dvyoung444

Spurrier seems to remember this book needs its quiet moments - with panels of characters staring into space and letting things settle instead of that constant and annoying exposition (e.g. the panel after "tree full of fuckin' angels").  This issue was a little talky but the moments of silence felt like they were from another age.  

Loving it.

And another thing...

In the wake of all these rebirths, I'm seeing that last panel of the final issue in a whole new light.

"Hey guys! What are you going to do with me now?"

The problem with these 'rebirths' is that John aged in real time during the original run. The current writers are cherry-picking his history but even they have to realize there's no way a 30-something year old man was in a punk band in the late 70's. My feelings thus far is that these creative vasectomies has severely undercut his gravitas and made him a much less interesting character. This was why Milligan pissed me off so much - he wiped his ass with John's past rather than treating it like the well-earned weight he'd been carrying all those years.

But I want him back, dammit! So how to do it? Well, maybe Hell needs him alive and operating and restores him to his middle-aged self while the rest of the Hellblazer universe has aged around him. It's ridiculous but as long as the writer stuck true to the characters (Old Chas reacting to a young John) (MILF Kit?) it could be interesting. And maybe enough to drive John batshit crazy again! Of course, that would involve taking the character into directions DC would poo-poo before it could ever see the light of day.

Regardless, I don't know how any of these rebirths are going to amount to anything more than elevator music without giving him the weight of his years (a.k.a. his balls) back.

Ok, open fire.

Yeah, I'm new.

I'm not a Constantine scholar by any means but I kept up with the original run throughout the years and visit the forum occasionally. I thought this latest attempt was a bit like 'The Force Awakens' in that it hit all the touchstones in a nod to the old fanbase while still rooting him in whatever's going on in the DC Universe. Alas, it still feels like I'm reading a caricature of the original. OK, it's the first issue so I don't want to be harsh but the things I loved about the character - the cynical inner monologue, the slow burn realization of what's going on and what needs to be done to set things right, the guilt that you could always feel even when he wasn't giving voice to it - i can't imagine that coming back. Plus - the fate of a city? Get thee to the laundromat and creep me out again for cryin' out loud!