Writer: Jeremy Lambert
Artist: Claire Roe
Colorist: Jordie Bellaire
Letterer: Becca Carey
Cover Artists: Claire Roe & Jordie Bellaire; Dani & Tamra Bonvillain; Jacob Edgar; Gabriel Walta
Publisher: IDW
Price: $3.99
Release Date: December 6, 2023
Vivian Drake is safe on the train, but her young fan Molly is missing. Molly’s father pleads with Vivian, begging the actress to return to the mine and rescue his daughter. Can a faded Hollywood starlet promoting WWII war bonds accomplish more than the experienced workers of Minerstown, Pennsylvania? Let’s leap into Dark Spaces: The Hollywood Special #4 and find out!
Story
After Vivian’s encounter with the Mismatch Man, she woke up in the rubble near the entrance to the mine. Yet Molly remained behind. The young girl walks through tunnels with the nightmarish creature. It follows as she skirts the underground lake and enters Viv's Diner. Inside, Molly meets Vivian, or rather her favorite heroine: Sally Steel.
The star of The Adventures of Sally Steel believes she’s a visitor to the diner. Vivian might have owned it once, but now it belongs to Molly. The girl's strength falters when she glimpses a familiar shadow. She runs away. But can Molly escape the Mismatch Man?
Vivian regrets some of her choices in Dark Spaces: The Hollywood Special #4. Alcohol dampened the pain, but the damage she suffered remained untreated. Her misery drew the Mismatch Man to her. It feasted on her pain. Vivian's neuroses made the creature stronger than ever before.
No one invited Vivian Drake and Lou Gaines to help rescue people from the mine. A local discouraged her from visiting the bar where Sally’s father worked. Yet Vivian insisted upon becoming involved. With her career on the wane, did Vivian yearn to be the heroine that inspired Molly?
Art
Assembled from a collection of body parts, the Mismatch Man adopts the head of its latest victim and wears it upside down. In Dark Spaces: The Hollywood Special #4, we see through its eyes. The underground lake mirrors the action, helping us watch Molly enter the diner. As the Mismatch Man pursues the brave girl, the creature views Vivian’s past. Events seem to take place in Hell amid the Lake Of Fire.
A beautifully composed page leads readers from rescuers entering the mine to the monster standing outside the diner beside the underground lake. Claire Roe shows Molly's father pleading for Vivian to intervene. Images resembling photographic negatives surround Vivian and the handbill Molly asked her to sign: a mini poster advertising The Adventures Of Sally Steel.
Jordie Bellaire changes palettes by scene and location in Dark Spaces: The Hollywood Special #4. Molly and the Mismatch Man evoke yellowed photographs, while bright, wild colors heighten lakeside scenes. The diner’s harsh overhead light makes Sally Steel glow while graying all else. Vivian’s painful memories burn in orange and red. Yet Bellaire's most haunting contribution remains the beige and blue-gray scenes in which Vivian gazes out the window as rain pummels the sitting train.
Prone to shrink when voices lower, uppercase letters in white dialogue balloons are big, black, and beautiful. Smaller lowercase letters reveal reviewers' remarks regarding the actors' recent performances. While no sound effects heighten the horrific events, Becca Carey helps us read newspaper titles and magazine covers. Her artistry makes the poster for The Adventures Of Sally Steel more enticing.
Thanks to IDW for providing a copy for review.
Final Thoughts
While cherishing relationships that influence us in countless ways, we believe we are masters of our fates. A work of ineffable beauty, Dark Spaces: The Hollywood Special #4 invites us to examine those relationships and how they impact our mental health.
Rating 9.2/10
To preview interior art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.
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