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nmcannon 's review for:
When I saw a copy of MOON GIRL AND DEVIL DINOSAUR in my local library's comic book section, I snatched it up so fast I didn't realize it was volume 2 instead of volume 1. I read vol 2 anyway, since I had it, but this out of order reading might have affected my rating. Going in, I really wanted to give all the MOON GIRL comics 5 stars. The importance of having a black girl as the smartest person in the Marvel Universe is so great that I want to promote it as much as I can. But then my own preferences got in the way, or maybe my age, or SOMETHING because...
Lunella is painfully, /PAINFULLY/ nine years old. And it's...a little heartbreaking, honestly.
Now, as an adult, I already have qualms about Marvel having 13 or under protags because that age crosses the line between "young adult warrior" and "child soldier" for me. The writers, Amy Reeder and Brandon Montclare, work hard to settle this nausea: Lunella is literally the smartest person on Earth; she has an older, more powerful companion in Devil Dinosaur; her enemies are either the same age or limited to the common day crooks of Yancy Street; Ms. Marvel (aka Kamala Khan aka one of my fav superbabes) gives Lunella a communicator so she can call for help.
These efforts go a long way to calm my stomach. In addition, the art is colorfully splendid, the storyline is well-paced, the action is silly and wonderful, the cameos make my heart flutter, and the humor is great. The pull-quote says it's an all-ages comic and they're not wrong. I think a third grader could probably read this and enjoy it.
But--here's my big but--while Lunella's intellect is off the charts, her emotional intelligence is so lacking that it set off all my alarm bells and parental instincts. She covers up her fright with arrogance, her vulnerability with an insistence on self-reliance, her self-doubt with correct test answers; her identity crisis with this weird fantasy that she has to be a superhero and fill all the tropes that comes with that (secret identity, solo fights, nemesis etc). She fights crime, when really, I think she just needs to show her parents her genius, talk to Ms. Marvel &, through her, Tony Stark about an accelerated program of study, and then go home and have milk & cookies in her lab. Basically, why, when Lunella starts getting bored in science class and figures out she's Inhuman, was her first reaction "oh, I must be a superhero now"?
Maybe the reason is in volume 1, and I hope to God that it's a good one, because this story is literally putting a nine year old in the line of fire. Setting all that aside though, it's a really good comic and worth a read.
Lunella is painfully, /PAINFULLY/ nine years old. And it's...a little heartbreaking, honestly.
Now, as an adult, I already have qualms about Marvel having 13 or under protags because that age crosses the line between "young adult warrior" and "child soldier" for me. The writers, Amy Reeder and Brandon Montclare, work hard to settle this nausea: Lunella is literally the smartest person on Earth; she has an older, more powerful companion in Devil Dinosaur; her enemies are either the same age or limited to the common day crooks of Yancy Street; Ms. Marvel (aka Kamala Khan aka one of my fav superbabes) gives Lunella a communicator so she can call for help.
These efforts go a long way to calm my stomach. In addition, the art is colorfully splendid, the storyline is well-paced, the action is silly and wonderful, the cameos make my heart flutter, and the humor is great. The pull-quote says it's an all-ages comic and they're not wrong. I think a third grader could probably read this and enjoy it.
But--here's my big but--while Lunella's intellect is off the charts, her emotional intelligence is so lacking that it set off all my alarm bells and parental instincts. She covers up her fright with arrogance, her vulnerability with an insistence on self-reliance, her self-doubt with correct test answers; her identity crisis with this weird fantasy that she has to be a superhero and fill all the tropes that comes with that (secret identity, solo fights, nemesis etc). She fights crime, when really, I think she just needs to show her parents her genius, talk to Ms. Marvel &, through her, Tony Stark about an accelerated program of study, and then go home and have milk & cookies in her lab. Basically, why, when Lunella starts getting bored in science class and figures out she's Inhuman, was her first reaction "oh, I must be a superhero now"?
Maybe the reason is in volume 1, and I hope to God that it's a good one, because this story is literally putting a nine year old in the line of fire. Setting all that aside though, it's a really good comic and worth a read.