Scan barcode
A review by michael_benavidez
John Constantine, Hellblazer Vol. 2: The Devil You Know by Jamie Delano, David Lloyd
4.0
This time around the lack of one star is less to do with the lack of special content, and more to do with the story.
The good, the arc from the last book is finished up beautifully, even giving us a seamless connection to the next mini-arc (Constantine's battle with the demon and his past). The art is great, the panels flowing with zooming action, and then exploding into a beautifully fantasy but still reality centered style art in the past third of the book. The writing is great, poetic, and funny, and just as great as the last book.
The bad: the stories in between arcs are kinda hit and miss. Not bad, but by no means great. They just feel odd and out of place after such an epic first arc. Constantine is still the troubled soul, he's got nothing to do or fear and he's wandering, but he just defeated his literal demon. The accomplishment just seemed forgotten. For a while I thought these were supposed to be in between one offs, just put after the full arc so as no not spoil that flow. Then the final arc, and it's not til then that we see what was happening in his head. And it becomes such a huge payoff, understanding just how fucked up Constantine is, that those issues in between Just seem like filler. They kinda helped build up to it, but not really.
All in all it was a great read, the writing was top notch the final art style was gorgeous and exhilarating. The first third was amazing. The middle was rather slow.
The good, the arc from the last book is finished up beautifully, even giving us a seamless connection to the next mini-arc (Constantine's battle with the demon and his past). The art is great, the panels flowing with zooming action, and then exploding into a beautifully fantasy but still reality centered style art in the past third of the book. The writing is great, poetic, and funny, and just as great as the last book.
The bad: the stories in between arcs are kinda hit and miss. Not bad, but by no means great. They just feel odd and out of place after such an epic first arc. Constantine is still the troubled soul, he's got nothing to do or fear and he's wandering, but he just defeated his literal demon. The accomplishment just seemed forgotten. For a while I thought these were supposed to be in between one offs, just put after the full arc so as no not spoil that flow. Then the final arc, and it's not til then that we see what was happening in his head. And it becomes such a huge payoff, understanding just how fucked up Constantine is, that those issues in between Just seem like filler. They kinda helped build up to it, but not really.
All in all it was a great read, the writing was top notch the final art style was gorgeous and exhilarating. The first third was amazing. The middle was rather slow.