[Here’s a little nugget of information I remembered upon
rereading this piece: I didn’t come to Warren Ellis through Transmetropolitan,
as I had previously believed. Nope, I came to him through his Hellblazer run.
That’s odd. Anyway, I had just discovered Hellblazer a few months before I
wrote this. It was the first comic book I found on my own without the
assistance of a friend. I devoured the whole run so far (even the one Neil
Gaiman wrote that is hard to find and a bit on the expensive side). So, all
things considered, I was new to the book at the time. I still can’t believe
Vertigo killed it to bring Constantine back into the DCU so he could rub elbows
with the likes of Superman and the rest. Ah well. This is from the Elmhurst
College Leader, April 27, 1999.]
The first and foremost question on all Hellblazer fans’
minds is, “How’s the new team doing?” Put simply, don’t worry about the
integrity of this comic. Tim Bradstreet, who worked on Unknown Soldier, follows
in Sean Phillips’s footsteps, capturing the moody darkness of John
Constantine’s world on very devious looking covers.
John Higgins is not disappointing, either. In a comic where
artists have been a dime a dozen (a lot of whom didn’t know what they were
doing), Mr. Higgins is definitely one of the best. He combines the shadowy,
ink-laden art of Sean Phillips with Steve Dillon’s sense of the real world. He
just has one problem—drawing blood. It just seems unreal and out of place. Then
again, that could be the colorist’s problem. It’s hard to tell. One way or the
other, Higgins makes up for this in his own sick way. Haine (issue 137) has got
to be the most repulsive looking human being I’ve ever seen, aside from maybe
Arseface of Preacher fame.
The glittering gem, though, is writer Warren Ellis. Oddly
enough, he didn’t start out where Paul Jenkins, the last regular writer, left
off. Instead he brings us a story of his own, which is a bit reminiscent of the
days of Ennis. Ellis’s first story arc, “Haunted,” still has two issues to go,
but it’s vintage Constantine
already. An ex-girlfriend of his has been murdered Ripper-style, and John’s
trying to find out what happened, and well, this is familiar territory. While
the plot is the basic revenge story, it’s the population of his search that is
unique. The first person he goes to is a leery, questionable detective named Watford. As usual, John has something on him that makes Watford cooperate. He’s a twisted man who likes to look
at crime scene photos, and his blunt nature is beyond tactless. When he tells
John the victim had VD (there was a very grotesque image that went with it), he
added, “Any road up. It has a quick wash. We’ve got the flannel. Pus and come.”
That, in addition to continuously refer to the victim as “it” instead of “she”
is definite grounds for a beating I’m sure John will administer in the future.
Another contact, a guy named Map, is just plain odd. He’s
apparently a very powerful magus that works in the subway tunnels under London. Then there’s
Hawkstorm, a magician/pimp/electrician. His brother, another lunatic, was told
by Jesus to cut off his own, ah . . . ahem!
One thing Ellis is bent on is the idea of a dark and
foreboding London.
The scene with the kid blowing his mind with an air freshener isn’t very
optimistic about the youth of the UK. Neither is the naked baby lost in the
alley. Very depressing stuff.
On a lighter note, it’s very good to see Chas again,
considering his absence throughout most of Jenkins’s run. John is also seeing
ghosts again, except she’s not out for his blood like the others.
Speaking of friends, no one close to John has died yet
during his investigation. Give it time, though. It’s pretty early in Ellis’s
run. John will get them all killed eventually. It wouldn’t be Hellblazer any
other way.
