Warning: Contains Spoilers for Silk #3
In Marvel Comics, Spider-Man has had his fair share of scary cover art over the years, but the preview art for the next issue of Silk is body horror nightmare fuel. At this point, Spider-Man-related storylines involving gigantic spider transformations or other horrifying imagery is a mainstay. But there's just something though about the cover art for next month's Silk though that hits a lot different, and the gorgeous artwork shows why.
To put things into context, the newest issue of Silk by Emily Kim and Takeshi Miyazawa follows the hero trying to solve the mystery behind rapidly aging social media influencers. After some serious deduction, she realizes that whoever's doing it is viewing social media like a type of religion, which they use to drain their influence and grow stronger in power. Silk finally manages to have a close encounter with the villain: a Korean witch back from the dead. While in a struggle with her, the witch discovers that the webs she spins from her fingers are tied to her and uses the moment to strike, sapping energy away from Silk. What happens next...is best shown through the horrific cover art for Silk #4.
The new cover art, crafted beautifully by artist Inhyuk Lee, showcases Silk after having her energy drained by the witch. Her skin is wrinkled, her hair has gone completely white, and she's looking down in fright at her hands. What really sells the moment though are the use of shadows that are everywhere in the artwork. From the shading on the wrinkles to the looming shadow of Old Lady Cindy, as dubbed by Marvel, in the back, this is a horrifying moment for the young hero as she realizes what's happened to her. The body that she knew is gone. She's now aged multiple years, and she doesn't know how she's going to come back from this as hinted through the look of horror in her bulging eyes.
What this cover art captures best about body horror is the emphasis on the changes. The alterations in appearance for Silk are at the forefront with the look of her suit not taking the spotlight. The art perfectly puts the reader's focus on the changes Silk has gone through to allow them to process what's happening. This is something that's been used by body horror masters like David Cronenberg for years. Putting emphasis on the changing features rather than the body as a whole just highlights the horror of unwanted transformation, and Lee does this brilliantly. The drabness of the colors, the horrific tone, the real sense of fear coming from Silk herself: this sells the reader on wanting to know what comes next and how she'll get out of this because it's something unexpected and with very few paths for her to take to get out of her situation.
Readers are going to have to wait until April 27th to own this amazing work in their comic collection, as well as find out what will come next in Silk's story. The cliffhanger ending for issue #3 has certainly grabbed the attention of comic readers, and it'll be interesting to see how she'll reverse the effects of her sudden transformation while dealing with an even more powerful villainess on top of it. For the time being though, this new cover art by Lee should rightfully be cherished as fantastic body horror nightmare fuel and one of the best Spider-Man universe cover arts to date.