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The Hellblazer (2016)
The Hellblazer, Volume 4: The Good Old Days
John Constantine--a.k.a. The Hellblazer--is back in London, but encountering a wave of demonic possession, he's not happy to return home. Here to help? Helena Bertinelli, the Huntress!
A crime wave caused by young, aggressive gangsters puts Detective Chief Inspector Margaret Ames on the case--right at odds with Constantine. But the Church has an agent of their own in the Huntress. The three head on a collision course in jolly old London!
The next phenomenal chapter in the John Constantine saga is here in THE HELLBLAZER VOL. 4 from the mind of beloved writer Tim Seeley! Collects issues #19-24 of the series.
A crime wave caused by young, aggressive gangsters puts Detective Chief Inspector Margaret Ames on the case--right at odds with Constantine. But the Church has an agent of their own in the Huntress. The three head on a collision course in jolly old London!
The next phenomenal chapter in the John Constantine saga is here in THE HELLBLAZER VOL. 4 from the mind of beloved writer Tim Seeley! Collects issues #19-24 of the series.
144 pages, Paperback
Published December 24, 2018
9 people are currently reading
97 people want to read
About the author
Tim Seeley
1,653 books610 followersTim Seeley is a comic book artist and writer known for his work on books such as G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, The Dark Elf Trilogy, Batman Eternal and Grayson. He is also the co-creator of the Image Comics titles Hack/Slash[1] and Revival, as well as the Dark Horse titles, ExSanguine and Sundowners. He lives in Chicago.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
February 17, 2019
Finally, DC has taken this series out to pasture and put it out of our misery. This arc was boring and overly drawn out. There's so much terrible and lengthy dialogue. It was like Seeley took the script and put it through Google Translate to British English. The art was amateurish. Something you'd see from a small press like Oni.
DC has killed this series 3 times now since John Constantine rejoined the rest of the DCU. Is it that hard to look back and see what works? The original series had a 300 issue run. It's time to go back to a mature reader comic with actual cursing in it instead of skull emojis and it needs to be written by a British writer. Seems simple enough to me.
DC has killed this series 3 times now since John Constantine rejoined the rest of the DCU. Is it that hard to look back and see what works? The original series had a 300 issue run. It's time to go back to a mature reader comic with actual cursing in it instead of skull emojis and it needs to be written by a British writer. Seems simple enough to me.
October 21, 2018
More of a 2.5 but I was so bored overall that I felt the need to round down. I don't know if I just wasn't in the right mood for this or if it really was that bad because I've been enjoying this run overall, but this just didn't do it for me. It might be because I don't have any background knowledge of the Huntress or it might be that I've read so much Hellblazer at this point that it all bleeds together. I almost wish there was going to be another volume after this because Blythe was the bright spot in the whole thing and I'd love to see what she would get up to next, but maybe it's for the best.
August 20, 2018
Pretty bad end to a pretty bad series.
World: The art is meh, it’s very middle of the road, small budget comic book studio like a Valiant or a Dynamite, this is not a pretty book to look at. The this the end of the run so the world building was at a pretty sparce. Seeley did pull Blyth from the previous run which made me smile a bit and of course Nergal but that’s about it nothing that interesting.
Story: Pacing was meh, the story was boring and pretty bad. I know Seeley came into put this dead dog of a series down and he pretty much phoned it in. This is a forgettable boring and wannabe “Lock Stock” London crime caper with supernatural elements, a flame that has no emotinal atachment to the character of note and a out of place Huntress that is completely different from the Rebirth counterpart. It’s a dumb story for a series that needed to end since the first arc in Rebirth.
Characters: John is meh and barely written as are all the other characters. The three brothers are cliches and their dialog and banter is painful to read. Huntress is nothing like herself from Birds of Prey. Just bad.
This is a death rattle for a series that was pretty bad.
Onward to the next book!
*read individual issues*
World: The art is meh, it’s very middle of the road, small budget comic book studio like a Valiant or a Dynamite, this is not a pretty book to look at. The this the end of the run so the world building was at a pretty sparce. Seeley did pull Blyth from the previous run which made me smile a bit and of course Nergal but that’s about it nothing that interesting.
Story: Pacing was meh, the story was boring and pretty bad. I know Seeley came into put this dead dog of a series down and he pretty much phoned it in. This is a forgettable boring and wannabe “Lock Stock” London crime caper with supernatural elements, a flame that has no emotinal atachment to the character of note and a out of place Huntress that is completely different from the Rebirth counterpart. It’s a dumb story for a series that needed to end since the first arc in Rebirth.
Characters: John is meh and barely written as are all the other characters. The three brothers are cliches and their dialog and banter is painful to read. Huntress is nothing like herself from Birds of Prey. Just bad.
This is a death rattle for a series that was pretty bad.
Onward to the next book!
*read individual issues*
September 9, 2019
Having started reading Hellblazer at about issue 6 and continuing right to the end of the Vertigo run, I stayed on from a sense of loyalty, I guess. I bought this as individual issues as it came out (with a half-year wait for the last two issues due to distributor problems with my local comic shop - it's enough to drive one back online!) and just re-read it, finding it harder now to defend against its legion of critics at the time; on the surface, all the ingredients are there for a good old Hellblazer romp, and yet ... well, the story's nothing new or even particularly original. The artwork, whilst technically adequate, is ... adequate. I'm afraid I disagree with Mr. Seeley - there was such a thing as the Good Old Days, and this falls a way short of them.
May 18, 2022
This one had a pretty good magic plot
December 28, 2018
I read this because it took up the character of Huntress, Helena Bertinelli, after Batgirl and the Birds of Prey ended. While Seeley's take on Huntress isn't the Helena I know and love from Simone's Birds of Prey, she is still a really fun character. The art isn't my favorite, but it's serviceable enough, and the story is pretty well constructed, as usual with Seeley.
Read
February 22, 2019The blurb says that this brings the 'acclaimed' continuation of Constantine's story to a close – well, I suppose it wasn't his worst solo series, if that counts? – and refers to him as 'the Hellblazer', something I can never see without thinking of the psychedelic pastiche issue of Doom Patrol that recast him as a spandex-clad Silver Age hero. And that sets the scene for what's inside, where there are occasional glimmers of how a Constantine story should go, and the chassis is sound, but nothing is quite right. The notion of a priest who has a love-hate relationship with the crime family from which he sprung, appalled by the modern face of criminality, bringing his brothers back from Hell? That's classic Hellblazer stuff. But neither the old nor new London gangsters feel quite right, their slang and outfits always just that little bit out of true, and nor does London in general (there's one cityscape in which I can see a glaring error just by looking out of my office window). As for introducing the Huntress to the mix... Look, I'm not averse to mixing John with the cape and tights crowd. One of his first appearances saw him giving Batman the brush-off, after all. But for Helena Bertinelli to be working with the Vatican? One of DC's most brutally zero-tolerance characters running errands for the world's biggest paedophile ring? Piss off. It's not as if Americans can't write John Constantine; I really enjoyed the Azzarello run, though I think I'm in a minority there, at least as far as British fans go. But for all that Tim Seeley has done some very good horror comics elsewhere, this one's a definite misfire even before it brings back loads of John's old enemies for an attempt at closure which instead feels like a messy anticlimax.
August 29, 2018
I actually ended up liking this more than I thought I would, walking in. I tend to have on and off love for Seeley but I felt this ending for the series still made up for some of the more inferior story telling that has plagued the Rebirth run of Hellblazer.
As mentioned by someone else, I did enjoy seeing Blyth as well as some other references to demons exorcised in the more recent runs. I also genuinely enjoyed some of the humor found in the interactions between Constantine and the Huntress.
All in all, its probably for the best this series end although I did enjoy Seeley's contributions. I would still push for a Vertigo return with a more mature themed writer. I can only hope for the best.
As mentioned by someone else, I did enjoy seeing Blyth as well as some other references to demons exorcised in the more recent runs. I also genuinely enjoyed some of the humor found in the interactions between Constantine and the Huntress.
All in all, its probably for the best this series end although I did enjoy Seeley's contributions. I would still push for a Vertigo return with a more mature themed writer. I can only hope for the best.
March 3, 2023
Much like the previous volume of this series, it's a very mediocre and barely passable read, with extremely amateurish artwork.
Sure, it's Con-job at its less flashy, and a clear attempt to capture the original Hellblazer tone and feel, but it just feels like an extremely poor imitation of it.
Some good variant covers collection in the back of the book.
I can't be arsed writing anything else about it.
Only recommended for people who have read every Hellblazer-labeled story, and are absolutely desperate for some new Constantine content. If that's you, know you'll still feel dirty after finishing it for soiling your self and your time (and, God forbid, your money, as I have) with such mediocre writing and amateurish artwork.
Sure, it's Con-job at its less flashy, and a clear attempt to capture the original Hellblazer tone and feel, but it just feels like an extremely poor imitation of it.
Some good variant covers collection in the back of the book.
I can't be arsed writing anything else about it.
Only recommended for people who have read every Hellblazer-labeled story, and are absolutely desperate for some new Constantine content. If that's you, know you'll still feel dirty after finishing it for soiling your self and your time (and, God forbid, your money, as I have) with such mediocre writing and amateurish artwork.
January 3, 2022
You can tell this British stuff was written by an American. The story was better than the last one, with a brother trying to bring back a couple brothers from Hell. But too much dialogue (and not great...). And I guess spoiler, but Huntress kissing Constantine at the end? Kindly sod off.
October 12, 2022
And with this volume, Constantine-lite comes to a close.
I think the fact that they toned down the scumminess of the character really hurt the overall vibe of the book. I mean, if you read the old vertigo series, Constantine isn't really a hero in any sense of the word. In fact, when he "saves the day" or saves a person, its usually because it benefits him in someway. But that's what made him interesting. It's what made him seem more rounded out as a character.
And this version... it made the series fall flat. Even this last volume, where the stakes are high because a demon has taken possession of a girl that Constantine obviously has feelings for - there is no sense of real danger. Everything is ok because you know Constantine will prevail somehow. And he does. But where in the old series, he would've had to sacrifice some part of himself or someone else, here they get away basically scott free and they all live happily ever after.
I like Tim Seeley as a writer, and I'm sure he did the best he could with the editorial mandates, but this just didn't live up to the potential that it had. Unfortunately I would recommend this only to people who have never read the old series.
I think the fact that they toned down the scumminess of the character really hurt the overall vibe of the book. I mean, if you read the old vertigo series, Constantine isn't really a hero in any sense of the word. In fact, when he "saves the day" or saves a person, its usually because it benefits him in someway. But that's what made him interesting. It's what made him seem more rounded out as a character.
And this version... it made the series fall flat. Even this last volume, where the stakes are high because a demon has taken possession of a girl that Constantine obviously has feelings for - there is no sense of real danger. Everything is ok because you know Constantine will prevail somehow. And he does. But where in the old series, he would've had to sacrifice some part of himself or someone else, here they get away basically scott free and they all live happily ever after.
I like Tim Seeley as a writer, and I'm sure he did the best he could with the editorial mandates, but this just didn't live up to the potential that it had. Unfortunately I would recommend this only to people who have never read the old series.
October 1, 2023
This book serves as a reminder of why Constantine was in Vertigo for so long - to avoid crossovers like this.
Admittedly, Huntress isn't a bad pairing for him; avoiding any super powers, she basically serves as an anti-mob enforcer, who joins John in dealing with a modern gang and a demonic reunion squad. But their styles don't mesh particularly well, and I'm not convinced the same story couldn't have been told just as well without her presence, which leads to WAY too many Bat-Family references.
The demon portion of the story is a bit disturbing, especially some of the visuals in the later sections, and there seem to be seeds being planted for later stories. But apparently they don't occur under the same title, as this appears to be the last volume of this run of Constantine's legacy. I've read some of the later books already - the ones tied into the Sandman Universe, and I kind of think that's for the best. Pitting John against capes has its moments, but they should be rare. And a bit more justified than they are here. Not bad, but not a high point in the Constantine legacy.
Admittedly, Huntress isn't a bad pairing for him; avoiding any super powers, she basically serves as an anti-mob enforcer, who joins John in dealing with a modern gang and a demonic reunion squad. But their styles don't mesh particularly well, and I'm not convinced the same story couldn't have been told just as well without her presence, which leads to WAY too many Bat-Family references.
The demon portion of the story is a bit disturbing, especially some of the visuals in the later sections, and there seem to be seeds being planted for later stories. But apparently they don't occur under the same title, as this appears to be the last volume of this run of Constantine's legacy. I've read some of the later books already - the ones tied into the Sandman Universe, and I kind of think that's for the best. Pitting John against capes has its moments, but they should be rare. And a bit more justified than they are here. Not bad, but not a high point in the Constantine legacy.
January 8, 2026
More of the same from Seeley, except, as with Oliver before him, we see references to previous volumes that spark hope, but are only superficial.
Nergal returns, but then doesn't quite act like himself. Other demons are referenced and show up, but then have no role but to be in a few panels.
The primary character from the previous volume is back, and we are again supposed to believe in the emotional ties John has to her, because we're told so.
The story mostly resolves with some handwaving, and that's it. We're told there's a sneak plan, but it isn't really that.
It seems like this volume's version of John being a sneaking, conniving, plotting conman is just... he promises to do something, and then doesn't, because he was lying.
As a bit of a quibble, John's demon blood is mentioned early on, so it's still a thing, but then completely forgotten later in the book when it's fairly important.
Nergal returns, but then doesn't quite act like himself. Other demons are referenced and show up, but then have no role but to be in a few panels.
The primary character from the previous volume is back, and we are again supposed to believe in the emotional ties John has to her, because we're told so.
The story mostly resolves with some handwaving, and that's it. We're told there's a sneak plan, but it isn't really that.
It seems like this volume's version of John being a sneaking, conniving, plotting conman is just... he promises to do something, and then doesn't, because he was lying.
As a bit of a quibble, John's demon blood is mentioned early on, so it's still a thing, but then completely forgotten later in the book when it's fairly important.
August 26, 2019
Complaining old man mode on:
I am effin’ sick of seeing John hanging out with super dudes, or super chicks for that matter. A passing remark of him inhabiting the same universe as Green Lantern is ok, so is the occasional appearance of Zatanna. But a full story arc with “The Huntress?” What the hell? What is next? Constantine vs. Lex Luthor? Young Trenchcoat Brigade? Give me a f**ing break! And keep the DC universe compartmentalized!
Complaining old man mode off:
Honestly, I would prefer if superheroes were kept away from Hellblazer, Constantine, or however “my” publication is called. That said it was a thoroughly enjoyable book, even the Huntress’ bits. On the one hand, it pains me to know the series has been cancelled again, for the third time. On the other, maybe it is an opportunity to get back to a “super free” John.
I am effin’ sick of seeing John hanging out with super dudes, or super chicks for that matter. A passing remark of him inhabiting the same universe as Green Lantern is ok, so is the occasional appearance of Zatanna. But a full story arc with “The Huntress?” What the hell? What is next? Constantine vs. Lex Luthor? Young Trenchcoat Brigade? Give me a f**ing break! And keep the DC universe compartmentalized!
Complaining old man mode off:
Honestly, I would prefer if superheroes were kept away from Hellblazer, Constantine, or however “my” publication is called. That said it was a thoroughly enjoyable book, even the Huntress’ bits. On the one hand, it pains me to know the series has been cancelled again, for the third time. On the other, maybe it is an opportunity to get back to a “super free” John.
July 24, 2019
Seeley provides a good end to the latest run, with a plotline harking back to some of the original run back in the late '80s, as well as following up on the new character he introduced in V3. There's also an appearance by one of DC's unpowered costumed heroes, who fits right in with the story, as well as allowing Constantine to remark snarkily on the superheroic world. It's a classic story of demonic possession and double-crossing that's not quite Hellblazer at its best, but certainly makes good use of its tropes to tell a worthwhile story and bring out Constantine's character. At which point, of course, DC cancelled the run... although, as I write this, a new one is slated for November '19.
February 21, 2019
If DC is going to publish Hellblazer as part of the DC Universe, this is the way to do it: by taking full advantage.
So we get a fun story of John messing up the lives of his friends and loved ones, complete with vampires and demons potentially running rampant in London. But hand in hand, we mix in the Huntress, a bloody assassin for the Vatican.
The result actually reminds me a bit of Garth Ennis' HItman, mixing horror and superheroics into a fine combination.
And with that, Hellblazer has been sadly cancelled YET again.
So we get a fun story of John messing up the lives of his friends and loved ones, complete with vampires and demons potentially running rampant in London. But hand in hand, we mix in the Huntress, a bloody assassin for the Vatican.
The result actually reminds me a bit of Garth Ennis' HItman, mixing horror and superheroics into a fine combination.
And with that, Hellblazer has been sadly cancelled YET again.
November 6, 2019
I think my most favorite thing in this volume was John Constantine calling all the super heroes on their hypocrisy in dealing with criminals. They're more than happy to beat them up, but don't do anything to prevent them from turning to a life of crime in the first place.
Also Constantine refers to almost all of the super hero costumes as varying forms of 'yoga pants'. He's not wrong...
Also Constantine refers to almost all of the super hero costumes as varying forms of 'yoga pants'. He's not wrong...
January 9, 2023
Scouse superhero does it again
John Constantine once again goes into battle against Dark forces, and wins as only he can by blagging the demons, and leaving his friends to pay the price.
Good book, mostly gets the Scouse slang right to. Bizzies ( short for busy bodies) police. And blert a go shite or egit
John Constantine once again goes into battle against Dark forces, and wins as only he can by blagging the demons, and leaving his friends to pay the price.
Good book, mostly gets the Scouse slang right to. Bizzies ( short for busy bodies) police. And blert a go shite or egit
September 4, 2018
This volume wraps up the current run of this series. I know John Constantine is supposed to make appearances in other storylines but I will miss his solo run. Hopefully it will not be too long before he gets another set of stories.
July 2, 2022
Solid. These last two volumes by Tim Seely actually feel like they could have been part of the Vertigo run. I bumped slightly on the inclusion of Huntress, but I think they justified pretty well by the end.
November 23, 2022
Still can't get over the blocking out of four letter words...
It is a decent arc but somehow it doesn't feel as dark as some of the other incarnations. A decent read. I am going to catch up on some of the other titles shortly.
It is a decent arc but somehow it doesn't feel as dark as some of the other incarnations. A decent read. I am going to catch up on some of the other titles shortly.
December 22, 2018
6.5/10
Expected a bit more...
Expected a bit more...
January 11, 2019
So I liked this quite a bit; especially the bit with the Huntress. But what the hell ever happened to the djinn story arc? They left it unfinished it seems, which I find disapppointing.
February 3, 2019
I crime demon tale...it's okay Constantine, which really isn't my favorite thing.
June 11, 2024
Tries to spin an interesting and clever story and just barely succeeds.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews