Moon Maiden
Moon Maiden by Mike Becker
25 years ago - Astronaut Ikuko Shinzokesa finds a mysterious temple on the surface of the moon. Inside she meets Tsukuyomi, the Japanese Kami of the moon. After their encounter, she finds herself back on the moon's surface with no evidence that anything happened. Later she and her wife have their daughter Naoko Shinzokesa.
12 years ago - 13-year-old Naoko meets Mochi, a talking rabbit, who gives her a magic locket and becomes her companion. When her schoolmates fall ill she and her friends Sakura & Takeo find that they were all sold cursed jewelry by a disguised alien looking to steal a magical artifact. She is able to open her locket & become Moon Maiden, defeating the alien & saving her schoolmates.
11 years ago - 14-year-old Naoko learns that the aliens trying to steal magic are part of an interstellar cult called the Black Empire. She stops them with the help of Datenshi, a former Black Empire member hiding on Earth.
10 years ago - 15-year-old Naoko fights a full invasion of the Black Empire alongside Big Science Action, and joins them.
8 years ago - 17-year-old Naoko is invited to the school Cultural Festival by both Takeo & Datenshi. A Black Empire sorceress almost defeats her, until her spell book reveals that Naoko is the reincarnation of Princess Kayuga, the Moon Princess, and that Takeo is a reincarnation of Emperor Shirakawa.
7 years ago - 18-year-old Naoko begins attending Tokyo University of the Arts. Takeo’s new magic helps her learn to transform even without her locket. She learns about her Mother's dream on the moon, and travels there to find the temple and meet Tsukuyomi, and defends her mother during the Godwar.
5 years ago - 20-year-old Naoko, Sakura & Takeo help Datenshi return to his home planet to meet his sister's child, hiding from the Black Empire. They recover stolen magical artifacts, allowing Naoko to unlock more of her Moon Maiden transformation.
Moon Maiden is, by far, the most original character in our Big Science Action Lineup, because she comes from another corner of DC entirely. When we first observed that this team would work well in our timeline, we noted that if you were making a group of heroes based on famous Japanese heroic fiction, there was a pretty gaping hole in their lineup. The term in Japan is Shōjo or Shoujo, or Anime aimed at girls between 12 and 18. The specific example that should spring to everyone's mind is Sailor Moon. Frankly, the fact that there wasn't a Sailor Moon allegory in the original lineup of Big Science Action seemed like SUCH a glaring omission it feels like it must have been deliberate?
In any case, it was clear that if we wanted to do this, we needed to find a way for our version of Big Science Action to have a Shoujo heroine of our own, and after a little time, we found the perfect character to adapt to this purpose! Let us know what you think!
In any case, it was clear that if we wanted to do this, we needed to find a way for our version of Big Science Action to have a Shoujo heroine of our own, and after a little time, we found the perfect character to adapt to this purpose! Let us know what you think!
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Moon Maiden's Comic HistoryMoon Maiden has two appearances, total. Her first was in her introductory story, which took place in the annual anthology book, JLA 80-Page Giant, which ran from 98 to 2000. In this case the whole book actually told one big story by writer Dan Curtis Johnson. It's a pretty epic story, showing the Watchtower-era JLA functioning like a well-oiled, collaborative team facing giant world-threatening events like they do it every day. In it, we basically discover that the entire Justice League had fought in a giant war against a villain called the Centurion that had a weapon that could erase people from history, and that one of their members, Moon Maiden, whose origins were tied to the Centurion, managed to use the weapon on the Centurion himself, which removed both of them, and the war, from the timeline. The story saw their return, in which Moon Maiden was under her archenemies control, until she is able to remember her friendship with the League, and stops him. The book ends by showing her return to the League.
Her second appearance is in the pages of George Perez's JLA/Avengers crossover, during the giant group scenes in which he literally draws every single character who's ever been on either team. She's never appeared again. |
Our Moon Maiden StoryI'm sure it's clear here that, while we are absolutely keeping some of the core beats of the original Moon Maiden's story, we are pretty thoroughly stripping it down to the frame and rebuilding her from the ground up to make her really feel like DC's version of Sailor Moon. It's a really fun process, working out everything we wanted to do to get that story right. We wanted her powers to all be magical, and specifically all associate with the moon. Since sailor moon is actually (spoilers) the reincarnation of a space princess, we did the same thing, but made her the reincarnation of the Moon Princess, a character from Japanese folklore. We used elements of the original Moon Maiden's history where she is found on the moon, but replaced it by having her mother encounter the Moon Princess's mother, the Japanese Kami (god? kinda?) of the moon.
From there, we really just found a fun rhythm of building adventures for Naoko to have. We gave her a group of friends to have adventures with, her own enemies in a space cult trying to steal magical artifacts, and even some competing possible love interests! We decided not to make her a founding member of Big Science Action. The team came together fighting in the Monster Wars, and it doesn't quite feel right for this particular teen heroine to have fought in a war. Instead she joins later when her enemies, the Black Empire, stage a large invasion and she winds up working with the BSA to stop them. I really like this new timeline. Combined with the absolutely killer art our friend Mike Becker created, she really feels like a character that belongs in our version of DC! |
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