ANNOUNCEMENT: Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur was almost everything I wanted it to be. The parts in our modern day world? Perfection. The parts in the past with Devil Dino’s origins? Pretty boring, to be honest. But that’s okay! Exposition has to happen and there isn’t that much you can really do with neanderthals and ancient mystical objects.
Let’s talk about the good things in this comic: Moon Girl (a.k.a. Lunella) is an incredibly intelligent preteen girl who is applying for colleges because her current school does not have the resources to keep up with her advanced learning. This is so important. I am so happy that Marvel is choosing to deal with issues like the difficulties of educating children when they are all at different levels of comprehension, yet are the same age so are in the same classroom. Lunella struggles to relate with her fellow classmates while her teachers struggle to keep her engaged and keep her on task. Her parents are left somewhere in the middle, knowing that Lunella is too smart for her school, but also understanding the realities of the importance of their daughter maintaining her grades and attendance at school for future records. This leaves Lunella constantly stuck in a cycle of being teased and misunderstood, but having to attend class so that the schools she is applying to will think she is a good student from her transcript.
Having grown up with a brother who was constantly bored by his classes, I feel so much for Lunella. I hope that this subject is explored more throughout the comic because it is off to a really great start.
Comics that are accessible and appropriate for younger readers are making a comeback and every single time I see a new one that’s written and drawn well, my heart just swells. I constantly have preteens coming into my store looking for something that they can relate to and that doesn’t disrespect them by writing below their intelligence levels. And lately the options that I have to give them have been increasing. It’s beautiful. I no longer have to stop and sweat while a parent asks me to please find something appropriate for their child that won’t bore them. There is a middle group of readers who don’t want to read Scooby Doo and Transformers anymore, but aren’t quite ready for DKIII and Deadpool and the like. Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur is the perfect story for these readers, but it’s also so much more than that. It can be read and appreciated by older fans just as much as it can by younger readers and that is a sign of truly good writing. Add in the fantastic art and this book becomes one of the greatest things to come from Marvel since Ms. Marvel. I am so glad that I wasn’t let down by this book.
The story may have some slow bits, but I really believe in the potential of this comic and I am incredibly excited to see it on the shelves.
The art does look wonderful!