Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur: BFF (Volume 1)

Marvel

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur:  BFF (Volume 1)
Brandon Montclare
Amy Reeder
Natasha Bustos
2016

The Summary
"Lunella Lafayette is an inhuman preteen genius who wants to change the world!

"That job would be a lot easier if she wasn't living in mortal fear of her latent inhuman gene.  There's no telling what she'll turn into--but Luna's got a plan.  All she needs is an Omni-Wave Projector.  Easy, right?  That is, until a red-scaled beast is teleported from the prehistoric past to a far-flung future we call...today!  Together they're the most Marvelous Team-Up of all--the Inhuman Moon Girl and time-tossed Devil Dinosaur!  But will they be BFFs forever or just until DD's dinner time?  And Lunella soon learns that there are other problems with having a titanic T. Rex as a pet in the modern-day Marvel Universe.  School, for one.  Monster hunters are another--especially when they're the Totally Awesome Hulk!  Then there's the fact that everyone's favorite dino didn't journey through time alone.  Beware the prehistoric savages known as the Killer-Folk--New York City's deadliest tourists!  Can Lunella handle all this turmoil...and keep herself from transforming into an inhuman monster?"

The Good
Featuring smart, sassy Lunella and, of course, the indomitable Devil Dinosaur, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur is an amusing and adventurous comic to read.  More to the point, it's a good comic for all ages as it's both entertaining and accessible without compromising on complexity or content.  (Plus it's a great comic for the Read Harder Challenge for 2017, just so you know.)

I admit, I was a little hesitant to pick up Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.  I'd seen single issues in the local comic book store and, for some reason, I couldn't imagine myself reading them.  They seemed too young for me or too cartoonish or too...well, something, but then I discovered the first volume collection and I immediately fell in love.

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur is one of those comics that has a feel-good message and a strong moral (i.e. girls can like science--and they can be kick butt heroes just like anyone else), but it also has a good story, a strong female protagonist, hilarious hero-villain interactions, unusual adventurers and unconventional victories.  It reminds me a bit of Squirrel Girl, minus the acorns and furry tails, of course.

Granted, it's a bit absurd, but it's fun and it's wonderfully light-hearted and it's incredibly colorful.  I loved how expressive each panel seemed, taking into account facial expressions and background colors and movement.  Plus, I just loved Lunella.  She was such a fun character to follow and she a great narrator.  Sassy, but not obnoxious; humorous, but not clownish; intelligent, but not overwhelmingly smart.  She was a perfectly balanced character.

Overall, I thought it was a great comic and I'm so glad I took the opportunity to read it.

The Bad
Hulk.

For some reason, I just couldn't take the "Totally Awesome" Hulk seriously.

The Ugly
It's easy to forget that Lunella is only 9-years-old.  She's such a strong, dynamic and intelligent character, you sometimes don't think that she's still in elementary school.  But then you come across a scene where she's broken-hearted, sobbing because she's terrified her Inhuman genes will turn her into a monster--and that's when you remember.

She's just a kid.  She still needs her mom and her dad.

It's a bit heart breaking.

Read Harder Challenge 2017: Part 1

So first up on my Read Harder Challenge, I tackled:

• Read a debut novel.
• Read an all-ages comic.
• Read a superhero comic with a female lead.

Sourcebooks
Casablanca

I started with a debut novel, Kiss of Steel by Bec McMaster.  Although I originally intended to read A Man Called Ove, a debut novel by Fredrik Backman, I stumbled across Kiss of Steel purely by accident and discovered it was just what I needed to complete this challenge.  The first book in the London Steampunk series, Kiss of Steel tells the story of an alternative Victorian age in which verwulfen (werewolves), vampires, automatons, humans, and more live side-by-side in a steam-fueled world.

Honoria Todd fled to the rookeries in a desperate attempt to escape the Echelon, the blue-blood (i.e. vampire) aristocracy of London who rule over the city with an iron fist.  But when Blade, de facto master of the rookeries, discovers her living at the fringes of his little kingdom, he becomes embroiled in a series of unexpected mysteries involving Honoria.  Soon, a vampire--a blue-blood who has crossed the Fade, who has completely succumbed to blood lust--is terrorizing the rookeries and it's up to Honoria and Blade to stop it--and the Echelon--before it's too late.

I actually enjoyed reading Kiss of Steel.  It wasn't quite what I expected, but I wouldn't say that's a bad thing.  Granted, it was a bit explicit, hyper-violent, and incredibly grisly; however, McMaster's debut novel was a mixture of action, romance, science-fiction and paranormal fantasy that I found thrilling.  Overall, I enjoyed Kiss of Steel, but I do think it could have been better.  I would have loved to have delved deeper into the alternative history and discovered more about the people--and creatures--that inhabited this world.

Marvel

Next, I read Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur:  BFF (Volume 1) by Brandon Montclare and Amy Reeder, which was a fun and amusing comic featuring Lunella and, of course, the indomitable Devil Dinosaur.  First in the series, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur:  BFF is a great comic for kids of all ages--and it's simultaneously amusing for adults.

It starts out with Lunella, who is 9-years-old and quite unlike other girls her age.  She's an unexpectedly talented inventor and she's also an Inhuman--and the Terrigen Mist that's creeping through the city, the amorphous haze that will activate her Inhuman DNA, terrifies her.  Desperate to keep her Inhuman DNA dormant, Lunella sets out to discover alien technology that will help her stop the Terrigen Mist and keep herself human.  That is, if Devil Dinosaur, who was transported to the future with the same alien technology, doesn't destroy everything first.

Overall, I loved reading Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.  I admit, I was a little hesitant to read it at first.  I'd seen single issues in the local comic book store and, for some reason, I couldn't imagine myself reading them--and then I discovered the collected volume at the library.  I immediately fell in love.  Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur is a lot of fun to read.  Although it takes place in the Marvel Universe, readers don't really need a who lot of background about the Kree and the Inhumans and the Terrigen Mist to enjoy the story.  It has a dynamic, intelligent character, and it's a crazy, fun adventure that will lead you across time and the city of New York.

Last, I checked out Wonder Woman:  Blood (Volume 1) by Brian Azzarello, Cliff Chiang, and Tony Akins.  I have long been a fan of comic books.  I love Batman and Superman and even Aquaman, and I've found a recent favorite in Squirrel Girl, Daredevil, and Hawkeye; however, I've not read much of Wonder Woman.  She's an interesting character to be sure, but I've just never found myself compelled to read about her until now.

DC Comics

In Wonder Woman: Blood, first in the New 52 series, Wonder Woman finds herself caught in the middle of a battle for supremacy between the Greek gods of myth.  Diana has long abstained from the more complicated dealings between these capricious gods, but Zeus has gone missing--and Hera is on the war path to destroy the child he left behind.  Now, the remaining gods, including Apollo, Hades, and Poseidon, are in a war for the king of gods' throne, while Hera cuts a bloody swath across Paradise Island to rectify the injustices done to her.

Let me say, I like Greek mythology.  I've always been intrigued by it and I've gone out of my way to discover more about it than what I learned in school, but I wasn't really impressed with their appearance in Wonder Woman.  Honestly, I wasn't really all that impressed with the story in general.  I was a little disappointed, especially since I went into this comic with such high expectations.  I'm a fan of powerful, self-sufficient women, and I love the idea of Wonder Woman, who is a warrior first and foremost; however, I'm not so sure I like her in practice.

It's difficult to describe, but let me put it this way:  I like Batman, because he is human and he is deeply flawed.  I like Superman, because he is an alien who grew up in Kansas and he is good to the best of his ability.  Likewise, I like Aquaman, because he is half-human/half-Atlantean and he struggles daily with his dueling identities.  And all these characters have one thing in common:  they were raised, in my opinion, in a recognizable place and way.  Diana, on the other hand, was raised on Paradise Island with a different set of beliefs and a completely different set of rules, which makes it difficult to relate to her on a personal level.  More to the point, it made Wonder Woman:  Blood (Volume 1) less than enjoyable to read.