Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, #1
Marvel
Written by: Brandon Montclare and Amy Reeder
Art by: Natcha Bustos
Color by: Tamra Bonvillain
Lettering by: Travis Lanham
Amongst the slew of new Marvel titles being released in recent weeks comes the light-hearted adventure of Lunella Lafayette, also known as Moon Girl, and Devil Dinosaur. Moon Girl finds herself struggling to fit in amongst her peers at school and whose home life feels a bit lack luster. She feels misunderstood and distanced from those that don’t understand how she views the world. Driven by her scientific outlook, Moon Girl is working to solve the problems of the real world rather than stuck in the drudgery of school.
This is about a girl who is clearly trying to achieve well beyond the status
quo, but constantly finds herself underwhelmed by the work presented to her in school and everyday life. Therefore, she seeks to put her mind to solving real world problems and in doing so finds the mysterious nightstone, which brings forward some prehistoric problems to the modern cityscape. While Moon Girl’s life had been pretty predictable in the past, working with Moon Boy’s partner offers promise of changing her life for the better.
Moon Girl’s story is well composed by the creative team. The writing of Montclare and Reeder does the title justice because they create dialogue that is both believable (whether modern of prehistoric) and concrete. They are able to convey emotion throughout the issue in ways that probably seems familiar to us all. Whether it be peers picking on one another or parents asking what was learned in school, the writing does a superb job of capturing the subtleties that convey worry, tension, and youthful angst.
Alongside the work of Montclare and Reeder is the art of Bustos and
coloring of Bonvillain, which create a world that is visually appealing and light-hearted in nature. Bustos’ work remains consistently thorough and fresh, and Bonvillain’s color palette captures a vibrant sense of everyday life which eventually takes a turn for the extraordinary.
If you’ve been a fan of G. Willow Wilson’s work on the highly acclaimed Ms Marvel, you’ll certainly find Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur to be well within the same wheelhouse. This story revolves around a girl who is having a hard time fitting in but the narrative doesn’t focus on this single attribute. The only reason that this issue did not score a higher rating is that, like many first issues, it begins to build the story arc. I feel this series will begin to pick up pace as Moon Girl finds something red, scaly, and prehistoric dropped into her everyday life.