Title: John Constantine,
Hellblazer: Joyride
ISBN: 9781401216511
Price: $14.99
Artist: Leonardo Manco
Writer: Andy Diggle
Collects: Hellblazer
#230-237
Rating: 3/5
Modern trickster mystic John Constantine has been many things in the
decades since his introduction in the Swamp Thing story arc American Gothic.
But what he’s never been since that debut is exactly what new writer Andy
Diggle returns him to in this trade. When he first introduced himself to the
giant vegetable Bog God, Constantine was a cool, sharp-dressing, smug,
in-control and very dangerous man-of-mystery we weren’t supposed to like. He
oozed menace and untold secrets and was always in charge of the situation.
After twenty years and more of going to Hell and Back, that menacing
stranger returns, but with enough accumulated shared history now that the
reader can still empathize with this unlikely hero whom no sane man would
actually want to have a pint with. Moreover, despite being a Scouser (someone
born and bred in Liverpool) by birth, Constantine is a Londoner by disposition,
and Diggle writes him with that so distinct voice and attitude.
Back on top and dressed to impress, the hard man does a favor for an
old acquaintance in the first tale of this chilling collection. Pearly Grey was
an old-school East End gangster, but he’s in Wormwood Scrubs now, at Her
Majesty’s pleasure. His daughter’s dead and she was murdered. He knows how but
not who because she told him when her ghost appeared in his cell. Pearly knew
everybody once, and if this isn’t a normal job, it needs the attention of a
specialist…
Solving the problem of the unquiet dead is only the first step however.
The grateful Grey repays his debt by giving Constantine a chance to clean up
old business at Ravenscar, once the scene of the Magician’s greatest failure,
but now part of the gangster’s extensive property portfolio. It couldn’t have
gone better if Constantine had planned it…
The final tale introduces a new nemesis for the chain-smoking wizard in
a grimy, nasty tale of possession in the blighted urban hell of South London.
With triggers lifted from any daily paper, this is a tale of murderous wasted
youth, privilege and social disorder, murder and witchcraft, prompted by greed
and the utter contempt of the elite for the rest of society. Political
corruption stalks hand-in-hand with blood-hungry monstrosity in this very
British horror story and at its blood-soaked centr is a bloke in a raincoat
with a smile that can make a statue sweat…
This is a welcome advancement and return to terrifying form for one of
American fantasy’s most striking characters. Thoroughly British once more (our
comics never got the handle on heroism: All the best and most memorable
characters were villains like The Spider, The Dwarf, Grimly Feendish and
Charlie Peace or maniacs like Judge Dredd) this is a unique character at his
compelling best, and another superb horror tome to add to your “spooky” shelf.
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