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4.22 AVERAGE
4.22 AVERAGE
Este TPB es algo raro, ya que por un lado cierra la etapa Delano en Hellblazer, una etapa muy buena que deja muchos de los pilares en los que se erige el personaje para la posteridad, pero que peca de una narrativa algo abultada y excesivamente lenta en pasajes, y por otro da inicio al run de Ennis que es uno de lo más iconicos al momento de hablar de John Constantine, y sin ir más lejos , parte con Hábitos Peligrosos , uno de los puntos altos en la mitología del mago ingles. Las historias contenidas son muy buenas, no obstante se siente desbalanceada en el conjunto por la mezcla de autores en la compilación.
Now THAT is what I'm TALKING about!
Finally, finally, FINALLY. I was really getting tired of poor John Constantine, professional wallower and dabbler in no arts. The Family Man plot was good, but I was really starting to wonder if Constantine did magic at all. All he seems to do is moan and groan. And drink. And smoke. And ride in vans.
But THIS. Now, THIS is great stuff. I really noticed the parts the 2005 film and recent TV series (RIP, you left us too soon) picked up from this plot line, too. Fast-paced, exciting, and well-executed. Loved it.
Finally, finally, FINALLY. I was really getting tired of poor John Constantine, professional wallower and dabbler in no arts. The Family Man plot was good, but I was really starting to wonder if Constantine did magic at all. All he seems to do is moan and groan. And drink. And smoke. And ride in vans.
But THIS. Now, THIS is great stuff.
Spoiler
His mortality catches up to him and (after the required wallowing and moaning) he pulls the biggest con possible to pull himself out of it.
The actual Dangerous Habits story arc I would give five stars; it was funny while still having plenty of drama and great incorporations of supernatural elements, it was what I wanted and expected out of a Constantine book, especially one written by Garth Ennis (who wrote Preacher excellently). My only problem was that it took me over half the bloody book to get to that arc, first having to read some story about Constantine's dead twin brother or something like that. Now, I haven't read any Hellblazer comics before and somebody recommended to me to start at the Dangerous Habits arc because it's the best and it's where they started. Which is fine, as a new reader a couple of things went a bit over my head, but the story was easy to follow and I enjoyed it. The first story arc though (I think it's the Magus arc or something?) I was completely lost in. Which I could kind of except, as I was a new reader and I quite enjoyed reading about some of the characters (Mercury in particular). My problem was that the writing was just so bloody pretentious, especially towards the end. It wasn't any fun to read, and while I like a good bit of drama as much as the next girl, the story just got so bogged down in itself that I had to skim over a lot of the text by the end because it was just so boring. There weren't even any witty/sarcastic/arsehole-ish lines from Constantine to lighten the mood.
So yeah, did not enjoy the first arc and would give it a three (Mercury was its saving grace), but loved the second arc, would give that a five, so it overall evens out as a four. Would recommend Dangerous Habits, but get the thinner book with just that storyline, the Magus one really isn't worth it.
So yeah, did not enjoy the first arc and would give it a three (Mercury was its saving grace), but loved the second arc, would give that a five, so it overall evens out as a four. Would recommend Dangerous Habits, but get the thinner book with just that storyline, the Magus one really isn't worth it.
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Again this one was a bit mixed, although understandably as it has the end of Jamie Delano's run together with the start of Garth Ennis'. There's a bit of a thematic link, but ultimately the end of Delano's run is quite confusing, there's a lot of symbolism and it's not too clear what happened (even the title character starts Ennis' run saying his memory of the events isn't clear).
The second half isn't an easy read, the subject matter being terminal cancer, but ultimately i can't help but love a comic where someone glasses the devil and says 'stitch that'
The second half isn't an easy read, the subject matter being terminal cancer, but ultimately i can't help but love a comic where someone glasses the devil and says 'stitch that'
It was great to finally read the end of Delano's run, which I quite enjoyed. I was only two pages into Ennis's Dangerous Habits storyline, though, when I remembered that Ennis is pretty much the reason I fell in love with John Constantine. It's very nearly the perfect story, and still capable of making me tear up at the end. I prefer Ennis's humanity over Delano's mysticism, every time.
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Cancer, Gore, Violence, Blood
Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Self harm
Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual content
-3.5 stars
Collecting: Hellblazer 34-46
# 34 the bogeyman - john visits marj and mercury in terrible shape.
# 35 dead-boy's heart - young john finds a stone shaped like a dead boys heart in the middle of a dead boys skeleton.
# 36 the undiscover'd country - mercury confronts john and shows him a peek at death. "the only hell is in how you choose to live your life now."
# 37 man's work - a vegetarian teenagers butcher father tries to force him to join the family business butchering hogs. "minds can be like emotional reactors - tremendous sources of energy, but fierce and unstable."
# 38 boy's games - the father turns brutal when the martin refuses. merc saves martin and uh, hexes archie who goes home and tries to rape his wife but can only see pigs and ends up in the looney bin, much to the relief of the wife and son.
# 39 the hanged man - john confronts the 'golden boy'. supposedly he was a twin but his mother and twin died in birth. john goes on an acid trip and goes back to the womb and lets his brother, the 'good' twin, live instead of him.
# 40 the magus - things dont exactly go better and the twin, the magus, decides to do the same thing, and runs into adult john. they argue and decide to work together this time to do it over. and the cave john was in likes buried in stone, with a grave marker for john.
# 41 the beginning of the end - john discovers he has end-stage lung cancer
# 42 a drop of the hard stuff - john goes to visit his friend brendan finn to see if he can help with the cancer. instead john ends up saving brendans soul and pissing off the devil.
# 43 friends in high places - john meets ellie, who sends him to the snob, who is apparently gabriel. gabriel owes him some favors but wont pay up, says john doesnt deserve it. john still does him one last favor on his way out.
# 44 my way - john visits his friends and family before pulling one last trick on the devil before he dies
# 45 the sting - john has sold his soul to three different devils who would each start a war to claim it, and a war in hell would tear it apart and then heaven would step in and end it/them, making the three devils be slaves in heaven. so they're forced to cure his lung cancer to avoid a war. he has tricked the devil.
# 46 falling into hell - john wakes up alive and goes on a bender. runs into kit, brendans exwife. "that wasnt the only stupid thing i did. i'm john constantine after all. i do stupid things in packets of ten. i'm stupid in style."
"we watched our friends grow up together. and we saw them as they fell. some of them fell into heaven. some of them fell into hell. - the pogues"
Collecting: Hellblazer 34-46
# 34 the bogeyman - john visits marj and mercury in terrible shape.
# 35 dead-boy's heart - young john finds a stone shaped like a dead boys heart in the middle of a dead boys skeleton.
# 36 the undiscover'd country - mercury confronts john and shows him a peek at death. "the only hell is in how you choose to live your life now."
# 37 man's work - a vegetarian teenagers butcher father tries to force him to join the family business butchering hogs. "minds can be like emotional reactors - tremendous sources of energy, but fierce and unstable."
# 38 boy's games - the father turns brutal when the martin refuses. merc saves martin and uh, hexes archie who goes home and tries to rape his wife but can only see pigs and ends up in the looney bin, much to the relief of the wife and son.
# 39 the hanged man - john confronts the 'golden boy'. supposedly he was a twin but his mother and twin died in birth. john goes on an acid trip and goes back to the womb and lets his brother, the 'good' twin, live instead of him.
# 40 the magus - things dont exactly go better and the twin, the magus, decides to do the same thing, and runs into adult john. they argue and decide to work together this time to do it over. and the cave john was in likes buried in stone, with a grave marker for john.
# 41 the beginning of the end - john discovers he has end-stage lung cancer
# 42 a drop of the hard stuff - john goes to visit his friend brendan finn to see if he can help with the cancer. instead john ends up saving brendans soul and pissing off the devil.
# 43 friends in high places - john meets ellie, who sends him to the snob, who is apparently gabriel. gabriel owes him some favors but wont pay up, says john doesnt deserve it. john still does him one last favor on his way out.
# 44 my way - john visits his friends and family before pulling one last trick on the devil before he dies
# 45 the sting - john has sold his soul to three different devils who would each start a war to claim it, and a war in hell would tear it apart and then heaven would step in and end it/them, making the three devils be slaves in heaven. so they're forced to cure his lung cancer to avoid a war. he has tricked the devil.
# 46 falling into hell - john wakes up alive and goes on a bender. runs into kit, brendans exwife. "that wasnt the only stupid thing i did. i'm john constantine after all. i do stupid things in packets of ten. i'm stupid in style."
"we watched our friends grow up together. and we saw them as they fell. some of them fell into heaven. some of them fell into hell. - the pogues"
This was a little darker than I expected, but after finishing it, i realized I should have known better. I liked it. Constantine is a fascinating character, and his final solution (as it were) was oh so clever. I will probably look into more volumes. (Part of this book was originally read early 2012)
UPDATE: 8/11/13 - Well, I read this again? Kinda. My library started getting in the Hellblazer volumes, and while I had read the "Dangerous Habits" storyline, I hadn't read the rest of this volume. The Danger Habits I read in 2012 was 100-something pages, this volume was over 300! Considering what I said in my original review (specially, "I will probably look into more volumes") - clearly I enjoyed the character enough to read on.. and on, and on..
UPDATE: 8/11/13 - Well, I read this again? Kinda. My library started getting in the Hellblazer volumes, and while I had read the "Dangerous Habits" storyline, I hadn't read the rest of this volume. The Danger Habits I read in 2012 was 100-something pages, this volume was over 300! Considering what I said in my original review (specially, "I will probably look into more volumes") - clearly I enjoyed the character enough to read on.. and on, and on..
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Fifth Hellblazer graphic novel, collecting issues 34 through 46 of the original series. Covers the Golden Boy arc by Jamie Delano and the titular Dangerous Habits arc by Garth Ennis. Well, I call the first half the Golden Boy arc; I have no idea if it has an official name or not. Following the events of the Family Man arc, John reconnects with Marj and Mercury (and, eventually, the rest of the Pagan Nation); they rescue an abused kid and John confronts the truth of his birth and the world that might have been. In the second half, one of the most iconic Hellblazer arcs ever, John deals with the revelation that he has terminal lung cancer.
This is, sincerely, Hellblazer at its finest. There's plenty of horror and supernatural antics to go around, but at the heart of it all is character: Mercury recognizing that her desire to protect Martin is a reflection of her mother's protectiveness of John; John reaching out for comfort and pushing it away with the same gesture; Marj's defensive anger trying to protect her fragile heart; Brendan and John drinking away their fear of oblivion; Matt laughing in the face of death; the goodbye letter to Chas and Cheryl's quiet knowledge of who her brother really is.
And flipping off the devil. That, too.
This is, sincerely, Hellblazer at its finest. There's plenty of horror and supernatural antics to go around, but at the heart of it all is character: Mercury recognizing that her desire to protect Martin is a reflection of her mother's protectiveness of John; John reaching out for comfort and pushing it away with the same gesture; Marj's defensive anger trying to protect her fragile heart; Brendan and John drinking away their fear of oblivion; Matt laughing in the face of death; the goodbye letter to Chas and Cheryl's quiet knowledge of who her brother really is.
And flipping off the devil. That, too.