We knew this day would come eventually. “Secret Wars” was going to bleed over into the Marvel titles that hadn’t yet been affected, and here it is for Silk‘s seventh and “final” issue. Rather than expand my diatribe about how much I dislike Marvel’s recent fascination with stopping and restarting long-running series, over and over again–to say nothing of giving newer titles time to breathe, develop, and grow a readership organically–I’m simply going to say that this “Secret Wars” situation overshadows and noticeably undercuts what would otherwise be a heartfelt and emotionally impactful story. 

And to be fair, it still has its moments. The closing panels in particular do pack a wallop, especially to the reader who lingers over the art in their backgrounds — but the fact that this scenario has been seen before, and recently, combined with our knowledge that this title will soon return rob it of much of its gravitas. I feel like Robbie Thompson does a great job with what he has to work with, but is weighed down by the larger event as it affects the more personal tale he’s trying to tell. One decision in particular I would like to congratulate him on was the exclusion of Black Cat from this issue. My issues with her character aside, it would have been easy to set her up as an obstacle in this story, and by avoiding that to focus on family and friends, I think it makes for a much stronger installment.

I do think that, as “final” issues go, this one does a serviceable job of wrapping up many of the existing ideas touched upon at the start of the run. In seven issues, we see that Cindy has grown and changed as a superhero, as well as the people whose lives she’s touched. There’s Pokemon Dude, who’s gone from being her enemy to her friend and ally, and her former roommates, who she helped connect romantically and who take selfies together as they await the end of the world. And J. Jonah Jameson, who has been brilliantly, sparingly used for this title, gives her the push to go on her final quest, to see the young man who may or may not be her long lost brother, telling her she may not get a chance tomorrow.

It’s this theme of family that really drives this issue, as Cindy swings through the dangerous, crumbling NYC, desperate to see her brother before “it all ends.” Even absent friends are paid homage, as she alludes to Peter while stopping multiple times on her world-ending quest so she can help other New Yorkers in need — exactly the kind of thing Peter would have done in the same situation.  It’s made clear here that, as with Spider-Man, New York has also become part of Silk’s family, an extended, adopted one. And while there’s still the question of what happened to her parents, it’s nice to finally see a victory for her, even a brief one, as the world fades to white.

One minor nitpick I do have with this issue involves the flashback used in the story. While I get the need to set up Cindy’s goal to apologize to her brother and tell him she loves him, its inclusion in the larger story of Cindy rushing through the end of the world and helping people out of danger feels both a little contrived and more than a little distracting to the overall pace. If this scene had been part of the other flashbacks she’d had from previous issues, it would have set this up nicely and probably resulted in a bigger emotional payoff for readers.

I’m trying hard to stay away from criticizing artists on this title for not being Stacey Lee, but in Tana Ford’s case it wasn’t too difficult.  After getting over the initial shift in art style, I for the most part wasn’t unnecessarily distracted from the narrative by the artwork. Ford does an excellent job of injecting the needed emotions into each of Thompson’s scenes, from the panic and desperation of the New Yorkers caught in the destruction to the acceptance and generosity of those close to Cindy. I was particularly struck by the varying stages of grief and despair on Cindy’s face during the flashback scene, when the door is closing between her and her parents for the final time.

I did have one minor quibble with the art, as well as an amusing observation. On the 2-page spread of Cindy swinging across town, there’s a pretty noticeable imbalance of artwork spread. On the first half, there’s one instance of Cindy helping out a New Yorker, whereas on the second half there are about five different occurrences.  It’s not a huge deal, but it did leave me wondering why the first half of the page was left so spare.  As for the amusing observation, the page 3 close-up of Jonah has him looking remarkably like Reed Richards, only with a thick moustache.  It was just something I noticed momentarily, and it made me giggle.

Overall, this was a good issue that just has to deal with the spectre of “Secret Wars” hanging over it.  Once readers pull away from the mass of chaos that’s causing it all, this issue becomes a lot more personal and a lot more relatable. This title was initially almost dead on arrival, given Silk’s treatment in “Spider-Verse,” but Thompson’s script and Stacey Lee’s artwork really helped make it a treat for readers. It’s great that, with the re-launch of this title in a couple of months, this same main creative team will be around to hopefully continue what has become one of the more endearing Spider-titles.