ELVIRA IN MONSTERLAND #4, from Dynamite Comics on 8/30/23, sends Elvira on her next trip to Monster Island with mega-sized monsters, mechs, and madmen. Oh, My!
The Details
- Written by: David Avallone
- Art by: Kewber Baal
- Colors by: Walter Pereyra
- Letters by: Taylor Esposito
- Cover art by: Dave Acosta (cover A)
- Comic Rating: Teen+
- Cover price: $3.99
- Release date: August 30, 2023
Is ELVIRA IN MONSTERLAND #4 Good?
ELVIRA IN MONSTERLAND #4 is David Avallone’s latest homage to monster films in all their forms, flavors, and sizes when Elvira takes a stab at Toho’s greatest Kaiju creation – Destroy All Monsters! Filled with Godzilla puns, monsterific callbacks, and a monster gathering of world-ending proportions, Avallone’s penultimate issue in the series does exactly what it needs to do – present Elvira with an impossible challenge to overcome.
When last we left Elvira, she chased Vlad through werewolf films and wolfman films (there’s a difference) before the vampire could assemble a toothy cadre of howling commandoes for Stanley Saliva’s army. Now, Elvira arrives on Monster Island, where the aliens plan to use sleep gas and mind control devices to control the giant Kaijus. If Vlad controls the aliens, he controls the Kaijus, and the world will be faced with a monster army the likes of which the world has never seen.
Give credit to Avallone for tapping an era of monster films that doesn’t get enough respect. The Toho films and Godzilla, in particular, continue to make a worldwide cultural impact. Sure, you could say the Godzilla films of the 60s and 70s are silly, but you can’t deny the heart and sincerity infused into every film by the people making them. Kaiju films endure because people love them, so Kaijus have earned their place in history.
What’s great about ELVIRA IN MONSTERLAND #4? This issue, much like the series as a whole, is all about the references that tickle your nostalgia memory bone. You get appearances from Godzilla to Rodan and everyone in between. Lest you be concerned that ELVIRA IN MONSTERLAND #4 is all about corny jokes (yep, they’re corny) and callbacks, Avallone cleverly wraps the references around a plan by Vlad and Saliva. It’s funny (in a lovably corny way), and it’s clever.
What’s not so great about ELVIRA IN MONSTERLAND #4? Technically, there’s nothing wrong with the comic at all. That said, the wry wit and humor aren’t as plentiful or lands as successfully as in the previous issues. ELVIRA IN MONSTERLAND #4 is good, but the previous issues are slightly better on the entertainment scale.
How’s the art? Amazing. Kewber Baal gets to show scale and scope with gigantic monsters on the attack on Monster Island, and it looks great. Obviously, the exact likenesses of the Toho monsters couldn’t be used (darn those lawyers), but Baal gets close enough to make it obvious as a parody. If you like Toho films, you’ll enjoy the visual homage. If you know nothing about Toho films, you’ll still have a good time with the art.
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What’s ELVIRA IN MONSTERLAND #4 About?
[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]
Check out our ELVIRA IN MONSTERLAND #3 review to find out how Elvira escaped a hairy situation.
We begin with confronting a giant, familiar-looking dinosaur on a tropical island. She narrowly escapes the Kaiju’s flame breath and soon realizes she’s on Monster Island just before a group of aliens knock out the monsters with sleeping gas to implant mind-control devices. Elvira jumps into the ocean to avoid the sleeping gas and coincidentally bumps into a snorkeling Vlad.
Vlad’s plan is simple – take control of the aliens after the aliens take control of the monsters. With Kaijus under Vlad’s indirect control, Stanley Saliva’s monster army will be complete. We conclude the issue with a Romanian language lesson, hypnosis, and a call for the deus ex machina.
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Final Thoughts
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ELVIRA IN MONSTERLAND #4 gives Toho its due by sending Elvira to Monster Island to meet the biggest monsters on the planet (literally and figuratively). Vlad’s plan is clever, the nostalgic callbacks are heartwarming for Godzilla fans, and the art is first-rate.
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