Silk (subtitled Age of the Witch for the collected edition) is a 2022 comic book limited series from Marvel Comics. It's written by Emily Kim with art by Takeshi Miyazawa and color art by Ian Herring.
Set in the shared Marvel Universe, it's one of several series starring Cindy Moon, the titular Silk, a superhero who was bitten by the same radioactive spider as Spider-Man, developing similar powers.
Cindy spent a decade isolated in a bunker, persuaded that her powers would attract other-dimensional predators to the world. Since emerging she's slowly pieced her life back together, reuniting her family and taking a job as a journalist.
Now, however, her life seems to be in a rut. And something or someone uncovered in a ancient South Korean ruin is waking up - and setting its sights on 21st century New York.
The first issue was released January 19, 2022.
Silk (2022) contains examples of the following tropes:
- Big Bad: The titular witch is the Manyeo, who's been entombed for centuries in Korea but is now revived in a New York museum. Her Life Drinker powers restore her youth and inflict Rapid Aging on her victims, but she has a much bigger scheme in mind - by targeting famous figures who are adored and respected by their followers, she can tap into "worship energy", store it, and use Ritual Magic to change time, rewriting the world with elements of Make Wrong What Once Went Right and becoming the ruler of the long-gone kingdom of Joseon. Exactly how it would work is unclear, as Cindy interrupts the plan, but it seems to be a case of overwriting the present rather than the Manyeo directly changing the past.
- The Bus Came Back: Cindy's therapist, Doctor Sinclair, appears in a Silk comic for the first time in over four years (and makes her first appearance in the Marvel Universe for two years, since The Unstoppable Wasp). Sinclair's absence was a plot point in the previous series of Silk.
- Continuity Nod: When talking to Dr. Sinclair, Cindy mentions that she's no longer having to deal with "cat demons or evil tech geniuses" - the two villains of her last series.
- Description Cut: Cindy tells her therapist, Doctor Sinclair, that she's been foiling criminal masterminds, living an exciting social life, enjoying her exciting job and exploring the city's great food. The accompanying montage shows that she's bored in her personal and work life, living on junk food, and only dealing with petty crooks as Silk, not supervillains.
- The Merch: After Luna Snow's concert is attacked, she offers Cindy a couple of the tour t-shirts as a thank-you for helping to fight off the attackers.
- Rapid Aging: The witch's victims are young people who immediately become elderly and infirm. Thankfully, that's reversed when her power's broken.
- Recycled Title: As with Cindy's three previous solo titles, the comic is simply called Silk. The collected editions add a subtitle, Age of the Witch, to help disambiguate it.
- Reduced to Dust: When the Manyeo begins her ritual, Dr. Ferguson is hiding behind a column. Silk warns him to get clear, but he appears to be blasted to ash and crumbles away. Once the ritual's disrupted and the Manyeo's banished, he seems to be alive and well, though.
- Retronym: The series was originally published as simply Silk (a Recycled Title), but became Silk: Age of the Witch for the collected edition.
- Rousing Speech: After Threats & Menaces fails to get any footage of the battle at Luna Snow's concert - unlike many of the concertgoers with smartphones - Jonah stands up and gathers the staff for a morale-raising speech about how they need to try harder, but the old ways are best. It's cut short when his knee painfully gives out and he has to sit down again.
- Shout-Out: Cindy's brother Albert is singing along to TWICE's "Cry For Me" when Cindy unexpectedly returns from the fight at Luna Snow's concert.
- Then Let Me Be Evil: Songi, the Manyeo, was born with the ability to drain and redirect Life Energy. She initially used it for healing, with volunteers offering energy to help her patients. When she was accused of evil magic despite helping people, she decided she might as well be the person her enemies claimed she was.
