pfedor

To say that a Hellblazer run feels like a continuation of Carey is no small praise in my book. The initial story about the gangster's daughter--"In at the Deep End"--was absolutely brilliant, one of the best Hellblazer stories ever. I also very much liked "The Mortification of the Flesh" (about Vatican). To name just a few ways they illustrate what I consider a perfect Hellblazer story

- John is on top of things, all we see is part of his plan revealed to us at the end of the story. (It's not necessary for a good story that he have a plan from the get go, say in Dangerous Habits he only comes up with one near the end. But he should not go acting in random, inconsistent, self-destructive ways.)

- The backdrop is Christian mythology. It's called Hell-blazer not anything-else-blazer.

- Element of surprise when we realize things are not what they seemed.

Other than that, the entire first TPB reads great. Also not strictly Hellblazer but Lady Constantine is a nice story by Diggle.

[ Spoiler : Well the pub is where he used to go in all other circumstances in his life. For all we know he's meeting someone there who is going to help him with his predicament. I so wish I could read that story, written by some other author.

As for other people, presumably they asked "Sir, are you OK?", to which he responded by telling them to sod off.

If he just gave up and decided to let Gemma kill him (which would be very much out of character for the guy from "Dangerous Habits" and "The Gift"), then it would be an absolute atrocity for the story not to address the question whether he ended up in hell and what with the enmity between him and the First of the Fallen. ]

Hello, I realize I'm late to the party, only now finished reading the final issue (waited for TPB) and just read all ten pages of comments here to see what people think about the ending.

[ Spoiler : Here is how I read it: John can't possibly be the irresolute dolt he seems towards the end. It's all a show. He knows Fates expect him to attempt to trick them, so he goes through the motions with the first attempt, being resurrected from the ashes, knowing full well that the Fates will see through it and use Gemma to finish him off ("I realized, Gemma will be the one they send. It makes sense.") He knows if she fails the Fates will try again and again, so he has to make everyone think she succeeded. Now remember how the magic darts work. "A blink of the eye and it's over, yet the pain of what happened remains. The brain-searing agony of being shredded continues." We can presume that for Constantine, who, unlike the evil twin is not a full demon but merely has demon blood in his veins, it lasted longer than a blink. Long enough for Gemma and everyone to have concluded that Constantine was dead. The final panel shows Constantine, alive but in brain-searing agony (he's not merely old in this picture, you can see he's in pain.)

Why has he planned it that way? Because it was the only way to trick the Fates, and brain-searing agony is still better than going to hell where First of the Fallen still hasn't forgiven the humiliation from "A drop of the Hard Stuff." With bought time, Constantine will surely find an antidote, but for now the important part is he's alive.

This is the only way to explain

(a) Why he leaves Epiphany, which doesn't seem to make any sense: because if she knows he's not dead the Fates will get a whiff of it also; nobody must know.

(b) Why he's was OK with Epiphany what what's-his-name having an affair, which doesn't seem to make any sense: because he had already planned abandoning her, he's already over her.

© Why he kills Terry, which totally doesn't make any sense seeing how he'd once at Epiphany's request went to prison to save the old man: same reason, he's over Epiphany so he doesn't care that much how she'll feel about losing her dad.

(d) How he convinced First of the Fallen to take Terry, which doesn't make sense since FotF hates him: by revealing he's going to die; FotF is so glad with the prospect of finally getting his hands on Constantine that he can indulge him in such little matter.

Why is the secret not out when Constantine doesn't show up in hell? FotF thinks he went to Heaven (and probably is pissed about it too.)

I am not as negative on Milligan's run as most people here, there were high points, the ending was just not one of them. Angie's character was not poorly treated: note that while John has had a little sentimental chit-chat with Kit, he didn't feel the need to call her when he was going to die. But he did need Angie's help twice. She may be a bit overweight and impulsive, not as composed as Kit, but she is the one good to have around when the going gets tough. As for Gemma, yeah, that was a sad mistreatment of a character. ]