The Hellblazer - Rebirth #1

[history79]

"Part of the brief that editorial gave me was to take John Constantine back to his roots, so I suddenly had the luxury of all that great continuity to play with. Which is pretty great. I’m able to reference pieces of his past, like the tree tattoo on his arse, and at the same time not ignore his recent adventures in NYC.
To me it’s all part of that tapestry that came before. I think I got lucky in the “Rebirth” event as I didn’t pick up a character who’d been broken and really needed that much “fixing.” He might have taken a wrong turn or two over twenty plus years, but all I had to do was dust him off, do right by his past, and double down on his Englishness."

- Simon Oliver

Comments

[owlbrigade1]

Oh, DC. If you are going to write a character as swearing, write the swearing. Those daft symbols are just silly. If you are not comfortable publishing swearing, and that is fine too (I'm genuinely not a fan of swearing, even in fiction), then just do not write dialogue -or monologue- with swearing in it. A character can still be written as foul mouthed without actual swearing (you use reaction shots, and various other tricks detailed on tvtropes) on page. A character doesn't need swearing to be unpleasant either. I'd go as far as to say the symbols instead of swears make the work more juvenile instead of more edgy.

That is my personal bugbear though.

The comic itself, well it is kind of a tease isn't it? It's a prologue issue.

[lissa_quon]

...In this case I agree with you. This character and this weird wingding swearing isn't working.

Swearing doesn't bug me in writing - but don't be coy with it. Also don't make it look like your letterist fell asleep at the keyboard.

[kamino_neko]

I usually like Moritat's art, but I don't really dig it on this issue. I think it's John's face...most of the versions of him I am familiar with and like have his face squarer - both the most recent series, Matt Ryan on TV, the issues of Delano and Ennis's runs on the original series where the art wasn't an eyesore - so he feels way too 'chinny' here. Also the smile doesn't really feel like it has the cockiness/quiet smugness it should. (Where my screen is scrolled to as I write this...that's on the eyes. It's entirely the fault of the eyes.)

As to the writing...eeh...it suffers a bit from the Rebirth issues' need to catch the readers up on the current status quo (as well as establishing how the London curse was undone), and leaning, as a result, on telling over showing, but it's at least better than the Green Lantern issues for that. (For my money, Batgirl and the Birds of Prey is the best of the Rebirth issues, due to showing even as it told.) Since other books improved on that front with their actual first issues, I'll assume this one will, too. (I haven't read Oliver's earlier foray into Hellblazer, so I can't build an expectation from that.)

[lissa_quon]

Enh my main issue with this art is the really nice rough inks - plus the soft "random bits of air brush" lighting isn't working for me.

[malitia]

"Beauty pagent owner becomes leader of the free world" O.o (My fault. Why do I try reading background text, signs whatnot? This was the newspaper headline.)

[scorntx]

Stupid demon. You should have stuck to sensible, practical goals.

Y'know, jamming up the M25, causing delays all through the underground, infesting Euston with pigeons, roadworks on all the major bus routes.
That sort of thing.
None of this "magical plague" crap.
When will they learn?

[tugrul]

The plague has only been on John for a long time and it makes sense in-story. This was a good way to explain why Constantine's adventures haven't been taking place in London since the New52 and how he is able to finally go back there. Don't take my word that he literally hasn't been there once this entire time though.

[skjam]

He went there very briefly at the start of his New52 run and it nearly killed him. That curse was not fully explained at the time, so might as well wrap it up now.

[tugrul]

Neat that it was something they picked up on.

[owlbrigade1]

Do those things need a demon to cause them? I thought they were all just part of the London experience. I always wondered about demons really, I mean given the damage we can do just by ourselves; aren't they a bit superfluous? Maybe they feel they've got to go the whole hog with magical plagues and stuff just to stand out from us.

[scorntx]

Not necessarily, but it doesn't hurt.
(Of course, then the other demons complain at their associate for wasting his time making millions of people angry and miserable when he could've been talking one person into selling their soul.)

[quatoria]

Even moreso, you'd think, at this point, nearly every demon in hell would have learned to stay well fucking clear of John Constantine. The man screws over, manipulates, and out-cons demons as often as he lights up a cig, and we're talking about a chain smoker here. After Nergal, the First of the Fallen, Ellie, etc, etc, etc, why would *anybody* out there want to fuck with him for fun?

[randyripoff]

Nice to see Mercury again.

[captainbellman]

I lived in London for 13 years and visited frequently after. Not once have I seen a businessman wearing a bowler hat.

[cygnia]

Not even the Minister of Silly Walks? ;)

[pyrrhocorax]

I’ve seen a goth girl in Camden in one several times, does that count?

Nitpick

[alicemacher]

It's Astra, not Astrid. Someone in editorial should've caught that.

[shadowpsykie]

please let him still be bisexual... please let him still be bisexual... (hate that this is still a thing in doubt with each new writer)

[halloweenjack]

If John couldn't find decent Indian food in NYC, he must have been actively avoiding it.