My Tribute to the Amazing Life of William Wilberforce

This month – August 24^thto be exact – marked the 255^th birthday of William Wilberforce, one of my most favorite historical figures.   Wilberforce (born 1759 and died on July 29, 1833) was an English politician who was instrumental in bringing about the end of slave trade and, eventually, the abolition of slavery in the British Empire (decades before Abraham Lincoln and other American abolitionists succeeded in doing the same in the States).  His life story, particularly his grueling battle for the abolition of slavery, is one inspiring example of someone boldly and firmly pursuing what is right despite of overwhelming opposition.  I have termed such admirable attribute as “moral badassery” and William Wilberforce is one of history’s greatest moral badass.  

I first learned of Wilberforce in my readings on John Newton – the minister who wrote the powerful, classic hymn, “Amazing Grace” – for Newton was an early influence with Wilberforce’s journey towards Christianity, which is why the latter held the former’s counsels in high regard (moreover, being a former slave trader, Newton was knowledgeable of the evils of the practice so he was a valuable consultant when Wilberforce was fighting for its abolishment).  John Newton was a great man and has an interesting biography, but I discovered that William Wilberforce’s life was a little bit more fascinating.  

Young, hedonistic William Wilberforce decided to venture into politics due to the encouragement of his best friend, William Pitt the Younger (who would become the youngest prime minister in British history), and when he was merely 21 years old, he was elected into the parliament.  Wilberforce has always been witty, sharp, and an eloquent speaker, so he was able to hold his own in parliamentary debate.  However, he was more interested in enjoying a lifestyle of worldly pleasures than in actually making a difference.  This was Wilberforce’s early life as a politician.

Then his whole life dramatically changed during his travels abroad in 1785.  It was during this time that he met Christ.  He started reading the Bible and having devotions regularly.  He got rid of his vices, and lamented the years that he had wasted in living a hedonistic, shallow life.  He considered leaving politics to become a minister.  He sought the counsel of John Newton regarding the matter, but Newton advised him that he can still serve God by being a politician – that there was a purpose why God’s will allowed him to be in the parliament.  William Pitt also urged him to remain in politics.  So with two of his most trusted friends asking him to remain in politics, Wilberforce decided to do so.  Wilberforce found God’s calling for himself: to promote Christianity and moral and social reform in the British Empire through his position in the parliament.     

Which led him to advocate for the abolishment of the slave trade.  Wilberforce, after learning and completely comprehending the inhumane horrors of slave trade, proceeded to passionately fight this evil.  He was convinced that it was through fighting slavery that he can put his Christian faith into practice in public life.  With other abolitionists, he worked to raise awareness and interest in Britain about the realities of the slave trade and fiercely debated in the parliament for its complete abolishment.

 

Unfortunately, despite of Wilberforce’s efforts, abolishment of the slave trade was an unpopular view.  The British Empire’s economy heavily relied on slave labor in the colonies.  Wilberforce’s opponents argued that abolishment would be economic and political suicide for the British Empire, since if Britain abolishes slavery, other European nations’ economies and power would increase exponentially since they would be still free to sustain their economies with slave labor.  Even those that agree with Wilberforce of the fact of slavery’s immorality had to side against him for they think that abolishment was impractical and bad for the Empire. 

His opponents slandered Wilberforce of being a spy or a traitor.  They accused him of working for Britain’s enemies, that his purpose of calling for abolishment of the slave trade was for inciting a feeling of rebellion among the people and for the destruction of the economy.  Wilberforce had to endure all of these hurtful words.  In fact, Wilberforce really loved his country.  That’s why he wants to end slavery since he can’t bear his country conducting such heinous thing.      

Year-in and year-out, Wilberforce continued to fight – and lose – in the parliament for the abolishment of slavery.  Of course there were definitely times when Wilberforce was discouraged and was exhausted.  Who wouldn’t be?  But he didn’t surrender.  He didn’t quit.  For him, giving up was not really an option.  He knew what the right thing to do was.  And if doing it is the right thing to do, then there’s actually no choice at all but to do it.  Even if it’s difficult and draining.  Wilberforce understood all of that. 

At last, after years of fighting and employing shrewd politics, Wilberforce and co. enjoyed their first victory with the passing of the Foreign Slave Trade Bill in 1806.  Then in 1807, the Slave Trade Act – which completely banned the slave trade in the British Empire – was finally passed.  After 20 years of fighting – experiencing many crushing defeats all the way – Wilberforce was finally victorious.  Understandably, tears flowed freely on Wilberforce’s face during the parliament passing of the bill. 

But Wilberforce’s battle wasn’t over yet.  As a Christian and a conservative, Wilberforce political views and objectives were grounded in his faith and love for God.  Aside from fighting slavery, he was also involved in pushing for moral revival and social reforms.   Moreover, though the slave trade was abolished in 1807, slavery itself was still practiced.  For many more years, Wilberforce worked with abolitionists to completely eradicate the practicing of slavery in the British Empire, and in 1833, the Slavery Abolition Act was passed.  Three days after knowing the passage of the Act through the parliament was guaranteed, William Wilberforce died.              

To fight for the right thing despite of how hard the consequences to oneself are and how gloomily insurmountable the challenges are – such awe-inspiring display is constantly demonstrated by superheroes like Captain America and Spider-Man.  Much more awesome with William Wilberforce since he’s a real-life person.          

It’s really difficult to do the right thing and completely invest one’s life for its cause.  More so if it’s unrewarding and the results are constant defeats.  As if fighting for it isn’t worth it.  But through the life of William Wilberforce (as well as through the lives of other great Christian figures of history), we learn that whatever we are called to do, no matter how tough it can get for us, we can trust God that he’ll see us through until we accomplish it.  We will never burn out as long as what we do is for God’s glory.  No matter how impossible it might seem at the present, God assures us that our faithfulness will always result to victory in the end.  As what Romans 8:31b famously says, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”

      

What I have written about William Wilberforce is nothing but a small piece of his rich life.  It would be better if you proceed to personally be acquainted with his life story yourself.  My suggested readings are “Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery” by Eric Metaxas and “Amazing Grace in the Life of William Wilberforce” by John Piper.  There’s also this great William Wilberforce biopic titled “Amazing Grace.”  It’s a wonderful film; it has great acting and beautiful production value.  It stars Ioan Gruffudd – who played Mr. Fantastic in the Fantastic Four movies – as William Wilberforce and the charismatic Benedict Cumberbatch – Sherlock Holmes himself! – as William Pitt.  Most importantly, the movie’s essentially faithful to Wilberforce’s actual biography.  It’s a real must-watch.  

So read the books or watch the movie, or, better, do both.  I recommend that you thoroughly learn more about this great man and hopefully be encouraged by his life and faith.  A man like William Wilberforce is worth celebrating and emulating.  

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JCM Opening Program

I was given the opportunity to accompany by piano two recital performances during the official launching of Joy Campus Ministry (JCM) in Bicol University last August 26, first was a cover of Mandy Moore's version of "Only Hope" and the second was a violin duet of "Canon in D Major."  Unfortunately, we weren't able to bring an actual piano to the venue, hence I had to use this defective keyboard which has several faulty and dead keys.  The performance, in respect to my playing, wasn't as good as the practices.  Nonetheless, it was still fun playing with talented musicians for the glory of God. 

Floodgates band also performed.  Here were the first two songs of the set (no videos available of the rest)... 

click here for more videos    

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Top 10 PC Games I Had Played in My Pre-Teens and Teens

In a past list, I already covered the vintage PC games (which run in Windows ’95) that I played during my childhood.  This time around, I’ll be tackling the favorite games of mine during another period of my life – when I was 11 to 16 years old, late elementary to high school.

     

“Top 10 PC Games I Had Played Which I Even Cut Classes For” could be an alternate title for this list.  I was so into them, that I could cut classes so I can play them.  Ah, those were the days.  It was in Grade 5 when I learned to cut classes so I can instead go play PC games in Internet cafes.  And when I was in high school, I was habitually cutting classes to hang out with my high school gang in the Internet Cafes near my school (and when I mean “near”, I mean hundreds of meters away).  Heck, the name of my high school posse was “Cutting Classes Club.”  Boys will always be full of mischief.  LOL.  Thank God, it never really got too serious enough that put our academics in peril (though we got into some minor troubles with our school nonetheless).

Anyway, these are the games that I was so into that I opt to play them during most of my free time, and often even compelled me to skip classes so I can play them.    

DISCLAIMER: Screenshots are not mine.  I just Googled them.     

10.) TEAM FORTRESS

What makes Team Fortressunique from other first-person shooter PC games from Valve Corporation is that there are different playable classes to choose from.  Each class has a different set of unique skills and weaponry, with each class having different strengths and weaknesses; thus, there is a “rock-paper-scissors” philosophy that players had to consider in choosing what classes to play.   There is a need for a team to find the proper mix of classes, to be as diverse and balanced as best as they can be.  This makes the game’s teamwork aspect more cerebral than Counter-Strike.  Nonetheless, despite having a more sophisticated gameplay, Team Fortress wasn’t nearly as popular in my gaming circles as other first-person shooter games like Half-Lifeor Counter-Strike. 

9.) NBA LIVE

 

NBA 2K, in the present, has emerged as the premier NBA video game series, but back in my time, the NBA Live series was more popular.  If I remember it correctly, I started with NBA Live 2003, and the last version of the game that I got to play was NBA Live2007.  I got to play the NBA Live games in both PC and Playstation but I was more comfortable playing it with the former. 

8.) HALF-LIFE

 

Half-Life is considered by many gamers as one of the greatest games of all time due to its mentally stimulating gameplay and brilliant story.  However, my affection for Half-Life wasn’t due to playing through its mission-narrative, where most of the praise is, but in its free-for-all multiplayer option wherein players battle each other, every man for himself, competing who will get the highest kills and least deaths.  I remembered that we really loved the part wherein a red button can be pushed after a period of time, which will start a countdown for an explosion covering the map, and everybody had to race to the bunker since anybody outside the bunker is automatically killed by the blast.   

7.) BATTLE REALMS

 

Despite the bugs, especially the capability to immediately destroy any structure by just selecting it and pressing “Ctrl+D”, Battle Realms was one of my most favorite strategy game to play back then.  Its Asian theme, the colorful variety of units from the four playable factions/clans (Dragon, Serpent, Wolf, and Lotus), the gorgeous graphics, and the multi-linear story of the mission mightily appealed to me.  It was also the first strategy game I played that I had encountered the concept of “hero”-type units, which is a major reason why this game is so memorable to me. 

      

6.) RAGNAROK! ONLINE

This is the first and only MMORPG (massively multi-player online role-playing game) that I got so engrossed with.  I don’t know what is its status now, but when this game first entered the country, prepaid cards are required to play it.  Hence, this is probably the game that has made me spend the most amount of money, for buying the prepaid cards and for paying for the Internet café sessions to play it.  Still, I really had fun with this game.  It was my first experience with MMORPG that I was greatly fascinated with the concept of maintaining a character in a virtual world.  Also another selling point was its animation style: cute, anime-style characters existing in a stunning 3D environment, which I found very appealing and delightful.  Eventually, after some time, I grew tired of the non-linear, repetitive gameplay, plus the expensive cost of playing it, that I quit Ragnarok! completely.         

 

5.) WARCRAFT III

I had never played the Warcraftgames prior this; Warcraft III was my first encounter with the Warcraft franchise.  From the first time I got to play this game, I loved it right away (beating my two opponents during that first game helped much in making me immediately love the game).  It’s definitely one of the smartest strategy game ever created.  Heck, it’s probably even more complicated than StarCraft.  I adored greatly the fantasy world and mythology that Warcraft IIIestablished (which World of Warcraftis enjoying now), and its story (from the campaigns) blew me away due to its depth, awesome characterizations, and superior narrative. 

Most importantly, Warcraft IIIalso served as the platform for the revolutionary game Defense of the Ancients, popularly known as DOTA, which probably has become more popular than the Warcraft franchise itself. 

4.) COUNTER-STRIKE

 

Counter-Strike was arguably the king of all first-person shooter PC games.  In Counter-Strike, players get to choose whether to play for the “Terrorist” team or “Counter-Terrorist” team.  Each round starts with all players spawning at the same time and having the opportunity to buy weapons and equipment (if they survive the round, these are carried over to the next round).  Each team should accomplish its respective objective (depending on the map) or wipe out all of the opposing team’s members to win a round.

3.) STARCRAFT

 

StarCraft is probably the most successful and most famous real-time strategy game ever created.  Along with Counter-Strike, this game was one of the earliest PC games that became popular.  Its sci-fi concept of three races – Terran, Protoss, and Zerg – competing for dominance in that particular sector of the galaxy was very interesting.  It’s as challenging and stimulating as Warcraft III, but StarCraft is higher in this list since it was my first encounter with the real-time strategy game genre of such scope and versatility.  Prior StarCraft, the only strategy games I was most familiar with were turn-based strategy games and simulation games; Metal Marines was my only real-time strategy game experience, and its gameplay is not even close to the complexity of StarCraft’s gameplay.  Hence, my great fondness for StarCraft.    

2.) STRONGHOLD

 

The economic aspect of real-time strategy games, i.e. the gathering and management of resources, are often merely secondary to its army-building aspect – the former being simply a means to accomplish the latter.  It was in Strongholdthat I first encountered a real-time strategy game in which both aspects are equally exciting and important to the gameplay.  Its “mission” feature even had an economic campaign as well as a military campaign. 

Stronghold is set in during the Medieval period in England, in which as a lord, you have to develop a flourishing economy in your land and at the same time build and maintain a strong military.

The game completely charmed me that even when my peers didn’t get into it, I was satisfied of playing it alone.      

1.) COMMAND & CONQUER: RED ALERT 2

 

It’s not the most sophisticated real-time strategy game around, it’s actually quite simple compared to StarCraft and WarCraft III, but it’s my most favorite for I tremendously enjoyed its simultaneously down-to-earth and wacky premise.  It also had Tanya, who was so hot and badass that she became one of my most favorite fictional female characters ever.  Moreover, most importantly, it was probably the PC game in which I was most good at.  So there. 

I have already written years ago an article solely about RA2, so if you want my more thorough insights about it, just go read that.  

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'Attack on Titan' is the 'Game of Thrones' of Anime

First of all, for the record, I’m not really a fan of Game of Thrones.  Yet.  I know it’s one of the hottest shows in TV right, but I still don’t follow it.  I’m still postponing my jumping into its fandom, not only because I am already into a lot of TV series right now, but because I intend to read the books (which I haven’t get the chance yet) before really immersing myself into that show.  Also, honestly, its reputation for having so much gratuitous nudity and sex – almost borderline pornography – does turn me off a bit (really).  Nonetheless, I am aware of what makes Game of Throne, well, Game of Thrones: a fantasy of superior-quality, unapologetic violence, a complex plot, shocking game-changing twists that just come out of nowhere, and the penchant for killing well-developed characters that the audience had already grew fond of.  And all those elements are present in Attack on Titan, which I’ve just recently watched (at the present, it has one season with 25 episodes).    

Among all present ongoing anime series, AoT is the most stimulating to watch.  There’s a rich amount of emotion in its narrative, the drama and action are very engrossing, its management of its characters are extremely well done, and it incites a lot of insight.  In AoT, I’ve never found this kind of depth in an anime since Code Geass.  Really.  AoTis just that amazing.   

In the world of Attack on Titan, or Shingeki no Kyojin in Japanese (which means “advancing giants”), the remnants of humanity live in a country protected from Titans by three tiers of gargantuan and extensive walls – Wall Maria (outer wall), Wall Rose (middle wall), and Wall Sinna (the final and innermost wall).  For a century, the first wall, Maria, was able to hold back the Titans, ensuring humans to enjoy peace.  The status quo changed when a colossal 60-meter Titan broke through Maria’s wall, allowing the Titans to invade human land.

Titans are nude, genitalia-less giants of varying heights that have dumb, crazy looks on their faces – sometimes with filthy, nutty smiles – as if they are high, psychotic hobo-baby hybrids.  The description I made in that last sentence seems to make the Titans look weird and silly, but they are actually terrifying.  They are mindless but they have a zombie-like drive to go after humans.  Their sudden appearance in the world brought humanity to the brink of extinction.  However, they actually don’t hunt, kill, and eat humans for the sake of food – it seems they have no need to nourish themselves with food – since they just vomit out the corpses they have devoured; it’s just that murdering and eating humans are their innate impulse.  They are nigh invulnerable, for they have a quick healing factor and any body parts they lose will only regenerate.  The only way to kill them is to cut through their nape severely. 

To fight the Titans, humanity has their military, which is divided into three parts: the corrupt and useless Military Police; the Garrison Squad, who are in charge of guarding the walls; and the elite Recon/Survey Corps, who go beyond the walls to Titan-infested lands, hence, are the most competent soldiers to fight Titans (and in which group the main characters of AoT chose to join in). 

The military’s soldiers are armed with swords (for slashing Titan’s flesh, especially the nape) and 3D Maneuver Gears (or “Vertical Maneuvering Equipment”), which are like the stuff in Sky Commanders (a GI-Joe rip-off back in the days), only cooler.  The equipment enables the soldiers to swing around buildings and trees a la Spider-Man, giving them more mobility and better access in combating the Titans in high heights and slashing their napes. 

Attack on Titan tells the story of the struggles and lives of these soldiers – particularly, the trio of Eren Yeager, Mikasa Ackermann, and Arminn Arlert; their batchmates from military boot camp; and the other members of the Survey Corps (wherein Eren and his batchmates decide to join after their graduation) – that have to face the hazards and carry the burden of going against murderous Titans in behalf of humanity’s protection and advancement.  Like Game of Thrones, the story of AoT is heavily character-driven.   It develops its characters very well, put plenty of personality and likability on them to get the audience invested in the characters as much as the story.  Thus, the audiences are really affected and even pained whenever these characters are killed in action.  It has established a feeling that no character is safe.  Everybody is fair game.  Everybody can get killed without moment’s notice. 

Heck, in an early episode, the main character, Eren, even got killed – he was eaten by a Titan.  Of course, a few episodes later, in a well-executed twist (for the record, all plot twists, though not all unexpected, have been well-executed), it was revealed that Eren was not really dead, that he actually has the ability to regenerate and transform into a Titan, and with his power manifesting for the first time, he burst out from the Titan that had eaten him.  The narrative was centrally being moved forward through Eren, but the whole thing was done in a way where you will never expect that he will actually come back.  At that point on, I really thought he was permanently dead, that he was a red herring and not the real main character.  It was awesome.  It was in Eren’s “death” where I actually went “Holy Tilda Swinton (go see Orphan Black to get the reference), this anime is so Game of Thrones-y!” since it was as if done in a Ned Stark manner.             

An interesting facet of AoT is how effectively it conveyed the cruelties and realities of war.  Yes, it has produced badass battle sequences.  But, again, because of the well-done character developments, deaths that rose from these battles have meaning and impact.  Us that are watching can easily empathize on the surviving characters that are scarred from the horrors they have gone through.  It also tackled the realistic principles in war, that death and sacrifice are necessary and should be willingly done for the sake of the greater good.  One memorable quote in the anime was, “Someone who can’t sacrifice anything can never change anything.”          

I appreciate AoT’s fast pacing; it seems a lot has happened already in its 25 episodes.  But, still, I just can’t get enough of it.  I do not know when the next season will be, and it needs to come fast.   AoT, for me, is best experienced in an anime format; therefore, I won’t read the manga as long as I can help it, so that I can enjoy any plot development in the anime without any foreknowledge of it due to reading the manga.  But if its new season doesn’t get here soon enough, then I’ll probably be led to check on the manga to get my needed AoT fix. 

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I ❤ 'Orphan Black'

The title says it all.  I love Orphan Black.  It’s a truly awesome TV series.  At this point, my fondness for it is the same I had for True Detective.  The story is extremely absorbing, and Tatiana Maslany is simply brilliant.  It’s something understandably worth being excited and invested about.    

Orphan Black is about a group of clones (all played by Tatiana Maslany) that have become self-aware of their real identities and have banded together, along with some allies and confidants – informally called the “Clone Club” – to seek answers for the mysteries of their biology and origins, deal with the various threats to their existence, and face the struggles of their remarkable lives. 

Orphan Black has always been in my radar, and I was really intrigued by how the show is generating a lot of buzz – especially about how awesome Tatiana Maslany’s acting is in her portrayal of multiple characters – but I did not immediately check it out because of the crowded TV series lineup that I’m already following.  But I finally get the chance/time to marathon on its two seasons when the majority of TV shows I’ve been watching went on their breaks.  At season one’s first episode, my interest was roused.  At episode three, I became a fan.  And at episode four, I fell in love with everyone of Maslany’s characters and with Orphan Black as a whole.            

Indeed, what I’ve presumed about Orphan Black from the implications of the buzz it was generating is right: the primary cause that makes this show a must-watch is Maslany’s amazing job of putting depth, uniqueness, and personality to each respective clone.  What I mean by that is seeing her performance is enough reason already to watch Orphan Black.  One amusing example of such display of wonderful acting is whenever a clone has to impersonate one of the others, for the expected fakeness and clumsiness of such charade, whether in subtle or evident manners, are so authentically portrayed.  You can’t help but be impressed and enamored of Maslany’s versatility.  Truly, her Emmy snub is an injustice. 

Most of the characters (there is terrific acting from the non-Maslany characters as well) in this show are well-developed and likable; everyone has fascinating complexity in his or her motivations and characterizations.  Among the characters, the most enjoyable are, of course, the clones, who each have their distinctive charms.  Moreover, I find it delightful whenever the clones are interacting, working together, bonding, and just being “sisters”; there’s something heartwarming about it.  The awesome “clone party” at the season 2 finale made my eyes a little bit misty.   

As far as the narrative is concerned, it’s first-rate entertainment.  It’s also very thought-provoking since its themes tackle the different aspects, implications, and moral questions of human cloning.  The suspense is intense, the mystery is gripping, the plot is smart and engaging, and there are several instances where the humor effectively made me laugh out loud (especially whenever Allison and Felix are involved).  There are a lot of fun things about this show.         

So Orphan Black is now part of the growing group of ongoing TV series I’m following.  But it will definitely be among my most favorite ones, of which new episodes I would look forward to the most. I have high expectations for this show – introduction of new clones, more great character developments, consistent dosage of creative twists, sustaining the overall excellent quality of the show, etc. – and the momentum that it set in its first two seasons made me optimistic that it’s going to be more fantastic in season 3. 

2015 (schedule for season 3) can’t get here soon enough. 

Miss the Clone Club much...

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RE: ASM #4's Introduction of Silk

Unbeknownst to Peter Parker, the irradiated spider that gave him his Spidey powers was able to bite another one after it had bitten him.  This other recipient of spider powers was some girl named Cindy Moon, who has been locked down by Ezekiel (an important Amazing Spider-Man character back when J. Michael Straczynski was the writer for the book in the 2000’s) in a bunker all these years to prevent Morlun (another important character in Straczynski’s ASMrun) from going after them.  Per the “Original Sin” event (wherein the supposed secrets of the Marvel Universe has been revealed in an attempt to introduce new characters and retcon old ones), this fact has finally been made known to Spider-Man.

    

Afterwards, Spider-Man proceeded to bust her out of her bunker. Hence, after getting glimpses of Cindy in the past issues, she has finally made her full appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #4.   

And the first characteristic we learned about the character is she can swear like a sailor.

We, through Spidey’s commentary, also get to evaluate her powers.  She’s faster than Spidey, but apparently less strong.  She also has a more potent spider-sense.

I like how Spidey describes it as “Matrix/bullet-time good,” made the whole initial-display-of-powers process interesting.  

Aside from the spider-speed and spider-sense, she can wield organic webs from her fingertips, which are more versatile than Spidey’s web formula.  At one point, Silk got to catch Spider-Man by making a web with a barbed tip, much to Spidey’s amazement.  She even used it to construct herself an impromptu costume.

Since the “Spider-Woman” and “Spider-Girl” names are both taken, this new Spider-character’s name is “Silk.”  Frankly, “Silk” doesn’t work for me.  It sounds boring, dumb, unremarkable, and lacked impact.  Also, I hope this improvised web costume of hers isn’t a permanent look, which I find unexciting and dull.

As mentioned earlier, Ezekiel hid Cindy Moon to keep Morlun away.  For mere moments after Spidey freed Cindy from her bunker…

So one of the purposes of this character’s creation is to put the epic “Spider-Verse” into motion, and she is, obviously, going to play an important role in it. 

And in the last page of ASM #4, we understand Morlun’s “Spider-Bride” remark a little bit better.    

Whoa.  Silk is going to be Spider-Man’s new love interest?  This development – their spider-senses giving them a special empathy for each other, compelling them to be drawn to one another – is the most intriguing thing about Silk’s addition to the Spider-Man mythos.    

So, overall, my first impression of Silk is… well, I’m not yet sure.  I would have definitely welcomed her warmly if there is no Spider-Woman character already, or that she was meant to become the new Spider-Woman or Spider-Girl character.  The “Spider-Bride” angle and the “Matrix/bullet-time good” powers show some promise for this character.  It is possible for something awesome to happen out of all of this. 

On the other hand, there are aspects I don’t like.  Again, I would have been excited if she was going to be a new Spider-Woman, but she isn’t.  At this point, to me, it feels like that this character’s conception has been gratuitous.  The Marvel Universe (Earth-616) is getting crowded with Spider-types already, and this present Spider-characters population kind of sips a little out of Spider-Man’s uniqueness as a character.  More so with Silk, since she shares the same origin as Spidey’s.  Furthermore, it feels like Spider-Man’s characterization has been cheapened with Silk receiving better spider powers from the same irradiated spider that bit Peter.  

I hope Dan Slott (current writer of ASM) would properly develop this character well and would have a brilliant justification for her inclusion in the Marvel Universe or, at least, in Spider-Man’s world.  I think I will be satisfied with, at least, significant character depth and smart plot purpose for Silk.  These would probably make me love this new character eventually.  But if she was created merely for the sake of having something shocking to reveal for “Original Sin” and as a catalyst to kick off “Spider-Verse,” then I would probably dislike her instead.   For now, it’s still too early to really tell.  

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