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Hellblazer (Single Issues)
Hellblazer #10
Constantine's stuck in astral form--so how is he going to save his girlfriend from religious fanatics with murder in their hearts? This conclusion to the Resurrection Crusade storyline guest-stars Swamp Thing!
24 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1988
3 people are currently reading
24 people want to read
About the author
Jamie Delano
459 books351 followersJamie Delano aka A. William James began writing comics professionally in the early 1980s. Latterly he has been writing prose fiction with "BOOK THIRTEEN" published by his own LEPUS BOOKS imprint (http://www.lepusbooks.co.uk) in 2012, "Leepus | DIZZY" in April 2014, and "Leepus | THE RIVER" in 2017.
Jamie lives in semi-rural Northamptonshire with his partner, Sue. They have three adult children and a considerable distraction of grandchildren.
Jamie lives in semi-rural Northamptonshire with his partner, Sue. They have three adult children and a considerable distraction of grandchildren.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 29, 2024
Every single artist in the industry are ranking on a scale from 1 to 10, except Dave McKean, he is way up there by his lonesome at 100.
I absolutely love his covers and his art in general.
Strong first issue.
The angel came down to fuck the girl who was supposed to be a virgin but she wasn't and down descended the wrath of god, that was a hilarious piece of religious fantasy.
Nergal is mad at Constantine, but it seems like our magician finally figured out how to fight him or something.
Swamp thing and his sweetheart discarded Constantine like a used condom.
I feel good things will come the more I stick with this, and that's why for now, volume 2 of Hellblazer is my new comic read alongside new X-men.
I absolutely love his covers and his art in general.
Strong first issue.
The angel came down to fuck the girl who was supposed to be a virgin but she wasn't and down descended the wrath of god, that was a hilarious piece of religious fantasy.
Nergal is mad at Constantine, but it seems like our magician finally figured out how to fight him or something.
Swamp thing and his sweetheart discarded Constantine like a used condom.
I feel good things will come the more I stick with this, and that's why for now, volume 2 of Hellblazer is my new comic read alongside new X-men.
August 12, 2014
"Remember Newcastle--these two words touch me as precisely as a dentist's steel probing the exposed pulp of a molar nerve."
When the ninth issue ended, the continuation supposedly went on in Swamp Thing issue #37 which I decided to skip. This issue opened with a summary of what transpired in there and I got a pretty good idea nevertheless (that, and I researched the actual content for that issue right after I finished reading this one).
Amusingly enough, this title is named Sex and Death and the first few pages starts with John Constantine being expelled as a sperm, monologuing quite comfortably about it as if this occurrence is natural (the readers' confusion will beg to differ, however). As it turns out, Constantine is in the astral realm after he lent his physical form to Swamp Thing so said creature can mate with (and impregnate) girlfriend Abigail Arcane. Yes, that's what happened in Swamp Thing #37 as part of some elaborate plan I don't think is worth discussing in the context of Hellblazer. It's one of those crossover sidestories you don't need to bother yourself with since it doesn't actually affect anything concerning the Hellblazer series.
So while Constantine is suspended in the astral plane, he decides to find out if his plan about stopping Zed's immaculate conception worked (if you read my review of the last issue, I revealed there that John and Zed had one last shag which was also strategic because John just had spontaneous demon blood transfusion from Nergal so if the recent intercourse with a mortal man won't do the trick, then the additional demonic fluid should, amirite?). There was no doubt in my mind that it would work so when an angel tries to copulate with Zed's vessel to fulfill the prophesy, he ends up rejecting her; and in such a murderous way at that (where the rest of the Resurrection Crusaders were punished heavily for their transgression of gifting the angel a tainted woman). So everyone in that short-lived religious cult (no one gave a shit about while reading) is dead and Nergal and his Damnation Army are in a festive mood with the heavenly carnage around them.
But Nergal found out about John and Swamp Thing's sordid arrangement and was very upset about that. From what I understand, his precious demon blood which he shared with John earlier on in the story was now being used by Swamp Thing for his own mating purposes. That's not cool, apparently. A chase after John via hellhounds ensued so our hero was forced to come back to his body--while Swamp Thing and his girl Abigail are still shagging. That was a humorous moment. Abigail was grossed out when she found out it was already Constantine who was thrusting inside her (which I could not wrap my head around, by the way. I know she loves Swamp Thing, given her immediate repulsion upon discovering that she was shagging John now all of a sudden--but if it was me, I'd bang John Constantine like it's my last meal before death penalty or something. But hey, that's just me. I've always had a thing for damaged goods, you see). BUT I DIGRESS.
After he comforts Abigail, Swamp Thing turns to John and leaves his friend an enigmatic message from Nergal: "Remember Newscastle," he says. The moment those words were uttered, a change has come over John Constantine and it's a dark thirst for venegance that has haunted him for a long time since those fateful events occurred.
Personally, I got the chills and the excitement already once I saw these words written in the page. The next issue is the first issue of Hellblazer I ever read and it stayed with me. I'm definitely looking forward to discussing that issue. Be warned that my next review won't be spoiler-free at all!
RECOMMENDED: 7/10
DO READ MORE OF MY HELLBLAZER REVIEWS
When the ninth issue ended, the continuation supposedly went on in Swamp Thing issue #37 which I decided to skip. This issue opened with a summary of what transpired in there and I got a pretty good idea nevertheless (that, and I researched the actual content for that issue right after I finished reading this one).
Amusingly enough, this title is named Sex and Death and the first few pages starts with John Constantine being expelled as a sperm, monologuing quite comfortably about it as if this occurrence is natural (the readers' confusion will beg to differ, however). As it turns out, Constantine is in the astral realm after he lent his physical form to Swamp Thing so said creature can mate with (and impregnate) girlfriend Abigail Arcane. Yes, that's what happened in Swamp Thing #37 as part of some elaborate plan I don't think is worth discussing in the context of Hellblazer. It's one of those crossover sidestories you don't need to bother yourself with since it doesn't actually affect anything concerning the Hellblazer series.
So while Constantine is suspended in the astral plane, he decides to find out if his plan about stopping Zed's immaculate conception worked (if you read my review of the last issue, I revealed there that John and Zed had one last shag which was also strategic because John just had spontaneous demon blood transfusion from Nergal so if the recent intercourse with a mortal man won't do the trick, then the additional demonic fluid should, amirite?). There was no doubt in my mind that it would work so when an angel tries to copulate with Zed's vessel to fulfill the prophesy, he ends up rejecting her; and in such a murderous way at that (where the rest of the Resurrection Crusaders were punished heavily for their transgression of gifting the angel a tainted woman). So everyone in that short-lived religious cult (no one gave a shit about while reading) is dead and Nergal and his Damnation Army are in a festive mood with the heavenly carnage around them.
But Nergal found out about John and Swamp Thing's sordid arrangement and was very upset about that. From what I understand, his precious demon blood which he shared with John earlier on in the story was now being used by Swamp Thing for his own mating purposes. That's not cool, apparently. A chase after John via hellhounds ensued so our hero was forced to come back to his body--while Swamp Thing and his girl Abigail are still shagging. That was a humorous moment. Abigail was grossed out when she found out it was already Constantine who was thrusting inside her (which I could not wrap my head around, by the way. I know she loves Swamp Thing, given her immediate repulsion upon discovering that she was shagging John now all of a sudden--but if it was me, I'd bang John Constantine like it's my last meal before death penalty or something. But hey, that's just me. I've always had a thing for damaged goods, you see). BUT I DIGRESS.
After he comforts Abigail, Swamp Thing turns to John and leaves his friend an enigmatic message from Nergal: "Remember Newscastle," he says. The moment those words were uttered, a change has come over John Constantine and it's a dark thirst for venegance that has haunted him for a long time since those fateful events occurred.
Personally, I got the chills and the excitement already once I saw these words written in the page. The next issue is the first issue of Hellblazer I ever read and it stayed with me. I'm definitely looking forward to discussing that issue. Be warned that my next review won't be spoiler-free at all!
RECOMMENDED: 7/10
DO READ MORE OF MY HELLBLAZER REVIEWS
November 14, 2025
RIP ZED, that was so wack and you didn’t deserve that. It’s only occurring to me now how well the swamp thing seedling prophecy and Constantine’s fight with the resurrection crusade seamlessly joined together. It is a bit strange how different the interactions between Constantine, Abby, and swamp thing were in this run compared to the swamp thing run, but they do take place at different times. This also does provide a necessary perspective from Constantine on the whole Alec taking over his body to have sex with Abby and pass on the seedling situation. As he fully claims that he would have offered it his body to swamp thing if he didn’t jump at the chance to force Constantine out of his body instead. On one hand this feels like an afterthought to tell the readers to forget about the SA, but at the same time Constantine got something out of the arrangement as well. This issue follows Constantine after he was thrown out of bus body and thrown into the astral plane. I absolutely love the art in this book as we see Constantine get control over his situation just in time to fly on over to the resurrection crusade and their own impregnating scheme to put a child of god inside of Zed. Not realizing that Constantine already ruined all their chances and doomed all of them by having sex so try Zed one final time a few nights ago while demon blood coursed through his veins. Being on the astral plane gave him the unique front row seat to the death that necessarily helped to usher forth or risk the entire world becoming the slaves of heaven. Of course the demon Nergal ate up all of this death, attributing it to pure chaos, and with the swamp thing failing to achieve his own prophecy this should set him up nicely to have a ton of power….WELL, actually Constantine accounted for that as well with lending his body over to Alec and now Nergal’s rise to power has also been shunted at Constantine’s hands. Nergal is a powerful demon in his own right and is able to sense Constantine watching him on the astral plane, Constantine having followed his own lookout who was watching the carnage with the group from earlier and then following him back. As such Nergal unleashed his power on hunting Constantine down. And when you are new to the astral plane it’s not the best idea to try and find your way around while running from demons. Constantine only had one way out and that was to hop onto the power of a more powerful being, so he fled into the green and right back towards his body in hopes of getting help from Alec. Unfortunately with his abrupt return he found that Alec and Abby were not totally done yet and as you can imagine Abby was quite pissed. It’s good to know that the two made up and became friendly again in the pages of swamp thing, especially after such a big favor and entire existence in the balance, but as Abby stormed off Swamp thing informed Constantine that Nergal fled, not looking to pick a fight with Alec. But he did have a message for Constantine, that he should tremble until an hour of Nergal’s choosing and that he should remember Newcastle. The very word sent a shiver down Constantine’s spine, that is not something he likes to remember. It can’t help but make him think about why he is doing all of this in the first place, why he cares about the people of this world, is it impulse, is it rage? But as Constantine finally returns home he finds only pain, as his landlord and the other tenants have been massacred and strewn in parts throughout his apartment building. Hatred, unimaginable beautiful hatred that is what Constantine is fully embracing now as everything finally clicks with him. His entire world changed with understanding with the carnage before him and now Constantine knows Nergal. As he digs through his files and pulls out one called Newcastle 1978, I’m terrified as to what is about to be revealed. Outside of the comics I know interpretations of Newcastle but I’ve never read it in the comics, so I am very excited.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 29, 2024
Man, it's so disappointing to lose the dark, hatching-heavy style of John Ridgway. I felt like his style was a huge part of why the first nine issues worked so well for me. Delano's writing and his images just seemed to have such a coherent tone. This new art isn't bad at all (I'd say it's very good), but it's less… perfect, in terms of my tastes and what I think the writing pairs best with.
Beyond that… I appreciate the dream logic of it all, but I can't help but feel like this issue is trying to juggle too many stories at once.
Beyond that… I appreciate the dream logic of it all, but I can't help but feel like this issue is trying to juggle too many stories at once.
January 6, 2025
5/10
A very unmemorable conclusion to the "Resurrection Crusade" storyline. No wonder it was not included in Hellblazer Vol. 1!
A very unmemorable conclusion to the "Resurrection Crusade" storyline. No wonder it was not included in Hellblazer Vol. 1!
April 12, 2025
This got a bit too weird.
June 3, 2025
"I spit in the eye of God and laugh in the face of Hell"
Boooooooom *mic drop*
Boooooooom *mic drop*
December 17, 2016
(Supongo que tengo que leer La cosa del pantano para comprender del todo esta parte).
January 18, 2015
This issue of hellblazer was a bit confusing. And I didn't like how the writer said "god's just, and justice is cruel". It was a bit of a disappointment for me. I think the writer was clearly not in his mind.
July 31, 2015
John Constantine can be a right bastard sometimes.
November 27, 2015
Confusing, with the swamp-thing, but we are getting closer to Newcastle.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews