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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
By a long margin the best Hellblazer comic I've read. And it's the one written by Warren Ellis. Probably explains it. Good stuff. Dark. Brutal. Horrifying.
After [a:Brian Azzarello|17029|Brian Azzarello|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1621801480p2/17029.jpg]'s crass misunderstanding of how to write Hellblazer comics, and [a:Mike Carey|9018|Mike Carey|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1334894864p2/9018.jpg]'s over-the-top apocalyptic epic, Warren Ellis takes the reader on a quieter, more personal Hellblazer where John Constantine, a few players that we've seen in Carey's run, and Chas (of course), all consult each other and reminisce while tracking down *checks the Writing Hellblazer For Dummies book* ex-girlfriend who died horribly because of her connection to magic.
Ellis throws just the right amount of meta into this story, with Constantine's conversations with old friends usually involving them letting him know that he's played out variations of this same story for years. There are even two perfectly timed panels where Constantine breaks the fourth wall just a smidge by looking at the camera, and smiling.
I don't remember Constantine smiling at all. It's delightfully creepy.
This is a must=read if you love the Hellblazer books. I have my fingers crossed that the rest of Ellils's run lives up to what he's done here.
TW: He does the thing that all 90s writers seem to want to do where he has villains be racist and get their come-uppance (hooray) but first you have to get through their problematic language (booo). Unlike, say Azzarello, though, Ellis at least restricts the shock language to one panel as opposed to spreading it across his entire run of comics.
Ellis throws just the right amount of meta into this story, with Constantine's conversations with old friends usually involving them letting him know that he's played out variations of this same story for years. There are even two perfectly timed panels where Constantine breaks the fourth wall just a smidge by looking at the camera, and smiling.
I don't remember Constantine smiling at all. It's delightfully creepy.
This is a must=read if you love the Hellblazer books. I have my fingers crossed that the rest of Ellils's run lives up to what he's done here.
TW: He does the thing that all 90s writers seem to want to do where he has villains be racist and get their come-uppance (hooray) but first you have to get through their problematic language (booo). Unlike, say Azzarello, though, Ellis at least restricts the shock language to one panel as opposed to spreading it across his entire run of comics.
This has long been a favorite of mine. When John Constantine learns that an old lover has been killed under grisly circumstances, he takes it upon himself to avenge her death and lay her soul to rest. But does he really care about her, or is it just another excuse to wreak havoc?
London is just so grim, guys. You can't leave your tiny bedbug-infested Paddington bedsit without getting shived by an unholy immortal amalgamation of a hanged murderer and aborted fetus, which is actually the ten-year-old next door seen through the fog of drink'n'drugs we all must constantly imbibe in order to go on at all.
Extra star for the introduction of Map. I want a 60-issue run of him meticulously cleaning the rails and watching the actual city above, only occasionally interrupted with eyeroll-infused magic.
Extra star for the introduction of Map. I want a 60-issue run of him meticulously cleaning the rails and watching the actual city above, only occasionally interrupted with eyeroll-infused magic.