Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining: The Silver Sable Story

A Continuation from my “Just a Stray Black Cat: The Felicia Hardy Story & Diamondback in the Rough: The Rachel Leighton Story”, I, Ethan Stranger, will be discussing another of Marvel Comics’ Hottest women (who was so close to finally getting her movie, co-starring alongside The Black Cat), I’m talking about Silver Sable (Silver Sablinova), a mercenary, hunter of war criminals & leader of the Mercenary team (The Wild Pack) & owner of  Silver Sable International, While not a criminal nor a villain, her work as a mercenary has sometimes brought her into conflict with several superheroes, but she’s primarily an ally and sometimes enemy of Spider-Man. 1st Appearing in “Amazing Spider-Man #265” Created by Tom DeFalco & Ron Frenz, the inspiration for the character came from “Safari Cards that DeFalco himself bought”. So allow me to deep dive into the character’s origin & why I love her...

To recap on her comics history, Silver Sable’s Real name is “Silver Sablinova” (who names their kids after a Color?) & her home country is called “Symkaria” (Located in Europe). While her mother was killed following massive German attacks, her father (Ernst Sablinova) founded the “Wild Pack”, a government task force that decided to hunt down Nazi War Criminals, eventually, Silver herself would later follow in her father’s footsteps, as she became a master of many forms of martial arts, a highly-skilled marksman/swordsman & would later lead the Wild Pack in bringing down Nazi War Criminals, however, as time went on, there were fewer Nazis to hunt down, this led to her reforming the Wild Pack into more a Mermcary-Styled Team rather than a Nazi-hunting Task Force, as well as forming The Silver Sable International company which provided security, recovered stolen property and apprehended felons for big companies and even countries, these sorts of actions would lead her into conflict with various other heroes & villains (Even Spidey)

What I, Ethan Stranger, find strange about this “ Silver Mercenary Badass”, is her debut in a “Spider-Man” comic, cause I feel like a character such as Silver Sable should’ve been introduce in the pages of a “Captain America, Punisher, Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD or Black Widow” comic & be apart of there support cast (due to Silver’s Spy-Like appearance, her father’s background in hunting Nazis & Mercancy-Like Personas conflicting with those types of Characters), Not Spider-Man’s, cause he’s just a High Schooler who main duty is standing up for the little guy while swinging through New York City, however, Spidey has been in bigger situations & introducing Silver Sable & her Wild Pack maybe helps introduce Spidey more into the outside world & getting involved in national worldwide conflicts. In the Marvel Ultimate Universe (Picture, Below Right), her entire was more troublesome, her mother was an alcoholic & her father literally ignored, plus she was more of an antagonist to Spider-Man is not actually a villain so much as a bounty hunter, and she holds no particular ill-will towards Spider-Man (which is ashamed, that’s a version of the character I don’t like).

Plus I also feel like a character like Silver Sable is the kind of character to challenge Spider-Man’s Morality against Silver Sable’s strict code, which includes Violating Laws & Constitutional Rights (compare to Daredevil's liberal methods of standing up for justice, versus The Punisher's more conservative and brutal methods), even though Punisher was 1st introduced in the pages of Spider-Man & the duo has either clashed or worked together, Punisher’s rivalry with Daredevil is more interesting as well as grit & Grimmy, thus I feel like Silver Sable was created to be a new Punisher Style-like Character to Spidey’s Supporting Cast, but a female from a foreign country & a mercenary for hire.

And to break my favorite incarnation of Silver Sable (besides my mentioning my hatred for the Ultimate Marvel  Version & my love for the original Silver Sable), she 1st made her TV appearance in the 1994 Spider-Man Cartoon Series (Voiced by the Croatian–American Actress Mira Furlan, who tragically passed away this year). In the Series, she & her Wild Pack were hired by The son of the Red Skull (Rhienholdt Schmidt/Electro) to kidnap the scientist, Wolfgang Groitzig to gather information about a Doomsday device and to keep it from falling into the Kingpin & his Insidious Six (The 1994 Series Version of the Sinister 6) hands. Sable later kidnaps Spider-Man, Kingpin, and the Insidious Six for Rheinholt, but she and the Wild Pack eventually betray Rheinholt & soon she & her Wild Pack team up with Spider-Man (and later Captain America & his Six American Warriors). Eventually, Silver Sable left at their suggestion, leaving them to face the Red Skull alone. In my opinion, this is the best incarnation of the character, not only of her charming looks (love the long white hair, her smooth silver-like costume, her briefly flirting with Spider-Man & listening to the Croatian accent that Mira Furlan gives her), it’s mainly her characterization, even those She & her Wild Pack are mercenaries that work for the money, it was nice of her to side with Spider-Man, explaining to him that her father founded the Wild Pack to hunt down Nazi War Criminals, thus (when her father died), took control of the group and carried on in her father's legacy (even though she’ll make the Wild Pack more like a mercenary team), it was nice of her to go back to the basic on why her father formed the Wild Pack (Kinda remains me of Uncle Ben’s “Great Power, Great Responsibility Speech”). However it was embarrassing that we never saw more of her, if the series was renewed for a 6th Season, do you think Spider-Man could’ve (briefly) joined her Wild Pack for money, or even the Black Cat (Felicia Hardy) got involved with her & the Wild Pack?

Other TV Media appearances of the Character (which I’m not too much of a fan of) involved the 2003 Animated Spider-Man Series, The Spectacular Spider-Man Series & The 2017 Spider-Man Series...

Despite their charming good looks (minus the 2003 incarnations), I just don’t like the fact that they’re more villainous & I really don’t see Silver Sable as a villain, she just lives by a code, a code that she feels gives her the right to handle things her way, even if it means breaking laws or working for various enemies. A little fun fact about the “Spectacular Spider-Man Incarnation of Silver Sable” is that she’s the daughter of the Maggia Crimeboss, “Silvermane (Silvio Manfredi)(All because their names have Silver in them) & she had a past relationship with the Mobster, Hammerhead”. 

My Last favorite Incarnation of Silver Sable comes from the “Spider-Man PS4 Game”, this Incarnation kinda resembles more like Black Widow (in my opinion), but her persona remains me a bit of her Spider-Man 1994 incarnation, due to her role as starting off a villain as she’s been hired by Norman Osborn to stop Mr. Negative & the Inner Demons, but it led to heavy-handing and willing to violate civil liberties in pursuit of their mission, the city quickly turns against Sable International and Spider-Man shuts down several outposts being used to unjustly incarcerate civilians. Furious, Sablinova tries to capture Spider-Man but winds up saving his life when Otto Octavius nearly beats him to death. Disillusioned, she returns to Symkaria to rethink her approach. She’ll eventually return & aid Spider-Man in stopping Hammerhead. Following Hammerhead’s defeat, Silver Sable returns to Symkaria, inspired by Spider-Man to be more heroic (Good for her, whoever thought that a foreign mercenary can take some helpful hints from a teen hero).

While (in my Opinion) it’s difficult to relate to a Silver-Mercancry Badass, however both the 1994 & 2018 Incarnations of the character are considered relatable, while they may start off as “Somewhat Villains'', however, they’re not, they just stick to a code of honor which involves doing things that an average hero wouldn’t do (like kill or sometimes work for an enemy), but there’s always somebody who coming around to inform these kinds of people that this isn’t the way to handle such situations, like in 2018 Game, Spider-Man tries to convince Silver Sable not to kill if she’s to bring Hammerhead to Justice, while on the 1994 Series, she & her Wild Pack were manipulated into working for a Villain (that happened to be Rheinholt Kragov, who happened to be the Red Skull’s Son & Later became Electro), when she & her Wild Pack were gonna be left for dead, Spidey saves them, thus, later on, they become great allies. Stuff like this also happens in real life, for as Asperger, I usually find myself into conflict with Neuortypical people who feel like my way of doing things isn’t the right way & that they demand that we do things there way, which leads to harsh confrontation (but not in a violent way), sometimes we can come into an agreement or sometimes not, however in Silver Sable & Spider-Man’s case, Americans commonly find  themselves in conflict with forgein policies from forgein countries (though not in the form of a Silver Mercancry Badass) for either forgein countries refuse to share their vast resources with the rest of the world, not to mention immgration is common thing that America has been dealing with for years cause Forgein countries can’t either agree upon or figure out a solution to this problem (makes America wish they could hire an “Actual forgein Silver Sable-Style Mercenary, alongside a wild pack-styled team”, however for that to happen, they’ll need their own “Everett K. Ross US State Department employee”, if they’re to be active in the states, whoever in the comics, Silver Sable doesn’t have an Everett Ross-Like Character, speaking of which…)                        

As for how to do a “Silver Sable Film”, I feel like inspiration should be taken from the “1st Captain America Film, Black Widow Solo & 2017’s Wonder Woman film”, in which it slowly sets Silver  Sablinova into Silver Sable. Following the death her Father, (Ernest Sablinova), she continues his mission in hunting down “Nazi War Criminals”, which leads her into conflcit with villains like “The Foreigner (whom in the comics was Silver Sable’s former husband in the comics) alongside such henchmen like Cathode, Franz Kraus, Gattling, Leviathan, White Ninja, Wilhelm Schultz & Winston Walker”. Then the sequel should feature her forming her own Wild Pack, while battling such villains like “Black Fox (Raul Chalmers), Major Toler Weil, Red Skull (Albert Malik), Spymaster (Nathan Lemon) & Superia (Deidre Wentworth) alongside her Femizons”, then she (alongside her so-called Wild Pack) should make a cameo appearance in the “Armor Wars series (Starring War Machine)” (if the MCU allows it), as it could feature the Wild Pack (alongside War Machine & Ironheart) dealing with more “Corrupted Business People (Like Justin Hammer & Sunset Bain)”, as well as battling such villains like “Baron Brimstone (and his Satan Squad), Afterburner, Cyclone (Gregory Stevens) & Iron Monger (Cristoph Pfeifer)”, as well as coming into Conflict with NYPD’s Special Unit, “Code: Blue”. Then her 3rd Movie can officially be called “Silver Sable & the Wild Pack”, as it now features her abandobing her Father’s Nazi War Criminal Hunting Days & now officially devoting her Wild Pack to become more like a  a Mercanry for Hire (alongside her Wild Pack, as they battle supervillain teams  like “The Fangs or Bio-Genes”, it all depends if the MCu is willing to aid Sony’s Spider-Verse

Plus (for an Animated Film) featuring Spider-Man (loosely based on the 2018 PS4 Game (Silver Lining) or the 1994 Series Storyline, Six Forgotten Warriors, alongside the Wild Pack & replacing Hammerhead with either “Silvermane or Mister Negative”

As for how to do a “Silver Sable/Black Cat” Film (Live-action or animated) , I feel like Sony should take some inspiration from the Amazing Spider-Man Storyline, “The Assassin Nation Plot”, by simply replacing several characters like “Replacing Spider-Man with Black Cat, Captain America with Falcon & The Winter Soldier (or John Walker/U.S.Agent), Sabretooth with Puma (Thomas Fireheart) or Vermin (Edward Whelan), The Red Skull with Hate-Monger & the Terrorist Organization (ULTIMATUM) with National Force or The Sons of the Serpent”. Plus it must include both Paladin (in the comics, he’s a member of Silver Sable’s Wild Pack) & Solo (James Bourne). For the record, this is all just my opinion.

As Ethan Stranger signs off for the Day, I just wanted to point out that the title for this Blog Post had nothing to with the title for the Spider-Man PS4 Game (Silver Lining), it was more based on this Thomas the Tank Engine Song:

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2gPxR5nbYE&ab_channel=Thomas%26Friends)

And now...Thomas is speechless among seeing a Foreign Silver Mercenary Badass Kissing Everybody's Favorite Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (who’s a bit out of Silver Sable’s League, Am I right, oh well...the prettier they are, the harder they are to win our hearts over, there’s a life lesson to be learned here, Little Thomas...somewhere).

In the Loving Memory of Mira Furlan (who voiced the Best Version of Silver Sable) wished (in the Spider-Man 1994 Cartoon Series), they did in an episode where either Black Cat joins up or is on the run from Silver Sable’s Wild Pack