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HELLBLAZER:
ORIGINAL SINS
The series which started John Constantine on the road to comic
stardom.
 Writer:
Jamie Delano
Artists: John Ridgway, Alfredo Alcala
Trade paperback
Published by DC Vertigo 199X
$19.95
Reviewed by Scott J Grunewald
If you don't know who John Constantine is you've
probably been living in a comics cave for the last ten years.
Constantine was the ultimate anti-hero of the selfish, Me-Me-Me
80s and epitomized the Cynical 90s well before most others. Deadly
to know, hard to hate, and easy to underestimate, John is the
soul of a bitter and depressed 1980's London.
| "John
is the soul of a bitter and depressed 1980's London." |
Created back in the mid 80s by Alan Moore as a
supporting character in SWAMP THING, John provided a much
needed sarcastic foil to Swamp Thing's overwhelming angst. He
quickly became a popular character in his own right and DC decided
to give him his own title. Jamie Delano was chosen to give the
book a direction and purpose, and he chose the hard-edged path
that John has walked down for 13 years now. 'Original Sins' collects
the first 9 issues of the series.
Delano chose an innovative and unique tone for
the series. Rather than straight horror or monster-of-the-month
stories, John faced evils not only from the pits of Hell, but
also from the real world. In the late 80s England was in the grip
of what many Brits refer to as a madwoman. As an American child
in the 80s, the only things I really recall about Thatcher was
her odd voice, and her political similarities to Reagan, who I
had learned to hate at a very young age.
The two divided the haves from the have-nots by
a huge margin. The wealthy were getting richer from the hard work
of the poor. Unemployment was growing and the general feeling
from the masses was hopelessness. This backdrop of anger, paranoia
and despair was the perfect world for Constantine to live in.
His adventures start with a truly skin-crawling
story about an old friend, Gary Lester. Without knowing it, Lester
sets free a horrible hunger demon named Mnemoth, who consumes
his victims from the inside out and appears to be made up of millions
of insects. This story has to go down as one of the best Constantine
stories ever told. John is a bit of a dick - he's arrogant, cocky,
and self-absorbed, but also burdened with an enormous conscience.
Haunted by the ghosts of people who lost their lives because they
knew him, John has to make a horrible sacrifice and make a deal
with a lesser devil to stop Mnemoth.
The series continues as John faces off against
yuppie demons and haunted Vietnam vets, he stumbles into a war
between the Damnation Army and the Pyramid of Prayer's Tongues
of Fire, and meets a mysterious woman named Zed. These latter
issues of the series fall a little flat; with the exception of
the wonderful Vietnam story 'When Johnny Comes Marching Home',
Delano fails to maintain the momentum he started with. Not to
say that these issues are bad, they're just not as good as the
first arc. A weak Delano issue of HELLBLAZER is still excellent
by other standards.
| "A
weak Delano Hellblazer issue is still an excellent comic" |
The strength of Delano's HELLBLAZER is
his ability to meld real-life horrors like racism, homophobia
and economical prejudice into the supernatural horrors that John
faces daily. Watching a friend of his beaten to death by homophobic
religious nuts is just as horrific for John as a fat man, reduced
to skin and bones by a powerful demon as he tries to eat a woman's
dress. Watching a group of rowdy and racist teenagers harass a
Pakistani shop owner is just as sickening for the reader as watching
a demon give John a tongue bath.
Delano's dark and gritty stories are well complemented
by John Ridgway's scratchy and moody artwork. Ridgway is able
to capture the subtlest of emotions and character within small
and detailed panels. His page layout is a little confusing at
times, but he more than makes up for this with his powerful images
and sequential story telling skills.
I mention above that Constantine is the soul of
1980s London, but in the decade-plus he's been around John has
become much more than that; he's evolved into a model for the
irresponsible hero. There is no question that John wants to do
the right thing, and he tries to do it all the time... but John
inhabits the real world. The world that you and I live in where
good deeds don't always come out the way we intend them to.
John is human; he makes mistakes and errors of
judgment. But make no mistake yourself; John is a hero. But unlike
his spandex-clad brethren, it's not his deeds that make him heroic,
it's his intentions.
Recommended
Scott
J Grunewald is Publisher of PopImage. Back
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