Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur are neighborhood celebrities in this exclusive preview

By Oliver Sava | May 18, 2017 | 5:45pm

Aux Features Books

Marvel has come under fire for comments about diversity this year, so it’s nice to see the publisher commit to a character like Lunella “Moon Girl” Lafayette, whose ongoing series doesn’t sell especially well on a month-to-month basis but brings in more readers with collections. Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur has been consistently entertaining since it debuted a year and a half ago, and Marvel has been taking strides to make Lunella a more prominent figure in its larger comics universe. She’s a regular character in the new Secret Warriors team series, and the last arc of MG&DD featured a steady stream of guest stars that gave Lunella deeper connections to Marvel’s other heroes, like The Thing, Dr. Strange, and the X-Men. These are the right steps to take to make Moon Girl a lasting presence in Marvel Comics, and her higher profile is starting to impact how Lunella interacts with her community in her solo series.

The MG&DD creative team loses a member this month with the departure of co-writer Amy Reeder, but this exclusive preview of MG&DD #13 shows that Reeder’s exit isn’t taking a toll on the quality of the series. Writer Brandon Montclare, artist Natacha Bustos, and artist Tamra Bonvillain continue to offer a warm, heartfelt exploration of a young girl coming into her own with the help of her giant red fire-breathing Tyrannosaurus rex. The big difference is that civilians on Yancy Street have a new respect for their resident heroes, and now Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur can stroll down the city street and be praised by the people they’ve saved. Bustos delivers a beautifully detailed cityscape while Bonvillain intensifies the winter climate with her mostly blue palette, which makes the bright red Devil Dinosaur the primary source of heat on the page. This creative team’s chemistry is the big reason why MG&DD is so compelling, and readers looking for bright, exciting all-ages superhero comics should seek out this series immediately.