Cat! But not everyone in the Cat's criminal crew is happy about the arrangement. Nor is a certain friendly neighborhood CEO of Parker Industries, and that will bring Cindy into conflict with Spider-Man and the Goblin King! What could have led her to this? Who is Espectro? And will Cindy go so far there's no redeeming the Sinister Silk?

Collecting: Silk (2016) 1-6 & material from Amazing Spider-Man 1

144 pages, Paperback

First published May 31, 2016

21 people are currently reading
708 people want to read

About the author

Robbie Thompson

632 books73 followers
Comics writer.

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 196 reviews
Profile Image for Noah.
500 reviews416 followers
June 7, 2025
So, I'm back up in the game / Running things to keep my swing / Letting all the people know / That I'm back to run the show (Return of the Mack – Mark Morrison).

Yeah, it’s Pride Month and I may be queer, but damned if I’m not straight up reading a whole lot of comic books! Flying through them, really. I do want to start reading full length novels again soon though, to prove to myself that I still can if nothing else, but that’s a topic for the next review, because right now it’s all about Silk! …Who is admittedly a superhero that I’ve never heard of before a couple months ago, but if I’m going to be real with you for a second (and not one more!), the only reason I started reading these Silk comics is because she’s Asian. Shallow? Yes. Truthful? Also yes. Look, I totally forgot that May was AAPI month (oops!), and my friend got on my ass for my lapse in judgement, so between you and me, let's pretend like this little coincidence was intentional! I mean, I'm Asian, so in a way, every month is AAPI month! Did that excuse work? But yeah, I literally did a little google search asking for “Asian superheroes,” and here we are six or seven or twenty issues later. And I'm glad for that, because I’m pretty sure that I have a new favorite knock-off Spider-Man! Firstly though, let's go through the brief history; as chronicled in The Life and Times of Cindy Moon, Cindy Moon apparently got bit by the same radioactive spider that turned Peter Parker into Spider-Man, and instead of going off to save the world like he did, she instead locked herself in a bunker for ten years like she's Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Don’t ask me why, I didn’t really get it either, but it’s all cool because she’s out now and raring to go do some classic superhero-ing. Unfortunately for her, it’s not all fun and games, as the plot gets thick as gravy when she finds out that her family had also gone missing in the decade she’d gone missing, so now it’s up to her to figure just what the hell is going on. In trying to find them, she uncovers more secrets surrounding her pastJason Bourne style. In this volume, Cindy has to go undercover for and against the Black Cat (who’s bad now for some reason), and I thought it was kind of fun to see this character work through her two worlds colliding like a secret… Asiaa~aan man. Sorry, I had to. When I was a kid, my dad used to sing that song “Secret Agent Man” by Johnny Rivers, except he'd substitute “agent” with “Asian.” Don't laugh! I thought those were the lyrics for the longest time! Anyway, Silk: Sinister hooked me right away, which is especially notable because normally whenever I’m reading comics I just go with flow and the major story developments don't affect me, but this time around I actually found myself engaged in Cindy's arc. Where are her parents, why was she in a bunker, what’s her relationship to Spider-Man? what’s going on, tell me!? Sure, all this interest could just be because she’s an Asian superhero and I have to represent, but I really do think that this character has finally found her footing in the larger Marvel universe, because in her debut, Silk had been criticized for being not only a discount Spider-Man, but also the creation of some weirdo's various offensive and dehumanizing fetishes.

Okay, now I’m going to get really real for a couple more seconds (but not anymore than that)… the truth is that I don’t know if I’m cut out to be a hardcore comic book fan. I don’t know, I realized with this volume that it’s really challenging for me to be patient while keeping up with all the varying story lines that all mesh together into one big Frankenstein’s Monster of a beast. And look, Frankenstein’s monster was only a beast because of how beastly he was treated, yes yes, but this is my way of saying that there were several moments throughout these Silk comics where the main story wouldn’t completely line up from issue to issue!? Like, there were stories in-between that all happen off-screen and we’re apparently just supposed to be okay with that? It's for continuity reasons or whatever, but I still hate it. In the last volume, issue seven literally doesn't completely follow six because Silk was off on another adventure doing whatever-the-hell and it just had to happen before her own story was finished! It’s like Tom Holland’s Spider-Man movie trilogy, in that I do not consider it to be a real trilogy because watching them in order and doesn't tell a complete story. If not for yours, I'll try to work through that whole convoluted mess for my sake! Spider-Man: Homecoming isn’t just a start to a new trilogy, but a pseudo sequel to Captain American: Civil War, then Spider-Man: Far From Home isn’t a direct sequel to Homecoming because it follows the story events of Avengers: Endgame! Ugh, what a mess! And don’t even get me started on cameo-fest Spider-Man: No Way Home. Sorry, but for me, reading comic books will always feel like reading a book with missing pages. And look, I know for a fact that anybody who’s big into reading comics would have wanted to stop me halfway through this paragraph and be all like, “dude, that’s literally how all comics work! You either get over it or you can go finish that Ginn Hale book you started months ago!” and to that I’ve got to say Straw-Man, that hurts, but… good point! I think my big problem is that when it comes to stories, I tend to get obsessed with “definitive” versions. I think that’s why I’m so bothered with multiverse stories that seem to permeate every facet of media nowadays, because I want a story that begins and then ends within the confines of where that story is being told! I don’t want to go off and find a million little side projects just so I can get the whole context nor do I want to have to listen to a podcast with three insufferable long winded dorks who get high huffing on their own farts just to understand their questionable writing decisions, I just want a complete story that stands on its own and speaks for itself! Anyway, speaking of consistency, the artist changing from issue to issue also pissed me off. Lots of complaints, huh? But I think my rating here is less for this specific volume and more for the character as a whole. And in that regard, Cindy Moon is cool and funny, dripped out like Android 17 from Dragon Ball, and web-swings from her fingertips in a permanent bisexual finger gun fixture. So you know, I can’t complain too much.

“So, this is the story of a young girl. (I’m still young. Shut up!)”
Profile Image for Baba.
4,098 reviews1,559 followers
October 26, 2021
The best Silk story I've read so far, sees Silk getting mixed up with the Peter Parker, Spider-Man and the Goblin King! Cindy Moon's search for her family members, sees her working with the Black Cat. After reading this volume, I had a lot more hope for the Silk books. 7 out of 12
Profile Image for Chad.
10.4k reviews1,060 followers
October 30, 2020
A good story marred by sub-par indie art. The artist in the book changes with each issue. It's at best serviceable but often just terrible depending on what artist is filling in. Robbie Thompson has given us the traditional Peter Parker archetype. Cindy Moon constantly overextends herself as she tries to balance her job, friends, search for her parents, and go undercover as Silk.
Profile Image for James DeSantis.
Author 17 books1,205 followers
September 17, 2017
So Silk is something I never really read before. I knew who she was, kind of? I haven't read Spider-verse but I gathered the Spider-family (similar to another Family from a different company) came from it. Except instead of everyone being brooding sexy heroes we have a lot of lip-smacking heroes who all have similar features to Peter.

Silk is now part of the 616 and guess what? She's working undercover for Shield (or mockingjay) working with Blackcat to take down the Goblin Nation! Sounds exciting huh? Well in the middle of all that fighting we also have Cindy (Silk) dealing with real life issues like her busy work life at the daily bugle (Someone has to after Peter dipped)and her buddies at work.

Good: I liked Cindy. She's cute, funny, and somewhat badass. Her costume is also on point. Sexy much? The first issues art is really solid too. I also enjoyed seeing Spider-woman and mockingjay showing up.

Bad: The fights weren't all that interesting. The art took a serious dip after issue 1. The side characters are also really really dull. The plot is typical superhero blah.

Overall not a horrible first issue but not great. I'ma go with a 2.5. It could def be better. But I'll give volume 2 a go.
Profile Image for Nicolas Poulin.
138 reviews6 followers
March 19, 2016
I would have given it 5 stars if Veronica Fish was the artist in every issue. I did not like the other artist's style of art.
Profile Image for Craig.
6,492 reviews183 followers
March 30, 2024
This is a well-written book featuring Cindy Moon, Silk, a character not as familiar to me as the older Marvel characters. She was bitten by the same spider as the one that infected Peter Parker, but spent a decade locked away instead of learning the great-power-great-responsibility bit that her more famous associate did. Marvel went through a phase of everybody's a spider and everything's spider-adjacent, a decade or so after their everybody's-a-mutant era. (DC did the same thing, of course, when everybody was a bat, and everything was bat-centric for too long of a while.) She's somewhat teamed with Felicia Hardy and Bobbi Morse and Jessica Drew, so that was cool, and Peter Parker and J. Jonah Jameson appear, too. There are three different artists with very different styles, none of them outstanding, so there's little continuity with the graphic portion. Some of the pages looked like the outline drawings they used to put in young kids' coloring books, but some of the Tana Ford pages were good. It's a good story, though nothing especially memorable.
Profile Image for Julio Bonilla.
Author 12 books40 followers
April 30, 2018
Good is bad for business.



I read this in a few hours and couldn't help reminisce about the 90s Spider-Man cartoon!

Marvel Comics satisfies the teenager inside all of us. Silk is basically the teenage-Caucasian-version of Spider-Man! In a girls
-world(New York), everyone has secrets. Thankfully, Cindy Moon is seeing a psychiatrist! Peter Parker is now CEO, meanwhile J. Jonah Jameson (JJJ) looks like he's about to retire!

Profile Image for winnie ₊ ⊹.
935 reviews305 followers
May 3, 2020
reread in june 2019; four stars ∗ i took half a star because some of the artwork was just.. weird. but other than that i loved this continuation! silk is so kick butt and i absolutely adore cindy’s personality. can’t wait to read more!!
Profile Image for Wing Kee.
2,091 reviews37 followers
April 18, 2016
Argh...I hate multiple artists...and fucking Secret Wars.

Argh. I hate Secret Wars, I also expressed my displeasure of it with the way Silk Vol 0. ended and now, yeah we get a choppy start on something super important because of it.

World: I hate the multiple artists. I'll be honest, 80% of the reason I enjoy this series is because of Stacey Lee's art, without it it's just an average book. Wow, the art that replaces here for these couple of issues is UGLY. Normally I don't say this but with the drop in quality that massive it's absolutely a problem, not a fan at all. The world building here is choppy and it's all because of Secret Wars. The end of the last arc and the immediate follow-up should have been Albert and Cindy. We should have seen the interaction of them when they meet again and gotten the history and the interaction (maybe it's inside one of the Secret Wars tie ins, I don't know and I don't care) we should have seen that to anchor the world and the story. The rest of the world building is also choppy cause it feels like I'm missing pieces of it, and yeah it's Secret Wars. Thompson does try to go back and paint the world together but you can't get past that sense of disconnect at the beginning of this series.

Story: There is too much going on here for a first arc. Not only that there is such a huge disconnect from that happened in Vol 0. This is just sad cause Secret Wars ruined the momentum of the last arc which was great. We got an intimate story about Cindy trying to find her family, we finally see Albert and then end. What we have next is a complete missing chunk of story and a start of another story that is choppy as hell. There are so many pieces here for a new reader to take in and all the good stuff about the last arc gone. Focus on the family and give us more of it. With Goblin Army and Black Cat and Psychiatrist and Friends and SHIELD, it's too much and too choppy for a first arc. You lose all the momentum and any focus for readers of the series. Plus the resolution of the Goblin storyline was so fast making it rather pointless, but it should not be cause it was such a big deal for the Albert story. Just poor planing, pacing and writing all around.

Characters: Cindy is still wonderful, with her very distinct personal voice. But just like the rest of the book there is a fracture in her development. We don't see enough Albert and Cindy to anchor her character down. We don't see enough her interacting at work and with her friends. We get Black Cat stuff and SHIELD stuff with her out of the blue. When did Spider-Woman 616 become friends with her and Mockingbird? You see the problem that has on character development when things are just thrown in and not earned or explained? Secret Wars pretty much torpedoed any momentum in terms of character development here also. Plus the cast of characters here is too large to let any o them actually develop. We don't get anything from Mockingbird, JJJ and the rest cause they are here as reactionary characters. Argh.

I'm so disappointed with this first arc. All the wonderful character development from the first arc is lost and hindered.The story is too big and too wide too soon. Focus back on Cindy and her journey out of the bunker, I don't care about Black Cat, I don't care about SHIELD. What I as a reader care about is this young women experiencing a world she's been away from for 10 years and finding her family. That should be the focus, not all this gang war, undercover stuff that serves nothing for her character and is only there for world building that does not matter to her. Plus, where the hell is Dragonclaw that story was great.

Onward to the next book!
Profile Image for Divine.
412 reviews188 followers
May 11, 2019
Since I'm kind of a graphic novel binge, I thought it was time for me to read Silk's story arc. This was actually fascinating and while it may not be the best it was certainly worth the read. Cindy Moon aka Silk is struggling with some anger issues of her own and tries to balance three lives all at once. Her alter ego's mundane life, her S.H.I.E.L.D alliance life, and undercover job. She's a mess but an endearing character.
Profile Image for Grace Arango.
1,351 reviews672 followers
May 19, 2018
I loved this (but not a fan of the inconsistent art-style).
Cindy Moon is one of my favourite characters ever now!
I'm looking forward to reading the next in the series!
Profile Image for Oneirosophos.
1,592 reviews74 followers
March 30, 2021
It could get 3/5, if it wasn't for the utterly ugly artwork by Tana Ford...
Profile Image for Molly.
51 reviews7 followers
October 14, 2021
SCORE: 70 | B
TRIGGERS: n/a
REVIEW: This volume starts off as an attempt at deception which sadly falls flat for me due to the fact that Silk's status as a hero never actually seems to be in question based on what we have seen so far from her. Other than the back and forth double agent shenanigans, there are some fun ideas and strange goblin people to keep us entertained. I particularly enjoy how protective and caring JJJ is over Cindy, and I would like to see it grow into a father-daughter like dynamic down the line. The shift in art style seems more disjointed in this volume than the last, and I much prefer the 'first' art style over the later ones, but neither of them are bad. I'm hoping that the next volume warrants a higher rating as I am still very much invested in Cindy Moon.
Profile Image for Sesana.
6,305 reviews329 followers
August 8, 2016
This is still a really good book, and I still adore Cindy as a character. But this is another book that suffered terribly from the post-Secret Wars gap. The time skip just wasn't that kind to this book, and it meant we had to miss out on at least one important and very personal scene, when Cindy reunites with her brother. Thompson worked around it fairly well, I think, and I did like the concept of Silk working undercover for SHIELD in return for them using their resources and connections to try and find her parents. I also liked that Black Cat seems a little less bizarrely unbalanced in this book than she has in others since she turned evil.
Profile Image for Little Timmy.
7,426 reviews61 followers
October 17, 2017
Interesting addition to the Spider-man mythos with a different intriguing character. Good story and art. Recommended
Profile Image for Basmaish.
672 reviews2 followers
January 7, 2019
I didn't enjoy this as much as enjoyed Vol. 0 but I still want to know more about Silk and I still don't like the change of illustrators in between each chapter/issue. The thing that's keeping me going is that I've heard some great feedback about the latest volume that's out so I'm hoping the story becomes stronger and that the illustrators stop changing....
Profile Image for Terry Mcginnis.
395 reviews3 followers
July 1, 2020
Really good series with simple art (in a good way) and dialogue reminiscent of Peter's earlier days. Silk, as a character, has been developed well and this continues through volume 1, setting up an exciting next volume. Recommended for fans of Spider-Heroes!
Profile Image for Caroline.
189 reviews40 followers
July 6, 2018
4.5 stars! Really enjoyable even without knowing the wider universe, but the changes in art styles between comics was annoying.
Profile Image for Chelsea &#x1f3f3;️‍&#x1f308;.
2,059 reviews6 followers
July 15, 2017
I'm loving this series a lot, so far. I really like Cindy Moon. She cracks lame jokes, doesn't know any lingo or pop culture references from the last 10 years and she's adorable!

That being said, I really feel for her. She was locked away for 10 years, her parents are missing (possibly dead) and her brother is suffering from brain damage. She's dealing with a lot, not sleeping enough and living a double life. I actually teared up a bit at the last scene with her therapist.

Another notable thing about this series: it gives a lot of depth to characters that are usually pretty one dimensional in other titles. Black Cat isn't just a cat burglar and a bad guy. She's morally grey, values trust and loyalty and she cares about innocent children and Cindy. J. Jonah Jameson isn't just a hard ass Spidey hater; he actually cares about Cindy and looks after her in his own way.

I really don't know what happens to her from here but I enjoyed everything I've read so far. I hope she continues to see her therapist and id able to get better and gain some closure on what happened with her family.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Sarah.
111 reviews
June 18, 2016
Intrigued by the developments in Cindy's character arc (esp. the role of Black Cat) - though I found the alternating artwork in this collection slightly jarring. Excited to see more of the mystery revealed in future issues...
Profile Image for Danielle.
283 reviews4 followers
July 7, 2019
Title: Sinister
Author: Robbie Thompson
Series: Silk, 1
Format: ebook
Length: 144 pages
Rating: 3 stars

Synopsis: Silk is back and badder than ever! Cindy Moon — the other victim of the radioactive spider that bit Peter Parker — has been working to find the missing members of her family since she escaped the bunker that was her home for so many years. But Silk's quest has taken her down a darker path than expected, and now she's in cahoots with the most ferocious feline in the Marvel Universe: the Black Cat! But not everyone in the Cat's criminal crew is happy about the arrangement. Nor is a certain friendly neighborhood CEO of Parker Industries, and that will bring Cindy into conflict with Spider-Man and the Goblin King! What could have led her to this? Who is Espectro? And will Cindy go so far there's no redeeming the Sinister Silk?

Favourite character: Silk
Least favourite character: Black Cat

Mini-review: I'm loving all these comics and like a lot of people I adore the Spider-Verse. The Silk series is no exception. Except for the fact that I read the prequel 2 years ago, so I was a bit confused. I thought this was great.
Profile Image for Anniken Haga.
Author 10 books90 followers
August 22, 2017
A problem I've been having with starting reading Marvel and DC, is that all the comics are just spin-offs of known serieses, or the character in a new series has a lot of backstory in other serieses.
Silk has that as well, but not as bad as other comics I've tried the last year.

This album thankfully doesn't hint too much to other comics, so it was easy to follow..
Also, I rather enjoyed the story. It had some nice twists and turns, and I'm looking forward to seeing where this is going. I'm smelling some interesting story-lines!

I'm growing to like Black Cat as a character - which is weird, 'cause I never like the catgirls - but this one I'm finding interesting.
We're also getting to see a lot of different personas for characters I know exist in other serieses, like JJJ, and also in Silk herself.

My biggest problem is the art.
I like it most of the time, but the fact that it keep rotating between three artists, doesn't really do it for me.
Will continue reading the series despite this, though
Profile Image for Lizzy Seitz.
Author 2 books24 followers
January 12, 2018
2.75 out of 5 stars

Probably should have read the prequel so I wasn't as confused, but also I didn't love when the art style changed... oh well. I did like that the main character was a Chinese American girl because yay diversity so that was cool and a redeeming quality but the rest was kind of mehhhh going to read the sequel cuz I have it and like lol wanna boost my reading goal early but I don't have high hopes for it
Profile Image for Amy.
998 reviews62 followers
March 5, 2018
more compelling than the intro in that Cindy Moon seems to have more agency, more connection with others (even when we're talking villains), decent reflection via her therapist on the consequences of isolation, abuse and loss and some start to healing
The final section gets a little silly going into "The Negative" (maybe that's something familiar to consumers of the entire Marvel universe but it's not to me & it was pretty absurd... one of the reasons I hate clunky universe tie-ins)
Profile Image for João Pedro Vale.
63 reviews
October 6, 2020
Eu AMO a relação da Cindy com o J. J. Jameson. E adorei como a HQ usa coisas inerentes à linguagem dos quadrinhos pra demonstrar a falta de habilidade social da Silk, tipo tapar as falas dos outros personagens com os balões de pensamentos dela. 
Profile Image for Garrett.
1,731 reviews24 followers
April 25, 2023
Definitely a worthy (and more cohesive) follow up to the first collection (which is #0). Wish the art was a little more even, but really enjoyed the characterizations of the principle characters here, and the story gels well with what it needed to do in the 616 at the time whilst also being a solid origin story for Cindy Moon.
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