The two biggest obstacles facing Sony's own, ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe alternative are a lack of purposeful direction and a noticeable Spider-Man-sized void at its heart tying all the disparate properties together. With the recent announcement that a solo film centered on the superhero Silk is in development, along with news that the Black Cat and Silver Sable team-up film is being shelved in favor of solo films for the two characters, Sony may have just found the solution to both of those problems. And, if staged properly, both films could prove more crucial to the fledgling cinematic universe than its inaugural film, Venom.
The biggest problem for Sony is obvious: A Spidey-centric cinematic universe should be centered on Spider-Man himself, but shared licensing with Marvel makes this a logistical nightmare. Tom Hardy's Venom bears certain similarities in his power set with the friendly neighborhood Wall-Crawler, but the symbiote-powered lethal protector is definitely geared for an older audience and not the all-ages crowd usually associated with Spider-Man. That's where Silk comes into play.
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Debuting in April 2014's Amazing Spider-Man #1 by writer Dan Slott and artist Humberto Ramos, Korean-American Cindy Moon was bitten by the same radioactive spider that gave Peter Parker his superpowers on the same fateful high school field trip. While receiving many of the same powers, Moon also gained the ability to shoot organic webbing from her fingertips and was locked away in a secret bunker for seven years to hide from those who would hunt her down. Upon her re-entry into society, Moon becomes the superhero Silk and uses her powers to protect New York City from the forces of evil.
In Silk, Sony not only has their own family-friendly Spider-Man surrogate, but also a newer character who has never been seen in a live-action format, let alone on the big screen. Cindy Moon is also unobtrusively diverse: She would be the first major Korean-American woman to fight crime as a superhero cinematically. While Karen Fukuhara's Katana appeared in 2016's DCEU ensemble film Suicide Squad, her character has largely overshadowed by the louder personalities on the team. Silk provides Sony with the opportunity to build a cinematic universe around the first Asian-American superhero without the character being relegated to a supporting role. She even has most of the same moves as that friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
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Black Cat is a more nuanced character than Silk by design. Debuting in July 1979's Amazing Spider-Man #194 by writer Marv Wolfman and artist Dave Cockrum, the character is a master thief who has her own designs on taking over New York City's criminal underworld. During Silk's solo series, the Black Cat would largely appear as an antagonist, serving as a false mentor before revealing herself as a Kingpin analogue of sorts. With Venom lacking the same personal connection to Cindy Moon as he traditionally does with Peter Parker, perhaps the defining antagonistic relationship at the core of Sony's Marvel cinematic universe could take a cue from the comic book source material and have Black Cat as the criminal mastermind facing down the Korean-American webslinger.
With that dynamic as its centerpiece, the solo spinoffs for traditional Spider-Man supporting characters begin to make more sense: Kraven the Hunter and Silver Sable could potentially be tasked by Black Cat to track down Silk when the superhero becomes too meddlesome, while Black Cat's own solo film would chart her rise to power. And, all the while, Tom Hardy's Venom would serve as a fearsome wildcard cutting right down the middle as the tortured antihero he has always been.
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In an era when a lack of female visibility and representation across all media is more apparent than ever, Sony's licensed catalogue of Marvel characters provides its own intriguing opportunities for the big screen. While the DCEU has Wonder Woman front and center -- with a sequel on the way -- and the MCU prepares to position Captain Marvel to make her own high-flying debut next year, Sony could potentially build their Marvel cinematic universe around the concept of female empowerment on both sides of the law.
Sony's cinematic universe desperately needs a linchpin to unite its properties and provide a clear direction moving forward. With an ongoing conflict between Silk and Black Cat for the fate of New York City caught in the balance, Sony may have found the necessary narrative springboard for the rest of its cinematic universe in a way that Venom could never really provide. With Silk and Black Cat, they get both the aspirational superhero they need and the villain with a personal connection that they've been searching for all along.