Spider-Women reads like one story, so here are links to the reviews for parts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5
We’re into the final third of the crossover now, so everything has to be racing towards the conclusion, right? Right? (Apologies to anyone viewing this through the Facebook app, you may not be able to see the text.)
Spider-Women Part 6 (Silk #8)
Writer: Robbie Thompson
Artist: Tana Ford
Colorist: Ian Herring
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Cover Artist: Yasmine Putri
Editors: Kathleen Wisneski & Devin Lewis
Executive Editor: Nick Lowe
Editor-In-Chief: Axel Alonso
Recap: After getting their butts handed to them by Cindy Moon of Earth 65, Agent of SILK, Gwen Stacy and Cindy Moon Prime are arrested by Bobbi Morse, Agent of SHIELD/Mockingbird. Cindy tries to talk Bobbi out of it, but Gwen’s sass works against her. Thankfully, they are saved by Felicia Hardy, Crime Lord/Black Cat. Gwen discovers her powers are on the fritz and takes off. Black Cat confronts Cindy about the crime spree her 65 counterpart went on and Cindy lies her way into Black Cat’s confidence. The issue ends with them deciding to continue Cindy-65’s crime spree and we’re left uncertain if Cindy Prime is actually breaking bad.
Thoughts: This issue is pretty polarizing, containing some good and some not so good. Considering Robbie Thompson has penned a good third of this crossover, you would think a lot more would be happening with Cindy Moon, but so far we’re still at the same point as when we started; Cindy Moon is in over her head and the idea of breaking bad looms. There’s been some fun exploration of this, especially when she is compared to her Earth 65 counterpart, but it’s starting to feel like Thompson is treading water.
Gwen Stacy continues to steal the show. The loss of her powers is an exciting prospect as her solo book heads into its Venom storyline. Her antagonization of Cindy, Bobbi, and anyone near her makes her the most enjoyable character in this issue. I think it’s pretty telling of Gwen’s mental state that she accuses Cindy of following in her 65 counterparts’ footsteps, when last issue everything Cindy said and did showed otherwise.
U
nfortunately, Bobbi Morse comes off like a bit of an idiot this issue. Having been abducted by Skrulls and possessed by a dead super-villain in the past, you think she’d be a little more open to Cindy’s defense, but that would make the story too easy I guess. She just assumes Cindy is pretending to maintain her evil cover, even when Cindy says nothing to that effect. And of course Jessica inconveniently can’t be reached.
Black Cat fares a little better, but she’s also shown to be overly aggressive for no reason and we have a repeat of every scene she’s had with Cindy: Cindy accuses Black Cat of not trusting her, Cat says she will change, they decide to do something evil together. Rinse and repeat.
With Gwen, Mockingbird, Cindy 65, and Black Cat all expecting her to break bad, is it really that hard to expect she finally will? The ending of the issue really sells it, as she improvises her way through a great conversation with Black Cat. Throughout the conversation, her inner voice is playing good cop, but it slowly fades away at the end when Cindy seeming decides to go super villain. Either way Cindy falls at the end of this event, it is well earned.
This is probably Tana Ford’s weakest issue in a while. There’s no cool page layouts, her superheroes look emaciated, and her masks look awful; also why the hell is Gwen’s eyes on her mask lopsided when no one else draws the mask that way? Still, there is some improvement in her hair game and as always, Ian Herring brings a strong sense of visual continuity to the issue.
Verdict: This is a slightly below average issue of Silk and probably the weakest issue of the crossover for me. There’s a lack of fun, a sense of treading water until the finale, and the art feels rushed. Gwen is the star of the issue in Cindy’s book, which is never a good sign. It’s not a bad book though, just a weaker issue.
Pros:
- Gwen
- Cindy breaking bad
Cons:
- Treading Water
- Rushed Art
- Black Cat scenes repetitive
- Bobbi’s pigheadedness
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I’m sorry guys but I think the assessment of this issue is far too lenient.
Gwen was not a pro in this story. She was wretched. I’m not her biggst fan in general but oh my God she was insufferable here.
She chewed Cindy out for not calling Jessica when they went ti P.I. but SHE was the one who said they shouldn’t do that.
She continued to diss Cindy, a woman who’s lost her life, has the mental age of a teenager (from the 90s no less) in an adult’s body, and has all round been through seriously terrible crap that dear Gwendolyn can’t comprehend.
Worse she compared her going into the bunker as her being cowardly when no it wasn’t, especially when you look at all the terrible things the Inheritors did (which Gwen KNOWS about), refuses to acknowledge how Cindy did that for not just her own protection but the protection of others and how HARD living alone in a box for 10+ years obviously would be and then says she was a failure for coming out.
And all the while we get pushed this idea that she dislikes Cindy because she doesn’t want to be like her when WHY would she think that? Cindy voluntarily went into a bunker for years to escape the Inheritors because she was ‘the Bride’. Gwen’s life is so far removed from the situations which shaped Cindy there is no logical reason for Gwen to compare herself to Cindy, especially when she is A-okay and accepting of Jessica AND of Mayday AND of Peter himself who would be far more obvious people for her to draw parallels with.
She was absolutely horrible, horrible horrible in this issue and frankly if I was Cindy I’d be reconsidering my beef with Norman Osborn.
Ugh.
And this isn’t even getting into the unforgivably laughable editing. Because remember how in the last Spider-Gwen issue Cindy-65 tried to tempt Gwen by offering to remove her powers and tempt Cindy-616 with the chance to live on Earth-65 with her family?
Do you all remember that from Spider-Women Part 5. Because I do. I remember it SO vividly I totally wasn’t scratching my head when I read about it on the recap page and when Gwen chews Cindy out for it in the issue.
I was literally reading a scene where Gwen was giving Cindy grief over being tempted by a super villain offer she not only didn’t take but also WAS NEVER ACTUALLY OFFERED!
Goddam Nick Lowe sucks at his job!
I guess given the last Spider-Gwen issue had a lot of focus on Cindy and Earth-65 Cindy, even if it all came back to Gwen in the hand, having Gwen play a major part here is a kind of tradeoff of sorts.
And yeah, Mockingbird was really unfair to Cindy here, especially given Bobbi know’s what it’s like to have someone who looks like you steal your life away. But I guess once she ruled out Skrulls, her suspension of disbelief went with it. Cindy deserves better.
Felicia was…okay in this. The part with her breaking Cindy out of custody felt genuine, as did the conversation between the two later, but her enjoying beating up those officers and talk against “friendship” seemed like more of the OOC Black Cat Slott’s been peddling.
I assume Cindy is turning being framed by her AU self to her advantage by using it to get deeper into Black Cat’s operation and continue her undercover work, so she can still bring it down. The only issue is that, even if she is cleared of what Earth-65 Cindy framed her for, whatever she does with Cat might make an already difficult situation worse.
Not that you could really blame her if she actually went bad after this. Losing her family, spending most of her life in a vault, getting thrown into the life of a Superhero and Spider-Verse, the world ending, her brother’s issues, going undercover as a bad guy, and then discovering your AU counterpart is a villainous mastermind who’s ruined your life. That’s a lot to throw on one person and not expect them to break. And since SHIELD knows her identity, her civilian life is over, and running with Black Cat beats jail and getting an in-universe mugshot taken.
I wholly agree with your review. Mockingbird refusing to listen to Cindy and failing to even try to identify Gwen (which would have confirmed Cindy was telling the truth) was ridiculous and kicked me out of the story. And you’re right, this was all about Gwen, with Cindy as a side note. I’ll be glad when the crossover is over and Thompson can go back to telling Cindy’s story.