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A review by nmcannon
Constantine: The Hellblazer, Volume 2: The Art of the Deal by Ming Doyle, James Tynion IV
3.0
"We shouldn't have let him go so easy. We should have locked him up, or, better yet, killed him. [...] to my very great regret, I know the man. He may seem foolish and laughable, but he is a calamity. Strange powers gather around his head, breathe evil luck into his empty chest. He has no care for his place in this realm, and he doesn't respect anything but himself! Even if you say there's no kind of way, the plan is airtight and the bonds are unbreakable, John Constantine will still prove you wrong. He'll find the angle we've overlooked, because we want things. John Constantine, he doesn't want anything, but he wants it forever and all to himself." --Papa Midnite
I begin with this very long quote because I like it. Papa's got John summed up nice and neat.
My partner was surprised I picked up the second volume of Constantine: The Hellblazer, since I had a rough go of the first one. In my defense, did you know that libraries have books in them, just laying around, and they're FREE? Fascinating.
Volume two picks up three weeks after the first left off. John and Oliver are dating. Oliver is hilariously blasé about the magic thing, and John hasn't met the kids yet. Oliver's unimpressed reaction to Swamp Thing in the shower is juxtaposed to his utter horror of "is that an answering machine???" It is a delight. In non-domestic news, we find out who was behind all that background craziness from last volume: the demon Neuron, who has stolen Papa Midnite's business empire and wants to set New York City up as a fast-track to hell.Joke's on him though because New York is already hell.
With this volume, I think I found my footing more in John Constantine's character. He's an idiot, but he's a very powerful, heart-of-gold-with-a-side-of-black-lung idiot. As Oliver puts it, he tries to do the right thing, but the right thing is hard to do. Sometimes there are no good choices. The art in the previous volume was spectacular, and this one takes it up another notch to spell-binding. Like, can I have that as a poster? Damn.
In contrast to John's clearer character, the plot got (un)holy. In the first volume, John's reaction to the tame demon Blythe confused me, and this volume's continued antagonism confused me more. A lot of the ending didn't make sense, from what I know of the DC universe from Sandman. Demons can't imprison souls higgly piggly, and the breaking of lore made the resulting queer tragedy seem all the more shoe-horned in. Like the author got three-quarters into the story and declared, "oh wait, we can't let John have nice things! What's a good deux ex machina?!" It might have been better if Oliver was more fleshed out. As is, his character does a 180° so fast my head spun.
Overall, Constantine: The Hellblazer was a middle-of-the-road experience. It was kind of pleasant, in the way having fish nibble the dead skin off your ticklish feet is kind of pleasant, somewhat spine-tingling, but also irritating. That's probably the only kind of joy DC Comics allows their gritty heroes to have.
I begin with this very long quote because I like it. Papa's got John summed up nice and neat.
My partner was surprised I picked up the second volume of Constantine: The Hellblazer, since I had a rough go of the first one. In my defense, did you know that libraries have books in them, just laying around, and they're FREE? Fascinating.
Volume two picks up three weeks after the first left off. John and Oliver are dating. Oliver is hilariously blasé about the magic thing, and John hasn't met the kids yet. Oliver's unimpressed reaction to Swamp Thing in the shower is juxtaposed to his utter horror of "is that an answering machine???" It is a delight. In non-domestic news, we find out who was behind all that background craziness from last volume: the demon Neuron, who has stolen Papa Midnite's business empire and wants to set New York City up as a fast-track to hell.
With this volume, I think I found my footing more in John Constantine's character. He's an idiot, but he's a very powerful, heart-of-gold-with-a-side-of-black-lung idiot. As Oliver puts it, he tries to do the right thing, but the right thing is hard to do. Sometimes there are no good choices. The art in the previous volume was spectacular, and this one takes it up another notch to spell-binding. Like, can I have that as a poster? Damn.
In contrast to John's clearer character, the plot got (un)holy. In the first volume, John's reaction to the tame demon Blythe confused me, and this volume's continued antagonism confused me more. A lot of the ending didn't make sense, from what I know of the DC universe from Sandman. Demons can't imprison souls higgly piggly, and the breaking of lore made the resulting queer tragedy seem all the more shoe-horned in. Like the author got three-quarters into the story and declared, "oh wait, we can't let John have nice things! What's a good deux ex machina?!" It might have been better if Oliver was more fleshed out. As is, his character does a 180° so fast my head spun.
Overall, Constantine: The Hellblazer was a middle-of-the-road experience. It was kind of pleasant, in the way having fish nibble the dead skin off your ticklish feet is kind of pleasant, somewhat spine-tingling, but also irritating. That's probably the only kind of joy DC Comics allows their gritty heroes to have.