Here's everything you need to know about Silk, the new Spider-hero being teased for Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse 2. Sony's first Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse was an animated triumph, uniting multiple incarnations of Spider-Man from different realities. It grossed over $375 million against a budget of $90 million, and netting an Oscar for Best Animated Feature. A sequel is in the works, along with at least one spinoff.

Christopher Miller has promised the animation will be even more mind-blowing than the first film's, and the key will likely be through different incarnations of Spider-Man. In the first Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, each spider was rendered with a unique artistic style. The sequel promises to introduce new versions of the wall-crawler, with each one bringing in another form of animation. There have been consistent reports one of these will be the Korean-American superhero Silk, a character who was only introduced in the comics back in 2014. Superhero fans can be forgiven for not knowing just who she is - or why she shows tremendous promise.

Related: Why Into The Spider-Verse Is The Best Spider-Man Adaptation

Silk was created by writer Dan Slott, and introduced in a story called "Original Sin." This kicked off with the death of a cosmic being called the Watcher, and fragments of his knowledge were shared to various heroes. Spider-Man learned the radioactive spider that bit him had not simply died afterwards, as he believed; instead it had bit another one of his classmates, Cindy Moon. She was approached by a wealthy industrialist named Ezekiel, a Spider-Totem who understood the mystic potential of those granted spider-powers. He believed she was a being unique in all the Multiverse, the "Queen," and he persuaded Silk to hide herself away for over a decade. A horrified Spider-Man broke her out, giving Cindy her freedom. It turned out to be a mistake, triggering the "Spider-Verse" event.

Silk Marvel

Freed from the bunker she had lived all her life, Silk used her natural webbing to weave spontaneous spider-costumes and go to war against Marvel's various supervillains. Her family had disappeared during her time in the bunker, and Cindy was forced to compromise her morality in order to track them down, even working for the Black Cat at the time. In an amusing inversion of the typical Spider-Man status quo, her greatest champion was J Jonah Jameson, who insisted she was the real deal and refused to doubt her even when she committed crimes in order to earn Black Cat's trust. Silk eventually learned her parents had become pawns of a criminal named Fang, who had claimed she could cure their daughter, but was actually using them to find out how to steal Silk's powers. Fang was defeated in the end, Silk cleared her name of her criminal record, and she was reconciled with her family at last. She subsequently became an agent of SHIELD, and more recently joined a team called the Agents of Atlas, moving to an international scale.

Silk possesses all Spider-Man's traditional powers, although some - such as her spider-sense - appear to operate at a heightened degree due to a stronger connection to the Web of Life and Destiny. She also has organic webbing, which she appears to be able to produce without any sign of tiredness. Peter Parker believes the aforementioned Web of Life and Destiny would have allowed him to quit being Spider-Man, and Silk would have been his replacement. It's possible Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse #2 will be set in a reality where that did indeed happen.

Silk is an excellent character, but unfortunately her comics haven't been the best sellers. Still, that hasn't diminished Sony's interest in Silk; the studio has been interested in a live-action Silk movie, and there's even been speculation it's already been set up in the MCU. Meanwhile, Silk is already confirmed to appear in a Spider-Verse spinoff, so Lord and Miller clearly have plans for her in animation as well.

More: Is Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse On Netflix, Hulu Or Prime?