Time-Traveling Dinosaurs and 9-Year-Old Super Geniuses

I've finally decided to get around to Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, but never had the time to read it until now. This run started back in 2016 and was written by Brandon Montclare and Amy Reeder, with art done by Natacha Bustos. I've really wanted to read this story ever since the Inhumans vs. X-Men storyline and now I finally got a chance to read it, and better yet, write about it.

"You're Late for School! Again!"

The issue begins with a little girl named Lunella whose mother is trying to wake her up before she goes to school because she is trying to get into certain schools. As it turns out, Lunella isn't trying to get a few more extra minutes of sleep, but is actually building some kind of contraption under her bed. Lunella doesn't say what the device does other than the fact that she is going to use it to figure out what the world's biggest problem is. So obviously we can gather that she is a very intelligent little girl, and the schools she's trying to get into are top notch. Lunella's mother manages to get her to go to school by saying that the universities she's trying to get into check attendance. So she rushes out of bed, runs outside and presses a button on her shoes. And her shoes turn into roller blades with rocket boosters, which I think is both hilarious and awesome as she makes it to class just as the bell rings. But here is where things make me a tad bit angry, and where the writers are likely commenting on the education system nowadays, likely in the United States.

Little Miss Know-It-All...

The teacher gets angry at her for being late to class, and tells Lunella to sit down before continuing her lesson. What the teacher does is teach the kids about the theory of evolution, something that Lunella probably knows a decent amount about considering the fact that she is designing a device called the "Kree Detector." So at the end of the day, Lunella feels she isn't learning anything in school, so why bother paying attention. That's when the teacher gets angry at her for not paying attention, and being basically smarter than everybody in her class, the teacher included. Not only does she hate the fact that she is not learning anything new at all when she goes to school, but the other kids make fun of her for being smart too, which fosters her dislike for school, or at least the one she is currently attending.

Home... Is Just Alright

Through her narration in the issue, we find out that Lunella's home is alright, but her parents don't really seem to understand what Lunella wants. The exchange between Lunella and her parents is quite short and kind of a generic conversation that parents have with their kids. Her parents ask Lunella if she learned anything, and says no because she literally knows everything they teach at her school, and more. It's impossible that she doesn't considering her ability to invent a Kree Detector. In response to Lunella saying that she never learns anything in school, her parents say that at least she has friends that she sees. The problem when it comes to Lunella is that she doesn't have any friends, and she doesn't want any. At least not at the school that she's going to because nobody cares or understands what projects she wants to pursue, and when Lunella goes to another school, she'll probably make some actual friends.

Moon-Boy and Devil Dinosaur

Later, Lunella is using her Kree Detector to find things in a ruined part of the city. And that's when she finds some kind of yellow device, and that's when we switch from the present day to the Valley of Flames during the time of dinosaurs. We are taken to what looks like humanity's ancestors who are holding the Kree object that Lunella found. What these people say is that they are going to use it for some kind of sacrificial ritual, and the people that they will use for the sacrifice are known as "Small-folk." Almost immediately after, Devil Dinosaur bursts through the surrounding jungle and is shown to be ridden by a member of the "Small-folk." What we find out is that there are predominantly two groups of people, the Small-folk and the Killer-folk. The Small-Folk are a group of hunter-gatherers, and the Killer-Folk are the rival group. Essentially, Killer-Folk think of the Devil Dinosaur as the actual devil, and they were going to use this Kree device that they call the Nightstone to stop it. It turns out that the Small-Folk that was riding Devil Dinosaur is Moon-Boy. There isn't much to Moon-Boy other than the fact that he was Devil Dinosaur's friend. He was mostly a supporting character to Devil Dinosaur in the original 1978 run. We are, however, given some information on who he is in this issue. Essentially, Moon-Boy was kicked out of his own tribe of Small-Folk because he made a deal with the Devil, that devil being the dinosaur, but I don't think that the dinosaur being the devil is completely accurate. Though, I don't know much about Devil Dinosaur or his mythos.

The Death of Moon-Boy

We are taken back to the present day in Lunella's Gym Class where she purposely gets herself out in dodge ball so that she can examine the Kree object, or the Nightstone as the Small-Folk and Killer-Folk call it. And that's when her moron Gym teacher takes the shiny alien orb and starts goofing around with it, opening a portal from Moon-Boy's time to the present day. I mean seriously, all of the teachers know Lunella is super smart so why get angry at her for being the way she is. But also it's a big glowing green orb thing that the gym teacher took from Lunella, and it sure doesn't look like it comes from Earth. Seriously, he doesn't know what it is or does? How stupid can the guy be? Pretty stupid evidently.

Meanwhile in the Valley of Flames, some Killer-Folk are ganging up and beating Moon-Boy when they notice that the Nightstone is starting to disappear and create a portal to our world (though the Killer-Folk don't know that). After all of the Killer-Folk enter the present day, Devil Dinosaur finds Moon-Boy dying. Moon-Boy tells Devil Dinosaur to find the Killer-Folk and avenge his death, and Devil Dinosaur enters the portal as well.

Moon-Girl Begins

When he is in the present day, Devil Dinosaur chases the Killer-Folk away from Lunella and her classmates, and Lunella screams at Devil Dinosaur to stop essentially destroying the school. That's when DD picks up Lunella by his mouth and walks away with her, ending the issue.

Not much really happens in the first issue in terms of action, but it does do a good job of introducing the characters and letting the readers know about their motivations. However, things do pick up in the second issue onward, so I really suggest you check out this title. I'm not going to talk about what happens in the next few issues because I'm going to cover those. With that being said, that concludes this post.

Note: I do not own the art, characters or panels shown in this post. All art, characters, and panels belong to their respective owners.