Constantine #5 preview - Vertigo or DC, some things are universal constants

[icon_uk]

and one of them is that



From CBR'S preview of Constantine #5







It takes a special kind of cold-hearted bastard to con Shazam out of his powers, and this is still NOTHING compared to what he did to Amethyst and Gemworld (which I still must get around to sampling from, even if it is cancelled)

Comments

[tugrul]

What I get from this is that they switched bodies when Billy said "SHAZAM!" and it messed up Constantine's spell somehow.

Hence, the change in voice and Billy cursing. Or is Billy cursing the new status quo?

[icon_uk]

Don't think so, John swapped their voices, and now knows the magic word, so can now say "Shazam!" in Billy's voice, which is what triggers the lightning bolt now.

Billy is cursing because John has just conned him completely AND stolen his powers. He can't turn into Shazam, because saying the word in John's voice won't do anything.

[tugrul]

:o

Well then. That son of a--.

[shadowpsykie]

yes well, that IS John Constantine

[ensiform]

What a dick! But then Billy Batson's a dick too in the DCnU so I have no sympathy.

I'll be back here reading my C.C. Beck comics

[espanolbot]

Billy becomes less so as his story progressed. In the new DCU he's shown to have a hard life of constant disappointment, so him learning to trust his new family causes him to become less of a dick. S'called character development.

[icon_uk]

It did seem a mite... cliché though, it took 12 issues to get to a place he might just as well have started from. It didn't add anything to the mythos that was actually novel or even particularly interesting, and just made Batson seem like a bit of a dick on his debut, which was an alienating character trait to give someone we're supposed to root for form the outset.

And is it too much to ask to have ONE non-angst ridden character in the DCnU?

[espanolbot]

Yeah, it's cliche. But these are also the people who didn't know what to do with Mary Marvel beyond a) putting her in a coma or b) having multiple corruption storylines because they didn't know what to do with her.

Heck, even with Miss Martian, who operated in the same niche as Mary they introduced the whole "she's destined to turn evil, and has her future self's personality in her mind trying to make her have sex with random dudes in public toilets" thing.

[darkknightjrk]

Heck, even with Miss Martian, who operated in the same niche as Mary they introduced the whole "she's destined to turn evil, and has her future self's personality in her mind trying to make her have sex with random dudes in public toilets" thing.

...What.

[espanolbot]

It happened, I have scans.

[jaybee3]

Going back to one of my favorite creator quotes ever - from Mark Waid about the Mary Marvel fiasco:
"A lot of what Mary’s gone through over the past decade or so has nothing to do with what’s broken or not broken about the concept, and everything to do with a bunch of creepy-ass older men working out their issues. Just thinking about it makes me want to take a Silkwood shower. It takes more imagination than most comics creators have to find something interesting about a good girl, but it’s not impossible."

Says it all right? And he's entirely right on. It may be a bit more difficult to write a "good girl" but its not impossible, lazy writers like we have today don't even seem to bother to try (even Johns - remember his Mary in JSA?). Miss Martian suffered the same. She started really nice and they had no idea what to do with her. Its like they had no idea what a nice person was like (even though a White Martian whose default personality was the exact opposite of the rest of her species should have provided enough story alone).

[shadowpsykie]

i don't know. i rather enjoyed it. i thought the story of learning how to trust and accept family was a different take the whole "Family need not be blood" thing was a great way to show the idea that the traditional Nuclear family is not the only valid form of family.

also it was only 12 issues because it was a back up, could have been 3-6 if it was a full issue

[jlroberson]

Well, I for one always enjoy stories where the character begins fully-realized and remains that way, especially in serial format. Doesn't everyone? ;)

In seriousness, I found this Billy pretty jarring at first myself, but reading the entire story now, besides that it means I don't have to open Justice League again, I see where Johns was going with it and I think it does work. I prefer Ordway's take on it, but it's the best possible DCU reboot of the character we could have now. Which, granted, isn't saying much.

Now, if you were REALLY going to do him right you divorce him from the DCU and hand him to Sam Henderson & Dean Haspiel or something. But we only got that once.

[bizarrohulk]

Wisdom of Solomon, huh?

[icon_uk]

Wisdom is a vague sort of a thing since it's not linked to intelligence. It might be that Solomon viewed "trust" as being a wise course of action, and Billy had no way of knowing that Constantine was an untrustworthy man.

[shadowpsykie]

also even Solomon didn't always listen to his wisdom... see Queen of Sheba

[silverhammerman]

Feels like the Wisdom of Solomon is the first thing to get ditched when a writer just wants to be lazy with the character, leaving Captain Marvel looking like a naive chump most of the time, because that's I guess easier to write for.

[thosefew]

Now Constantine's chain-smoking will add a growl to Billy's voice.

[mola_ram]

Well...
He is referred to occasionally as "The Constant One"

Next issue'll have John pull out his black notebook, containing a list of all the people/entities he has ever had a beef with, who aren't already a greasy smear on the highway to Hell...

Especially The first of the Fallen is about to have a VERY bad day...

[icon_uk]

Now THAT I think the Wisdom of Solomon might have a thing or two to say

Did John Constantine ever meet Amanda Waller? Given their... "pragmatic to the point of being a sort of ruthless monster" natures one might think they have an interesting, if very, very guarded respect for each other.

[darkknightjrk]

I don't think so--at least not in the DCnU, since the JLD was more of Trevor's gig.

But yeah, I'm sure if the two met, whole planets would probably be destroyed in their wake.

[bruinsfan]

I don't think Constantine having Captain Marvel's abilities would significantly alter the balance of power in that particular grudge match.

[mola_ram]

AFAIK John should have made some kind of deal with Waller about her not "bothering" Swamp Thing, and that's about it.

As darkknightjrk says I'd imagine they'd be a force to be reckoned with, if they weren't always busy watching each other.

To Waller, John would be the very definition of a loose cannon, and to John, Waller would be the epitome of the stocky goverment bureaucrat that keep a faulty system running...

Give them a common enemy and I'm sure you would see plans that would make even Darkseid smack his forehead and exclaim " WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF DOING THAT! "

With John "powered up" the way he is, I'd actually imagine he'd try to get the soul of his sister Cheryl, released from Hell.
(When you pull a stunt like that on Shazam, your motive would damn well better have to be almost saintly.)

Long story short, about Cheryls fate ; She was killed by her demonically influenced husband Tony, and her soul was taken to Hell to lure John down there.
While John is busy switching the tables down under, her husband wakes up on Earth, finds out what he did and commits suicide in grief (and thus, his soul goes to Hell)
After John has taken care of his infernal enemies, the first of the Fallen reveals to Cheryl that Tony now suffers in Hell, and propose a deal; If she stays in hell and suffers alongside with Tony, their suffering'll be "cut in half", which Cheryl agrees to this willingly...
So Cheryl is not only one of a select few innocent, truly goodhearted people I can think of that suffers/has suffered in Hell, she's also without any doubt the greatest victory that The first of the Fallen has ever won over John...

I'd at the very least imagine it would something like that, that has John pulling his trademark con, Wisdom of Solomon and Trinity War be damned.

[jlroberson]

So then Billy will lose his ability to change when he hits puberty?

That's why this doesn't make sense.