Hello there for the first time both comic book fans and horror fans if you've read my previous reviews you'll know that I love both comic books and horror but this is the first time i've reviewed a horror comic book and i've chosen a pretty solid one to get things started. The book that i've chosen has only just finished it's first story so my review as the title would suggest is based of those first four issues only so here is my review of Elvira: Mistress Of The Dark.
The plot to these first for issues is that while filming a movie Elvira finds her selfs being transported through time and meets up with various horror legends all while trying to defeat Vlad The Impaler. I'll admit the story wasn't what I was expecting from an Elvira comic book but at the same time it perfectly fits the character. However I would have liked the story to reference the fact that Elvira isn't as popular as she once was just because I think there's some comedic value there but that's just me.
What really bugged me about the first issue is that it takes a full seven or eight pages just to get to the first actual panel. Now the first issue is twenty eight pages so it's not that big of an issue but when your just trying to get to the first panel of a comic book you don't want to bugged down by tons of what I assume are variant covers for that same comic book. I know that's only a major gripe and i'm sure that not many of you will have that same issue but it's something that really did bug me and i'm glad that they didn't do it for the other three issues.
The writer of these first four issues at least is David Avallone who's works also include Altered States: Doc Savage , Altered States: The Shadow , Bettie Page and Twilight Zone The Shadow. I've not read any of those books so I can't say if he's a good writer or not but based of these first four issues i'd very much like to check out more of his work since it seems like he gets the Elvira character down perfectly.
Now since there's no comic book shop near me i've had to read this series online and the site i;m reading this from has David Avallone as both the writer and artist. That's not the case tho as the artist for the book is Dave Acosta I don't know what else he's worked so I can't say if he's a good artist or not I can say however that the art in these four issues was really good and alot better then what I thought it was going to be or then it had any right to be for that matter.
The book is being published by Dynamite Comics how publish the Red Sonja books and the Grimm Fairy Tale books. In my opinion they are the best company for this character since they are known for being a little bit more edgy then either of the main stream comic book companies like for example Marvel or DC so they can really push things further and for a character like Elvira is really fitting and it would have been seen as out of character if she didn't have those more mature moments in there.
As far as I can tell this series is released every two months or so which I think is a bad move just because people might forget where there up to in the story. Heck even prior to this review I had to re-read all the issues just so I had an idea of what I was going to write about but that's also because I read issue four on Wednesday but I couldn't write the review because I had a ton of other reviews to get through.
I will say that so far this year is a good year for Elvira fans not only do we have this on going series but it was also recently announced that Elvira actress Cassandra Peterson was considering a third Elvira movie as well as trying to work something out with Netflix for Movie Macarbe. Honestly i'm going to go as far to say that this is the best comic book out there just due to how well written these four issues are and how well it represents the character.
Each issue you'll always get one or two hand drawn covers and then you'll get a live action cover so you get to see how stunning Elvira is both in comic book form and in live action form. There is kind of a twist that happens in issue three I say kind of because it doesn't really read that way at least in my own personal opinion so that is perhaps something that they could have worked on doing since it's also kind of a plot point.
Now i've done some digging around and it turns out that we're getting two Elvira comic books we're getting this Mistress Of The Dark series and starting some time this month were getting The Shape Of Elvira so when I said it's a good year for Elvira fans I really did mean it. I really do hope that this series runs for a long time because it really is a fun read and I truly do believe that it's something you'll enjoy regardless if you like horror or not.
Now since this is a horror book we have to talk about if there's any scares or not and if you've seen anything from Elvira you'll know what the answer to this question is. To put it simply there are no scares to be found in this book but that doesn't bother me at all because the character wasn't about scaring you she was about telling jokes so the fact that there's no scares in this book is really fitting and it would have seemed out of place if there was anything scary in it.
As for the actual jokes there honestly not that bad as with anything to do with comedy the humour is subjective so what you find funny I might not. For me tho alot of these jokes really do work and once again they are in keeping with the actual character of Elvira so there's a lot of sex jokes , there's alot of boob jokes and there's alot of jokes about how Elvira at the start of each issue from issue two onwards would give the reader a repeat of everything that's happened.
I know this is a bit late in the review but incase you've been living under a rock for the past thirty or so years and you don't know who Elvira is well let me tell you. She was in the nineteen eighties the host of a horror show called Movie Macabre think Mystery Science Theatre only there's a stunning woman hosting the show and after a few years of doing that and becoming an icon in the local LA area Cassandra Peterson would write and star in the first Elvira movie called Elvira: Mistress Of The Dark which I highly recommend checking out and to cut along story short she is now a pop culture icon.
Overall these four issues were a joy to read and they really are just a fun ride i'd highly recommend this series to both comic book fans and horror fans because there's something in there for both of you i'm giving these four issues a solid 9 out of 10 from me.