A divine end to the inferno.
Creative Staff:
Story: David Avallone
Art: Dave Acosta
Colors: Walter Pereyra
Letterer: Taylor Esposito
What They Say:
Elvira’s comes face to face with Satan himself, as her odyssey through the underworld reaches its thrilling and ridiculous conclusion. Will she escape the ninth circle of Hell, or end up the Horror Hostess of the Damned for all Eternity? David Avallone (Bettie Page) and Dave Acosta (Twelve Devils Dancing) bring you the hottest lady in Hades, in the next thrilling issue of ELVIRA: MISTRESS OF THE DARK.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
I’ll admit, I wasn’t exactly thrilled to enter another of Dante’s Inferno stories even with Elvira. It’s a common story technique that in comics I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen it used in the forty years of reading them that I’ve done but there’s always some fun to be had with it. David Avallone brings it to a close with this issue, getting us ready for something new next, and it’s fun as she faces off her greatest opponent. And, as always, Dave Acosta makes it look fun and wonderful with all the details while this installment is more colorful thanks to Walter Pereyra. There’s a lot more going on location-wise and their color work definitely has a lot of fantastic pop here worth enjoying.
Elvira’s meeting with Lucifer goes about as you’d expect with Mephistopheles introducing her to him. Lucifer, at first, is the giant hooved type of Lucifer who uses some of the worst people in history as his toothpick. But that doesn’t make much impact on Elvira and once she gets his attention he comes into her greatest fear – her high school gym teacher. It’s utterly appropriate but it sets the stage well as she interacts with him in a couple of different forms to plead her case as to why she doesn’t belong here. It does, unfortunately, involve a bit of recap of some of the earlier part of the arc as we reconnect with Faustus and Helen, but Lucifer provides for some useful snark and takes an amusing appearance along the way. Elvira doesn’t go all formal in trying to plead her case but she is pretty clear about it. The problem is that the devil frankly doesn’t give a damn. And that’s not too much of a surprise.
This is where things go into the familiar as we get the riff about how he didn’t ask for any of this or for this to be his existence and it also goes into the fact that those in hell are there of their own unconscious choosing. So she is free to leave at any time she wants. It’s an overly familiar way of closing out a number of in-hell storylines I’ve read over the years but it at least has Elvira’s charm to carry it through, especially as she interacts with Glenn as they head to a better place. It’s definitely beautifully illustrated and colored but I love how Glenn becomes Glinda and we get a delightful little Divine nod in the mix. Elvira’s definitely out of place in what’s basically the hills from the Sound of Music, but it allows it all to move into wrapping it all by closing the loop in how she ended up in Faustus’ grip to begin with.
In Summary:
I’ve enjoyed the whole Dante’s Inferno arc as it played out but I liked what we had before with Elvira time-tripping through history and interacting with those that would create the stories of horror in the future. Wrapping up this arc is welcome and the team put it together in a pretty fun and enjoyable way here even if there are predictable elements and a little more comical recap than I was looking for. Elvira’s a great character to work with and tossing her into hell for a while definitely made for some amusing moments even if some of it is more familiar than I care for. Avallone and Acosta continue to nail the look and tone of this book in a great way and it continues to be one of those gems that you wish more people discovered.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: August 7th, 2019
MSRP: $3.99
