Your new Marvel superhero is an African American girl with a T-Rex best friend

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur will be a modern remake of Jack Kirby's 1978 classic

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur will be a new project for Marvel (Marvel Comics/Entertainment Weekly)

Marvel wasn't having us on when it pledged to improve diversity in its comics - the newest series will follow the adventures of an African American girl and her T-Rex best mate.

That's right, pre-teen whizz kid Lunella Lafayette has teamed up with the big red dinosaur from Jack Kirby's 1978 cult favourite Devil Dinosaur, but this time she's a contemporary genius instead of a hairy, blue ape-boy.

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur will introduce readers to Lunella, whom co-creator Amy Reeder describes as a "female Inspector Gadget".

Emily Shaw, assistant editor, told Entertainment Weekly that the character's brain "works a little differently than all of the other kids her age".

"That idea of feeling sort of isolated and on your own during that very early time of life we thought was really compelling, and could really resonate with a lot of readers," she said.

"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."

Artist Natacha Busos added that as a half Afro-Brazilian, half Chilean woman from Spain, she often "comes up against this dilemma of finding few or no cultural references" and hence is particularly keen to encourage greater diversity.

"You end up ironing out your differences and you need to work hard on this aspect to be able to continue maturing as a person," she said.

Anyone worried about Moon Boy being ousted for Moon Girl, have no fear, for the caveman will be in the new comic "at least for a little bit" as a "legitimate menace" changed by their modern experiences.

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur is set to reach shelves this autumn.