Hellblazer #20

Hellblazer (Single Issues)

by Jamie Delano, Dave McKean (Cover Art), Alfredo Alcalá (Inker)

The ugly truth is revealed! John Constantine learns that an ages-old evil lurks behind the Fear Machine that's more demonic than even the machine itself.

Genres: Comics, Horror, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics

26 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Jamie 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.

Reviews

[Tawfek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just brilliant as usual.
I don't know what's that weird name they keep mentioning but maybe it's some kind of fear demon that was benefitting fromt he fear weapon.
Mercury escaped, she is a smart girl, but that pedo guy who loved her allowed her to escape even though it meant his doom.
Talbot and the gay journalist got arrested by the bad guys.
John is reading about the Masons maybe he discovers something.
Marj is fucking Zee as usual, her daughter is kidnapped and she is having the lesbian sex of her life lol
It seems the executioner of the bad guys is some high priest or something, so he is actually a major player, even more important than the scientists, he is with the people manipulating them.

Anyway, my neck hurts so bad today, I realized I must take many breaks while reading because I am not comfortable I am in constant discomfort and sometimes even pain.
Stopping won't help much because sometimes I notice the same pain while on the pc.
Might be time to see a doctor about this finally, but I honestly delayed it this much because I felt it would probably have no cure, just years of shitty postures while reading.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good.

[Ｆｒａｎｋｈ · Rating 4 out of 5]

"A traitor to a cause can still be loyal to love. Treachery has its price but love is its own reward." ~Dr. Philip Fulton

HOT DAMN! This has been a really thrilling issue to read. I'm so happy that Hellblazer is making the most of its formula again. When the Fear Machine storyline started, it struggled to find its footing and I had to go through those motions as well. There was just something off about the set-up sometimes that I can't help but disengage every now and then. But here comes a whiplash of great suspense and action though so all is forgiven!

I want to talk about Dr. Philip Fulton first, a character I shockingly gave a shit about in his final moments for this issue. He was originally introduced as a villain, one of the scientists who had been keeping Mercury away so they can learn and utilize her psychic powers. He eventually develops genuine feelings for her though, and even aided her escape from the facility. Merc does not share his feelings which was understandable (I recall that her first contact with Fulton was when she had a premonition of his death so it's quite difficult to connect with a man you know will die brutally). Still, Fulton made the most of their moments together like they're in a play-date or something, even if he knew Merc was merely pretending to like him. As soon as she does run away from him, he does not even do anything to stop it. Unfortunately for him, he will be punished for his betrayal of...whatever fucking organization he works for.  Is it the Freemasons? They were the ones who were responsible for the horrific train incident from issue #17. They could also be Webster's employers.

Who the bloody hell is Webster, you ask? The creepy shit who strangled Simon and stuffed him in the closet, that's who, and is apparently the muscle/hired killer of the Big Bad. But anyway, I'm not paying that much attention to the Big Bads for this storyline because I'm more interested in John and his, er, amusingly spur-in-the-moment Fellowship.

Speaking of which, John is now with Simon the journalist and Geoff the cop when they entered the premises of a certain Russian scientist named Sergei Antonov whom John had previously rescued from the bat-shit train of murderous rampage. How did he repay this, you ask? By bitch-slapping John with a lampshade, that how! Misunderstandings aside, John explained who they are why they came for him and then invited him to join their crusade. After all, each man has a clear purpose of the mission (Geoff's is personal, wanting to find the ones who drove his wife to kill herself; Simon's is a matter of integrity, wanting to uncover their identities and expose them to the public; and Sergei just wants peas--I'm sorry, he actually meant peace, forgive the thick Russian accent). I may be making fun of Sergei right now but he said something that I feel will have a thematic resonance later on:

"Fear is the whip that makes us slaves."

So, now led by John Constantine, the Fellowship (which I will now refer them as in the coming issues) will make sense of the chaos that the otherworldly threat that is the Fear Machine presents. I sure hope that none of them dies or at least die BECAUSE OF John, whether directly or indirectly. But then again, Constantine has a reputation of causing the deaths of people in contact with him so I won't have high hopes for a clean, happy ending when this storyline does conclude.

Let me just jump back to Fulton again. I mentioned that his death is imminent and such death comes in the form of Webster the hangman and eloquent speaker (seriously, for a brawn he is surely verbose and poetic in speech). I actually felt bad when Fulton was hanged over the bridge even if I already saw this incident in Merc's vision in the earlier issues. His feelings for Merc, and his choice to let her go, have effectively redeemed his character so that his death, no matter the pitiful reason that inspired it, was made poignant because it was painted to be a meaningful sacrifice.

The last four pages are the best parts of the issue because Webster has performed a devastating ritual (that includes butchering a little boy, goddammit, Hellblazer, why?!)  to summon this creature called Jallakuntilliokan that apparently is growing within the machine itself. Whoever it is, it's coming out and everyone (from Mercury to Marj and Zed somewhere in hippie paradise, and the Fellowship led by John) will witness the hell that it is about to unleash.

RECOMMENDED: 8/10


DO READ MORE OF MY HELLBLAZER REVIEWS

[Cybernex007 · Rating 3 out of 5]

What the hell is JALLAKUNTILLIOKAN! I have to admit, this was quite a confusing issue. And while I enjoy some aspects of this mystery unfolding, starting the issue with Fulton going full groomer was not on my wish list, but it does logically make sense for how much of a creep he is. Last issue ended with Mercury getting into Fulton’s head and getting him to let her out, and this issue starts with her ditching him at a train station where he is then snatched by some police officers. I don’t know what internet chat rooms the writer got on to get inspiration for his internal monologue, but it is chalked full of classing grooming phrases as he makes comments about Mercury being way older than she is in his mind, gross. The rest of the issue follows two perspectives, Constantine’s group and the Geotroniks group. On the Geotroniks side they are no longer in need of Fulton, as long as he keeps quiet, and it turns out that Webster was the large man who tried to hang the reporter. The final artificial links into the ley lines are being made and the final stages of the real fear machine and being put into place. We really don’t get to see a lot of the actual development of the machine, that is left to the director while we mostly follow Webster. But everything we do see from the director is setting up his black ops unit to go and pickup the opposition. By now our group of three in Constantine’s group from the last issue has grown to four, with the inclusion of the Russian from the train who actually made his way to Geoff after hearing about the troubles he had with the free masons. The moment the Russian sees Constantine he actually bashes him over the head with a lamp, but when Constantine wakes back up to inform him he was the one who carried him to safety from the train, he finally calmed down and apologized. But as I mentioned a team was sent to grab this group, and as perfect timing would have it Constantine was actually out getting pain medication when he arrived back to see his group getting put into the back of a police transport. He pulled a trick of his own by impersonating an officer and asking what they are doing, and he was redirected to a phone number to call at the head office to clear anything up. Constantine can’t chase after them at the moment, so he decided to go and follow that lead and get some information on who he is facing, the mason which the Russian infiltrated at the start of all of this. All the while Webster is performing his duties in making sure Fulton stays quiet. He picked him up from the station and the day finally came for Mercury’s vision of Fulton being hung from the bridge to come true. Additionally it seems that developments on the connections to the ley lines have concluded or at least gotten to a point that things are ready to move forward. Webster came back and dawned his favorite apron with that strange symbol on it, then walked inside and grabbed one of their “volunteers,” aka the scaredies, specifically the little boy scared of cancer, and then proceeded to drag him to the stone circle room, kill him, and sacrifice the poor scared boy. He then took the blood and went over to a stone wand spelled out G.O.A.G. marking the welcome of whatever just happened. The issue ends as the horrific cluster of terrors Mercury witnessed in the secondary stone cluster is seemingly released as suddenly we see Mercury, Marj/Zed, and Constantine all have the same thought: JALLAKUNTILLIOKAN. WHAT JUST HAPPENED!

[Devin Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

"You've got to think small and big at the same time."

Still liking the hatching-heavy art. As I believe I've said of other issues in this arc, sometimes this story feels a little confusing (if only for being stretched kind of thin), but I do like it overall.

[Seva Golubev · Rating 4 out of 5]

ВНЕБРАЧНЫЙ!

[Arbaaz Khan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best issue. Although I kinda didn't like Dr Fulton, he felt a little pedophile to me.