In 2023, Marvel will launch a new cartoon of their popular Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur run of comic books. The show will air on the Disney Channel, uses a unique and fun animation style, and be presented to child audiences.
It’s weird that I have to specify that superhero TV shows are for children. First, it’s weird because comic books became officially dark, grown-up, and sure, edgier back in the eighties, if not the seventies. Longtime comic book fans lost their innocence when Joker killed Robin. Second, it’s weird that the film media perception did not correspondingly age up until Marvel’s live-action universe became the juggernaut that it is today. Even the superhero shows of my childhood assumed a juvenile audience. On Spider-Man, they did not ever say the word “die” or a variation of it. This stigma that superheroes are for children is odd because superheroes are modern mythology. They’re how we view our culture in dealing with or explaining everyday problems.
Moon Girl takes that mythology back to childhood because Moon Girl is a thirteen-year-old girl. However, she is still a child. Moon Girl is Lunella Lafayette, a young Black genius who uses an array of gadgets and inventions to help her fight crime. But wait, there’s more. She can also connect psychically to an enormous red T-rex called the Devil Dinosaur, who functions as her sidekick. In the vein of Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Daredevil, Moon Girl protects her New York neighborhood from crime rather than the whole world, even though she’s reportedly the smartest person in it. Moon Girl still has a life to live out as she balances super duties with being a teenager, a daughter, and a best friend.
The artistic style behind Moon Girl uses heavy lines and heavily abstracted versions of the characters depending on their moods and the situation’s needs. While I’d never be so profane as to call it anime, there’s a strong influence in the vein of Teen Titans Go! that is a welcome sight. Based on the clip revealed at this year’s Comic Con, we can tell that the humor’s going to revolve around fish-way-out-of-water Devil Dinosaur trying his best to assist the uptight Moon Girl while their friend Casey provides moral support.
Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur stars Diamond White as Lunella Lafayette, Fred Tatasciore as Devil Dinosaur, and Libe Barer as her best friend, Casey. Watch the Comic-Con clip available from Marvel on marvel.com or below!
