A.M.M.

I really do need to do a big thought out post about all the possible interpretations and literary readings one could do to Delano's run. It is marvelous in that regard.

And every other one.

I feel a little silly, but after watching this... I'm kinda ecstatic. This is NOT the Nu52 Constantine by a loooong shot. It's our boy on that screen. Sadly, he's probably not going to be the main character of the show and will be more of a force of nature than a man but he is still our guy. And that makes me so happy.

This is the first time we've seen him since Hellblazer #300... or #250! Wooohoo!

Liv annoys me but she's cute so eh. And Chas is perfect. I loved it. Bit dodgy scene transitions and kinda piss poor pacing but overall the character interactions were spot on.

See, I always read magic, in the Delano run, as being a metaphor for what being intelligent is like in a working class family. He was the black sheep because he wanted to and was capable of doing something other than just working physically. His father hated it and tried to stop it. Hell, I'd even go as far as to say he wanted to be a writer but his father didn't want that and tossed out his pens and pencils. He called him an arty little ponce.

And other than merely in a metaphorical sense John is clearly incredibly intelligent. He easily chats up a college girl in the Fear Machine by talking about Yeates. His inner narratives alone are far more literate than most English majors. I feel like any comic book reader can, in some sense, relate to being an outcast and not fitting in anywhere because of your intelligence. That's part of what makes the character the character to me.

Well, I sat up late last night and read "Rake at the Gates of Hell" in it's new trade paperback format which I scooped up from the comic book store on Wednesday and it's left me with a lot to say about Ennis's run.

To look at "Rake at the Gates of Hell" you have to compare it a bit to it's predecessors "Guys & Dolls", "Fear and Loathing", and "Dangerous Habits". I've always felt like these four stories formed the backbone of Ennis's run, at least when it comes to the major overarching plot. Think of them as the mythology episodes if you will. Now, "Dangerous Habits" is great stuff, but I've always liked "Guys & Dolls" more as a great quick read, background tale. And even better than those three is "Fear and Loathing" where John truly earns the moniker of bastard and crafts a pretty great plan while still managing to screw some things up. "Rake..." is in the tricky position of having to resolve all of the plot points from those stories and to be as good as they were. But, to be blunt, it's incredibly clumsy storytelling. This is a story with plenty of great and atmospheric scenes but the connective tissue between some of them just does not work. Am I supposed to know who Sarah is as a person? Because I don't and she seems to be no more than a plot device just like Kit's completely superfluous return. The race riots and the warring is focused on too much for it to have such a little role in the overall plot. Ellie's role in John's plan, if you could call it that, is a Demon Ex Machina if I've ever seen one and leaves a bad taste in my mouth every time I get to the end of the story. But the fact that the loss of the Father and Header actually affected me says a lot about Ennis's ability to infuse character into a story. Overall, not a bad read, but a clumsy one when compared to what came before it.

And the title reminds me of something else rather grating to me about Ennis's run. It's the title of a Pogues's song. And I love the Pogues. Very, very much. And clearly so does Ennis as many of his Hellblazer stories feature overt Pogues mentions or lyrics. An Irish band. Just like all the references to Brendan Brehan or Guiness strewn throughout his run plus the presence of Kit and the focus on the influence Brendan Finn had on John Ennis made this very British character Irish. Way too Irish for my tastes. It says a lot to me that the absolute best read in this volume is the "Heartland" one shot that closes it off. Ennis is clearly more at home writing about Belfast with this excellent, very down to Earth tale. Or America with Irish overtones as seen in Preacher and "Damnation's Flame". John is an English character and Hellblazer is an English series that should tell stories of English horror. I'm not against John going to other countries , which Delano did do pretty frequently, or having different moods strewn throughout a run but the usual setting should be England and the basic tone be a cynical English one.

I look forward to Jenkins.

In issue fifty it was mentioned that the doctors at Ravenscar believed John to have murdered Astra which doesn't seem to jive with how his being discharged in "The Bloody Saints" was handled. If he was believed to be a child-murderer by the public at large why isn't this ever mentioned?

I think "Dangerous Habits" was a really clever way for Ennis to start off his run especially considering the way Delano ended his story, and arguably the story of John as a whole. "...Habits" works on it's own as a relatively strong story that lays the groundwork for even better tales, Ellie and Kit's introduction especially. After "Dangerous Habits" though came that piece of shite "The Pub Where I Was Born" which had the same plot as a thousand episodes of the A Team with an utterly trite insurance scheme that ghosts were tossed into to make it 'Hellblazer'-y. "The Pub Where I Was Born" is probably the first real godawful turkey of the Hellblazer run which features some great 'Garth Misses the Point' moments such as John throwing a kid in a pond whereas the Delano-John would have mumbled something semi-contemplative and stalked away, and, the biggest sin if you ask me, John describing himself as not liking Merc because he enjoys nuking things in the microwave. Ugh. Thankfully, "Lord of the Dance" was somewhat more palatable and rather fun. Issue fifty seems to be kind of polarizing but I enjoy it and I think it's where Ennis starts to get Constantine more and the run starts getting better. "Counting to Ten" is absolutely amazing. Just great, great tense thriller stuff and one of my favorite single issue tales from the whole series. "Royal Blood" was a great read. I enjoy it quite a bit. It's Ennis version of satire and as I'm sure you can tell, he doesn't do subtle satire but that's okay because he does very fun satire. "Guys and Dolls" was also quite fun and I liked how the tension between John and the First of the Fallen was handled, even though the character's very existence contradicts Sandman, and John and Ellie's relationship was well written. Unfortunately there was also that godawful story with Chas's uncle's body which was just bloody stupid. "Damnation's Flame" is pretty much "Royal Blood" in America and I enjoy it on that level. It's a good run but it's nowhere near as relevant or artistic as Delano's.

Has anyone on here actually read the elusive Book Thirteen? I adore Delano's narration and captions so I'm considering picking it up. I'm going to definetly buy a copy from his website to support him for his Hellblazer work but is it worth actually cracking open?

http://lepusbooks.co.uk/introduction-to-book-thirteen/

Dale is a great detective. I'm not sure if he's above or below John on my favorite characters list but he is most assuredly on there.

Hello all! Great to be here.