Hell blazer #224

Writer: Denise Mina
Artist: Leonardo Manco
Colorist: Lee Loughridge
Letters: Jared K. Fletcher


Glasgow is being destroyed by an empathy epidemic. John wanders around town smoking cigarettes and swearing a lot.

Oh God, quick, put this book back into the hands of someone who not only knows how to write John Constantine but knows how to write a proper comic book! Several times throughout the years Hellblazer has been a favorite of mine. My love for the character has grown and faded depending on who was working on the book. But never have I flat out hated the series until now. Denise Mina’s grasp on the character of John Constantine doesn’t seem to extend much further than “surly bastard who cusses and smokes”. Where’s the sinister Constantine? The clever Constantine? The charming and funny Constantine? Where’s the con artist?! Keanu Reeves had a better grasp on the character than this new writer does.

A word to the comic industry – stop giving top-tier books to novelists and screenwriters before they’ve proven they know how to write a damn comic book! Absolutely nothing of consequence happens in this issue whatsoever. Sure, there’s a lot of talking and wandering about, but even that accomplishes nothing. I no more understood the story in this comic at the end than I did at the beginning. And it’s the first part of a five-part story! How about introducing some of the characters? Or explaining a little about the empathy machine or whatever? This book reads more like the middle of a story than the beginning of one. And we just get the exact same scene page after page. John mutters, lights cigarette, cusses. Fat guy with John freaks out. That’s it. That’s the comic.

Ah, but there is one bright spot. Leonardo Manco. His art on Hellblazer is gorgeous. It’s lushly detailed, dark and frightening. And his take on Constantine couldn’t be more perfect. Manco’s gritty and bleak style is a dead-on match for this series. Even the covers, by Lee Bermejo, are some of the best I’ve seen on Hellblazer. It’s a shame that the art is so absolutely spectacular on this book right now, because it is being absolutely wasted on a terrible story.

I can’t wait to see who takes over this book next as they are bound to be an improvement upon Mina. Of course, by the time she’s done with it there might not be a book to take over.
 

Special thanks go out to Jeremy Shorr, owner of Titan Comics for allowing us to use his advance preview books for review purposes.

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