When the devil wants your soul you run as fast as you can like in The Terrible Elisabeth Dumn Against The Devils In Suits.

Over 20 years ago Mr. Dumn made a deal with the devil.  The exact exchange is unclear, but the price was the soul of his first born child.

One late night Dumn is awoken by his doorbell.  When he opens the door he sees the devil he made the deal with.  It is his son’s time to go with the devil. However, the man has one last deal for the devil.

If the devil spares his son he can have his daughter instead.  However, just to make the deal enticing Dumn tells the devil his daughter is out of control.  People say she is so wild that even the devil couldn’t tame her. The devil accepts the challenge and a new deal is formed.

Elisabeth Dumn is a 16-year-old girl in a boarding school and the devil is coming after her.  However, as the devil is talking with Mr. Dumn the mom overhears and calls Elisabeth and tells her to run.

I thought this was an amazing premise.  A badass girl on the run from the devil sounded pretty cool.  What surprised me was how little horror or gore is in the book.  It does have the devil in it so there is a little bit of horror there, but it is not scary at all.  I expected gnarly demons with there faces falling off or something. However, everyone in the comic was human looking.

The lack of horror really disappointed me.  This would be a great opportunity for a scary book with the devil in it.  The devil isn’t even a scary guy. He looks like your average grandpa and is actually very nice and pleasant.

There was a huge lack of depth to the characters.  I know nothing about Elisabeth other than she is a troublemaker.  She meets a musician and I know almost nothing about him. I didn’t root for anyone or care if the devil gets her because I don’t know her.  In fact I hope the devil does get her because at least I know who he is and what he wants.

I think the worst part of the comic is its ending.  It just ends midway through the story. I thought after it was over that it left with a strong conclusion for the next issue to pick up, but then remembered this is a one-shot comic.  This is the complete story which ends right in the middle of the action.

The art may be the only thing which was done well.  It is an over-the-top grotesque style. I don’t really like that style, but it is done well if you do.

This was a wasted opportunity to tell a really cool story.  The base was there but it fumbled so hard and in important areas.  I really disliked this comic and was very disappointed.

 

Rating:

⅕

 

Written by: Arabson

Translation by: James Robinson

Art by: Arabson and Anderson Cabral

Cover by: Arabson

Release: 11/14/18

Issue: One-shot

Publisher: Image Comics