Hellblazer: A Feast of Friends

[alicemacher]

The conclusion to the opening "hunger demon" story.


From Hellblazer #2 (Feb. 1988).

Having secured Papa Midnite's help with the ritual to bind Mnemoth, Constantine returns to the Midnite Club to collect Gaz from the holding cell the voodoo mage ha kept him in. Gaz, as usual once the heroin's worn off, is agitated and scared. He pleads for a fix, but John tells him his craving is the bait to catch the demon, so he'll have to tough it out for now. Then he lies to his friend.







That night, as Constantine prepares for bed, Emma's ghost -- now in actually ghosty form -- visits him again, only this time she's brought some friends: Frank, Judith, Benjamin and Sister Anne-Marie. All of whom had been with John in Newcastle. All of whom died from his involving them in the attempt to stop the Brujería from raising the Original Darkness (as seen in Swamp Thing). None of them says a word; they don't have to.







Once he's satisfied they've left, he waits for sleep to overtake him. A single "G'night, John" from Emma instead keeps him up most of the night, sobbing.

At dawn, Constantine turns up on Midnite's rooftop, wearing shades so he won't have to look Gaz directly in the eye. Midnite, accompanied by a zombie slave, shows him Gaz's special seat for the ritual: an electric chair from Sing Sing. ("It's powerful magic. Anyway, I thought the irony might amuse you." It doesn't.) John straps his friend into the chair while doing his best to reassure him.













Mnemoth enters Gaz as a swarm of insects, which cover his face and swell his body. Constantine carves the binding symbols into Gaz's skin, pausing only when he suddenly snaps out of his restraints in a mindless, feral rage before being talked down and straitjacketed. Once he's himself again, Gaz begs his mate to kill him, but John explains he can't do that, as he and the demon must consume each other. He finally gives Gaz his last fix, kisses him on the forehead, and tells Midnite he wants lots of whiskey and cigarettes.













The sadly shortlived NBC series Constantine adopted these first two issues for the fourth episode, which shares its title with Issue 2. The most significant change from the original is that John is fully honest with Gaz in advance about what'll be required of him in order to destroy Mnemoth, and Gaz agrees to sacrifice himself. While that does make Constantine more likeable, I'm not sure it's an improvement.

John Constantine, as generally portrayed in comics from Moore to the present, is a sympathetic character, but frequently not a likeable one. If the most direct and likely successful path to saving the world requires him to lie, tell only part of the truth, cheat, steal, betray a friend, or worse, then by God he'll do it. He'll wallow in guilt and self-hatred afterward, with or without booze to dull the pain. But he'll still do it. As he does in this story, which is classic Constantine.

Comments

[tcampbell1000]

I'm a little too swamped to really lay in with commentary per my usual style for proto-Vertigo comics, so this'll be quick.

Alice is right as right can be about the change to the story, and I suspect it's why the Constantine series never really got off the ground. You can't do the character well unless you commit to his particular morality. It's not enough to make him a guy who's done some bad things he felt he had to, and is now sorry about it: we've seen plenty of those.

This is no redemption arc. John will never change, really. And while that absence of real change is reassuring if vaguely unrealistic when applied to the superhero set, it is depressing and all too realistic when applied to him. He's certainly capable of great good and can behave himself for sustained periods. But your standard superhero believes there's always a better way to save the day, one that won't compromise your own moral code (even if some of their moral codes are looser than others).

John firmly, fully believes the opposite. To expect that he might someday stop doing repellent things is like expecting Superman to stop using his telescopic vision. It's part of his toolset, he'd be less effective without it, and at the end of the day, there's just no really persuasive reason for him to hamstring himself, when the world and his own survival need fighting for.

[lissa_quon]

I actually liked the Constantine show adaption of this arc but it did feel like one of hte few decent ones. For me the show felt too soft - it rarely let itself be a horror. It rarely let itself have teeth. But I could be misremembering. I just recalled being annoyed cause they were the B-side to NBC's Hannibal. (they were the summer show in that time slot) and they rarely did anything I'd consider scary or interesting.

Also the weird angel character stuff never jived for me.