Red 5 begin another new series by reimagining the
Golden Age character Moon Girl formerly of EC Comics. Writers
Tony Trov and Johnny Zito take readers back to the pulp 1950’s of
New York. The press release claims it mixes The Dark Knight
and Mad Men so it’s got some high expectations to meet.
Moon Girl is a
superhero during the 1950’s. She balances the responsibilities of
her super heroics with a job as a nurse. Issue 1 starts with a bang
as Moon Girl is taking down her former mentor Satana and a bunch of
low level cronies. Such a beginning was good as it set the tone for
the comic, there’s a lot of energy and it moves fast, but I never
knew who Moon Girl was and after reading the whole of issue 1 I
still don’t have too much of an idea of who she is and what she can
do.
Outside of not knowing who Moon Girl really is,
and feeling like I’ve been dropped into some greater storyline, the
plot feels like a classic superhero tale with devious villains and a
plot to change the world. It’s unfortunate that even in Moon Girl’s
other life we aren’t given much information about who she is, and
while the relentless pace gives the story energy it also compounds
the feeling of confusion as your introduced to all these new
characters and then quickly move on to something else with no
explanation.
While the storytelling feels all
over the place the artwork is really superb. Rhazzah Wundabar
captures the action really well. It feels brutal and quick and it’s
just a great issue to look at. To fulfill that Mad Men claim
we probably should have seen a few more cigarettes and martinis but
you do feel it’s the 50’s and it’s kind of glamorous while at the
same time being dirty and a bit sleazy. Rhazzah also does something
different; he’s created a bright and colorful noir world. The way
characters are drawn, the way they act and some of the locations are
very noir-esque but there’s a lot of color here and energy that is
generally missing from noir
tales.
It was refreshing and further helped Rhazzah’s beautifully painted
pages standout from the crowd. The lettering, on the other hand, was
almost a throwback to the old Batman TV show with the
onomatopoeia a bit of an eyesore enveloped in crazy colors and
imposing itself on the artwork.
Moon Girl #1 is
glamorous and decadent at the same time. There’s the filthy
underbelly of The Dark Knight mixed in with the swinging,
sexy workplace of Mad Men. It’s just a shame that the story
telling was all over the place and left the reader really confused.
It was a very pretty issue to look at but not an easy one to follow.
A tale of two books Moon Girl might be one worth waiting on
to see how it pans out.
