ReadItDaddy's Comic of the Week - Week Ending 12th October 2018: "Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur" by Brandon Montclare, Amy Reeder and Natacha Bustos (Marvel Comics)

In our quest to own as many "Mighty Girl" comics as possible, we've been hugely impressed by what's been going on over at Marvel Comics for a number of years now...
So our Comic of the Week this week sees us picking up another fantastic series that has a mighty girl at its heart. Though this one's not alone - she's got a hulking great big angry red T-Rex as a sidekick.

Meet Lunella Lafayette, star of "Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur".

Lunella is a pre-teen genius with a penchant for inventing her own gadgets, being a bit of an outcast and definitely a bit of a smart alec in school - but feeling like she's destined for more.

Lunella also has a secret too - she possesses Inhuman genes inside her (Inhuman as in the Marvel superhero series, we should point out) and lives a life in constant fear of how those genes - and perhaps mutant special powers - will manifest themselves.

Tough life for a kid eh?

But it gets even tougher when she's accidentally caught in the crossfire of an accident with an ancient relic, that propels a bunch of surly and violent cavemen - and the aforementioned colossal red dinosaur into the present day.

More through accident than design Lunella also seems to develop a link with Devil Dinosaur (a neat bring-back of one of Marvel's classic golden-age characters that's been ripe for a revival for a very long time) - and after swapping bodies with big red, things get even weirder still.

A huge huge part of the appeal of this comic to C and I is definitely in the interplay between outsider Lunella and her classmates, and also those terrible "Tween" arguments with Lunella's over-protective parents, concerned that their daughter is getting into something way over her head.

Like most of the modern marvel mighty girl comics, this is beautifully observed with a solidly inspirational (and amazingly, believable) young girl character that my daughter can look up to and love to bits.

We've seen a lot of bad press and "ComicsGate" kickback against the modern Marvel direction that a lot of series are taking, and the constant introduction of strong females either kicking off their own new series, or being gender-swapped into classic Marvel roles. We firmly thumb our nose at those idiots who can't recognise comics like "Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur" for what they are. Good solid stories with brilliant artwork and fantastic characters that ditch the whole 'boob window' philosophy that's been rife in female-led comics for way too long.

Hooray for Lunella. She rocks!

"Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur" Volumes 1 through 5 are available now, published by Marvel (self purchased - not provided for review).