Anybody here reading Image’s East of West, by Jonathan Hickman & Nick Dragotta? This will tie back into the review itself, but I just got the first year (#1-15) and that book is insane. Also Silk takes a huge twist, how many people saw it coming? 

Silk #12: Jurassic Zone 

Writer: Robbie Thompson

Artist: Tana Ford

Colorist: Ian Herring

Letterer: Travis Lanham

C.Artist: Helen Chen

Editors: Devin Lewis & Nick Lowe

Editor-In-Chief: Axel Alonso

Don’t Sigil-Block Me, Bro: Our issue opens with a flashback to Cindy’s life before the bunker, with her parents preparing her for the bunker. We cut back to the present, where Cindy, Lola, and Rafferty have ventured into the Negative Zone. They discover an old abandoned camp site, which leads the trio to web-parachute down into the depths of the Negative Zone. There they discover a medieval land with dragons and an evil army of supernatural creatures. They befriend a dragon named David Wilcox and save a village from the army of the Ash King. The leader of this village turns out to be Cindy’s mother. 

It Means Warrior of the Sky: This is definitely an unexpected direction, but not an entirely unpleasant one. Silk essentially becomes a fantasy book this month, with a healthy dose of Spider-Person thrown in. I think this could be good for the coming arc; it makes good use of Cindy’s non-super powered supporting cast and it will probably keep the book from feeling stale. Robbie Thompson has shown himself to be a big Tolkien fan over in Venom: Spaceknight, but he takes it to a new level here. He basically creates The Hobbit meets Evil Dead 3. And who does not want to see a Spider-Person tearing it up in a swords and sandals kind of story? 

Cindy’s outfit making webs reach a new level as well. We see she has the ability to practically weave armor, in a fun moment where Cindy creates sigils for her supporting cast. We also the see Silk-chute when Cindy crafts parachutes out of her webs; these webs are quickly approaching deus ex machina level of convenience. We do not get a ton of Silk fighting this issue, but the few panels we do get is solid action. Tana Ford spends most of this issue pushing herself creatively and it is mostly successful. We see characters moving through the environment, we see massive landscape shots throughout the issue, and she really nails the emotions of Cindy and David Wilcox. Lola and Rafferty are a little more hit and miss in quality. 

Ian Herring is on fire this issue, almost literally as the forces of the Ash King’s army cast this book in orange for large chunks of the issue. The rest of the Negative Zone is cast in blue, from the scales of its dragons to the colors of its skies. It gives Cindy’s mother, the Red Knight, and the Ash King’s forces a much needed visual contrast so they stand out. The real stand out element is how he colors the Negative Zone. Parts of it feel bursting with color, while other parts of it feel dead. He does a wonderful job of making the trees of the Negative Zone look like dead veins from afar. 

Tying back into that East of West thing, I think it is amazing how far Nick Dragotta has come since his Future Foundation days. If there is a better artist to compare Tana Ford to, I do not know them. Both showed marked improvement during their time on Marvel books and I hope Tana Ford goes on to do some great work, but she still got some training to go. The promise of what a Tana Ford medieval book could look like and the setting up of this world makes this an intriguing start. Thompson is laying it on thick with the Lola/Rafferty relationship, so perhaps we could see a death in the coming issues? Seriously, anyone who mentions marriage/love that many times is on the chopping block. 

Verdict: Silk #12 takes the book in an interesting direction for the next couple months. I am not quite sure what to expect anymore, but I welcome the change. The art team takes some creative leaps this issue, which works for the most part. There is a lot of potential in this issue, but this story line depends on how it all plays out. Hopefully the story of what happened to Cindy’s parents will soon be over. 

Pros: 

• Artistic push
• New direction
• Answers to old questions

Cons: 

• Webs too convenient? 
• Mostly set-up

B+