The Moon Is Following Us #5
Writer: Daniel Warren Johnson
Artists: Daniel Warren Johnson, Riley Rossmo
Colors: Mike Spicer
Main Cover: Riley Rossmo
Variant Cover: Daniel Warren Johnson
Page Count: 28 pages
Release Date: January 15, 2025
The Moon Is Following Us #5 kicks off with a full page of Brio, as he prepares for the impending battle and briefly flashes back to when Penny dropped him on the freeway back in Reality. He may have lost an eye when he got run over, but doesn’t really fault the kid (given that she was younger, and her subconscious is the world he lives in). He does, however, hope to avenge Queen Ashley.
Meanwhile, Tash puts Brio in charge of part of their army, while Sam and Duncan are to go with him. Sam and Duncan, for their part, are still rather weakened after their prior transaction with Pigface, waved off by Tash as mere exhaustion.
The battle rages on, and the Cascade gain the upper hand. They have new monsters now, created specifically because Penny’s parents are fighting so hard for their girl. Even when Brio and his forces rejoin the couple, they’re outnumbered, and Tash is nowhere to be seen…
As it turns out, Tash is still trying to save his own daughter. And the lengths he’d go to to achieve that goal include (but are not limited to): metaphorically stabbing Sam and Duncan in the back (and leaving them to die at the hands of the demons), literally stabbing Brio in the back, using the couple’s stolen life force with the intention of transferring it to his kid. Sam and Duncan are braced for the end…
When, BAM! They gain a new ally in the form of Penny’s nightmares.
So, going into the main thoughts on The Moon Is Following Us #5 in general, I’m already looking forward to learning more about the kid’s nightmares. The fact that they’re there to help intrigues me to no end. The designs for them are pretty cool, to boot. The first two we see have a sort of goth aesthetic that contrasts beautifully with the Normal Little Girl vibes we’ve seen so far from Penny, while at the same time remaining distinct from The Cascade’s monster-y designs.
The pacing for this issue is excellent, the action never slowing down for a second. The next issue will almost certainly have a bit of exposition to properly introduce the Nightmares, but this one was pure adrenaline.
With how The Moon Is Following Us #5 began, I honestly started to wonder if Brio was going to make it to the end of the chapter (let alone the story). It may be a holdover from my watching each episode of The Walking Dead: whenever a character had a sudden focus on them for an episode, they likely weren’t much longer for this world. Though it may also have been a byproduct of Queen Ashley getting taken out in the prior issue, thus indicating that the writers weren’t messing around.
But the biggest thing with The Moon Is Following Us #5: Tash’s betrayal. It wasn’t incredibly obvious that it would happen, until looking at the previous issues. It was telegraphed sufficiently, without feeling like it was pulled completely out of left field. And it ties further into the theme of “what parents will do for their children”.
Now, what I’m wondering about most of all is how Penny would be after waking up. Would she have any idea what’d happened in her subconscious while Granny Cascade was keeping her asleep? I’m still pretty sure that she and at least one parent will survive the whole thing, of course. If not, that would render the whole journey sort of pointless and be a slap in the face to the reader. There’s a difference between a slap to the face and a gut punch when it comes to stories, and the gut punch may be painful, but it’s preferable. Either way, looking forward to seeing where this ride goes.
Final Thoughts
An intense installment, showing that the gloves are officially off.
