Hellblazer: Good Intentions

Hellblazer #17

by Brian Azzarello, Marcelo Frusín (Illustrator)

John Constantine: Hellblazer, mystical troubleshooter, has faced horrors beyond human comprehension, stared down devils and battled demons. With a devil - may - care attitude, he shoots first and asks questions later...which is why he's just got out of prison. Now Constantine must revisit the no - horse town of Doglick, to make amends to the family of the man whose death he was imprisoned for. But Doglick is a town of dark secrets, and Constantine's past may be lying in wait for him there, sharpening its teeth...

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Horror, Fantasy, Comic Book, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics

140 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2002

About the author

Brian Azzarello (born in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American comic book writer. He came to prominence with 100 Bullets, published by DC Comics' mature-audience imprint Vertigo. He and Argentine artist Eduardo Risso, with whom Azzarello first worked on Jonny Double, won the 2001 Eisner Award for Best Serialized Story for 100 Bullets #15–18: "Hang Up on the Hang Low".

Azzarello has written for Batman ("Broken City", art by Risso; "Batman/Deathblow: After the Fire", art by Lee Bermejo, Tim Bradstreet, & Mick Gray) and Superman ("For Tomorrow", art by Jim Lee).

In 2005, Azzarello began a new creator-owned series, the western Loveless, with artist Marcelo Frusin.

As of 2007, Azzarello is married to fellow comic-book writer and illustrator Jill Thompson.

information taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Az...

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the last volume (Hellblazer: Hard Time), John Constantine did the time, now he’s taking a road trip to apologize for the crime. So it’s off to Doglick, West Virginia.



Gruesome small talk beats a show tunes singalong any day. Amiright?

Once in hillbilly land, John forgoes a trip to the local hootenanny to commence the mea culpas.



The great thing about small American towns is they all hold some sort of big dark secret, yet, they still want Hell Blazer to know that they don’t harbor any ill will.



Much.

So it’s “show time”, starring Constantine in a video you won’t find on Youtube.



Bottom line – Vertigo and this title were on some sort of depraved roll with what they featured in this particular story arc – still it seems like they were scraping the bottom of the pervy barrell.



I don’t mind the funny books pushing the envelope, but this one has Azarello’s plotting and storyline taking it a porn-theme too far.

Not for the squeamish.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, there were some really weird happenings in this one. And not the usual demons and such we get in Hellblazer. This dealt with sad, depraved humanity on its own without any help from the supernatural.

Constantine travels to a backwoods town to make good something that happened in the last volume (I won't spoil it but it had something to do with why he was in prison.) When he arrives he meets an old flame, and then finds out the town has quite a way of supporting itself. There's also a subplot with a "monster" that just made things wilder.

It really read more like a volume of Preacher then Hellblazer, but was still fascinating. It almost was like author Tim Piccirilli wrote a volume of Hellblazer. Just a very interesting and original volume. Dark and gritty, even sick, but lyrical at the same time. This one was truly haunting.

[A · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good Intentions is a mess and unfortunately it has a lot of plot lines running through it that impact later story lines. My willingness to put up with bullshit reached it's threshold with this particular little riff on Deliverance, as John visits some old friends who are possibly more horrible than he is.

In theory he's there to apologize and explain his involvement in the friend's death that ended him up in prison during Hard Time, but you can guess how this goes. Badly.

I've noticed that Azzarello especially seems to enjoy making his horror sexualized in nature and I want to be clear that that's not why I'm rating this arc lower. (He's not even the first Hellblazer to include bestiality so the content is in line with the title as far as I'm concerned. Don't read any of Azzarello's line if you're easily squicked by any type of sex or violence. Just save yourself.) It simply felt like an unfocused US southern hillbilly cliche coexisting uneasily alongside Constanstine's world like a borderline Preacher mashup.

On the plus side, I love Frusin's art. Especially how he draws John's multitude of horrified faces. I like to picture Frusin just using his own faces from the mirror as he read the script.

[Printable Tire · Rating 1 out of 5]

I went into this one assuming I'd be a little confused by not having read the previous book, but that was the least of my problems. This story is muddled and coincident-based and confounding. The writer has a tendency to downplay certain things, which gives the storyline a modern crime fiction vibe that is unfortunately wasted. Constantine seems like an idiot and the whole plot is preposterous and super-serious. The art is cartoony and unpleasant, very cheap and animated-looking. There are so many dead carcasses and chopped-fingers-in-animal-shit scenes and attempts to be really dark it's all becomes ridiculous and funny after not too long a while. I still don't get if there was any connection with the guys in the car at the beginning, why that guy was getting his teeth bashed in with a crowbar, why they used Constantine in a dog-fucking movie, why the town agreed to make pornos, or what the giant boar was all about. I'm pretty sure I know the answer to most of these things, and I'm pretty sure I don't give a shit. Unpleasantry after unpleasantry does not a good story make!

[Sud666 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let me begin by saying "FINALLY"..I've been reading the Hellblazer comics in order from issue 1 onwards for the first time..and I love the different writers (some of whom are amongst my favorites- Ennis and Ellis) B. Azzarello is an American writer (vs the Brit Ennis and Ellis) and his writing shows it. But the finally was for the artwork-FINALLY an artist that doesn't make me wince. I have never been a fan of the artwork until now. As far as the story it is dark, twisted and bizarre. Perfect Constantine, though it is not for everyone and what you think is happening is not what is. many people seem not to like it and I admit the story can be a little confusing but if you are looking for a good twisted take on comics (and that why people like Constantine)...check out Good Intentions....

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best hellblazer story arcs both in design and scenario. Also, the first of Azzarello's dynamic run on the series. It's more down to earth with noir elements rather than supernatural (only the scene with the talking cat comes to mind) and I'll give it 4/5 instead of 5/5 for the whole shenanigan with the movies in the finale. I expected a better reason and far more believable.

[Dom Fonce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Constantine is always going to be a good, top 3 comic book character. But, what surprised me, is how much I despised the villains. Altogether, a very solid project.

[LemontreeLime · Rating 2 out of 5]

So I have this stack of Hellblazer comics from the library, which run through the majority of the issues from the past 20 years. I don't really like the stories, I don't really like the main character, yet i find myself reading through them anyhow. I'm looking at the story vs the art, some issues are successful others are not such a happy marriage. John Constantine has always been a cynical bastard, but the character has been heading down an even darker path in the past five years. I'm sure younger readers adore this. I'm not so impressed, that's just my personal feeling about it. But does the story/art work? In this volume Marcelo Frusin's pencils are intense, and combined with James Sinclair's colors, it takes a dark icky tale and drives it even darker. I may not have liked it, but i respected those two's combined ability to pull it off.

[Mohammed Abdikhader Firdhiye · Rating 1 out of 5]

John Constantine is top 3 fav characters in comics medium, Hellblazer is essential vertigo and great horror, weird series.

Azzarello stories i wish i could erase from my memory. Typical it has to be the american writer after famous brit comic writers who writes like he has to go overboard to prove something. It makes Constantine Keanu Revees film look good in comparison....

[Eri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zabalen do trigger warnings je příběh, který mi připomněl proč mám ráda SF/F... a mimo jiné Hellblazera.
John je mistr černých umění... teda, jen do nich fušuje... : ) ale po všelijakých potvorách je tohle o tom, že největší a nejzvrácenější z nich jsou obyčejní lidi.
Mínus - některé vtipy/reference/suituačky prostě přes překlad nepřežijí, to je fakt se kterým se musel pobít překladatel, a já jako čtenář to prost beru.

[Jaimie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The longer this series goes on the moore sporadic it gets. Not that having each graphic novel act as a whole is a bad thing, but it's a stark difference from the early series where everything was interconnected. Overall, I found this volume to be quite interesting, even if the story is a little bit twisted...

[47Time · Rating 3 out of 5]

John is still in the US where he demonstrates the risks of taking hitchhikers in a story that has 'murican references than I'm not a fan of, so it's sadly less accessible for me. The flashbacks are welcome as a backstory from John's younger days.

John heads toward Doglick, the town where Lucky's two brothers live, to let Lucky's wife know about her husband's death. Lucky is the reason John got sent to prison and his brothers are Richie and Dickie. John gets mixed up in a story with seriously dangerous characters, some porn, plenty of violence and guns, though few death result from it, and a hunt that goes badly.

Dogkick is dirt poor, but Dickie figures out a way to make money: uploading special videos on the web. Special as in zoophilia, s&m, domination and other pornographic niche genres. They even drug John and have him feature in one of the movies.

A boar that looks like a resident of hell is attacking people around town, so everyone gets their guns for a bit of bloody hunting. The result is Dickie dies and Richie kills the boar. John finds at this time that Lucky's wife left a while ago and he can't help the town since they are willingly subjecting themselves to the nasty porn videos just to make a living.

[David Wagner · Rating 3 out of 5]

It tries to be edgy. And it tries too much without being strict enough with he plot loose ends (and beginnings!), random happenings all around. The central topic has of course a meaningful point, but it all reads much more like a description of someone´s kinda stylish RPG around the table. Suddenly this happens, suddenly this guy dies, now our hero is acting like a complete prick without any good reason and so on and so on.
Still better than the first one in the series, but leaves a lot to be desired.

[Vinicius Baroni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uma coisa que dá pra dizer desses dois volumes do Brian Azzarello é que as histórias são muito dinâmicas, dá pra ler de uma tacada só.
Aqui temos uma trama bem pesada com alguns temas que até parecem atuais e que me fazem imaginar como tudo isso soava no início do milênio. Gostei muito da arte, em alguns momentos sem falas ela faz todo o trabalho com muito sucesso.
Talvez por todo esse dinamismo alguns personagem não são tão desenvolvidos quanto deveriam, mas no geral o saldo foi positivo.

[Pilipma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Constantine with only a cat illusion trick for the magic part of these book. This is the only complaint I got about this tpb.
But it's Azzarello we're talking about here - pretty much no magic in the whole Batman Damned book.
To compensate for lack of magic you have plenty of pain and cruelty to look forward to though. Enough to get your head spinning.

[Indika de Silva · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is not for kids or people who gets shocked easily.

It is funny, suspenseful, captivating and highly gruesome.

As usual the artwork is superb and the narration is awesome.

A must read to the fans of John Constantine....

[Martin Hassman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Depresivní díl z depresivní řady s depresivní hrdinou. Tři a půl hvězdy.

[Steven W · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an amazing and powerful story.

[Ryan Grinas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Polished dialogue, but this book is held back by a flat plot and uninteresting characters.

[Vincent Russell · Rating 3 out of 5]

That was different. Great art and the story was pretty good but took a weird turn toward the end that I didn't expect or really like but still mostly worth picking up

[Vinícius · Rating 4 out of 5]

meio brochante esse final viu

[Jordyn Jackson · Rating 2 out of 5]

i’m not gonna continue on this one.

[Paul Veldhouse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not for the faint of heart. If it can shock Constantine, it's going to shock you...

[Marty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brian Azzerelo is a chicagoan. Because he is one of the only american allowed to write the British book, Hellblazer, he was not well like by fans. I liked his work. He took John Constantine from England and brought him to America. He also remade him from a crazy occultist to a cheap street magician. He still had his crazy occult knowledge but he was more of a trickster than a wizard. In this collection he is going to ask forgiveness from the brothers of a man who he supposedly killed, when he is entangled in a mess including a internet sex scandel, a dog, a warthog, and an ex-lover. The title comes from "The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions." John makes wrash decisions and it doesn't pay off.

[Lauri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mõned esimesed korrad lugedes ei meeldinud, nüüd aga jäi kokkuvõttes päris kobe mulje. Brian Azzarello on crime/thriller autor, pole miskit parata ja nii keskendub seegi osa rohkem Ameerika kauge mahajäetud maakoha viimaste elanike kolka hääbuva elustiili ja sissetulekuallikate kuivamise tõttu pealesunnitud hardcore porno filmide väntamisele ja hiiglaslikule metsseale kes ümbrust terroriseerib, kui miskile Constantinele omasele linnamaagiale. Maagiat pole ses köites üldse, deemoneid esile ei manata ja eksortsiste vaja ei lähe. Tegelikult ühe korra vist oli kui Constantine ehmatas kassi kiusavaid külapoisse...Aga jah, tegelikult päris kobe teos...crime/noir/thrilleri võtmes siis...

[Rob · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the art for the most part, there were aspects I didn't like, and other aspects I loved.

The writing was disjointed and a lot of it didn't seem to flow and there were whole sections that I couldn't figure out why they were in there.

The story was plain and simple messed up and extremely dark. This was admittedly my first Hellblazer book, but I was expecting a little more magic, not the dark areas it did go to. If this was my only exposure to Constantine I would not be interested in the least of pursing another book.

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

The thing I like best about Hellblazer is how John Constantine manages to handle all the crazy events thrown at him. Although there have been many different artists giving him differing looks, the basic elements are still recognizable (almost comfortingly familiar.) The many writers in the long series have also somehow managed to keep John Constantine as John Constantine, although the story-lines vary enormously.

Good Intentions is one of the best in dropping the John Constantine we know and love/hate into a very familiar and truly horrifying situation -- meeting racists.

[Astrid Terese · Rating 2 out of 5]

John Constantine er hovedperson i tegneserien Hellblazer, men gjør også gjesteopptredener i andre forfatteres arbeid. Han er best beskrevet som en okkult detektiv og anti-helt. Han er opptatt av at den vanlige mann skal ha rett på et vanlig liv, og han håper dette inkluderer ham selv. Men der kommer til stadighet magi, demoner og mord i veien. Constantine opptrer i tegneserier utgitt av DC Comics, for det meste under forlaget Vertigo.
Hele min omtale finner du på bloggen min Betraktninger

[Chazzbot · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good, not great, Constantine story that strangely merges a "Sid and Nancy" story of Constantine's early years as a punk with a modern-day take on "Deliverance," with all its backwoods creepiness. The art in this story is a highlight, with shadows and subtle images of death infusing nearly every panel. A quick read, despite taking up six issues of the series, and probably best suited for fans.

[Kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brian Azarello's work on Hellblazer is excellent but very challenging to the reader. The series was always dark, but Azarello's John Constantine tends to go beyond antihero and into villain territory. Still, there are always glimmerings of his morality and his desire to do the right thing, although this is frequently misguided. Not for everyone, but very well drawn and written.