The first installment of “Silk,” a new Marvel comic book derived from the Spider-Man series, appears in stores February 18.
The series, which tells the story of Cindy Moon and her crime-fighting, alter-ego named Silk, comes a year after another superhero, Kamala Khan, became the first Muslim character to headline one of Marvel’s comic books. Like Kahn, a character created by writer G. Willow Wilson and Marvel editor Sana Amanat, Moon possesses certain powers that allow her to fight evil in the Marvel universe – powers she gained after being bitten by the same irradiated spider that turned Peter Parker into Spider-Man.
Not so long ago, it used to be that males dominated the ranks of American comic book superheroes. But by the 1970s, comic book publishers began featuring more female and ethnic characters in supporting roles, said Joseph Taraborrelli Sr., a Marvel spokesman.
For its part, Marvel has introduced such characters as Kahn, a superhero from New Jersey known as Ms. Marvel, and Anya Corazon, a Latina teenager from Brooklyn who made her debut in 2004. The creation of these female leads, as well as the hundreds of Asian superheroes in comic books today, collectively mirrors a shift in the demographics of comic book enthusiasts across the United States.
“If you go to any comic book convention, the entire audience is so diverse, almost 50-50 men women,” Taraborrelli said. “There are all walks of life. It’s everybody from different ethnic backgrounds.”
