Review by Frank Plowright
There’s a world pretty much like our own where a disease devastated the human population. The upside for some survivors was their developing super powers, and Moths ties into the world J. Michael Straczynski introduced in The Resistance. The Moths are so known because their super powers use up their life energy, and once they begin using those powers their life expectancy is reduced to six months.
Straczynski’s superhero material always features interesting ideas about what people can do with what to other writers would be minor powers and therefore not worth considering. That’s the case with Emily Kai, who can sense the emotion behind what people are thinking, if not the actual thoughts, and also transfer what she’s feeling to others. With the parent book occupied by the bigger picture of increasingly authoritarian governments attempting to control the newly super powered, there wouldn’t be room for the personal feelings and development of Emily. Here we come to know and love someone who cares for others and cares for the world despite the tragedy of recent family events.
Mike Choi’s art is stunning digital photorealism. He brings people to life and avoids the static quality that’s often the downside of digital realism. Choi’s people have a warmth, which is often needed because Emily’s powers are hardly visual dynamite and standard action scenes are absent. It means Moths stands or falls on how well he’s able to convey feeling during conversations, and there’s no failure here.
Moths is a month per chapter countdown of Emily’s final six months, each chapter exploring a different idea, and cleverly tying in with The Resistance, sometimes skirting around the edges, and sometimes pivotal. Straczynski’s obviously designed Moths to offer greater substance to the main series, but not in a money-grubbing crossover way as it adds to it rather than being an essential component. What you get here is six wonderful stories of hope, enlightenment and redemption centred on a caring human being and with a clever ending. There should be more of that across the arts as a whole.
