Silk #1: Twas But A Dream

Silk #1 opens up with a noir overtone, with Cindy playing the role of the fem fatale. Ig Guara does a great job of penciling the city, drawing in a style that harkens back to a classic noir aesthetic. Colorist Ian Herring steals the show with the blank and ominous color palette that is only broken up by Cindy’s red hood, which is later expanded upon to reveal the red in her costume. This artistic team sells the aesthetic this book goes for, especially towards the end when the setting takes a hard shift. It almost feels like the art team changes, which is a positive thing considering the narrative structure of the issue. Beyond anything else, it will be exciting to see what Guara and Herring do with the rest of this series.

While Guara pencils the interior, the main cover goes to Dave Johnson, who, while doing a fine job, misses the entire aesthetic of the book. Here, Cindy is drawn in a much more cartoony way, setting up for a dramatic shift compared to the interior. That being said, the art on the cover looks great for what it is, don’t expect the interior pages to look anything like it.

Ariana Maher’s letters perform a similar feat as the colors from Herring, portraying Cindy’s inner monologue as red text. Again, this adds subtle nuance to this title, giving it flair in otherwise mundane portions. It also elevates Emily Kim’s noir-style script early on, helping make it more palatable for those not as keen on the film style. 

The elevator pitch for this new Silk series would be Tom King, and Elsa Chartier’s Love Everlasting meets Total Recall. Essentially, this series sees Silk transported between dramatically different settings within some dreamscape, under the control of some mysterious benefactors. Sadly, nothing interesting has been done for Silk since her creation, so this different kind of story seems like a fun place to take the character. Kim also has a lot of fun in the two different settings here, using the dialogue and atmosphere to help sell the setting in a way that makes the prose enjoyable. The best thing that can be done for Silk is to take her as far away from the ongoing Spider-Man mythos as possible, with this issue setting up precisely that. Silk has so much potential to be a solid and independent character, and it finally seems we are on the right track with her.