With the recent leaks of Spider-Man 3 revealing something we all already knew or figured out that Cindy Moon aka Silk would be the third player character I figured now was as good a time as any to talk about Cindy's love life.
Much like Kara, Cindy's love life has been a long string of disappointments. Her "Romance" with Peter ranks as one of the worst in Spider-Man history and is so bad Cindy's creator Dan Slott publicly apologized for it saying that it was a mistake and wholeheartedly supports any and all changes that has been made to the character after she got her own solo series. However, the love interests Cin has gotten since getting her own series and the ones she's picked up in crossover series like Agents of Atlas can be best described as... eh?
I wouldn't say any of them are bad but none of them are interesting. All her love interests in her own solo series are the same generic guy with no personality, average design, average clothes and nothing to make them stand out.
There was Hector, her high school sweetheart and the character her solo series made a big deal about being her one true love and was even given powers so he could fight alongside Cindy... then he despaired from the series and has not been seen or mentioned again in 9 years with everyone, including Cindy, just kinda forgetting about him. And since then Cindy has had about 4 potential love interests and none of them have really lasted.
There was random guy she had coffee with who is just there for a joke about Cindy not finding anyone interesting. Amadeus Cho aka Brawn who is part of a poorly written love triangle with one of Cindy's friends Luna Snow, more on her in a bit. Max who barely spent more then 6 pages with her across a 4 issue story arc and betrayed her with no sign of regret. And random guy Cindy works with at her reporter job who disappeared soon after he showed up and has not been seen in a year and just like Hector he seems to have been forgotten by the series itself.
Just like with Kara I want to stress that I'm not against Cindy having several love interests. I mean we give a pass to Peter and has one of the longest lists of love interests in comic book history with him being in or having interest with about, I shit you not, 56 women. Some of those where from different continuities, most are from the 616 universe. So just like with Kara my issue isn't that she has so many love interests but rather that her love interests have been boring or in the case of Peter just plain bad. Just like Kara most of Cindy's love interests pretty much boil down to writers throwing anything they can at the board and hoping something sticks but nothing ever does and unlike Kara, Cindy's first love interest didn't have any staying power like Jimmy Olson and also like Kara she has no real chemistry with any of these men.
But also like Kara there are characters Cindy does have chemistry with, three in this case. Characters whom she has complex and interesting relationships with that help to shape her character and give greater insight to. Those characters being Felicia Harding aka Black Cat, Luna Snow and Saya Ishii. Of all the characters Silk has been shipped with these three often come out on top as the most popular with Felicia in first place while Luna and Saya sharing second place. It's very telling that Saya is so popular in the Silk fandom given that she's only appeared in 8 issues yet she has more fan art and fan fics while Hector has none. The fact that fans want to see more of her and to see more of her relationship with Cindy despite being a rather horrible person in universe really says how boring Cindy's actual love interests are.
But what's interesting about these three is that Cindy's relationship with each one is unique from each other. Felicia is, well, Felicia she's someone who has a good heart but can't help but do the wrong thing usually because she it amuses her which helped further develop Cindy more then anyone else could at the start of her solo series.
See Cindy was trapped in a bunker for the better part of 10 years and by some miracle her she only developed Social Anxiety Disorder and had trouble interacting with people and still does to this day. But when she went to work for Felicia to spy on her when Black Cat was a crime boss (don't ask it's really stupid) Felicia was the only person to treat Cindy with any respect and encouraged her to come out of her shell with the two often just hanging out with one another. It got the point where Shield was worried that Cindy might actually have joined Felicia's crime Syndicate but when Cindy showed that she wasn't really on Black Cat's side Felicia took it VERY PERSONALLY.
Luna is very different. Minor bit of context Luna is actually a K-Pop Star and Cindy was a huge fan of hers back when she was starting out. The two met years later and quickly became friends and Cindy makes an effort to go to Luna's Concert and has fought alongside her several times. Unlike her relationship with Felicia, Cindy's relationship with Luna is built on mutual trust and respect which really helps sell the idea that the two truly care about each other.
And then we have Saya and she's an interesting one. While Cindy's relationship with Felicia and Luna could be interpreted as romantic Saya is someone who might actually harbor a sexual interest in Cindy. It's been stated that Saya is a lesbian and she makes more then one mention of finding Cindy attractive and even teases her a few times. And while Cindy seems to be put off by Saya flirting with her when the two work together to take down a demon cat (because comic books) and Saya betrays her Cindy seems to take it REALLY hard. She's honestly more broken up about Saya betraying her then she is about learning that Hector was engaged.
It's funny how whenever the comics try to focus on Cindy's love life one of these women come into the picture and suddenly the guy Cindy was with quickly gets forgotten. Hector, lost during the Black Cat Arc. Max loses focus thanks to Saya, whatshisname loses to both Luna AND Saya.
Now Cindy IS attracted to men, she clearly finds both Max and random guy #3 appealing and while the whole Pheromone thing with Peter was stupid Cindy clearly liked being intimate with Pete. But again, she has no chemistry with these characters and no matter how hard the writers have tried to force it her romance with these characters just doesn't work.
So, should Marvel try to explore the idea of Cindy having a romantic relationship with another woman and make her bisexual instead of trying to keep her heterosexual when that's clearly not working and the writers are clearly having more fun with her relationships with other woman? I say yes and I think they should aim for her going with either Saya or Luna. I'm always going to be a Spider and Cat shipper and frankly I find the dynamics Cindy has with Luna and Saya more interesting.
On a side note I find it funny that every female character Cindy has a les yay with all have white hair. It's almost like she has a type.
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