Comic book fans it's been quite a long time since i've reviewed a comic book and well it just so happens that Elvira has a new comic book out. If you guys recall I reviewed the first four issues of the new Mistress Of The Dark comic book series and I have been reading The Shape Of Elvira but I had no idea that there was going to be a Spring special if anything I thought there would be a Halloween special since that would make the most sense anyways here is my review of Elvira: Mistress of the Dark: Spring Special.
Now there are two stories in this book the first being called Elvira In Drive-In Of The Dead and is about Elvira trying to make it big as a movie star by starring in films made by George Rottmero only to find out his films are little to realistic. The second is called Elvira In The Satan 500 and it involves Elvira in a race with the devil and that's pretty much it I have to be honest out of the two I preferred the first story since it felt like an Elvira story where as the second one felt like it was better suited for another character.
I have to question why they chose to release a spring special with this character not only no where near Halloween but also so close to summer then it would have made more sense just to call it a summer special. I'm not even kidding we are a few weeks away from the start of summer and this special only came out about a week ago so surely at that point you have to wonder why they didn't just change the name our put the release of until October where it would have made more sense given it features a horror legend.
I will say that Elvira does act pretty much how you;d expect her to act in both stories and that's really to be expected since she is such an icon in the world of horror. I will admit tho there are times where the real life Elvira would have said a joke and this comic book version doesn't go with it like for example the real life Elvira would have made fun of the fact that there just ripping of names of other horror icons and this one doesn't go down that route at all.
The first story is also for some reason split up into several short chapters which are all names of the films that the fictional director is working on with our main star and the one i've included is a spoof that just made me laugh. I have no idea why they chose to split this story up into chapters when it really didn't need it if anything it doesn't make a difference either way and is there just for a joke and that's really it.
Writing the stories are Fernando Ruiz and Dan Parent for the first story and for the second we have Scott Bryan Wilson. Writing wise the book is pretty solid like I said before Elvira acts how you'd expect her to act so there is a clear understanding of the character but I feel like this book would have been better if the writing didn't take itself two seriously which I honestly feel that it does and it holds the book back from being truly entertaining.
Doing the art for the book are writers Fernando Ruiz and Dan Parent with them not only doing the art work for there own story but with Fernando doing the art work for Scott's story as well. In my opinion the artwork sucks hard it looks like the kind of artwork that you'd expect from a cartoon comic book tie in and that's a shame because the Mistress Of The Dark comic book series proved that this series can indeed produce solid art.
Shockingly this book is only thirty one pages long and that does mean that the second story does get rushed alot. If your going to tell a racing story in a comic book then you need at least two or three issues to really do it justice here tho we only get a few pages and that's not really enough at least in my opinion it's not and it's a shame because on paper this story should have been interesting and funny as hell but due to the small amount of pages left to tell the story it means that we have to rush through plot points.
One of the great things about both stories is that they somehow managed to include some classic Elvira props like the chair she's lying down on in the first story is the iconic red couch and as you can see from the above picture the car she drives is the iconic Elvira car. As someone who is a bit of an Elvira fan I was glad that they somehow managed to work those props into the book and not have them feel like fan service heck they don't even focus on them and there barely seen but it's cool that they are there.
Now I don't know if your reading the current Mistress Of The Dark comics or not but in every issue they always include a picture of the real life Elvira and I was hoping that they'd do the same here and it's fair thing to assume since they also do it for The Shape Of Elvira as well. I have no idea why they chose not to include a real life image of her in this book it just seems strange to me that they'd have two ongoing books which do it and not have it included for the special and I checked all three are published by the same company Dynamite Entertainment so there's no excuse in my opinion.
Now there are elements of horror seen in this book but as you'd expect from Elvira it's played up in a cartoonish way. I'm honestly fine them doing this since Elvira herself did the same thing in both of her movies however there is nothing in here that's outright scary unless you think not having any jokes is scary. That's not to say that you can show this book to kids because it's Elvira so you just know that there's going to be alot of people finding her attractive and staring at her flotation devices.
As you'd expect from anything to do with Elvira this is a comedy and that's where this book feels like a let down at least in my opinion. Since there are very little to know actually funny jokes in this the only jokes I could say was funny is included in the above picture and even then it's only funny if you know who those people are the only other funny joke is in the first story when the director mentions he made a ton of blockbusters and one of them includes Freddy Vs Jason which i'd say only works if you know the director there actually spoofing and not because it's a clever joke.
Overall as an Elvira book it's pretty decent but lacking the humour that one would expect from the character but if this was comic book featuring a new character i'd say it wouldn't be worth buying. This book does have a lot going for it but it also has a lot of flaws and so this books gets a 5 out of 10 from me and yes I will be reviewing The Shape Of Elvira as soon as all four issues have been released.