Consider this: in a universe without the Fantastic Four, it falls on the shoulders of Lunella Lafayette to explore the furthest reaches of imagination. Once you think of her in that context, it may dawn on you that Lunella is twice the imaginaut that Reed Richards ever was. In this issue, Moon Girl and her trusty carnivorous sidekick try to reunite a displaced cosmic family, while maintaining a secret identity. That’s the best kind of classic superhero stuff.
Cover by Natacha Bustos
Written by Brandon Montclare
Illustrated by Natacha Bustos
Colored by Tamra Bonvillain
Lettered by Travis LanhamVERSUS EGO THE LIVING PLANET!
Lunella Lafayette isn’t just smart, she’s the smartest person on the planet…but what good is that when she goes intergalactic?
L.L. and Devil are in for a world of hurt when Ego the Living Planet is done playing nice… Rated T
This issue hinges on a conflict between Illa the Living Moon, who is lonely and abandoned by her father Ego the Living Planet. Using a robot doppelganger and a decapitated Doombot to cover her absence, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur try to bring the powerful family together. This isn’t done with power and strength, but with smarts and emotions.
That’s what makes the series work as an all-ages comic. Moon Girl is a stone cold genius (spouting off lines like “Danger is my middle name. Let’s rock.) who would much rather befriend the strange creatures of the Marvel Universe than punch them. Rocket and Star-Lord may try to blow Ego up, but Moon Girl just lectures him on being a better father. As Ego does the typical Marvel cosmic being thing (“I am Ego! You are insignificant!”), Lunella hits him where it hurts. “You throw around facts,” she says, “because you’re afraid to face the truth.”
That hit me hard. When Galactus first appeared in the pages of Fantastic Four he was a novel new kind of character; a cosmic enemy without malice, who simply operates on a level above humanity. That theme has been explored in dozens of excellent stories over the years, but this feels like an entirely new twist on the formula, and it’s one that wouldn’t work with any character but Lunella Lafayette. Her combination of haughty genius and young naivety, give her a perspective other heroes would lack. This is the reason people demand diverse comics: because with diverse perspectives come diverse story opportunities.
Now, none of that would mean a thing if the story was boring, but it isn’t. It’s not just a conversation between talking heads (though considering that Ego pretty much is nothing but a talking head, that might be forgivable). It’s a visual phantasmagoria that pays tribute to the creator of most of these characters, Jack “King” Kirby. From the bubble-headed spacesuits to the crackles of psychic energy, this looks like a comic Kirby would be drawing today were he still with us. It balances the size of huge ideas with his young-at-heart whimsy, and like the best Kirby comics it has something to say about big ideas like loyalty and family.
A lot can be said about the design choices surrounding Moon Girl. For a portion of the story, we deal with a robot replacement, who is comically mechanical looking but has Lunella’s trademark hairdo. Lunella herself is wearing a whole new spacesuit, but the blue and yellow color scheme make it clear that this is her costume. It’s been said that the two keys to enduring superhero design are color schemes and silhouettes and Lunella has one of the most recognizable designs in recent memory, to the point that even when you tweak it, she always looks like herself.
All that said, the pacing of the issue suffers a bit from being a middle chapter. After being thrown into the action at the beginning, we are left hanging at the end. The story doesn’t feel like it has much of a middle, because the entire thing is the middle of the larger arc. This however is mitigated by how dense the issue feels. Superhero comics, especially ones with younger readers in mind, tend to suffer from decompression with huge panels, and lots of empty space. That’s not the case here; even full page images are peppered with smaller reaction panels, and everyone is constantly talking. It’s the kind of comic I’d want to get for a kid, both in terms of content and quality.
I started by comparing Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur to the Fantastic Four, so it makes sense to remember their mission statement. The F4 are explorers and adventurers before all else. They aren’t warriors or protectors, they’re the ones who boldly go where no one has gone before. Lunella Lafayette isn’t the pipe chewing patriarch we’ve come to associate with the role, and because of that she’s a greater explorer than Mr. Fantastic ever was. She’s formidable enough to yell at a living planet, smart enough to cover her tracks, but most importantly she has the unquenchable thirst for knowledge that you can only find in a very young child. Moon Girl is the ultimate explorer, and alongside her stalwart dino buddy, she’s going to take us to the most far out corners of space and time.
Final Verdict: 7.8 – Lunella Lafayette solves problems with her heart, not her fists, and we are all the better for it.
