Say hello to Lunella Lafayette, Marvel's newest superhero.
The comic giant will soon be introducing audiences to Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, a reimagining of the short-lived 1978 comic previously centered around a red T-Rex and his "caveman-like friend" Moon Boy, Entertainment Weekly reports.
The updated version stars Lafayette (Moon Girl) as a brainy pre-teen with "unpredictable alien DNA" who teams up with Devil Dinosaur in New York City. Writer Amy Reeder compared Lafayette to a "female Inspector Gadget -- only this time, she also knows what she’s doing."
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The story came to fruition when Marvel realized it lacked relatable characters that appealed to younger audiences, Moon Girl assistant editor Emily Shaw tells EW.
“Generally, we’re skewing a little bit older with a lot of our titles and we wanted to create something that adults and kids could really love, like a Pixar feel," Shaw said. "That’s where the tone jumped off for us.”
& Here are some sketches by our amazing artist @Natbustos...we loved how she wrote "Moon Girl" & put it in the logo! pic.twitter.com/JTWMj3DlAk— Amy Reeder (@amyreeder) August 13, 2015
Moon Girl artist Natacha Bustos is also excited that Lunella will add to Marvel's growing roster of diverse characters.
"It’s great to be a part of the creation of something which can mean something special to so many people,” she said. “I myself have come up against this dilemma (I’m half Afro-Brazilian and half Chilean besides being Spanish) of finding few or no cultural references, especially in Spain, a country where there is isn’t any community comparable to the African American community in the states."
“It’s really important that the mainstream throws up new references like these and it’s an honor to be a part of that change that Marvel is bringing to the comic book creative landscape," she continued.
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur will roar onto shelves this fall.