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Hellblazer #12
Hellblazer: Son of Man
From Garth Ennis, the award-winning writer of Preacher, and acclaimed artist John Higgins (Sandman, Pride & Joy) comes another terrifying tale of the chain-smoking mystic, John Constantine. Constantine is visited by an old friend and suddenly his world is turned upside down as he is reminded of a dark deed he performed many years ago - which has now come back to haunt him. Soon South London mobsters and bent coppers are the least of his worries...Featuring a cover gallery by Glenn Fabry (Preacher, Just a Pilgrim) this is another peek beneath the filthy blanket of Constantine's supernatural and seedy London life.
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
2 people are currently reading
437 people want to read
About the author
Garth Ennis
2,630 books3,186 followersEnnis began his comic-writing career in 1989 with the series Troubled Souls. Appearing in the short-lived but critically-acclaimed British anthology Crisis and illustrated by McCrea, it told the story of a young, apolitical Protestant man caught up by fate in the violence of the Irish 'Troubles'. It spawned a sequel, For a Few Troubles More, a broad Belfast-based comedy featuring two supporting characters from Troubled Souls, Dougie and Ivor, who would later get their own American comics series, Dicks, from Caliber in 1997, and several follow-ups from Avatar.
Another series for Crisis was True Faith, a religious satire inspired by his schooldays, this time drawn by Warren Pleece. Ennis shortly after began to write for Crisis' parent publication, 2000 AD. He quickly graduated on to the title's flagship character, Judge Dredd, taking over from original creator John Wagner for a period of several years.
Ennis' first work on an American comic came in 1991 when he took over DC Comics's horror title Hellblazer, which he wrote until 1994, and for which he currently holds the title for most issues written. Steve Dillon became the regular artist during the second half of Ennis's run.
Ennis' landmark work to date is the 66-issue epic Preacher, which he co-created with artist Steve Dillon. Running from 1995 to 2000, it was a tale of a preacher with supernatural powers, searching (literally) for God who has abandoned his creation.
While Preacher was running, Ennis began a series set in the DC universe called Hitman. Despite being lower profile than Preacher, Hitman ran for 60 issues (plus specials) from 1996 to 2001, veering wildly from violent action to humour to an examination of male friendship under fire.
Other comic projects Ennis wrote during this time period include Goddess, Bloody Mary, Unknown Soldier, and Pride & Joy, all for DC/Vertigo, as well as origin stories for The Darkness for Image Comics and Shadowman for Valiant Comics.
After the end of Hitman, Ennis was lured to Marvel Comics with the promise from Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada that he could write The Punisher as long as he cared to. Instead of largely comical tone of these issues, he decided to make a much more serious series, re-launched under Marvel's MAX imprint.
In 2001 he briefly returned to UK comics to write the epic Helter Skelter for Judge Dredd.
Other comics Ennis has written include War Story (with various artists) for DC; The Pro for Image Comics; The Authority for Wildstorm; Just a Pilgrim for Black Bull Press, and 303, Chronicles of Wormwood (a six issue mini-series about the Antichrist), and a western comic book, Streets of Glory for Avatar Press.
In 2008 Ennis ended his five-year run on Punisher MAX to debut a new Marvel title, War Is Hell: The First Flight of the Phantom Eagle.
In June 2008, at Wizard World, Philadelphia, Ennis announced several new projects, including a metaseries of war comics called Battlefields from Dynamite made up of mini-series including Night Witches, Dear Billy and Tankies, another Chronicles of Wormwood mini-series and Crossed both at Avatar, a six-issue miniseries about Butcher (from The Boys) and a Punisher project reuniting him with artist Steve Dillon (subsequently specified to be a weekly mini-series entitled Punisher: War Zone, to be released concurrently with the film of the same name).
Taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garth_Ennis
Another series for Crisis was True Faith, a religious satire inspired by his schooldays, this time drawn by Warren Pleece. Ennis shortly after began to write for Crisis' parent publication, 2000 AD. He quickly graduated on to the title's flagship character, Judge Dredd, taking over from original creator John Wagner for a period of several years.
Ennis' first work on an American comic came in 1991 when he took over DC Comics's horror title Hellblazer, which he wrote until 1994, and for which he currently holds the title for most issues written. Steve Dillon became the regular artist during the second half of Ennis's run.
Ennis' landmark work to date is the 66-issue epic Preacher, which he co-created with artist Steve Dillon. Running from 1995 to 2000, it was a tale of a preacher with supernatural powers, searching (literally) for God who has abandoned his creation.
While Preacher was running, Ennis began a series set in the DC universe called Hitman. Despite being lower profile than Preacher, Hitman ran for 60 issues (plus specials) from 1996 to 2001, veering wildly from violent action to humour to an examination of male friendship under fire.
Other comic projects Ennis wrote during this time period include Goddess, Bloody Mary, Unknown Soldier, and Pride & Joy, all for DC/Vertigo, as well as origin stories for The Darkness for Image Comics and Shadowman for Valiant Comics.
After the end of Hitman, Ennis was lured to Marvel Comics with the promise from Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada that he could write The Punisher as long as he cared to. Instead of largely comical tone of these issues, he decided to make a much more serious series, re-launched under Marvel's MAX imprint.
In 2001 he briefly returned to UK comics to write the epic Helter Skelter for Judge Dredd.
Other comics Ennis has written include War Story (with various artists) for DC; The Pro for Image Comics; The Authority for Wildstorm; Just a Pilgrim for Black Bull Press, and 303, Chronicles of Wormwood (a six issue mini-series about the Antichrist), and a western comic book, Streets of Glory for Avatar Press.
In 2008 Ennis ended his five-year run on Punisher MAX to debut a new Marvel title, War Is Hell: The First Flight of the Phantom Eagle.
In June 2008, at Wizard World, Philadelphia, Ennis announced several new projects, including a metaseries of war comics called Battlefields from Dynamite made up of mini-series including Night Witches, Dear Billy and Tankies, another Chronicles of Wormwood mini-series and Crossed both at Avatar, a six-issue miniseries about Butcher (from The Boys) and a Punisher project reuniting him with artist Steve Dillon (subsequently specified to be a weekly mini-series entitled Punisher: War Zone, to be released concurrently with the film of the same name).
Taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garth_Ennis
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews
August 3, 2017
When I was in my twenties, I read through a roommate's mostly-complete collection of Garth Ennis' run on Hellblazer. I say "mostly" because, as I recall, there was some difficulty/disinterest/etc in acquiring the single issues that made up Son of Man, Ennis' final arc. Written at least a few years after the rest of Ennis' celebrated run, Son of Man is dubiously considered (I mean, I think it is) one of the most vile, practically non-canon stories in the Hellblazer opus. If Ennis can be thought of as having written the essential John Constantine the first time around (which I think many fans believe he did), Son of Man is a pretty egregious middle finger of a postscript.
I've skimmed through Son of Man before, found it pretty disgusting, and generally avoided it since. But I recently started the Mike Carey Hellblazer run, which borrows characters and plot points both from this storyline, and from the Warren Ellis run that immediately follows it. Simultaneously, I've also been trying to decide how far back I'm interested in going with old Hellblazer issues. The collections of the really early issues are a little dry, and contain a lot of material I've read once and don't need to read again. The next leg of the series is plagued with late-90s coloring, or as I like to call it, "Photoshop gradient shitstorms." But roundabout here (issues 128-133) the coloring starts to settle down. Plus the Glenn Fabry covers are magically over-the-top. Plus, as previously mentioned, there are connections to the Mike Carey run that comes later.
That was a complicated way to explain all that. Anyway --
Hence this, my first really focused readthrough of Son of Man. Although it's more like a Troma film than a Hellblazer comic, I think I've finally locked down why I never really liked Ennis' other work. I mean, Preacher is fine and his Hellblazer is fine, but there's something about how Ennis mixes up dick jokes and horror with this weird kind of manly heroism that has always made me uncomfortable. I think what Ennis does well is write rock-bottom-deplorable comic book stories. When he tries to dress them up as Cormac-McCarthy-esque thinkpieces, I feel there's something cynical and insidious about the result. It's just, like, big ideas for dumb people, and, oh, women should be fuckable and bad guys are always gay.
Blech. I think the thing i like about SoM is that there's no way to interpret it as anything but repugnant; there's no fake-ass moralizing. Hellblazer is a series about a bad guy, but usually Constantine is portrayed as a sort-of bad guy who used to be way worse. In SoM, Constantine is just awful, period. He's a braggart and a misogynist and generally scummy. There's no one to like in this book. It seems like the most honest thing for Ennis to have written about the character.
I would never, of course, recommend this book to anyone, anymore than I would recommend Eric Powell's irredeemable Satan's Sodomy Baby (which has basically the exact same plot). You just can't go around recommending comics that star large-wanged demons who fuck things to death. It just isn't done.
But this book is mostly self-contained and completely disgusting, and if you're looking for self-contained and disgusting, that's on you.
I've skimmed through Son of Man before, found it pretty disgusting, and generally avoided it since. But I recently started the Mike Carey Hellblazer run, which borrows characters and plot points both from this storyline, and from the Warren Ellis run that immediately follows it. Simultaneously, I've also been trying to decide how far back I'm interested in going with old Hellblazer issues. The collections of the really early issues are a little dry, and contain a lot of material I've read once and don't need to read again. The next leg of the series is plagued with late-90s coloring, or as I like to call it, "Photoshop gradient shitstorms." But roundabout here (issues 128-133) the coloring starts to settle down. Plus the Glenn Fabry covers are magically over-the-top. Plus, as previously mentioned, there are connections to the Mike Carey run that comes later.
That was a complicated way to explain all that. Anyway --
Hence this, my first really focused readthrough of Son of Man. Although it's more like a Troma film than a Hellblazer comic, I think I've finally locked down why I never really liked Ennis' other work. I mean, Preacher is fine and his Hellblazer is fine, but there's something about how Ennis mixes up dick jokes and horror with this weird kind of manly heroism that has always made me uncomfortable. I think what Ennis does well is write rock-bottom-deplorable comic book stories. When he tries to dress them up as Cormac-McCarthy-esque thinkpieces, I feel there's something cynical and insidious about the result. It's just, like, big ideas for dumb people, and, oh, women should be fuckable and bad guys are always gay.
Blech. I think the thing i like about SoM is that there's no way to interpret it as anything but repugnant; there's no fake-ass moralizing. Hellblazer is a series about a bad guy, but usually Constantine is portrayed as a sort-of bad guy who used to be way worse. In SoM, Constantine is just awful, period. He's a braggart and a misogynist and generally scummy. There's no one to like in this book. It seems like the most honest thing for Ennis to have written about the character.
I would never, of course, recommend this book to anyone, anymore than I would recommend Eric Powell's irredeemable Satan's Sodomy Baby (which has basically the exact same plot). You just can't go around recommending comics that star large-wanged demons who fuck things to death. It just isn't done.
But this book is mostly self-contained and completely disgusting, and if you're looking for self-contained and disgusting, that's on you.
July 24, 2016
Another great chapter in the Constantine saga. John Higgins' solid, rounded illustration is a departure from the gritty artwork of the illustration on Garth Ennis' past work, but it makes an impact here, with this kind-of-funny chapter. I say kind-of-funny, because although it's lighter than most other chapters, it's still Constantine. Beware the ____pig - a demon like you've never seen before. Read the book and you'll see what precedes the word pig. Great work!
June 2, 2025
"O budoucnosti a nadeji mluvej hlavne lidi, co šukaj jak zfetovaní králici a stríkej kolej sebe haranty rychlostí záhradní hadice. Ironie je, že práve tím ten náš velkej zasranej bordel spolehlive dokurvej."
"Takže mi nestrkej pod nos vašeho k posrání roztomilého potomka a nečekejte, že na nej budu delat budliky budliky - protože já vidím o tricet let staršího sobeckýho sráče, co bude dnem i nocí kňourat, jak mu ten život nevyšel, a že to vubec není jeho chyba, a že je všechno na hovno, a proč s tím nekdo neco neudelá a další a další evergreeny... "
" Já vím, ja vím, "My jsme byli kdysi taky takový". Taky jsme byli kdysi spermie a vidíte snad, že bych tady nejaký hladil po hlavičce?"
milujem
"Takže mi nestrkej pod nos vašeho k posrání roztomilého potomka a nečekejte, že na nej budu delat budliky budliky - protože já vidím o tricet let staršího sobeckýho sráče, co bude dnem i nocí kňourat, jak mu ten život nevyšel, a že to vubec není jeho chyba, a že je všechno na hovno, a proč s tím nekdo neco neudelá a další a další evergreeny... "
" Já vím, ja vím, "My jsme byli kdysi taky takový". Taky jsme byli kdysi spermie a vidíte snad, že bych tady nejaký hladil po hlavičce?"
milujem
May 25, 2012
Clearly Garth was ready to move on. The story is good, but it seemed that after his excitement in outlining the story, he became far more interested in his jokes than he was in refining his ideas. The end of the arc leaves us in a mexican standoff with a weak resolution (I still can't figure out how it was in the best interest for the demon to leave.) Also, everyone has an old man mouth, it is kind of weird.
October 25, 2021
Be careful what you call, you might not be able to control it. Quite a grotesque story.
July 16, 2019
Well this one was shit-tons of fun. I really liked how Constantine talks to the reader in this one, and Ennis, as always, delivers raunchy, dark, and twisted concepts with hilarious overtures. The art was good enough to visually enjoy, and the story was a pretty demented telling of demonic design. I'd definitely recommend this one to anyone and everyone, and particular fans of Hellblazer.
February 5, 2017
One of the best self-contained story arcs in the entire series, Son of Man does not depend on previous stories like most of the Hellblazer storylines do. It would be good to know what "Newcastle" refers to, but it's not necessary in order to understand what's going on. Also has a nice quirk of having Constantine actually break that fourth wall instead of just having his narration in colored squares. Here he actually looks at the reader. Not the best artist in the series, but does disturbing work for a more-bizarre-than-usual story.
February 8, 2016
Son of Man (129-133). Ennis' return is pretty brilliant. He revisits the idea of demonic possession, and uses it to present an entirely terrifying antagonist. He also successfully mixes that with some deep history on Constantine's part that's quite interesting. Oh, there's some grossness, sure; it's Ennis. But he keeps it under control and serving the story.
The problem with this arc is that it fits so poorly into what Jenkins did before him. Jenkins left Constantine friendless and down, while Ennis has him living in a happy-go-lucky flophouse with plenty of fun neighbors, and he only recalls his older friends from Ennis' previous run. So, this is a nice coda to what Ennis wrote, but a pretty poor coda for Jenkins' stories. [8/10].
The problem with this arc is that it fits so poorly into what Jenkins did before him. Jenkins left Constantine friendless and down, while Ennis has him living in a happy-go-lucky flophouse with plenty of fun neighbors, and he only recalls his older friends from Ennis' previous run. So, this is a nice coda to what Ennis wrote, but a pretty poor coda for Jenkins' stories. [8/10].
January 11, 2016
Classic Constantine, this one. Except at the end it gets really gross.
It's a good telling of something stupid John does in his youth, that he eventually has to pay for in the present. Chas, of course, has gotten into trouble and needs John to clear it up. Except his trouble involves the undead son of a crime lord.
Shenanigans ensue. Kinda gross, 3-foot-long-demon-cock shenanigans.
Which isn't to say I didn't enjoy it, it just got very graphic at the end when the personification of Rape does its thing. It's a fairly good horror comic, and classic Constantine.
It's a good telling of something stupid John does in his youth, that he eventually has to pay for in the present. Chas, of course, has gotten into trouble and needs John to clear it up. Except his trouble involves the undead son of a crime lord.
Shenanigans ensue. Kinda gross, 3-foot-long-demon-cock shenanigans.
Which isn't to say I didn't enjoy it, it just got very graphic at the end when the personification of Rape does its thing. It's a fairly good horror comic, and classic Constantine.
August 17, 2015
Cuando las vueltas de la vida no pueden ser más jodidas para John Constantine su amigo Chas le pide ayuda para salir de un problema que, lamentablemente, tiene directa relación con un suceso del pasado y que es responsabilidad de John. Mafia, ritos de resurrección y la posible llegada del Anti-Cristo en un relato de 5 partes que es la última vez que Garth Ennis se reencuentra con el personaje a quien le dedicó grandes historias.
October 2, 2012
Really got the creeps with this one, when you start understanding why it's called a "horror comic book". Constantine is once more way over his head with stuff, this time - a crime family and some... thing from his past.
Reading Garth Ennis is making me foul-mouthed and I've been steadily gaining a bloody British accent. Sad to say not the one y'are used to. Bollocks to it.
Reading Garth Ennis is making me foul-mouthed and I've been steadily gaining a bloody British accent. Sad to say not the one y'are used to. Bollocks to it.
February 7, 2008
This probably has the most gross-out scenes of any of the other Constantine collections I've read thus far. The story's well done, though, and parts of it are absolutely hilarious in a sort of macabre way.
January 21, 2016
A truly twisted Constantine story. Garth Ennis and his take on Crime Families, Demonic possession, the anti-christ and ...wellll...Constantine. The dark humor is excellent and the artowrk is improving steadily. If you are an Ennis fan or love JC...give this series a read.
June 9, 2009
Mobsters and demons and the ongoing struggle between the forces of heaven and hell. Typical topics for Ennis to cover, and it's mostly a fun story, but it lacks in substance.
July 10, 2010
5 stars. This is awesome, but very Garth Ennis so be warned.
Read
July 8, 2025If Ennis’ main run was a precursor to Preacher, this coda is a precursor to the Boys. Though it has a deliciously horrible and classic Hellblazer set up of John solving a problem with a demon-based solution that bites him in the arse, this arc is at war with some truly obnoxious Ennis tendencies, amplified by Ennis using a fourth wall breaking conceit where John talks directly to camera. The rape-demon is Ennis thinking up something horrific just for the sake of it without anything to say about sexual assault, and requires Ennis to create some suitably horrifying human antagonists to set the demon on at the end of the story, as per. This is nothing deeper than glee at the most immature grouping of violent verbs Ennis, or any edgey middle schooler, could think of. Despite this the writing keeps you turning pages, the voices are distinct, and the characters all pop.
The subplot introducing a pair of lesbian supporting characters (yay!) one of whom hates the “lesbian lifestyle of clubbing” (huh?) and who ends up sleeping with John (yuck) who himself mugs to camera about how rad that is (🤢) but then her girlfriend punches him in the face (yay, i guess?) was a particularly cringey male-fantasy ride.
The subplot introducing a pair of lesbian supporting characters (yay!) one of whom hates the “lesbian lifestyle of clubbing” (huh?) and who ends up sleeping with John (yuck) who himself mugs to camera about how rad that is (🤢) but then her girlfriend punches him in the face (yay, i guess?) was a particularly cringey male-fantasy ride.
December 2, 2023
(Zero spoiler review) 2.75/5
This one came as the final additional arc in the rather thick Ennis Hellblazer omni, so to say I was just a little bit over it and ready for something else was a little bit of an understatement, as good as the omnibus run proper was. This was written a few years after Ennis finished his main on the series and you can really tell the man had embraced the more ridiculous aspects of his style in the interim years. What should have been a serious, somber and dark tale often came across as comedic and goofy. With far too many sexual innuendo's and childish humour for the story to be taken seriously. That said, despite having pacing issues (it really didn't need to be five issues), I was enjoying it well enough until the final issue, when it all just got entirely too absurd, and I stopped giving a shit entirely.
The art was too stylised and cartoonish for me, though it was growing on me, right up until it wasn't. Maybe the cartoonish art suited the overly cartoonish nature of the story more than I'd like to admit. Still doesn't make it good, though. A fairly flat and uninspired ending to a mostly excellent collection. 2.75.5
OmniBen.
This one came as the final additional arc in the rather thick Ennis Hellblazer omni, so to say I was just a little bit over it and ready for something else was a little bit of an understatement, as good as the omnibus run proper was. This was written a few years after Ennis finished his main on the series and you can really tell the man had embraced the more ridiculous aspects of his style in the interim years. What should have been a serious, somber and dark tale often came across as comedic and goofy. With far too many sexual innuendo's and childish humour for the story to be taken seriously. That said, despite having pacing issues (it really didn't need to be five issues), I was enjoying it well enough until the final issue, when it all just got entirely too absurd, and I stopped giving a shit entirely.
The art was too stylised and cartoonish for me, though it was growing on me, right up until it wasn't. Maybe the cartoonish art suited the overly cartoonish nature of the story more than I'd like to admit. Still doesn't make it good, though. A fairly flat and uninspired ending to a mostly excellent collection. 2.75.5
OmniBen.
April 18, 2020
Full disclosure: I love Garth Ennis stuff! I am yet to find a book of his that I did not find brilliant.
This is like the second book on Constantine I have read. First one being the one-shot by Neil Gaiman. And I must say that I see why people love this character.
About this book though - the story is perfect! Ennis knows how to tell a disturbing story with all moving parts having clear interests and choices that are being made correlating with character's motivations. The dark magic side of it is also great - twists and turns in this story are exciting and feel right, which pays off with a satisfying all-things-tie-in resolution at the end.
Story is dark, sad, melancholic, random, violent and funny.
This is definitely a getter.
This is like the second book on Constantine I have read. First one being the one-shot by Neil Gaiman. And I must say that I see why people love this character.
About this book though - the story is perfect! Ennis knows how to tell a disturbing story with all moving parts having clear interests and choices that are being made correlating with character's motivations. The dark magic side of it is also great - twists and turns in this story are exciting and feel right, which pays off with a satisfying all-things-tie-in resolution at the end.
Story is dark, sad, melancholic, random, violent and funny.
This is definitely a getter.
June 9, 2024
Tak tohle mi sedlo. Honza Contantinů si zase jednou pořádně zavařil. Hlava mafiánské rodiny truchlí nad ztrátou syna a tak donutí legendárního vymítače, aby s tím něco udělal. Ale ani Constantine neumí přivést mrtvého k plnohodnotnému životu.
Nicméně má pod čepicí a tak ho napadne, že je skvělý nápad napumpovat do mrtvoly démona z pekla. Akorát že vůbec! A tak jsme svědky totálně bizarního příběhu, který se neštítí absolutně ničeho. Garth Ennis servíruje zběsilou jízdu plnou údů, porodů, dětí a krve. Laskomina pro každého, kdo se neštítí takřka ničeho. Navíc zde krásně vyniká Constantinova povaha, kdy deleguje své aktuální problémy na budoucího Constantina a ten mu za to rozhodně děkovat nebude.
Nicméně má pod čepicí a tak ho napadne, že je skvělý nápad napumpovat do mrtvoly démona z pekla. Akorát že vůbec! A tak jsme svědky totálně bizarního příběhu, který se neštítí absolutně ničeho. Garth Ennis servíruje zběsilou jízdu plnou údů, porodů, dětí a krve. Laskomina pro každého, kdo se neštítí takřka ničeho. Navíc zde krásně vyniká Constantinova povaha, kdy deleguje své aktuální problémy na budoucího Constantina a ten mu za to rozhodně děkovat nebude.
October 24, 2024
It seems not too many people like this final run of Ennis in Hellblazer. I, for one, find it brilliant, but that may be because I have become accustomed to how Delano used to write the character and comic. It is pulpy, dirty, disgusting and witty, all wrapped in an undertone of malaise and sadness.
Make no mistake, Ennis and Higgins really cut loose here and go full campy '80s horror, but it is in keeping with the first stories featuring Nergal (although this is a different demon) and Constantine simply deferring the consequences until they become unavoidable.
If I can find one fault with it, is that it is a bit more verbose than actually needed, with too much text per page and large speech bubbles, but that is a mere nuisance at worst.
Make no mistake, Ennis and Higgins really cut loose here and go full campy '80s horror, but it is in keeping with the first stories featuring Nergal (although this is a different demon) and Constantine simply deferring the consequences until they become unavoidable.
If I can find one fault with it, is that it is a bit more verbose than actually needed, with too much text per page and large speech bubbles, but that is a mere nuisance at worst.
January 9, 2026
This is the first Constantine comic I have ever read, so if you told me that this is one of the funniest Hellblazer stories I would definitely believe you. Son of Man has some pretty funny moments and it's an enjoyable read.
Now for stuff I didn't like: feels too over the top edgy at times, needed more magic come on Constantine didn't do any magic in this story besides summoning a demon and really Constantine doesn't actively do much at all because most of what happens with him in this story is purely circumstantial
Special mention to Glenn Fabry's cover works in this volume, biggest highlight of having a paperback of this story are those art pieces. I also liked the artwork of John Higgins through the issues themselves, they fit the tone and aesthetic.
Now for stuff I didn't like: feels too over the top edgy at times, needed more magic come on Constantine didn't do any magic in this story besides summoning a demon and really Constantine doesn't actively do much at all because most of what happens with him in this story is purely circumstantial
Special mention to Glenn Fabry's cover works in this volume, biggest highlight of having a paperback of this story are those art pieces. I also liked the artwork of John Higgins through the issues themselves, they fit the tone and aesthetic.
January 21, 2020
The story is actually really good apart from the huge miss on the lesbian scene with a promising beginning, but something about the execution doesn't sit right with me. It feels like a modern comic with self-conscious, calculated jokes and gore that feels more cartoonish than horrifying. I love the gore when it gets under my skin and creeps me out, but this is just a lot of blood and things that are supposed to be scary but aren't without the right atmosphere and skillful artistic execution.
November 19, 2019
Weakest story of this historic run.
It was one or two steps too...sick for me. That reminds me a lot of his run on Crossed, which is entertaining, but, in some places, are a tad less funny, and a ton too much... graphical violent.
That's why I think working with Steve Dillon or Darick Robertson are perfect for Ennis: they, somehow, manage to mitigate that sick side of Ennis, by masterfuly using comedy in ther drawnings. Specially Dillon.
It was one or two steps too...sick for me. That reminds me a lot of his run on Crossed, which is entertaining, but, in some places, are a tad less funny, and a ton too much... graphical violent.
That's why I think working with Steve Dillon or Darick Robertson are perfect for Ennis: they, somehow, manage to mitigate that sick side of Ennis, by masterfuly using comedy in ther drawnings. Specially Dillon.
November 4, 2020
Readers of Ennis' work will recognize his black humor and gleeful cynicism here. The story is engaging, though the end feels like a bit of a cop out instead of John's trademark last minute save through quick wits instead of luck. The art is...really pretty bad. The gritty material doesn't gel with the comical faces and odd proportions. Not the strongest trade for Constantine fans, by any means.
September 3, 2021
Magnífico arco de Hellblazer. Muy divertido y disfrutable. El argumento me ha tenido enganchado de principio a fin. Muy a mi pesar no le pongo 5 estrellas porque, como en mucho de lo que he leído de Hellblazer hasta le momento, el final y climax de la historia me parece más flojo en comparación con el resto. Pero bueno, creo que lo que importa es recorrer el camino y no tanto el destino. Y acompañar a John siempre es una experiencia cojonuda.
May 4, 2023
Yikes. This writing has not aged well, big edgelord vibes, trying way too hard to be shocking. At points felt like a parody/caricature of the John we know and love. The cover art is impressive, the interior art is not for me. Not my favourite entry in the Hellblazer canon…
September 2, 2017
Nejlepší z Hellblazerů co zatím vyšel v češtině. Garth Ennis fakt umí.
September 25, 2018
Constantine is r-rated as is, but this one... This one is not for the faint of heart.
February 1, 2020
Very good self contained story. Nicely written!
November 9, 2020
Kind of needlessly graphic, sometimes to the point of nausea. Sadly, the series was probably at it's best before it was targeted at mature readers, back when Jamie Delano was writting it.
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