Writer: Sophie Campbell
Artist: Matt Frank & Sophie Campbell
Letterer: Nathan Widick
Cover Artists: Matt Frank & Sophie Campbell
Editor: Jake Williams
Publisher: IDW
Price: $4.99
Release Date: March 5, 2025
When Antra attacked Mothra, Mira lost her family. The girl survived by scavenging shops and learning to hunt. One day, as Mira cooked canned food over a wood fire, her sister found her amid the rubble. Can the sisters bridge the missing years and become a family again? Let's warm up our voices, leap into Mothra #1, and see!
Story
Mira hates Mothra because the queen of the monsters didn't protect her family. She lives inside the giant insect's carcass and practices her survival skills. Antra's Human-size drones menace the demolished city. While happy to see her sister, Mira is suspicious. She wonders why it took her sister fifteen years to find her.
Like Mira, Emi thought she lost her family. But unlike her sister, Emi gained a new one. The priestesses of Mothra found her, instructed her in their ways, and filled the void left by her parents. After years of training, Emi learned of Mira’s existence. Emi is overjoyed to find her sister in Mothra #1. She wants Mira’s help. But Mira wonders if Emi only values her for her fighting skills.
In Sophie Campbell's story, Mothra's priestesses explain the stakes for the girls and their world. The fairies propose to use magic to send them on a mission. Mira may not trust Emi or the priestesses. But what does Mira have to lose except her lonely, anger-fueled existence?
Art
Matt Frank and Sophie Campbell show the kaiju battling amid the tower blocks. As crowds scramble for shelter, Mira’s family races down the streets hand in hand. Antra and Mothra topple against buildings and crash to the ground. Mira's eyes widen as the hand clutching her slips beneath collapsing concrete. The queen of the monsters gazes up with pleading eyes at her opponent in Mothra #1. Antra births drones before the giant ant tears the queen of the monsters apart.
The artists color Mira's journey in grays and beiges. Vibrant reds, greens, blues, and yellows add sparkles of color to Mira's dying world. A blue and magenta flashback reveals Emi's apprenticeship with the priestesses like a windblown dream. Yet green, the color of growth, links Mothra's death and a new bug-eyed monster. The priestesses claim it is the first of more horrors unless Mira agrees to their plan.
Nathan Widick incants black uppercase letters into white dialogue balloons in Mothra #1. While Mira's thoughts fill pink narrative boxes, the priestesses speak white letters in pink balloons. The letters swell for volume, grow bold for intonation, and shrink for lowered voices. As crashes and chittering fill the air, lyrics swirl around the sisters when they lift their voices in song. Thanks to IDW for providing a copy for review.
Final Thoughts
Mothra’s death spells the end of the world. Her petite priestesses need two Human sisters to rejuvenate the planet in Mothra #1. But the fairies have yet to explain why Antra attacked Mothra. And as they propose their dangerous mission, Mothra’s priestesses have other secrets they aren’t sharing.
Rating 9.2/10
For more cover art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.
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