On paper, Devil Land is the perfect amusement park for all horror-loving fans, a paradise full of diabolical jumpscares and crafty rides. In reality, it has a dark and demonic past that started when Arthur Dante founded the park on the back of innocent lives. Blood flows regularly from his rides, and yet it is a well-hidden secret, for no one gets too close to the truth. Now, it is up to Summer to look past the thrills of Devil Land and get deep into the mystery of her missing brother. Dark Ride #4, from publisher Image Comics, writer Joshua Williamson, artists Andrei Bressan and Adriano Lucas, and letterer Pat Brosseau, unleashes horrors that ironically give the park its lifeline.
Dark Ride #4 gives Samhain Dante a warm welcome as the creepy mascots bow down to him, much to his astonishment. Somehow, freeing himself from the horde, he runs into Summer again, who has been having dark visions about her brother until now. Together they venture into the Devil’s Due, the ride where Owen lost his life to demons. Wading through the animatronics, Summer finally finds her brother’s body in the tunnels. The discovery rocks Sam to his core, leaving him to deal with another horrific episode and PR circus. However, the sensation that the news creates makes Devil Land a popular attraction once more.
Samhain and Summer, two different people from contrasting worlds, share the screen in the opening moments of Dark Ride #4 and immediately create a hook that shows how the devilry of the park affects them individually. By the time the two narratives meet, the darkness has already receded and left the characters to face the harsh truth. It is a moment of shock value that shapes the rest of the story. For the most part, it is the aftermath, the public response to the tragedy, and the psychological effect that it has on Sam that form the bulk of the storyline, slowing down the overall pacing. Relationship dynamics come under the microscope as creator Joshua Williamson takes the gore up a notch. The lettering from Pat Brosseau is consistent, with bold fonts emphasizing certain words during emotional outbursts and underlining the humanity prevalent even among death and misery.
To go with the dark aesthetic of the book, artist and co-creator Andrei Bressan balances his clean-cut contours with encroaching shadows done with elaborate inking. Surprisingly, he keeps the hatching away from the characters’ faces, allowing the line work to bring forth the range of emotions on display without obscuring the fine details. Colorist Adriano Lucas uses contrasting color tones, often resorting to complementary gradients to supply the shadows with directional lighting, enveloping the panels in a mysteriousness. Whether it is the pale glow of the sky or a dark cyan in the background, the colors do an apt job of setting the mood. Around such colorful displays, the grotesqueness often falls flat; however, the graphical scenes are still quite shocking.
Dark Ride #4 may start with pep in its step, but since the opening act, the story slows down substantially, burning ever so slowly to let the characters wallow in their self-pity. The focus is on Sam, who must go through a series of mishaps while his family proceeds with their malicious intent behind his back. For a reader gazing into the events, a feeling of helplessness takes hold as bad things unfold one after the other. Ultimately, this leads to a shocking scene near the end that promises patrons of the first arc of the book more horrors in the next installments.