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Hellblazer: New Editions
Hellblazer, Vol. 14: Good Intentions
Throughout his sordid career, not much has fazed John Constantine. As long as he's had his smokes and his freedom, he's always been in control. But what happens when those things are taken away from him? In this collection, Constantine finds himself in a new kind of hell: a maximum-security penitentiary. Stripped of his trademark trench coat, his pack of Silk Cuts and the safety net of his personal connections, he must adapt to a hard place governed by even harder men, where weakness is rewarded by death...or worse.
Later, Constantine sets out to uncover the nature of the forces that have conspired against him and experiences a different kind of danger while hitchhiking. He's faced many monsters in his day, but none like the insidiously creepy ones that prowl America's highways. Along the way, a tiny roadside diner finds itself home to a variety of travelers forced off the road by a cataclysmic snowstorm. Families, drifters, truckers and vacationers are joined by a legendary serial killer--and a certain Englishman with a knack for being in the wrong place at the right time.
Collecting: Hellblazer 146-161, Secret Files
Later, Constantine sets out to uncover the nature of the forces that have conspired against him and experiences a different kind of danger while hitchhiking. He's faced many monsters in his day, but none like the insidiously creepy ones that prowl America's highways. Along the way, a tiny roadside diner finds itself home to a variety of travelers forced off the road by a cataclysmic snowstorm. Families, drifters, truckers and vacationers are joined by a legendary serial killer--and a certain Englishman with a knack for being in the wrong place at the right time.
Collecting: Hellblazer 146-161, Secret Files
384 pages, Paperback
First published August 23, 2016
16 people are currently reading
359 people want to read
About the author
Brian Azzarello
1,288 books1,105 followersBrian 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...
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...
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews
October 4, 2018
The only thing I know about this author is that he just wrote that comic where he thought it would be ~super edgy~ to show us Batman's dick and honestly that seems to be a pretty accurate representation of his writing style because this is just full of edgy bullshit with no real substance as well.
There's three arcs in this. The first one is Constantine in prison because reasons and also with awful art. The second is just the stupidest thing ever because apparently this entire town The last one is almost decent but it's just such a standard 'group of people stuck somewhere due to a huge storm and also one of them might be a murderer!' thing that it's mostly just boring.
Also I mean ...yes John is a dick but usually just when people deserve it or I guess maybe when he's super wasted or whatever. But this John is just such an asshole to everyone all the time and I feel like Azzarello is trying to make him seem waaaay cooler than he actually is. Like yeah he always comes out on top eventually but if you go back to older stuff half the time it's basically an accident and he's generally just a huge mess. This Constantine is just ~super cool~ and if I took a drink every time the artist drew a close up of his smirking mouth I would literally be dead at this point. It's just not fun when it's this two dimensional.
There's three arcs in this. The first one is Constantine in prison because reasons and also with awful art. The second is just the stupidest thing ever because apparently this entire town The last one is almost decent but it's just such a standard 'group of people stuck somewhere due to a huge storm and also one of them might be a murderer!' thing that it's mostly just boring.
Also I mean ...yes John is a dick but usually just when people deserve it or I guess maybe when he's super wasted or whatever. But this John is just such an asshole to everyone all the time and I feel like Azzarello is trying to make him seem waaaay cooler than he actually is. Like yeah he always comes out on top eventually but if you go back to older stuff half the time it's basically an accident and he's generally just a huge mess. This Constantine is just ~super cool~ and if I took a drink every time the artist drew a close up of his smirking mouth I would literally be dead at this point. It's just not fun when it's this two dimensional.
October 26, 2020
"Good Intentions" by Brian Azzarello is a very good addition to the original Hellblazer series. It has some great stories and some that are just "ok".
The best, and one of my favorites, is when Constantine goes to prison. His tricks to rise up the hierarchy of prison life, as well as his manipulation of the system to be set free is awesome! One of the best Constantine stories.
"Good Intentions" is a little bizarre and not that great. It has to do with Constantine and a strange redneck town.
"Freeze's Over" is a pretty good story about an Iceman serial killer and takes place in a bar held hostage by a criminal gang. Interesting story.
All in all a great addition to my Hellblazer collection.
The best, and one of my favorites, is when Constantine goes to prison. His tricks to rise up the hierarchy of prison life, as well as his manipulation of the system to be set free is awesome! One of the best Constantine stories.
"Good Intentions" is a little bizarre and not that great. It has to do with Constantine and a strange redneck town.
"Freeze's Over" is a pretty good story about an Iceman serial killer and takes place in a bar held hostage by a criminal gang. Interesting story.
All in all a great addition to my Hellblazer collection.
February 20, 2022
Brian Azzarello is the first American writer to get his hands on John Constantine and the results are "Meh". Azzarello is a one trick pony. He wants to shock you instead of writing a good story or even try to understand Constantine's character. There's very little magic here. He just treats Constantine as this huge asshole with no redeeming qualities. What he doesn't get, is that Constantine tries to do the right thing, just in his own way, a way that tends to get his friends killed while he skates off free of harm. These stories are just so messed up and Constantine is such a prick that they have very little enjoyment to them.
In Hard Time John goes to prison for some nonsense reason. There's lots of elements about rape and murder. Richard Corben draws great monsters. Unfortunately, there aren't any monsters to draw here and Corben draws fugly, muppety looking humans.
Then in Good Intentions Constantine goes to some little shit town called Doglick where the townspeople are getting by by creating beastiality videos. It's really fucked up. However, Marcelo Frusin's art is just fantastic. Perfectally suited for Hellblazer.
The last story, Freeze's Over is the stereotypical story about people trapped in a storm with both a murderer and some desperate criminals. It's the best of the lot and the only story I really liked.
In Hard Time John goes to prison for some nonsense reason. There's lots of elements about rape and murder. Richard Corben draws great monsters. Unfortunately, there aren't any monsters to draw here and Corben draws fugly, muppety looking humans.
Then in Good Intentions Constantine goes to some little shit town called Doglick where the townspeople are getting by by creating beastiality videos. It's really fucked up. However, Marcelo Frusin's art is just fantastic. Perfectally suited for Hellblazer.
The last story, Freeze's Over is the stereotypical story about people trapped in a storm with both a murderer and some desperate criminals. It's the best of the lot and the only story I really liked.
August 31, 2016
Brian Azzarello's run begins in this volume of Hellblazer, as he takes John Constantine to some very unlikely places.
We open with Hard Time, a five part story that is the quintessential 'i'm not trapped in here with you, you're trapped in here with me' type, as John finds himself in prison. This is grimey, dark, claustrophobic, with a very unexpected ending that proves that even when John doesn't appear to be, he's always in complete control of the situation. The legendary Richard Corben pencils this arc, but doesn't really get to let loose, instead giving us rubber faced people instead of the insane Lovecraftian horror that he's famous for.
Good Intentions follows, with John attempting to atone for the sin that for him put in prison in the first place. This is more of a scattered arc that meanders around too much to really have an impact, except the last two issues or so. This half of Azzarello's run ends with ...Freezes Over, another claustrophobic tale that demonstrates John's manipulative nature, only having some magic pop up in the final issue.
Marcelo Frusin pencils these two stories, and he has a brilliant command of shadows. Constantine has never looked as menacing as he does under Frusin's hand.
There's also a Steve Dillon fill-in between the two Frusin arcs, but it's probably lost a lot of its impact since I don't get most of the references it makes, but Dillon's a proven Hellblazer artist so the art's great.
Oh, and 'The First Time', from Hellblazer Secret Files, is a very, very clever little story that comes out of nowhere right at the end of the book which will leave you with a wicked smile on your face too.
A good start, with Azzarello putting his stamp on John with a variety of stories. They don't all land as intended, and Richard Corben is wasted, but I'm curious to see what they have in store for the second half.
We open with Hard Time, a five part story that is the quintessential 'i'm not trapped in here with you, you're trapped in here with me' type, as John finds himself in prison. This is grimey, dark, claustrophobic, with a very unexpected ending that proves that even when John doesn't appear to be, he's always in complete control of the situation. The legendary Richard Corben pencils this arc, but doesn't really get to let loose, instead giving us rubber faced people instead of the insane Lovecraftian horror that he's famous for.
Good Intentions follows, with John attempting to atone for the sin that for him put in prison in the first place. This is more of a scattered arc that meanders around too much to really have an impact, except the last two issues or so. This half of Azzarello's run ends with ...Freezes Over, another claustrophobic tale that demonstrates John's manipulative nature, only having some magic pop up in the final issue.
Marcelo Frusin pencils these two stories, and he has a brilliant command of shadows. Constantine has never looked as menacing as he does under Frusin's hand.
There's also a Steve Dillon fill-in between the two Frusin arcs, but it's probably lost a lot of its impact since I don't get most of the references it makes, but Dillon's a proven Hellblazer artist so the art's great.
Oh, and 'The First Time', from Hellblazer Secret Files, is a very, very clever little story that comes out of nowhere right at the end of the book which will leave you with a wicked smile on your face too.
A good start, with Azzarello putting his stamp on John with a variety of stories. They don't all land as intended, and Richard Corben is wasted, but I'm curious to see what they have in store for the second half.
July 10, 2017
Hard time 4.0
Good intentions 4.0
... Freezes Over 4.0
I love this Brian Azzarello JC. Didn't think a volume entirely chronicling JCs travails through the backwaters of America would be this diabolical, but damn, does this volume have bite. It's like a revamping of JC. He's ballsy as fuck and doesn't give a rat's ass about your goddamn feelings. He's every bit the anti-hero you want in Constantine. From taking over a jail cell, to breaking up an Internet porn business and saving a diner full of civilians while at the same perpetrating the legend of the Iceman, JC doesn't loose his touch, his big dick swagger and that sneering British wit. This volume was such a joy to read.
Good intentions 4.0
... Freezes Over 4.0
I love this Brian Azzarello JC. Didn't think a volume entirely chronicling JCs travails through the backwaters of America would be this diabolical, but damn, does this volume have bite. It's like a revamping of JC. He's ballsy as fuck and doesn't give a rat's ass about your goddamn feelings. He's every bit the anti-hero you want in Constantine. From taking over a jail cell, to breaking up an Internet porn business and saving a diner full of civilians while at the same perpetrating the legend of the Iceman, JC doesn't loose his touch, his big dick swagger and that sneering British wit. This volume was such a joy to read.
Read
December 4, 2020I can see why other reviewers think Azzarello makes 'Hard Time' too easy for Constantine. But as someone who isn't by default a fan of horror, if you're going to plonk your protagonist in the US prison system, I'd rather read about it going preternaturally well for him. (This volume isn't quite as graphic as Warren Ellis' issues, or Garth Ennis' splatter-fest 'Son of Man' but it also contains a lot of brutality by humans, and very little by supernatural entities - and this review will mention some nasty stuff. You can consider that a content warning.) Besides, it's clearly supposed to be an analogy: if this magician guy managed to beat major demons of hell, several times, let's stick him in a notorious hell-on-earth and see what happens. So, in some ways, it's not like he hasn't already proven he's got the chops for it. But on the other, JC is a loner and a nomad who tends to trick individuals who aren't communicating with each other at the time - he isn't usually stuck with antagonists, or people full stop, in close proximity to him 24/7 for months - plus, his psychiatric hospital experiences, about which earlier writers have used flashbacks and nightmares, could also make the prison environment destabilising for him. None of those potential problems was addressed here. But, throughout the series, Constantine is mentally very tough a lot of the time, and able to resist bouts of intense psychological pressure that cracks the average hardman off the street - something that was particularly emphasised in Warren Ellis' stint on the series, just preceding this one - and Azzarello is only using that side of the character here. You could argue that it's only a few months in these comics, and JC has decided to shove all that difficult stuff in a mental cupboard and put up the front he's already proven so adept at for shorter durations- he seems capable of that. He is, in any case, a fictional psyche constructed in patchwork fashion by several different writers, so, even compared with fictional characters created by one writer, he is going to be further from psychological realism. However, if there had been even one or two panels in which he's consciously working out a psychological coping strategy, I think it would have been more interesting and given this story more depth. I think it is fundamentally very different being hard-nosed and resilient about something for a short duration, and keeping that up all the time for months, never mind years, on end.
Yet these issues are good at showing that deliberately mysterious intersection where one can never tell how much is down to Constantine being a very smart, confident guy who knows exactly how to play people, and how much might be actually supernatural, and that the boundary of which is actually which is fuzzy, never mind other characters' perception of it.
The art in 'Hard Time', by Richard Corben, is both good and bad. As with some of Ellis' issues, illustrated by John Higgins, I think iit's good to offset a brutal story with a cartoonish style. However, the characters' body proportions were frequently off-kilter here, and I found this JC too much of a departure in appearance from earlier ones. (Whereas if this wasn't about an established character, it would have seemed a bit better.) But the choice to have this episode of his life illustrated in a notably different style from all the others marks it out as separate, compartmentalised in memory, which is appropriate.
I didn't like the idea of an American writing the character - but reading this volume right after the emphatically London focus of Ellis makes it more bearable. It also makes one think of a 'what if': what if comics-Constantine was American (as opposed to that Californian guy who just shared his name and was played by Keanu Reeves). What would his milieux have been? Where might he have come from? And that's kind of interesting.
Constantine is a very urban character, and whether it's because of that or some other reason (I don't know about Azzarello as a person) the writer keeps putting him in rural settings in the flyover states. Perhaps because those are locations where (white) American mythologies have the clearest place for his type: he's the mysterious drifter - and especially in 'Freezes Over', which I liked the best out of the stories here - the lone cowboy, the Man With No Name, especially characteristic of modern Westerns where he's can be a morally ambiguous figure.
Rural and working class Americans have a reputation as advocates of individualism, but here what comes across time and again is how collective they are in certain ways, how important reputation and mutual support is, on terms these particular communities have evolved and chosen. Much of the sense of risk is because Constantine is without close friends, or sometimes any friends, and is an outsider in these places - a maximum security prison, Appalachia, a roadside inn. That makes him probably dangerous (to other, local, characters) and endangered (because there are a lot of them, and they're tough, and they've usually got guns).
All the writers give JC a few out of character moments, though that can sometimes be an odd concept when the idea of who he is has been created by several different ones. Here, firstly, there was a minor one : the aggressive way that young punk-singer JC pursues a girl. He seems more the type to let other guys be overtly aggressive, while he seems to be the nice one until the girl thinks she's pulled him herself. That the girl would have stuck around after what happened in the first scene between them seems implausible. But then I don't actually know what flirting and dating was really like in the 70s punk scene. And then a major one, which I get the impression mostly gets ignored as not canon - however, Rich Handley includes, and indeed interprets it in a timeline constructed for recent Constantine essay collection From Bayou to Abyss. So, in #157, we've got FBI Agent Turro who basically got Constantine out of prison, strongarming JC into helping him with something, and what's the thing he tells him he knows that *does* make Constantine do what the agent is asking: "Remember, Ashtabula, Ohio? Fifteen years ago. Katrina Bogdonovich. Twelve-year-old girl, about to have her first period…" Now, giving this serious consideration for a moment: It's been established many times by this point in the series that Constantine doesn't like kids and finds them very annoying. He does pull college-age women, but preteens would not fit with his character. He is also quite often a knight-in-shining armour figure relative to various damsels in distress, alive or dead. Now that I was seeing this page after all the issues and stories leading up to it, I found I imagined the backstory to this line as trafficking, procurement, transporting a minor across state lines etc. Essentially a physical-plane equivalent of Astra's fate after Newcastle, and with enough blame on Constantine's side for Turro to use it against him. Embroiled in some mess, maybe to get some criminal or dark-magic organisation off his back, or as part of another dodgy deal he pulled, this poor girl ended up in the hands of either gangsters, or satanists, and she 'started' during abuse or during their fucked up ritual or whatever, which is why that bit about the period was mentioned. Bad things most often happen to people *through* Constantine, the actual harm being done by demons or others he was doing deals with, or criminals who were pursuing him. Regardless, the arguments for ignoring it as not canon seem reasonable, and with long-running comics characters, there are always scenes a lot of fans choose to disregard. Everybody knows Constantine is a nasty piece of work, but figures, not that way.
But on a lighter note: the feral hog content in this volume gains a new dimension of entertainment for being read in a time after the notorious twitter meme.
---
The remainder of this volume, the special issue Vertigo Secret Files: Origins is mostly prose, which makes for much slower reading than the comic.
I really liked the idea of a short story by Jamie Delano, but the prose is massively variable in quality from paragraph to paragraph. Though what you can say for Delano is that at least he takes risks as a writer; there are sparks there far more often than in Paul Jenkins' work, for one. Delano tries out imagery that's elaborate by the standards of popular fiction, and sometimes it's vivid and involving, and sometimes misses the mark embarrassingly. In its subject - London gangland and a refugee from the former Yugoslav war - the story seems to have been inspired by issues #129-145: Garth Ennis' 'Son of Man', Warren Ellis' brief HB run and the story by Croatian writer Darko Macan. There's also a thematic continuation of Delano's The Horrorist (1995) as Constantine is forced to bear witness to a woman telling him about.
The timelines and character portraits by Michael Bonner, which made up the remainder of the original Secret Files and Origins issue, are written in a pedestrian journalese, covering material that hundreds, if not thousands of fans could surely have written in a more vibrant style, and/or with fewer inaccuracies. (A few mistakes are real-world info: Christian missionaries to Britain circa the 6th century were not from "the Holy Roman Empire" - and if being charitable, you could say some of the comics ones were a matter of interpretation rather than actually wrong.)
These summaries are also an uncritical reminder of some of the more blatant and annoying retcons that have happened during the series so far - especially that it seems medically & physically impossible for *both* Delano's and Jenkins' stories about Constantine's mother's pregnancy to have happened. Perhaps, somewhere online a fan who's had more reason to know obstetrics has put elements of these together into something that just about makes sense, in the flukish way that comics characters' origin stories do. As Hellblazer is different from most modern comics in being one series where the character ages in real time, and having continuity, I wasn't expecting retcons, but that was maybe naïve about the nature of Big Two comics themselves.
This comic itself also contains a new retcon… *sigh*. I have said before that 17 seemed late for a bloke of JC's generation, background and temperament to have started smoking, and it looks like Brian Azzarello agreed. Little tyke John Constantine aged maybe eight (so in 1961) persuaded to smoke for the first time by another, even dodgier, little lad, while they watch the police dredging up a murder victim? Sounds very much in character. (You could also combine the two stories and take it to mean JC didn't start smoking regularly until he was 17.) Also… the other boy is Nergal in human form, which reminds me of a theory (here, under heading "The truth, innit") that Constantine, for all he seems clever, is really an unwitting pawn of Nergal.
At least the background material mentions the penny-drop factoid that the series was originally going to be called Hellraiser - but Clive Barker had sadly nabbed that title shortly before the first issue was published. Shame, as it suits JC much better and the whole series would sound better under that title. Maybe it would have been even more successful. I always forgot to work this into a review, but I think about it with every volume I read.
(reviewed Nov-Dec 2020)
Yet these issues are good at showing that deliberately mysterious intersection where one can never tell how much is down to Constantine being a very smart, confident guy who knows exactly how to play people, and how much might be actually supernatural, and that the boundary of which is actually which is fuzzy, never mind other characters' perception of it.
The art in 'Hard Time', by Richard Corben, is both good and bad. As with some of Ellis' issues, illustrated by John Higgins, I think iit's good to offset a brutal story with a cartoonish style. However, the characters' body proportions were frequently off-kilter here, and I found this JC too much of a departure in appearance from earlier ones. (Whereas if this wasn't about an established character, it would have seemed a bit better.) But the choice to have this episode of his life illustrated in a notably different style from all the others marks it out as separate, compartmentalised in memory, which is appropriate.
I didn't like the idea of an American writing the character - but reading this volume right after the emphatically London focus of Ellis makes it more bearable. It also makes one think of a 'what if': what if comics-Constantine was American (as opposed to that Californian guy who just shared his name and was played by Keanu Reeves). What would his milieux have been? Where might he have come from? And that's kind of interesting.
Constantine is a very urban character, and whether it's because of that or some other reason (I don't know about Azzarello as a person) the writer keeps putting him in rural settings in the flyover states. Perhaps because those are locations where (white) American mythologies have the clearest place for his type: he's the mysterious drifter - and especially in 'Freezes Over', which I liked the best out of the stories here - the lone cowboy, the Man With No Name, especially characteristic of modern Westerns where he's can be a morally ambiguous figure.
Rural and working class Americans have a reputation as advocates of individualism, but here what comes across time and again is how collective they are in certain ways, how important reputation and mutual support is, on terms these particular communities have evolved and chosen. Much of the sense of risk is because Constantine is without close friends, or sometimes any friends, and is an outsider in these places - a maximum security prison, Appalachia, a roadside inn. That makes him probably dangerous (to other, local, characters) and endangered (because there are a lot of them, and they're tough, and they've usually got guns).
All the writers give JC a few out of character moments, though that can sometimes be an odd concept when the idea of who he is has been created by several different ones. Here, firstly, there was a minor one : the aggressive way that young punk-singer JC pursues a girl. He seems more the type to let other guys be overtly aggressive, while he seems to be the nice one until the girl thinks she's pulled him herself. That the girl would have stuck around after what happened in the first scene between them seems implausible. But then I don't actually know what flirting and dating was really like in the 70s punk scene. And then a major one, which I get the impression mostly gets ignored as not canon - however, Rich Handley includes, and indeed interprets it in a timeline constructed for recent Constantine essay collection From Bayou to Abyss. So, in #157, we've got FBI Agent Turro who basically got Constantine out of prison, strongarming JC into helping him with something, and what's the thing he tells him he knows that *does* make Constantine do what the agent is asking: "Remember, Ashtabula, Ohio? Fifteen years ago. Katrina Bogdonovich. Twelve-year-old girl, about to have her first period…" Now, giving this serious consideration for a moment: It's been established many times by this point in the series that Constantine doesn't like kids and finds them very annoying. He does pull college-age women, but preteens would not fit with his character. He is also quite often a knight-in-shining armour figure relative to various damsels in distress, alive or dead. Now that I was seeing this page after all the issues and stories leading up to it, I found I imagined the backstory to this line as trafficking, procurement, transporting a minor across state lines etc. Essentially a physical-plane equivalent of Astra's fate after Newcastle, and with enough blame on Constantine's side for Turro to use it against him. Embroiled in some mess, maybe to get some criminal or dark-magic organisation off his back, or as part of another dodgy deal he pulled, this poor girl ended up in the hands of either gangsters, or satanists, and she 'started' during abuse or during their fucked up ritual or whatever, which is why that bit about the period was mentioned. Bad things most often happen to people *through* Constantine, the actual harm being done by demons or others he was doing deals with, or criminals who were pursuing him. Regardless, the arguments for ignoring it as not canon seem reasonable, and with long-running comics characters, there are always scenes a lot of fans choose to disregard. Everybody knows Constantine is a nasty piece of work, but figures, not that way.
But on a lighter note: the feral hog content in this volume gains a new dimension of entertainment for being read in a time after the notorious twitter meme.
---
The remainder of this volume, the special issue Vertigo Secret Files: Origins is mostly prose, which makes for much slower reading than the comic.
I really liked the idea of a short story by Jamie Delano, but the prose is massively variable in quality from paragraph to paragraph. Though what you can say for Delano is that at least he takes risks as a writer; there are sparks there far more often than in Paul Jenkins' work, for one. Delano tries out imagery that's elaborate by the standards of popular fiction, and sometimes it's vivid and involving, and sometimes misses the mark embarrassingly. In its subject - London gangland and a refugee from the former Yugoslav war - the story seems to have been inspired by issues #129-145: Garth Ennis' 'Son of Man', Warren Ellis' brief HB run and the story by Croatian writer Darko Macan. There's also a thematic continuation of Delano's The Horrorist (1995) as Constantine is forced to bear witness to a woman telling him about.
The timelines and character portraits by Michael Bonner, which made up the remainder of the original Secret Files and Origins issue, are written in a pedestrian journalese, covering material that hundreds, if not thousands of fans could surely have written in a more vibrant style, and/or with fewer inaccuracies. (A few mistakes are real-world info: Christian missionaries to Britain circa the 6th century were not from "the Holy Roman Empire" - and if being charitable, you could say some of the comics ones were a matter of interpretation rather than actually wrong.)
These summaries are also an uncritical reminder of some of the more blatant and annoying retcons that have happened during the series so far - especially that it seems medically & physically impossible for *both* Delano's and Jenkins' stories about Constantine's mother's pregnancy to have happened. Perhaps, somewhere online a fan who's had more reason to know obstetrics has put elements of these together into something that just about makes sense, in the flukish way that comics characters' origin stories do. As Hellblazer is different from most modern comics in being one series where the character ages in real time, and having continuity, I wasn't expecting retcons, but that was maybe naïve about the nature of Big Two comics themselves.
This comic itself also contains a new retcon… *sigh*. I have said before that 17 seemed late for a bloke of JC's generation, background and temperament to have started smoking, and it looks like Brian Azzarello agreed. Little tyke John Constantine aged maybe eight (so in 1961) persuaded to smoke for the first time by another, even dodgier, little lad, while they watch the police dredging up a murder victim? Sounds very much in character. (You could also combine the two stories and take it to mean JC didn't start smoking regularly until he was 17.) Also… the other boy is Nergal in human form, which reminds me of a theory (here, under heading "The truth, innit") that Constantine, for all he seems clever, is really an unwitting pawn of Nergal.
At least the background material mentions the penny-drop factoid that the series was originally going to be called Hellraiser - but Clive Barker had sadly nabbed that title shortly before the first issue was published. Shame, as it suits JC much better and the whole series would sound better under that title. Maybe it would have been even more successful. I always forgot to work this into a review, but I think about it with every volume I read.
(reviewed Nov-Dec 2020)
October 28, 2018
Azzarello delivers. The first story(Hard Time) carries the entire volume. The others stories are great too but not as good as the opening one. Still a good collection worth a read!!
August 16, 2020
Yikes. This was... a tough hang. I've read a lot of Azzarello's work, and I'm generally a fan. 100 Bullets is a great series, his work on Batman has been exceptional, I loved his take on Wonder Woman. But this, this feels... gross. Total edgelord shit without an ounce of attention paid to the story or the long-established character of Constantine. I'm genuinely kind of shocked by how much I disliked this.
Azzarello kicks things off with "Hard Time," a story in which Constantine finds himself in prison for a reason that is not revealed for several issues (a huge narrative problem, in my opinion). This feels like an excuse for Azzarello to write characters who use every ethnic slur imaginable multiple times, and have some "fun" in the extremely well-trod territories of prison rape and racial violence. He has absolutely nothing to say here. It's just shock jock level "wow I can't believe he said that" junk that never builds to anything else, the story never melds into a satisfying whole, there's no payoff or reveal. It's like Azzarello wrote this whole thing as a vomit draft and then just sent it to press. It's honestly maddening.
And then, one of my bigger problems is, throughout this story (and every story in this book), Constantine is an unassailable, Machiavellian mastermind who has an answer for everything and utterly cannot be defeated. This is... not Hellblazer. Constantine is and has always been a flawed character, who gets himself into horrible situations because of his own selfishness and cold-heartedness, who struggles with this aspect of his personality whenever he strives to be a better person. This Constantine is just... Satan? The very being he is constantly at war with?
It's just abysmal attention to character. I love it when Constantine tricks people and gets the upper hand in an unexpected way. That's kind of the best thing about him ever since Ennis's run on the character. But this isn't that. This is Constantine intentionally messing with people for no apparent reason, even going so far as to set people up to be murdered, or allow a murderer to escape justice, all in the interest of, I don't know, having a laugh? It sucks and it makes you hate him.
The only thing positive about this book is its pacing. The stories are quick and breezy to read, so you don't have to just sit in the slog of this bad take for long. But this really feels like Azzarello before he figured out the kind of writer he wanted to be, and was instead just trying to copy Ennis or some of the other "edgy" writers of the day. The first story, which is not good, is by far the best, which is not a ringing endorsement. This volume's easily skipped.
Azzarello kicks things off with "Hard Time," a story in which Constantine finds himself in prison for a reason that is not revealed for several issues (a huge narrative problem, in my opinion). This feels like an excuse for Azzarello to write characters who use every ethnic slur imaginable multiple times, and have some "fun" in the extremely well-trod territories of prison rape and racial violence. He has absolutely nothing to say here. It's just shock jock level "wow I can't believe he said that" junk that never builds to anything else, the story never melds into a satisfying whole, there's no payoff or reveal. It's like Azzarello wrote this whole thing as a vomit draft and then just sent it to press. It's honestly maddening.
And then, one of my bigger problems is, throughout this story (and every story in this book), Constantine is an unassailable, Machiavellian mastermind who has an answer for everything and utterly cannot be defeated. This is... not Hellblazer. Constantine is and has always been a flawed character, who gets himself into horrible situations because of his own selfishness and cold-heartedness, who struggles with this aspect of his personality whenever he strives to be a better person. This Constantine is just... Satan? The very being he is constantly at war with?
It's just abysmal attention to character. I love it when Constantine tricks people and gets the upper hand in an unexpected way. That's kind of the best thing about him ever since Ennis's run on the character. But this isn't that. This is Constantine intentionally messing with people for no apparent reason, even going so far as to set people up to be murdered, or allow a murderer to escape justice, all in the interest of, I don't know, having a laugh? It sucks and it makes you hate him.
The only thing positive about this book is its pacing. The stories are quick and breezy to read, so you don't have to just sit in the slog of this bad take for long. But this really feels like Azzarello before he figured out the kind of writer he wanted to be, and was instead just trying to copy Ennis or some of the other "edgy" writers of the day. The first story, which is not good, is by far the best, which is not a ringing endorsement. This volume's easily skipped.
February 2, 2017
Hard Time arc was just terrible, mainly due to Corben's drawing. Frusin was a fantastic artist with excellent balance of bright colour and shadows. Dillon also drew a one shot which was average. Good Intentions was a fantastic arc though, really enjoyed the twist, but the rest of the stories were forgettable.
November 6, 2017
Adequate though did not quite scratch the dark mystical itch that I had. Felt a little let down by Corben's art in first number of issues. Over the top caricature stereotypes of prison types felt forced. Frusin's work brought in shadows but over-emphasized Constantine's Aphex Twin smile. Get it. Constantine is thee jack of all trades know it all punkish detective anti-hero. Hillbilly warped town. Murder at a diner.
Read
January 18, 2021Apparently Brian Azzarello’s Hellblazer run isn’t popular with fans. I guess I can see why: he’s an American writing a distinctly British character and the supernatural is played down significantly. For me, I came away impressed with this collection (the first half of his run), because of how unique it is from what came before. Azzarello returns John to his Swamp Thing roots by taking him through rural America where horror is (usually) perpetrated by regular flesh ‘n’ blood humans. His writing has a directness to it that reminds me Ennis, but less Hellblazer than Preacher because of the Americana aspect. Like Preacher, these stories are viscerally compelling. What’s also different is that Azzarello gets out of John’s head, forgoing narration almost entirely and having other people speak more than John himself. I’m not sure if this is due to lack of confidence in writing a British voice, but it gives John a certain amount of mystery, which I like. On the flip side, John doesn’t have as much of the vulnerable humanity that we’ve seen before, and that’s a knock I have against Azzarello. There are hints of it, like his reason for going to prison or relationship with Rose. But so far, he’s more of a snarky, confident force.
Still, I enjoy the in-your-face storytelling here, and Azzarello’s Constantine is well enough in character. I hope the second collection continues the trend.
Still, I enjoy the in-your-face storytelling here, and Azzarello’s Constantine is well enough in character. I hope the second collection continues the trend.
Read
August 7, 2024dnf; chyba jednak jestem zbyt wrażliwa na constantine'a (albo azzarello)
March 1, 2025
Brian Azzarello comes onboard as writer and brings a collection of stories that don’t feel too far removed from his 100 Bullets title, exploring the cruelties human beings can all too easily inflict on each other. The standout selling point of this volume however, is the undoubtedly the artwork by Marcelo Frusín, which is absolutely stunning and perfectly suited to the series.
April 18, 2019
Right, I’ve just been reminded how little I care for the majority of Azzarello’s work.
August 9, 2020
i wrote a big hate-review of vol 15, but i'm coming back because 14 sucks too. reposting aspects from 15's review that apply to 14 as well, and then some more specific complaints.
i really hate azzarello's run. w/ hellblazer, there's a delicate balance 2 be struck between humor, brutality, and human emotion. azzarello steered hard towards brutality, and forgot about the rest. i'll concede that he definitely TRIED some humor, but it rarely landed for me, and certainly never served to lighten any of this... sadism-fest. i really can't tell if azzarello was trying wayy too hard to make his run edgy, or if he really is this much of a sick clown. either way, i couldn't wait for him to wrap up his monstrosity. also? huge thumbs down for setting the entirety of his run in the U.S. much as it pains me to say it, John Constantine and London belong together. if you're gonna separate them, you better have a damn good story to justify it.
oh, also??? it weirded me out how there was almost a complete lack of the supernatural in this volume. i'm not saying hellblazer needs magic to be good-- the family man had a completely nonmagical storyline and is one of John's best character explorations-- but going so long without any magic got a bit dull. don't get me wrong-- one of my favorite things about JC is that he rarely actually uses magic to win, but that's only special because he's usually up against magical threats. having so little magic, on either the protagonist's or antagonists' side, just.. didn't seem like hellblazer.
SPOILERS BELOW! and warning for nasty content.
i'll admit, i'm mostly here to bitch about Good Intentions. it's nonsensical. it's barbaric. it's shock rock on the page, except shock rock is sometimes actually enjoyable. it's shock shlock. (admittedly, that's the whole run, but i really, really hate good intentions). the premise is absolutely absurd. really? there's no other way people can make money than hardcore fetish pornography? i can barely buy the premise that doglick has internet access, much less it would be possible to convince an entire town to all get into making fucked up amateur porn. frankly, i feel offended on the behalf of all west virginians.
azzarello's john is an unpleasant person, and too often azzarello writes him as unbeatable. but john does get beaten pretty goddamn bad in this story, and it is simply abhorrent. both from an in-universe standpoint, and from the point of view of someone reading a hellblazer story. again, azzarello seems to go for whatever is darkest or more perverse, whatever will be most upsetting. and in my eyes, he really reached his lowest point as a writer by having john constantine be raped by a dog. it's repulsive. it's appalling. it's a loathsome thing to do to a person in-universe, and it's a loathsome thing to write out-of-universe. and sure, john gets some modicum of revenge via a giant feral boar, but there is simply no gravity to the incident or its aftermath. it's just sick. it's like azzarello challenged himself to write the most perverse thing he could think of into an issue of hellblazer, and didn't even consider that, like, there are people out there reading this comic who actually like the character of john constantine.
i really hate azzarello's run. w/ hellblazer, there's a delicate balance 2 be struck between humor, brutality, and human emotion. azzarello steered hard towards brutality, and forgot about the rest. i'll concede that he definitely TRIED some humor, but it rarely landed for me, and certainly never served to lighten any of this... sadism-fest. i really can't tell if azzarello was trying wayy too hard to make his run edgy, or if he really is this much of a sick clown. either way, i couldn't wait for him to wrap up his monstrosity. also? huge thumbs down for setting the entirety of his run in the U.S. much as it pains me to say it, John Constantine and London belong together. if you're gonna separate them, you better have a damn good story to justify it.
oh, also??? it weirded me out how there was almost a complete lack of the supernatural in this volume. i'm not saying hellblazer needs magic to be good-- the family man had a completely nonmagical storyline and is one of John's best character explorations-- but going so long without any magic got a bit dull. don't get me wrong-- one of my favorite things about JC is that he rarely actually uses magic to win, but that's only special because he's usually up against magical threats. having so little magic, on either the protagonist's or antagonists' side, just.. didn't seem like hellblazer.
SPOILERS BELOW! and warning for nasty content.
i'll admit, i'm mostly here to bitch about Good Intentions. it's nonsensical. it's barbaric. it's shock rock on the page, except shock rock is sometimes actually enjoyable. it's shock shlock. (admittedly, that's the whole run, but i really, really hate good intentions). the premise is absolutely absurd. really? there's no other way people can make money than hardcore fetish pornography? i can barely buy the premise that doglick has internet access, much less it would be possible to convince an entire town to all get into making fucked up amateur porn. frankly, i feel offended on the behalf of all west virginians.
azzarello's john is an unpleasant person, and too often azzarello writes him as unbeatable. but john does get beaten pretty goddamn bad in this story, and it is simply abhorrent. both from an in-universe standpoint, and from the point of view of someone reading a hellblazer story. again, azzarello seems to go for whatever is darkest or more perverse, whatever will be most upsetting. and in my eyes, he really reached his lowest point as a writer by having john constantine be raped by a dog. it's repulsive. it's appalling. it's a loathsome thing to do to a person in-universe, and it's a loathsome thing to write out-of-universe. and sure, john gets some modicum of revenge via a giant feral boar, but there is simply no gravity to the incident or its aftermath. it's just sick. it's like azzarello challenged himself to write the most perverse thing he could think of into an issue of hellblazer, and didn't even consider that, like, there are people out there reading this comic who actually like the character of john constantine.
May 13, 2021
It’s never been a question in my mind that John Constantine is an asshole and a tosser, but evil? That’s a strong word and one that I believe gets overused.
But in “Good Intentions”, Volume 14 of John Constantine, the Hellblazer, writer Brian Azzarello lobs a thought-grenade that I can’t quite shake.
With the introduction of Azzarello as writer in the series, a whole new fascinating and disturbing take on Constantine emerges. Starting with issue #146, we see Constantine through the eyes of the people around him, people who don’t know him or what he’s capable of, and, for the first time, this motherfucker is scary as shit.
I’ve never considered Constantine as menacing before. Not really. I mean, he could be a bastard sometimes, but as an unforgiving force of darkness? Nah.
Still, Azzarello makes some good points. Volume 14 includes three incredible mini-series that more than hints at Constantine’s flirtation with evil.
In the five-issue series “Hard Time”, Constantine gets thrown into the slammer for murder. Imagine “Oz” if Lucifer were unleashed upon the general population. No one is safe from Constantine—-the Bloods, the Crips, the Aryan Brotherhood, the Mob bosses, the Latinos, the Muslims, the corrupt prison guards. He is an unstoppable force of nature in this, and, in then end, you almost feel sorry for the prisoners.
When one of the prisoners—-a Muslim—-confronts Constantine and calls him “evil”, the exchange is vintage Constantine. He laughs it off, getting a few irreverent jabs at Muhammed, but here’s the thing: he never really denies the accusation.
(BTW: this series is worth it for the brilliant artwork by legendary comic book artist Richard Corben. Seriously, it’s amazing.)
In the six-part series “Good Intentions”, Constantine, fresh out of prison, goes to West Virginia to apologize to the family of the victim that got him sent to prison. He’s not ten minutes into town when shit hits the fan and blood starts to fly.
The four-part “…Freezes Over” sees Constantine taking shelter from a blizzard in a roadside diner. This is a classic tale of a group of disparate people riding out a storm while someone in their midst may be a killer. It’s Quentin Tarantino “Hateful Eight” country, and Azzarello pulls it off well.
The brilliance of Azzarello is that his stories don’t delve into Constantine’s supernatural abilities at all. If they do, they are merely hinted at. These are more hard-boiled crime noir dramas in the vein of Ed Brubaker. They are contemporary westerns, and Constantine is the morally questionable lone gunman who strolls into town on a pale horse, a harbinger of death and destruction.
But in “Good Intentions”, Volume 14 of John Constantine, the Hellblazer, writer Brian Azzarello lobs a thought-grenade that I can’t quite shake.
With the introduction of Azzarello as writer in the series, a whole new fascinating and disturbing take on Constantine emerges. Starting with issue #146, we see Constantine through the eyes of the people around him, people who don’t know him or what he’s capable of, and, for the first time, this motherfucker is scary as shit.
I’ve never considered Constantine as menacing before. Not really. I mean, he could be a bastard sometimes, but as an unforgiving force of darkness? Nah.
Still, Azzarello makes some good points. Volume 14 includes three incredible mini-series that more than hints at Constantine’s flirtation with evil.
In the five-issue series “Hard Time”, Constantine gets thrown into the slammer for murder. Imagine “Oz” if Lucifer were unleashed upon the general population. No one is safe from Constantine—-the Bloods, the Crips, the Aryan Brotherhood, the Mob bosses, the Latinos, the Muslims, the corrupt prison guards. He is an unstoppable force of nature in this, and, in then end, you almost feel sorry for the prisoners.
When one of the prisoners—-a Muslim—-confronts Constantine and calls him “evil”, the exchange is vintage Constantine. He laughs it off, getting a few irreverent jabs at Muhammed, but here’s the thing: he never really denies the accusation.
(BTW: this series is worth it for the brilliant artwork by legendary comic book artist Richard Corben. Seriously, it’s amazing.)
In the six-part series “Good Intentions”, Constantine, fresh out of prison, goes to West Virginia to apologize to the family of the victim that got him sent to prison. He’s not ten minutes into town when shit hits the fan and blood starts to fly.
The four-part “…Freezes Over” sees Constantine taking shelter from a blizzard in a roadside diner. This is a classic tale of a group of disparate people riding out a storm while someone in their midst may be a killer. It’s Quentin Tarantino “Hateful Eight” country, and Azzarello pulls it off well.
The brilliance of Azzarello is that his stories don’t delve into Constantine’s supernatural abilities at all. If they do, they are merely hinted at. These are more hard-boiled crime noir dramas in the vein of Ed Brubaker. They are contemporary westerns, and Constantine is the morally questionable lone gunman who strolls into town on a pale horse, a harbinger of death and destruction.
July 11, 2017
Brian Azzarello's run on Hellblazer is a bit divisive among fans. He was the first and only American to write the title, and was pretty well established from his time writing the terrific Vertigo comic, 100 Bullets. His dialogue in Hellblazer is very hard-boiled, like 100 Bullets, and a lot of the themes are the same: crime, depravity, deception, gradually revealed secrets. He did a total of 29 issues, and it's basically a handful of stories all connected in a continuing narrative to make one long mega-story.
My own opinion is that the Azzarello run has its problems, but is over-all pretty good. He doesn't always get Constantine himself right, but the stories are all solid. He gets around the whole non-British thing by having the majority of his run happen in the States.
There are spoilers beyond this point, if that sorta thing irritates you.
The volume opens with "Hard Time", which has a pretty startling cold open: John Constantine is in an American prison, sentenced to 35 years for murder; we don't know the hows or whys of it. Faced with the ugly brutality of prison life, Constantine works his magic as a master manipulator, and in short order he's at the top of the hierarchy-- until a powerful locked up mobster frames him up for murdering another inmate and he winds up in solitary confinement. But even in a cell by himself, Constantine has his devious magic skills, and in the wake of a bloody prison riot, he's king of the roost. In the last chapter, FBI agent Frank Turro is sent in to try to negotiate and quell the riot, and is taken to Constantine, perched in an electric chair/makeshift throne. We learn that the man Constantine supposedly killed was a small-time grifter named Lucky Fermin, and Constantine reveals to Turro that Lucky actually killed himself, rather than face the wrath of a super-rich bastard who has put a bounty on his head. Turro offers to let Constantine leave the prison if he'll stop the riot. Constantine agrees, and after getting some mysterious information from Turro, he dons the old trench coat, lights up a smoke, and heads out into the sunshine.
The art in "Hard Time" is by the usually brilliant Richard Corben, and it's not even remotely like any art in Hellblazer before or since. Corben is more known as an illustrator of horror comics in the Lovecraft tradition-- you know, ancient space creatures with a bunch of tentacles and whatnot, and he's maybe not the best fit for a prison story. Still, his work is weirdly compelling in its ugly way, and Azzarello does indeed write a helluva a "behind bars" story. It's really his forte.
From there, Azzarello takes us into the six-part "Good Intentions". Marcelo Frusin takes over art chores, and would be the primary artist through the rest of Azzarello's run and well into Mike Carey's later on. His work is a nice change of pace, giving us an angular, wicked-looking Constantine, and distinctive supporting characters. Everyone Frusin draws looks kinda like a bad-ass.
The story: Constantine has come to Doglick, Virginia to pay his respects to Lucky Fermin's widow, and finds a town struggling to keep from sinking into squalidness. Lucky's brothers, Dickie and Richie (with whom Constantine has some unstated history), are up to some nasty business, and drag Constantine into it by drugging him and videoing him taking part in some... let's say unsavory sexual situations. The brothers have been filming ugly bestiality videos and making lots of money for the town by posting them on-line. Constantine, shaken after seeing the video of himself, decides to shut them down. Traipsing through the woods hunting a wild boar, Constantine betrays Dickie, resulting in Dickie being slaughtered by the boar, and then the Fermin brothers beloved dog (and star of their depraved videos) gets killed as well; Richie takes the dog's death harder than his brother's.
In the end, Constantine learns to his dismay that the entire town is in on the scheme, and the woman he took to be a hapless victim is actually a willing participant. He leaves Doglick behind, even worse off than how he found it.
"...And Buried" is an interlude chapter, drawn by the returning Steve Dillon, and yeah, it was kinda cool to see his work on Hellblazer again. It's basically Constantine and Turro sitting in a bar, being clever at each other, and Turro proposing something about a place called Highwater, and all the while a different little drama is playing out at a table behind them.
Finally, Frusin returns for my favorite story in this volume, the four-part "Freezes Over". Somewhere on the Great Plains, a massive snowstorm is making travel impossible, so the hitch-hiking Constantine winds up in a tavern with the staff and several other stranded people. Someone is murdered with an icicle outside, and paranoia about the urban legend "The Iceman" runs rampant, until three cons on the run from a robbery-murder show up and add even more fuel to the fire of distrust and fear in the tavern. Constantine manipulates the situation (Azzarello is good about returning Constantine to his role as a master manipulator, planting little seeds in people's minds, and letting them do their own damage), and it eventually ends with one of the cons bleeding out, a second one getting his face blown off with a shotgun, and the third escaping only to be murdered in the snowstorm by... yep, the Iceman, who turns out to be real and one of the tavern patrons. This was a super fun story, confined mostly to one room and the immediate outside, and is the main reason this volume gets 4 out of 5 stars from me.
It wraps up with a very short tale from Hellblazer Secret Files, illustrated by Dave V. Taylor, about Constantine as a little boy, meeting another boy who is actually Nergal (remember Nergal? How's that for a way-back machine?), and Constantine's first cigarette, offered to him by the demon. It ends with little John nicking the pack from him.
The only supernatural factor in any of Azzarello's stories, by the way, come from Constantine himself, which is sort of a reversal from previous writers, who would usually have our anti-hero dealing with mystical threats in as non-mystical a way as possible. These are all basically crime/noir stories, in which the protagonist happens to be a shifty con-man/mage. It's an interesting approach, and even though I enjoyed them, I can understand why some long-time fans really hated it. Regardless, though, Azzarello's run elevated sales on Hellblazer to the highest they had been since the Garth Ennis days, and all of them have really memorable moments and very snappy dialogue.
My own opinion is that the Azzarello run has its problems, but is over-all pretty good. He doesn't always get Constantine himself right, but the stories are all solid. He gets around the whole non-British thing by having the majority of his run happen in the States.
There are spoilers beyond this point, if that sorta thing irritates you.
The volume opens with "Hard Time", which has a pretty startling cold open: John Constantine is in an American prison, sentenced to 35 years for murder; we don't know the hows or whys of it. Faced with the ugly brutality of prison life, Constantine works his magic as a master manipulator, and in short order he's at the top of the hierarchy-- until a powerful locked up mobster frames him up for murdering another inmate and he winds up in solitary confinement. But even in a cell by himself, Constantine has his devious magic skills, and in the wake of a bloody prison riot, he's king of the roost. In the last chapter, FBI agent Frank Turro is sent in to try to negotiate and quell the riot, and is taken to Constantine, perched in an electric chair/makeshift throne. We learn that the man Constantine supposedly killed was a small-time grifter named Lucky Fermin, and Constantine reveals to Turro that Lucky actually killed himself, rather than face the wrath of a super-rich bastard who has put a bounty on his head. Turro offers to let Constantine leave the prison if he'll stop the riot. Constantine agrees, and after getting some mysterious information from Turro, he dons the old trench coat, lights up a smoke, and heads out into the sunshine.
The art in "Hard Time" is by the usually brilliant Richard Corben, and it's not even remotely like any art in Hellblazer before or since. Corben is more known as an illustrator of horror comics in the Lovecraft tradition-- you know, ancient space creatures with a bunch of tentacles and whatnot, and he's maybe not the best fit for a prison story. Still, his work is weirdly compelling in its ugly way, and Azzarello does indeed write a helluva a "behind bars" story. It's really his forte.
From there, Azzarello takes us into the six-part "Good Intentions". Marcelo Frusin takes over art chores, and would be the primary artist through the rest of Azzarello's run and well into Mike Carey's later on. His work is a nice change of pace, giving us an angular, wicked-looking Constantine, and distinctive supporting characters. Everyone Frusin draws looks kinda like a bad-ass.
The story: Constantine has come to Doglick, Virginia to pay his respects to Lucky Fermin's widow, and finds a town struggling to keep from sinking into squalidness. Lucky's brothers, Dickie and Richie (with whom Constantine has some unstated history), are up to some nasty business, and drag Constantine into it by drugging him and videoing him taking part in some... let's say unsavory sexual situations. The brothers have been filming ugly bestiality videos and making lots of money for the town by posting them on-line. Constantine, shaken after seeing the video of himself, decides to shut them down. Traipsing through the woods hunting a wild boar, Constantine betrays Dickie, resulting in Dickie being slaughtered by the boar, and then the Fermin brothers beloved dog (and star of their depraved videos) gets killed as well; Richie takes the dog's death harder than his brother's.
In the end, Constantine learns to his dismay that the entire town is in on the scheme, and the woman he took to be a hapless victim is actually a willing participant. He leaves Doglick behind, even worse off than how he found it.
"...And Buried" is an interlude chapter, drawn by the returning Steve Dillon, and yeah, it was kinda cool to see his work on Hellblazer again. It's basically Constantine and Turro sitting in a bar, being clever at each other, and Turro proposing something about a place called Highwater, and all the while a different little drama is playing out at a table behind them.
Finally, Frusin returns for my favorite story in this volume, the four-part "Freezes Over". Somewhere on the Great Plains, a massive snowstorm is making travel impossible, so the hitch-hiking Constantine winds up in a tavern with the staff and several other stranded people. Someone is murdered with an icicle outside, and paranoia about the urban legend "The Iceman" runs rampant, until three cons on the run from a robbery-murder show up and add even more fuel to the fire of distrust and fear in the tavern. Constantine manipulates the situation (Azzarello is good about returning Constantine to his role as a master manipulator, planting little seeds in people's minds, and letting them do their own damage), and it eventually ends with one of the cons bleeding out, a second one getting his face blown off with a shotgun, and the third escaping only to be murdered in the snowstorm by... yep, the Iceman, who turns out to be real and one of the tavern patrons. This was a super fun story, confined mostly to one room and the immediate outside, and is the main reason this volume gets 4 out of 5 stars from me.
It wraps up with a very short tale from Hellblazer Secret Files, illustrated by Dave V. Taylor, about Constantine as a little boy, meeting another boy who is actually Nergal (remember Nergal? How's that for a way-back machine?), and Constantine's first cigarette, offered to him by the demon. It ends with little John nicking the pack from him.
The only supernatural factor in any of Azzarello's stories, by the way, come from Constantine himself, which is sort of a reversal from previous writers, who would usually have our anti-hero dealing with mystical threats in as non-mystical a way as possible. These are all basically crime/noir stories, in which the protagonist happens to be a shifty con-man/mage. It's an interesting approach, and even though I enjoyed them, I can understand why some long-time fans really hated it. Regardless, though, Azzarello's run elevated sales on Hellblazer to the highest they had been since the Garth Ennis days, and all of them have really memorable moments and very snappy dialogue.
July 16, 2018
The Good Intentions story was a big downer for me in this one. Constantine thinks himself a white knight while in the end screws up badly. There's no magic involved, everything is really normal but no matter. The biggest problem lies in the girl that Constantine tries to save but who does not need saving. I'm having trouble understanding what is she actually doing that needs her . The overall given gimmick explanation is so hand-wavy that I didn't get it at all.
Another big problem I see with Azzarello's Constantine is that's he's a belligerent asshole. Sure, Constantine is an asshole and properly belligerent when facing the devil or another opponent (that's usually part of his strategy) but I've never imagined him to be so aggressive with random people. Someone walks into the bar:
Random stranger: Hey, what a night!
Constantine: Yeah, and your dick is too small!
The book is full of scenes when Constantine says something like this (why, exactly? what was the point?) and, weirdly enough, does not get punched in the face immediately (he got punched maybe a couple of times total while being in prison and it was meh). The non-Azzarello Constantine usually just sits quietly, drinking and ignoring the strangers. Thankfully, the rest of the stories are somewhat decent.
Another big problem I see with Azzarello's Constantine is that's he's a belligerent asshole. Sure, Constantine is an asshole and properly belligerent when facing the devil or another opponent (that's usually part of his strategy) but I've never imagined him to be so aggressive with random people. Someone walks into the bar:
Random stranger: Hey, what a night!
Constantine: Yeah, and your dick is too small!
The book is full of scenes when Constantine says something like this (why, exactly? what was the point?) and, weirdly enough, does not get punched in the face immediately (he got punched maybe a couple of times total while being in prison and it was meh). The non-Azzarello Constantine usually just sits quietly, drinking and ignoring the strangers. Thankfully, the rest of the stories are somewhat decent.
July 12, 2019
Falem o que falem, mas a fase de Brian Azzarello no Hellblazer de John Constantine é uma das melhores que o personagem passou (e nem estou considerando as fazes pela DC Comics, por favor, gente!). Isso porque a sua pegada envolve a perversidade e o cinismo de Constantine, sim, mas a reverte para o lado sexual da coisa. O volume anterior foi um exemplo, esse segundo exemplo, BOOOM!, explode nossa mente quando revela o segredo sinistro da cidadezinha do interior com o peculiar nome de Doglick. Completa esse combo especial com Azzarello a arte sombria e cheia de contrastes do sensacional desenhista argentino Marcelo Frusín, com aquele sorriso sombrio e amalucado de John Constantine que nos agrada e nos perturba ao mesmo tempo. Com este volume também, a Vertigo na Panini, editada pelo amigo Fabiano Denardin publicam toda a passagem do personagem pelo selo e isso não é para qualquer um. Precisa ter muita persistência, uma vez que sabemos que o personagem e o sele Vertigo passaram por "n" editoras aqui no Brasil. Pena que semana passada anunciaram o fim do selo. A DC Comics sempre tomando decisões polêmicas... Mas enfim, esqueça a DC por um instante e tenha sua mente explodida por esse quadrinho!
April 17, 2019
Based on my experience so far (the first few volumes of 100 Bullets and this volume of Hellblazer), Brian Azzarello is a mediocre author, at best, whose main goal is to be as edgy as possible. Azzarello seems obsessed with writing phonetic, “ethnic” dialogue, and boring, predictable stories. I can’t wait to get through this run and on to Mike Carey’s.
November 28, 2021
Story was great, artwork was just okay. Still it was a good read overall, and the pacing was great.
August 25, 2023
I tried rereading 100 Bullets a few years ago, and I couldn't force myself to get through it. Brian Azarello has no talent at writing characters of color. He seems to just enjoy using the N word and presenting non-white people as '80s slang spewing stereotypes.
His work won all sorts of awards in the early 2000s, which is a clear indication of how white and out of touch the people who give out comic awards were at the time. His work reeks of being Out Of Touch. I'm honestly not sure I'm even going to finish the volume, as the hacky dialogue starts three pages in.
Richard Corben's art is remembered fondly in most circles, and I do think his very stylized anatomy and spare backgrounds works well for horror. Its use here just seems to accentuate that this story was twenty years out of date when it came out, and hasn't aged well since.
The story: Constantine is in jail as an act of contrition, and jail is filled with scary people of color who like to rape innocent white people while using slurs to describe anyone not of their race is familiar to anyone who ever watched prison porn in the 1980s, which is what this first part of this book most resembles.
After the Corben/prison run, the book gets less offensive but not better as he examines a whole town focused on producing bestiality porn. Azzarello's humor tries to come off as dark and edgy, but it just sounds like a teenager saying "bad" words and trying to be spooky and intimidating but failing wildly. Not a single character he writes seemed empathetic. I didn't care how they interacted, and I didn't want to invest time seeing where the plot went. He also gives the impression that, if he read the earlier volumes of Hellblazer, he didn't understand them. His John Constantine tries to freak out everyone he meets with his edginess. Better writers had Constantine be dry and off-putting to people who intended him harm or else people he really cared for and was messing with. He wan't trying really hard to be the scariest, coolest guy in the room. He didn't have to try, his mere presence made him scary cool.
I look forward to the end of Azzarello's run, as I know Mike Carey's work is on the other side, and he's 4,000 times a better writer.
Apart from his Wonder Woman run, you can really skip anything with Azarello's name on it and live a happier life.
His work won all sorts of awards in the early 2000s, which is a clear indication of how white and out of touch the people who give out comic awards were at the time. His work reeks of being Out Of Touch. I'm honestly not sure I'm even going to finish the volume, as the hacky dialogue starts three pages in.
Richard Corben's art is remembered fondly in most circles, and I do think his very stylized anatomy and spare backgrounds works well for horror. Its use here just seems to accentuate that this story was twenty years out of date when it came out, and hasn't aged well since.
The story: Constantine is in jail as an act of contrition, and jail is filled with scary people of color who like to rape innocent white people while using slurs to describe anyone not of their race is familiar to anyone who ever watched prison porn in the 1980s, which is what this first part of this book most resembles.
After the Corben/prison run, the book gets less offensive but not better as he examines a whole town focused on producing bestiality porn. Azzarello's humor tries to come off as dark and edgy, but it just sounds like a teenager saying "bad" words and trying to be spooky and intimidating but failing wildly. Not a single character he writes seemed empathetic. I didn't care how they interacted, and I didn't want to invest time seeing where the plot went. He also gives the impression that, if he read the earlier volumes of Hellblazer, he didn't understand them. His John Constantine tries to freak out everyone he meets with his edginess. Better writers had Constantine be dry and off-putting to people who intended him harm or else people he really cared for and was messing with. He wan't trying really hard to be the scariest, coolest guy in the room. He didn't have to try, his mere presence made him scary cool.
I look forward to the end of Azzarello's run, as I know Mike Carey's work is on the other side, and he's 4,000 times a better writer.
Apart from his Wonder Woman run, you can really skip anything with Azarello's name on it and live a happier life.
June 21, 2017
I haven’t been a fan of Constantine in America thus far. “Up the Down Staircase” was only alright and “Damnation’s Flame” was awful. However, Azzarello manages a few solid stories as an ethereal Constantine makes his way across America.
#146-150 Hard Time 2.5/5
I’ve heard this story described as a Constantine atonement story. I don’t think it is. Constantine smiles devilishly throughout Azzarello's run, and I know it’s because we’re seeing him from the outside, but I think a panel or two separated from the others could have portrayed the penitent mood that we’re supposed to get by the end of the story. Also, the art is terrible. The characters are all very bulky and seem to have three expressions: leering, pained, or angry. It’s not great.
#151-156 Good Intentions3.5/5
This arc is either going to work for you or not. The moral complexity of this story is really what got me. It’s not apparent from the first issue, where Constantine torments a stranger for fun then deals with some miscreants, but the story develops to an interesting twist that really destroys any idea of right and wrong.
#157 ...And Buried 3/5
A filler story that’s kind of fun, but spends a lot of time hinting at the Highwater arc in the next volume. At least, it has Steve Dillon art.
#158-161 ...Freezes Over 4/5
Murder and myth combine when a snowstorm confines a group of strangers to a bar. With a murdered man outside and tensions rising, the murder is blamed on a mysterious killer who’s been terrorizing the area for over a hundred years. This story really delivers on everything it promises in the first issue. The story’s great, the art’s great, and the characters are very on point. It even manages some really funny moments! This is the must-read arc from Azzarello’s run.
Vertigo Secret Files: Hellblazer #1 The First Time 3/5
Constantine and Nergal meet for the first time. It’s silly.
Two solid story arcs give a decent start to Azzarello's run. Marcello Frusin draws those two and delivers a solid Hellblazer feel without doing the overly smirky thing from “Hard Time.” Sadly, Azzarello will not be able to keep this up.
#146-150 Hard Time 2.5/5
I’ve heard this story described as a Constantine atonement story. I don’t think it is. Constantine smiles devilishly throughout Azzarello's run, and I know it’s because we’re seeing him from the outside, but I think a panel or two separated from the others could have portrayed the penitent mood that we’re supposed to get by the end of the story. Also, the art is terrible. The characters are all very bulky and seem to have three expressions: leering, pained, or angry. It’s not great.
#151-156 Good Intentions3.5/5
This arc is either going to work for you or not. The moral complexity of this story is really what got me. It’s not apparent from the first issue, where Constantine torments a stranger for fun then deals with some miscreants, but the story develops to an interesting twist that really destroys any idea of right and wrong.
#157 ...And Buried 3/5
A filler story that’s kind of fun, but spends a lot of time hinting at the Highwater arc in the next volume. At least, it has Steve Dillon art.
#158-161 ...Freezes Over 4/5
Murder and myth combine when a snowstorm confines a group of strangers to a bar. With a murdered man outside and tensions rising, the murder is blamed on a mysterious killer who’s been terrorizing the area for over a hundred years. This story really delivers on everything it promises in the first issue. The story’s great, the art’s great, and the characters are very on point. It even manages some really funny moments! This is the must-read arc from Azzarello’s run.
Vertigo Secret Files: Hellblazer #1 The First Time 3/5
Constantine and Nergal meet for the first time. It’s silly.
Two solid story arcs give a decent start to Azzarello's run. Marcello Frusin draws those two and delivers a solid Hellblazer feel without doing the overly smirky thing from “Hard Time.” Sadly, Azzarello will not be able to keep this up.
July 28, 2024
Note: This is for both Hellblazer vol. 14: Good Intentions and vol. 15: Highwater
Spread across two volumes, we get the Hellblazer treatment of Swamp Thing's American Gothic. Constantine travels across America, confronting various American horrors on his own path of vengeance.
The story starts off great. Constantine gets thrown into prison and takes over the place in some pretty messed up and gnarly ways. Con-man and magician. Next, he finds himself taking down a canine sex ring in West Virginia... yeah, this story was interesting and weird. Surprisingly not as bad as it sounds, largely due to the strong character work. Then he finds himself caught in a snowstorm with a serial killer trapped in the diner with them, easily stealing the highlight of the whole arc (so good). We get an introduction to our villain, then Constantine takes on some Nazis using a Golem, (which was amazing for all the irony that entails, especially when Constantine rightly points out how the Jews are God's chosen people AND how the Holocaust is indirectly responsible for the modern state of Israel. The worst nightmare of a Nazi and he really had fun milking the truth while killing them with a Jewish spell), before finally getting his vengeance on the evil gay Bruce Wayne, S.W. Manor, in a very shady and kinky nightclub.
Overall, this was a solid story. The thing I enjoyed the best of this whole arc was how morally gray Constantine is. Much like in Swamp Thing, you don't really know what his motives are or what his big plan is until the end. All you know is he is manipulating everybody. This really shines in the prison and neo-Nazi arc. Although the best usage of Constantine's 'shadiness' was easily in the snowstorm where Constantine is prime suspect as the urban legend, but ends up proving to be a wild card in the whole affair. This arc in particular very much tied to the horror roots of the character and I loved it, especially Constantine's devilish smile.
Unfortunately, I wasn't a fan of the final arc. It still had some great moments and Manor was a phenomenal villain, but all the stuff at the BDS club felt very... weird. Disturbing in a way that just isn't interesting or entertaining to me.
In short, a great arc that would be a solid intro to the character, while also being fairly self-contained. Just be advised there are some pretty messed up stuff you'll witness.
Spread across two volumes, we get the Hellblazer treatment of Swamp Thing's American Gothic. Constantine travels across America, confronting various American horrors on his own path of vengeance.
The story starts off great. Constantine gets thrown into prison and takes over the place in some pretty messed up and gnarly ways. Con-man and magician. Next, he finds himself taking down a canine sex ring in West Virginia... yeah, this story was interesting and weird. Surprisingly not as bad as it sounds, largely due to the strong character work. Then he finds himself caught in a snowstorm with a serial killer trapped in the diner with them, easily stealing the highlight of the whole arc (so good). We get an introduction to our villain, then Constantine takes on some Nazis using a Golem, (which was amazing for all the irony that entails, especially when Constantine rightly points out how the Jews are God's chosen people AND how the Holocaust is indirectly responsible for the modern state of Israel. The worst nightmare of a Nazi and he really had fun milking the truth while killing them with a Jewish spell), before finally getting his vengeance on the evil gay Bruce Wayne, S.W. Manor, in a very shady and kinky nightclub.
Overall, this was a solid story. The thing I enjoyed the best of this whole arc was how morally gray Constantine is. Much like in Swamp Thing, you don't really know what his motives are or what his big plan is until the end. All you know is he is manipulating everybody. This really shines in the prison and neo-Nazi arc. Although the best usage of Constantine's 'shadiness' was easily in the snowstorm where Constantine is prime suspect as the urban legend, but ends up proving to be a wild card in the whole affair. This arc in particular very much tied to the horror roots of the character and I loved it, especially Constantine's devilish smile.
Unfortunately, I wasn't a fan of the final arc. It still had some great moments and Manor was a phenomenal villain, but all the stuff at the BDS club felt very... weird. Disturbing in a way that just isn't interesting or entertaining to me.
In short, a great arc that would be a solid intro to the character, while also being fairly self-contained. Just be advised there are some pretty messed up stuff you'll witness.
August 22, 2020
With the 14th trade of Hellblazer i passed the 150 issue mark, and i think i am only half way😳. In this trade the cool Brian Azzarello takes over, i will always love Azzarello because of 100 Bullets, always. We get three stories set in the US, the first one, the longest, set in prison! Constantine fucked up (as usual) and gets a Life sentence in a maximum security penitentiary, he also needs to figure out how to get his Silk Cuts/cigarettes, and every Hellblazer fan knows how important they are for dear old john! The story is really good but i have to say the artwork by Richard Corben is not of my taste. The second and third story about John in small hillbilly towns (already scary) having fucked up adventures surrounding a sort of sex cult, Werewolves and a Legendary boogyman killer called the Iceman. They stories are getting darker and darker as the story progress and i am here for it! The trade ends with a funny 3 pager with Constantine as a kid, really well done. If it wasn't for the dodgy artwork it would have been a 4 star book, but i will give it a fair 3 stars. Just a fun run, on a already legendary run.
December 1, 2023
A little disappointed in this one - I don't think Brian Azzarello really understands Constantine as a character. Not to mention his need to be shocking and edgy at every turn.
The first story is proof of that. A prison-set tale with all the worst cliches that come along with that (and some horrendous art). The second arc, 'Good Intentions' is an improvement but relies again on trying to shock you. The other tale, 'Freezes Over' is actually pretty great though.
I love shocking, dark, and nasty stuff in comics. And it's Hellblazer after all. But it feels like Azzarello doesn't really *get* John, making the whole thing a bit unpalatable. It might be because he's American? After all, this is a thoroughly British character. But John in this collection is just not an enjoyable protagonist. He's meaner than usual, with none of that prickly charm or self-deprecation.
I usually like Azzarello - his Batman stuff is great! But I find myself being thankful that he wasn't involved with Hellblazer for too long. Still, another edgy volume to go.
The first story is proof of that. A prison-set tale with all the worst cliches that come along with that (and some horrendous art). The second arc, 'Good Intentions' is an improvement but relies again on trying to shock you. The other tale, 'Freezes Over' is actually pretty great though.
I love shocking, dark, and nasty stuff in comics. And it's Hellblazer after all. But it feels like Azzarello doesn't really *get* John, making the whole thing a bit unpalatable. It might be because he's American? After all, this is a thoroughly British character. But John in this collection is just not an enjoyable protagonist. He's meaner than usual, with none of that prickly charm or self-deprecation.
I usually like Azzarello - his Batman stuff is great! But I find myself being thankful that he wasn't involved with Hellblazer for too long. Still, another edgy volume to go.
May 15, 2019
Brian Azzarello puts on the dirty mac of John Constantine and puts my favourite anti-hero into some very dark places. Very dark.
I confess to being a little concerned that I enjoyed these stories so much, but I did.
It kicks off with JC being put into a hellhole of a prison, and each twist of the plot makes the place even more of a nightmare.
The next story has JC in the backwaters of America and a community with a dark secret. A shock ending.
The third story is a shut-in when a snowstorm traps various strangers in a roadside cafe and a dead body is found with a icicle driven through his heart...
Finally, but not least, I love the artwork of Marcelo Frusin in this volume - great use of black ink. Deceptively simple, but great representation of shadows. Very appropriate for a comic book about John Constantine.
I confess to being a little concerned that I enjoyed these stories so much, but I did.
It kicks off with JC being put into a hellhole of a prison, and each twist of the plot makes the place even more of a nightmare.
The next story has JC in the backwaters of America and a community with a dark secret. A shock ending.
The third story is a shut-in when a snowstorm traps various strangers in a roadside cafe and a dead body is found with a icicle driven through his heart...
Finally, but not least, I love the artwork of Marcelo Frusin in this volume - great use of black ink. Deceptively simple, but great representation of shadows. Very appropriate for a comic book about John Constantine.
February 28, 2022
Its a different kind of Hellblazer under Brian Azzarello, a take that is unfamiliar for long time readers and fans. While on the one hand its much edgier, I do enjoy the stories written here. I love Marcelo Frusin's artwork, it really takes off the mood based on the writing, although I did felt its almost a similar look at Eduardo Risso's mood too. 'Hard Time' is quite a punch, and putting Constantine in jail really buzzes up the whole thing on how he turn a prison upside down. 'Good Intentions' is more of what goes on in small town that has a dark secret Constantine needs to sort it out while 'Freezes Over' is more of a murder mystery in a diner. I like how it is when Azzarello takes over the series - its different but not really much of a Constantine.
August 28, 2018
Well, a trio of stories placing Constantine in a locked box: prison, hillbillies, and a snow storm locked bar. Yup. Add into that, some stories that appeared in another paperback to pad it out.
These are good stories loosely linked but there is something better about Constantine when he is linked to the world. It is his pity and humanity that keep me coming back. I feel as if John didn't matter for these stories. That may be harsh but I still liked these.
I dunno. Maybe I need to take a break from this guy for a few weeks and come back to see if there is something more to offer. I'm not sure this is the fault of the writer or just me getting fatigued with a series.
These are good stories loosely linked but there is something better about Constantine when he is linked to the world. It is his pity and humanity that keep me coming back. I feel as if John didn't matter for these stories. That may be harsh but I still liked these.
I dunno. Maybe I need to take a break from this guy for a few weeks and come back to see if there is something more to offer. I'm not sure this is the fault of the writer or just me getting fatigued with a series.
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