How Silk: Spider Society Could Connect to the Spider-Verse

Step aside Peter Parker, Sony’s live-action spider-verse is finally introducing another web-slinger. The superhero Silk a.k.a Cindy Moon is set to have her own series on Prime Video and the Amazon-owned MGM+ (formerly Epix) thanks to Sony’s multi-year television deal with the company, and I have to say it’s about damn time. 

Cindy Moon is a relatively new character in Marvel comics, debuting in Issue #1 of the 2014 run of The Amazing Spider-Man. Her origin is intertwined with Peter Parker’s as the radioactive spider that bites Peter also bites Cindy before it dies. However, Cindy’s journey after her spider bite is kind of a weird one that includes secret bunkers and multiversal vampires that only feed on Spider-beings. 

Without getting too deep into the spider-verse lore, Cindy, Peter, and other Spider-beings across the multiverse that are referred to as “totems” have a unique life-force/energy that maintain the immortality of vampire-like beings known as The Inheritors. After her spider bite, Cindy is taken in by another totem named Ezekial Sims, who trains her until he realizes that she’s strong enough for The Inheritor, Morlun, to track her across the multiverse. He then sends her to a bunker that masks her spider-scent and she lives there for over a decade before Peter learns of her existence and lets her out.

Thinking that Morlun is finally dead, Cindy enjoys her freedom and begins to search for her parents, whom she has not had contact with since she started living in the bunker. Once she realizes that the threat of The Inheritors is far from over, she teams up with Peter, Miles Morales, Spider-Gwen, Spider-Woman, and other Spider-beings from across the multiverse to stop them.

It will be interesting to see how Silk: Spider Society adapts Cindy’s origin story, or if they feature it at all considering how convoluted and lore-heavy her early stories are. Silk’s first solo comics (Robbie Thompson’s issues from 2015 and 2015-2017) seem like a more logical place to start, since they take place after the multiversal vampire shenanigans, and are a lot more grounded. Even though Cindy does have a few more multiversal crossovers, the focus is primarily on her journey to find her parents.

After The Inheritors are taken care of, Cindy begins a double life working for J. Jonah Jameson and S.H.I.E.L.D. As a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, she goes undercover, using her relative anonymity as Silk to get close to Felicia Hardy/Black Cat and learn about her criminal operation. Because of her lack of social skills and adult friends thanks to her time in the bunker, Cindy actually grows close with the Black Cat and feels bad for betraying her. 

While it doesn’t seem likely that the series would have Cindy work for the version of J. Jonah Jameson we’ve seen in the MCU, her time as a journalist really helps her get used to living in the real world again and figure out who she is as Cindy Moon outside of her superhero identity. But it also isn’t likely that the series will show Cindy as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent since the organization has both been destroyed in the MCU and seems to be exclusively part of Disney’s rights catalog. Hopefully though, the series can still find a way to include Cindy’s arc with Felicia Hardy and the Black Cat, because she is another badass character that deserves to be brought to life as more than just an Easter egg in an overly stuffed film (looking at you The Amazing Spider-Man 2). The President of Sony Pictures Television Studios, Katherine Pope, told Variety that it would be an “exciting series with new and never-before-seen characters and storylines,” so it’s not totally outside the realm of possibility.

Given the series’ current title, Silk: Spider Society, and the involvement of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, I can’t help but also hope for a team up between Silk, Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman, and Gwen Stacey/Ghost Spider. As much as I want the series to focus on Cindy’s story and not get too caught up on the multiversal connections, her interactions with Jessica and Gwen are a key part of her journey in the comics. Along with Peter, they help her hone her abilities and become the best hero she can be. 

Silk’s powers are similar to Peter’s – she can crawl on walls, she has enhanced strength, durability, reflexes, and agility and she has spidey-senses. Like Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man, her webbing is biological rather than synthetic. Her webbing comes out through her fingertips, and gives her the ability to weave intricate webs that can both take down enemies and form clothing. Because she and Peter were bitten by the same spider, they also have a connection that allows them to find and sense each other anywhere in the multiverse.

There are so many other fun storylines that the series could adapt including Cindy finding her parents in the Negative Zone or Cindy discovering that her high school crush still has feelings for her, but technically died while she was in the bunker and is now a ghost-like superhero. But no matter what path showrunner Angela Kang (The Walking Dead) and the producers decide on, I can’t wait to see Silk brought to life. As much as I love Peter Parker and still believe that Miles Morales deserves his time in the spotlight, the women of the spider-verse deserve just as much love.