Silk Marvel’s Asian American Hero Is More Important Now Than Ever

Silk: Marvel’s Asian American Hero Is More Important Now Than Ever

Marvel’s Silk series demonstrates how characters of color are more than just their trauma, marking a new era for Asian American hero, Cindy Moon.

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Silk Marvel’s Asian American Hero Is More Important Now Than Ever

Warning: spoilers for Silk #1 are ahead.

Silk (Cindy Moon) is one of the most inspiring journalists in Marvel Comics, but that doesn’t cover the fact that she’s also powered by a certain radioactive spider. A new series written by Maurene Goo with art by Takeshi Miyazawa takes the Korean American heroine to new heights as she navigates life as a reporter for J. Jonah Jameson and as a masked crimefighter at night. As Silk #1 shows, there is never a dull moment in the life of Cindy Moon (written by Maurene Goo, art by Takeshi Miyazawa, colors by Ian Herring, letters by Ariana Maher).

A classmate of Peter Parker, Cindy was also bit by the same radioactive spider that gave him his powers, resulting in her ability to shoot webs from her fingers, climb up walls, and sense oncoming danger. But while Peter Parker spent his young adult life galavanting across New York City as Spider-Man, Silk was trapped in a bunker for ten years. When she finally escaped with the help of Spider-Man, Cindy found her family missing and her life turned upside down, detailed in her first solo series by writer Robbie Thompson.

But while Silk’s origin story sounds tragic, she doesn’t want pity in Goo and Miyazawa’s new series. Centering on an optimistic Cindy at her new job as a journalist for Threats and Menaces, this version of Silk provides a welcome change to how many characters of color in superhero comics experience emotional pain and trauma. While it is certainly important for characters of color to have their own emotional journeys, there is also a history in superhero comics where these same characters’ identities were shaped entirely by their feelings of sadness or rage. For Cindy, her story is not defined by the pain from her experiences in the bunker or her rocky relationship with her parents, but by how she incorporates them into a larger tapestry of life’s ups and downs.

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As such, this new look at Silk showcases her trademark sense of humor that mediates the experience of both her past and present. Cindy recognizes the horrible circumstances of her past, but by making jokes about it, she escapes a limiting characterization. Many journalists in Marvel Comics have tragic pasts, but Cindy Moon knows how to laugh it off, and this is an important distinction. More than just the sum of her past suffering, Silk is a more dynamic character than ever as she provides a model for how one can find healing on their own terms.

One of the issue’s best moments is when Cindy takes lunch on the first day of her job at Threats and Menaces. Sitting down at her desk with a quinoa bowl while leafing through past issues, she thinks, “While most of these guys were playing beer pong in college, I was learning how to strangle men with my legs in a bunker. I guess you can say that I have something to prove.” This narration effectively sums up why this version of Silk is so important. She possesses a level of awareness for how different her life experience is from her peers, but she spins it on such a casually unexpected way that it adds a greater sense of realism to her character.

Cindy Moon shows how life goes on in the wake of surviving something traumatic, and while it certainly can still exist long after the ordeal is over, pain is ultimately just one part of a person’s life experience. Silk’s humor-laden narration takes her beyond “Peter Parker’s classmate who was rescued from a bunker,” and towards a dynamic portrayal of a superhero journalist looking to uncover her city’s latest mystery. Superhero comics can offer the therapeutic experience of seeing another person grapple with life’s darkest moments, and Silk has now emerged as an example of the genre’s greatest potentials.

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Link Source : https://screenrant.com/silk-marvel-comics-asian-american-hero/

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