Who is Cindy Moon in Marvel's Spider-Man 2, or as many might know her, Silk? It goes without saying that there's going to be MASSIVE SPOILERS in this guide to follow, with major implications for the future of the franchise popping up as part of the Spider-Man 2 ending. Whether that means spin-offs or new characters showing up for the next game in the series remains to be seen, but before we get that far, we'll cover everything you need to know about Cindy Moon, aka the superhero Silk, and what her appearance could mean for the future of the series.
Cindy Moon in Spider-Man 2 explained: Who is Silk?
The very last shot of the Spider-Man 2 ending introduces Cindy Moon in a final post credits scene. While all we get is the name and the back of her head, in the comics she's a big part of the expanded spider-family, playing another wall-crawler superhero called Silk. However, the way she's been introduced already suggests big changes to how the character is traditionally portrayed.
In the normal Marvel comic canon, Cindy Moon was bitten by the same spider as Peter Parker. When she develops her spider-powers that, unlike Peter, involve the ability to create organic webbing, she's unable to control them. A man called Ezekiel Sims offers to train her but also reveals she's at risk of being attacked by Morlun and the Inheritors – a group of vampiric, multiverse-hopping villains that feed on heroes, drawing from the powers of animal totems.
In the wider spider-verse all the Spider-People from every universe draw their power from a Spider Totem, sort of cosmic supernatural entities that exist across multiple universes. I'm not going to get into too much detail here because there are various animal totems across various realities and the powers they grant occur in various ways – Ezekiel Sims also has spider powers for example, granted via a ritual rather than a bite.
The practical upshot of all this is that in classic Marvel comics Cindy Moon spent ten years locked away in secret to hide from Morlun, training and honing her powers. When Peter Parker finds out and sets her free she's initially furious, claiming that he's killed them both by enabling Morlun to find them. She is briefly pleased to discover that Peter had previously killed Morlun, but then furious again once she finds out he actually killed Morlun twice, making it clear he can come back.
I'm not going to go into any more detail there because A) there's just a whole can of dimensional worms to open if you want to start trying to explaining multiversal spider totems and, B) Cindy's appearance at Miles' apartment suggests she's not been locked away for ten years learning to harness spider-powers. Here she turns up with her single father, whereas in the comics she leaves her still married parents to go into hiding. However, her comic history with Morlun could lead the next game in a more multiversal direction, something that might explain all of the Spider-Man 2 Spider Bots you can collect to reveal a Spider-Verse movie Easter egg.
The fact that the game universe hasn't so much as hinted at a third Spider-Person across three instalments suggests this version of Cindy has yet to gain her powers, which is backed up by her casual appearance at Miles' door. That could mean we get an actual origin story in Spider-Man 3, something both the first and second game, and the Miles Morales spin off, avoided. In terms of powers, traditionally Cindy was born with a photographic memory and, having been bitten by the same spider as Peter, has all his spider-powers. The one exception is that she gained the ability to organically make webbing from her fingertips. This functions in the same way as Peter and Miles' web fluid, but also lets her create things like costumes and claws. One of the popular reasons for this difference is that female spiders are generally the web spinners in nature, hence Peter or Miles not gaining the ability.
Assuming Silk will get her powers in the third game, the 'how' will be interesting. We know Peter got his powers from a radioactive spider bite some ten years ago by the end of the second game, while Miles gained his from a spider genetically-modified by Oscop. Which doesn't leave a huge amount of options for Cindy if Insomniac doesn't want to repeat itself. I guess we'll find out when Spider-Man 3 eventually arrives.
© 12DOVE. Not to be reproduced without permission
