Image Courtesy of Marvel.com

Spoilers: Keep in mind that my method of reviewing involves spoilers for purposes of analysis. If you care about being spoiled and have not read Silk #1 yet, please avoid this review until you do!!

So now I get to review my favorite comic book of February 2015. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out WHY Silk #1 was my favorite of the four books I read in February, and a portion of this review is going to be me working through that. First of all, like Spider-Gwen, I like the art style. Stacey Lee’s decision to create a style for this book that is almost manga inspired gives it a refreshing look amongst the spider-books, and I love the line work: Bold, intentionally sketchy, and it only serves to enhance that mangaesque look. The manga inspiration serves a book focused on an Asian-American super hero dressed like a Naruto character well, and I mean that in the best way possible. Silk’s art style is cohesive. It just works for the character extremely well.

Also, like Spider-Gwen, I enjoy that this is a female-led book that doesn’t hinge on the protagonist’s relationship with a male counterpart. Cindy Moon is almost literally just a female Peter Parker. They were bitten by the same spider, they are roughly the same age, they both interact with villains the same way, and to top it off they have some weird spider pheromone thing that makes them want to have sex all the time. If you pitched this idea to me, I would have bet good money that Silk would have involved Cindy teaming up with Peter all the time and learning to be a hero from him and dealing with the romantic complications of their relationship, but it’s not. Robbie Thompson surprises the hell out of me here. Silk outright rejects Peter TWICE in this book. It’s him who wants her to stay and talk or come over, and both times, she’s like, “Nope. Got better things to do,” and heads off to do those things, leaving Peter sitting there by himself while Cindy goes out to do the super hero thing.

However, I think if I really had to nail down what makes me like this book so much, it’s that it’s fun. I like Cindy, and the writing is just plain fun to read: “My name is Dragonclaw!” “Seriously? Sounds like a Pokémon. Is Pokémon still a thing? Asking for a friend.” It has all the humor that I have come to expect from a Spider-Man book, and it still manages to feel fresh. Cindy’s origin story is incredibly dark. She was locked in a bunker for 10 years and doesn’t know where her family is, and that is a big part of her character, which is good. It gives her direction, but Thompson doesn’t let it bring the tone of the book down too much. Cindy makes jokes both internally and externally about her situation, and we are both allowed and expected to laugh at them. The fact that there is an undercurrent of something more sinister going on keeps us buying books, but it’s the fact that Silk #1 is actually a fun read that kept me turning pages and enjoying myself more than I did reading any other comic this month.