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Hellblazer #35
Hellblazer: Phantom Pains
In this latest graphic novel, acclaimed DC writer Peter Milligan takes our hard-drinking anti-hero John Constantine on a battle against his own family.
After seeing his new wife Epiphany react to his now thumb-less hand, Constantine goes on a quest to find a suitable replacement for his missing digit. While he tries to literally sew himself back together, John's niece Gemma plots a scheme of revenge against her uncle. Will Constantine be able to fend off his own family's demonic fury?
After seeing his new wife Epiphany react to his now thumb-less hand, Constantine goes on a quest to find a suitable replacement for his missing digit. While he tries to literally sew himself back together, John's niece Gemma plots a scheme of revenge against her uncle. Will Constantine be able to fend off his own family's demonic fury?
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
220 people want to read
About the author
Peter Milligan
1,297 books389 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Peter Milligan is a British writer, best known for his work on X-Force / X-Statix, the X-Men, & the Vertigo series Human Target. He is also a scriptwriter.
He has been writing comics for some time and he has somewhat of a reputation for writing material that is highly outlandish, bizarre and/or absurd.
His highest profile projects to date include a run on X-Men, and his X-Force revamp that relaunched as X-Statix.
Many of Milligan's best works have been from DC Vertigo. These include: The Extremist (4 issues with artist Ted McKeever) The Minx (8 issues with artist Sean Phillips) Face (Prestige one-shot with artist Duncan Fegredo) The Eaters (Prestige one-shot with artist Dean Ormston) Vertigo Pop London (4 issues with artist Philip Bond) Enigma (8 issues with artist Duncan Fegredo) and Girl (3 issues with artist Duncan Fegredo).
Series:
* Human Target
* Greek Street
* X-Force / X-Statix
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Peter Milligan is a British writer, best known for his work on X-Force / X-Statix, the X-Men, & the Vertigo series Human Target. He is also a scriptwriter.
He has been writing comics for some time and he has somewhat of a reputation for writing material that is highly outlandish, bizarre and/or absurd.
His highest profile projects to date include a run on X-Men, and his X-Force revamp that relaunched as X-Statix.
Many of Milligan's best works have been from DC Vertigo. These include: The Extremist (4 issues with artist Ted McKeever) The Minx (8 issues with artist Sean Phillips) Face (Prestige one-shot with artist Duncan Fegredo) The Eaters (Prestige one-shot with artist Dean Ormston) Vertigo Pop London (4 issues with artist Philip Bond) Enigma (8 issues with artist Duncan Fegredo) and Girl (3 issues with artist Duncan Fegredo).
Series:
* Human Target
* Greek Street
* X-Force / X-Statix
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
June 22, 2024
Eu entendo que, em comparação com outros volumes da série, essa aqui tenha sido um pouco "morna". Logo, alguns seguidores de JC não curtiram tanto, já eu, curti mesmo assim.
Constantine está feliz e um pouco menos tóxico (do que o normal) e está casado com Epiphany (garota perfeita para ele) mas isso não quer dizer que ele não se mete mais em furadas ou que ele deixa de ser aquele cara arrombado, filho da puta e encrequeiro que todos amamos.
Constantine está feliz e um pouco menos tóxico (do que o normal) e está casado com Epiphany (garota perfeita para ele) mas isso não quer dizer que ele não se mete mais em furadas ou que ele deixa de ser aquele cara arrombado, filho da puta e encrequeiro que todos amamos.
February 16, 2014
They finally done it, they finally found the storyline that would make me hate John Constantine.
Hopefully at some point this will all come back and bite him in his ageing arse but until then, this can remain a one-star book for me. I'd read a Gemma spin off over more of John Constantine's middle age depression bullshit.
(The Art is gorgeous though so it gets another star)
Hopefully at some point this will all come back and bite him in his ageing arse but until then, this can remain a one-star book for me. I'd read a Gemma spin off over more of John Constantine's middle age depression bullshit.
(The Art is gorgeous though so it gets another star)
November 2, 2016
This was a straight forward volume, which I appreciated after some of the complicated recent storylines. So we see Constantine in his new life as a married man, as well as trying to track down his missing thumb. The main plotline revolves around his niece Gemma. She was attacked by Constantine's evil doppelganger, and she still thinks it was really him. She goes for revenge, and considering this is Hellblazer, of course her revenge consists of conjuring a demon to send after her uncle.
The art was good as most of the art has been througout the entire Hellblazer series.
Another strong volume, but sadly I'm nearing the end of the run.
The art was good as most of the art has been througout the entire Hellblazer series.
Another strong volume, but sadly I'm nearing the end of the run.
September 18, 2014
Reseña de Cisne Negro para Iconotropía:
http://iconotropia.blogspot.com.ar/20...
Otra serie regular que recomendamos, y que en este nuevo volumen pasa de las manos de Planeta a las de El Catálogo del Cómic (ECC) es la etapa de Peter Milligan (Shade, X-Statix, etc.) en Hellblazer. En esta nueva entrega -la sexta- los dibujos siguen a cargo de Giuseppe Camuncolli y de Simon Bisley, que también se ocupa de las portadas. El tomo nos cuenta las primeras andanzas de Constantine como hombre casado, las vicisitudes que tiene que atravesar para recuperar el pulgar que perdió en el tomo anterior, y la conclusión de la venganza de su sobrina, atacada pro un doble maléfico durante la boda del mago inglés. La serie Hellblazer, con más de 20 años de edición ininterrumpida y casi 300 números, goza pues de buena salud en manos de Milligan.
http://iconotropia.blogspot.com.ar/20...
Otra serie regular que recomendamos, y que en este nuevo volumen pasa de las manos de Planeta a las de El Catálogo del Cómic (ECC) es la etapa de Peter Milligan (Shade, X-Statix, etc.) en Hellblazer. En esta nueva entrega -la sexta- los dibujos siguen a cargo de Giuseppe Camuncolli y de Simon Bisley, que también se ocupa de las portadas. El tomo nos cuenta las primeras andanzas de Constantine como hombre casado, las vicisitudes que tiene que atravesar para recuperar el pulgar que perdió en el tomo anterior, y la conclusión de la venganza de su sobrina, atacada pro un doble maléfico durante la boda del mago inglés. La serie Hellblazer, con más de 20 años de edición ininterrumpida y casi 300 números, goza pues de buena salud en manos de Milligan.
April 22, 2013
I've only recently started reading Hellblazer. This one was way out of the continuity of the most recent collections I've read. So, that said, if I had read everything up to this one, I might have rated it a little higher. I felt the art was really spotty. Sometimes, I'd find myself thinking, "Yeah, wow cool art," and then seconds later "What? How could you so expertly render this but not that?" And I know the stuff I have been reading was 20 years earlier, but I think I prefer the earlier attitude of Constantine to the later. Way too much leering here.
August 1, 2020
90s’ JC would have used this to whipe his arse. This is probably the poorest collection of issues of all hellblazer history. The first story just makes no sense and the remainder is albeit at least readable just pretty awful -
tethering somewhere between 1 and 2 stars this volume can be read for context or to pass a short flight but has no real merit of its own
tethering somewhere between 1 and 2 stars this volume can be read for context or to pass a short flight but has no real merit of its own
September 10, 2015
I wasn't crazy about this, even though my interest was piqued at the end of the first chapter. A third of this TPB came off as filler to me, which is odd, because I am not well-read when it comes to Hellblazer at all. Might go for Ennis or Azzarello next... suggestions welcome.
Read
August 19, 2011An excellent corrective for anyone fool enough to think that marriage was going to take the rough edges off occult London's favourite bastard.
December 12, 2015
Blegh
October 27, 2018
The thing with the thumb... okay, humorous but not sure I liked it. It feels a little slapstick. And of course, this is the issue that deals with revenge and rape. I think the story could have used a bit more finesse. It totally ignores the whole love potion incident when claiming that rape is one thing that Constantine wouldn't do.
This is the tinny sound that I was talking about from the previous volume. It is also weirdly juxtaposed with other sexuality in the book. I guess, I always believed John's previous relationships but there is something odd about this set especially given what happened with Phoebe a few volumes back.
The story aside from the relationship drivers is pretty good. I know it is often a slam on graphic novels in how they treat relationships but I have read other Milligan titles that don't feel as hammy. Not sure what is going on.
And there is a bit of sideways queerness. It just comes out of nowhere sometimes. Like nothing about Gemma before now and now all this stuff. It just bothers me a bit. But maybe I am expecting too much. I blame Moon and Ba, Hernandez Brothers, and other writers in this series for expecting more when dealing with relationships and queerness.
This is the tinny sound that I was talking about from the previous volume. It is also weirdly juxtaposed with other sexuality in the book. I guess, I always believed John's previous relationships but there is something odd about this set especially given what happened with Phoebe a few volumes back.
The story aside from the relationship drivers is pretty good. I know it is often a slam on graphic novels in how they treat relationships but I have read other Milligan titles that don't feel as hammy. Not sure what is going on.
And there is a bit of sideways queerness. It just comes out of nowhere sometimes. Like nothing about Gemma before now and now all this stuff. It just bothers me a bit. But maybe I am expecting too much. I blame Moon and Ba, Hernandez Brothers, and other writers in this series for expecting more when dealing with relationships and queerness.
March 7, 2020
Back to some proper Constantine stuff. Well, call it post 90s Constantine. Nothing quite measures up to the real heaven - and - hell stuff of the earlier tales.
April 15, 2012
This book collects issues 276 to 282 of the ongoing Hellblazer series. It was again written by Peter Milligan with art on the main story from Giuseppe Camuncoli and Stefano Landini (one chapter has art from Gael Bertrand) and art on the two single issue stories the bookend the volume was by Simon Bisley.
Married life is not running smoothly for John Constantine. First his new bride finds his wound from his amputated thumb disgusting and runs off to console herself with a demonic spirit. Second his home-grafted thumb, taken from a dying car crash victim, has a life of its own and gets him involved with its previous owner's affairs. And finally his niece, Gemma, is seeking revenge on John for the abuse she suffered at his wedding that she thinks was carried out by him. All of this while trying to avoid becoming indebted to his gangster father-in-law.
Another enjoyable volume from Peter Milligan, though the two single issue stories are filler and pretty lightweight - which is a shame as the second concerning the demon Julian and his abuses of the prisoners could have been really interesting if it had been given more space to develop the tale properly. The main story has threads that don't really go anywhere but overall it is very good with yet another person close to Constantine paying the price for his deviousness. The hints in this tale are that John might be about to head out on another of the dreaded road trips, possibly to America if he can't put off his father-in-law, so that is something I am not looking forward to as I didn't really like the last one when Brian Azzarello was the writer. But hopefully Milligan can pull it off as he has taken the character back to his roots and created some of the most entertaining stories for a long time in this long-lived series.
Married life is not running smoothly for John Constantine. First his new bride finds his wound from his amputated thumb disgusting and runs off to console herself with a demonic spirit. Second his home-grafted thumb, taken from a dying car crash victim, has a life of its own and gets him involved with its previous owner's affairs. And finally his niece, Gemma, is seeking revenge on John for the abuse she suffered at his wedding that she thinks was carried out by him. All of this while trying to avoid becoming indebted to his gangster father-in-law.
Another enjoyable volume from Peter Milligan, though the two single issue stories are filler and pretty lightweight - which is a shame as the second concerning the demon Julian and his abuses of the prisoners could have been really interesting if it had been given more space to develop the tale properly. The main story has threads that don't really go anywhere but overall it is very good with yet another person close to Constantine paying the price for his deviousness. The hints in this tale are that John might be about to head out on another of the dreaded road trips, possibly to America if he can't put off his father-in-law, so that is something I am not looking forward to as I didn't really like the last one when Brian Azzarello was the writer. But hopefully Milligan can pull it off as he has taken the character back to his roots and created some of the most entertaining stories for a long time in this long-lived series.
April 14, 2012
One of the issues here was something I picked up over a year ago, and it got me interested in this entire run -- the first run of Hellblazer I've ever really been excited about, despite having read some of Delano's, Azzarello's, and all of a former roommate's collected Ennis run.
Despite being a huge Bisley fan normally, I haven't been too excited about his interior pages throughout the series -- but the covers are phenomenal. It's the Cammuncoli art that keeps me coming back, with its shade of Marc Hempel's work on Sandman, except, you know, more (and also less), giving a strange animated three-dimensionality to the stories overall. It's also Milligan's singular ability to live inside the rail-thin line between solemnity and absurdity that gives a real life to Constantine's adventures -- here married to a blue-haired girl half his age, chasing down wrongdoers with the aid of a possessed thumb that, oh yeah, he may have chopped off a dying man and sewn onto his own hand after accidentally chopping off his own thumb the last time he went temporarily insane.
What's good, in general, about Hellblazer is that John Constantine is not only nearly always having a worse day than you are, but he's also more likely than you are to make it worse on purpose. There's something really comforting in that, and if blue-haired girls and sentient thumbs are involved, so much the better.
Despite being a huge Bisley fan normally, I haven't been too excited about his interior pages throughout the series -- but the covers are phenomenal. It's the Cammuncoli art that keeps me coming back, with its shade of Marc Hempel's work on Sandman, except, you know, more (and also less), giving a strange animated three-dimensionality to the stories overall. It's also Milligan's singular ability to live inside the rail-thin line between solemnity and absurdity that gives a real life to Constantine's adventures -- here married to a blue-haired girl half his age, chasing down wrongdoers with the aid of a possessed thumb that, oh yeah, he may have chopped off a dying man and sewn onto his own hand after accidentally chopping off his own thumb the last time he went temporarily insane.
What's good, in general, about Hellblazer is that John Constantine is not only nearly always having a worse day than you are, but he's also more likely than you are to make it worse on purpose. There's something really comforting in that, and if blue-haired girls and sentient thumbs are involved, so much the better.
March 23, 2016
Peter Milligan kannatab Hellblazeri autorina vabalt välja võrdluse Jamie Delano, Mike Carey või Paul Jenkinsiga. Pika saaga finaal koosneb ka mitmest eri loost mis omabvahel põimunud ja kus Constantine'i kõrvale tõusevad peamisteks tegelasteks tema noor naine Epiphany, Londoni gängsterist äiapapa Terry Greaves ja õetütar Gemma Masters. Noh, Chas tolkneb ka seal suht tihedalt ringi aga ta on ju seda teinud kuskilt kogu saaga esimesest kolmandikust alates.
Muidu on hea. Märksõnad siis Constantine'i äralõigatud pöial, tema autoõnnetuse ohvrilt tangidega hangitud uus pöial ja selle istutamine ja siis taaskord eemaldamine õigele pöidla kohale, Gemma vägistamine Constantine'i poolt tema ja Epiphany pulma aegu peldikus (selle kohta lugege täpsemalt ise) ja kättemaksuks esilemanatud deemoni neutraliseerimine. Väga hea. Giovanni Camunculo pliiatsijoon mulle ka suht istub.
Muidu on hea. Märksõnad siis Constantine'i äralõigatud pöial, tema autoõnnetuse ohvrilt tangidega hangitud uus pöial ja selle istutamine ja siis taaskord eemaldamine õigele pöidla kohale, Gemma vägistamine Constantine'i poolt tema ja Epiphany pulma aegu peldikus (selle kohta lugege täpsemalt ise) ja kättemaksuks esilemanatud deemoni neutraliseerimine. Väga hea. Giovanni Camunculo pliiatsijoon mulle ka suht istub.
February 16, 2016
Hellblazer graphic novels do not last long in my county's library system. They are easily damaged and routinely stolen. This leads me very few to choose from, so I leaped a few years ahead in the series only because Phantom Pains was available -- and probably will be soon stolen (but not by me. Honest.)
Well, this was a bit of a shock to me since I missed several key development's in John Constantine's life/afterlife/whatever. He's freakin' MARRIED. At first this news hit me like a fist to the solar plexus, but by the end of Phantom Pains I could accept a married Constantine as still in character.
I highly enjoyed Phantom Pains. The stories were easy to follow, the art (a bit blocky or anime at times) still first-class for a comic book) and the sense of dark humor still blackly burning. It's renewed my interest in the series.
Well, this was a bit of a shock to me since I missed several key development's in John Constantine's life/afterlife/whatever. He's freakin' MARRIED. At first this news hit me like a fist to the solar plexus, but by the end of Phantom Pains I could accept a married Constantine as still in character.
I highly enjoyed Phantom Pains. The stories were easy to follow, the art (a bit blocky or anime at times) still first-class for a comic book) and the sense of dark humor still blackly burning. It's renewed my interest in the series.
May 22, 2015
Clearly wedded bliss is not for Constantine... Between Epiphany freaking out over his lack of thumb (prompting a quest to get a quick replacement, and then the real thing back) and having some lingering issues with an old mentor/teacher/demon-ghost-thing this collection is chalk full of adventures and magical mishaps. Unfortunately John gets caught up in some nasty business with Epiphany's gangster father, which does not bode well for a peaceful marriage at all. At least John has no qualms about telling him to fuck off when the occasion doesn't suit him! Overall, what do we really expect from a John Constantine marriage; complications and magic are par for the course, which is far more interesting for readers than happiness and bliss (how dull)!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 25, 2012
I'd seen the Constantine movie with Keanu Reeves, and enjoyed it, so I decided to pick up a copy of the comic at random. As an afficianado of gritty fantasy, I was not disappointed in the least. Magic is dirty and volatile, Constantine is dirty and volatile, and the world is dirty and dreary. Even without knowing what happened in other books, I was able to pick up the story without too many problems and really enjoyed it. Plus it was set in London so I got to read everyone with British accents!
August 19, 2012
This was the book that sold me on Epiphany's role in the story. I still really hate her, and her addition into the book at all, but she did add an interesting aspect to Constantine's character development.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 12, 2015
“High-Frequency Man”, the 1-parter that leads things off, is a fine tale of Constantine hi-jinx [7]. The main “Phantom Pains” arc is a nice bit of continuity and darring-do [7+]. The prison one-parter that ends things off isn’t much of anything [6].
August 15, 2014
Good story, great art. The 100 Bullets style really works for Hellblazer. Epiphany is a surprisingly good character and I like where they're going with her. It's about time Constantine found somebody as crazy as he is.
December 6, 2015
it's OK, but I expected much more. I liked the niece story, but the rest seemed a bit simplistic. I think it would benefit from longer story arcs. Not mad about the artwork either. oh, but I liked the thumb!
May 1, 2012
Milligan has gained momentum and (except for one chapter of pretty weak art) his artists are doing great as well!
Well done, twisted fun!
Well done, twisted fun!
December 18, 2012
Loving married Constantine life. Dreading what on earth they're going to do to Piff.
April 20, 2014
Always enjoy reading John Constantine's antics. Apparently he's married now, his thumb's been cut off, and something awful happened to his niece. Quite a ride.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews