Clare Lune is a nurse living in 1950s New York, who is not only the secret identity for masked vigilante, Moon girl, but also a former European princess living in secret whilst the demons of her past come full force. Granted with powers from the fabled Moon Rock, Moon Girl goes toe to toe with a cavalcade of foes in this retro superhero pastiche meets zombie horror meets ‘Sailor Moon’ for grownups mash up.
First and foremost, the artwork in this series is striking. Rahzzah has shown that he is deftly able to move between the series tonal shifts, whilst still keeping a consistent style. When sequences shift between superhero action to horror, we still feel the overall mood whiplash, without feeling like we are reading separate stories stapled together. There is however, a slight tendency to fall into cheesecake territory, which can become a little distracting, and downplay some of the more serious scenes.
The writing is incredibly fast, practically breakneck speed. This combined with villains jumping out of the woodworks, can lead to things becoming a little murky. The jump between time periods runs the risk of confusion, but the pieces of information to Moon Girl’s back story are definitely interesting, and somewhat dark, so it doesn’t feel like this storytelling method is a wrong one. It certainly enjoys its twists and melodrama and the one thing it most definitely is not is subtle, but it revels in it.
So far, ‘Moon Girl’ is an interesting little series. It’s kitschy and dark and fun and violent and confusing, and maybe tries to accomplish a bit too much, but it knows what it wants to do and has a blast doing it.
‘Moon Girl’ is published by Red 5 Comics and is available on Comixology.
