Hellblazer: The Devil You Know
Written by Mark Osborne
Published on 05/23/2007
Originally from Binary Culture / [the-lowdown.net]
http://www.binaryculture.net

A man steps out of the shadows of a Soho alley stinking of brimstone. One spark, two sparks and his face is illuminated in the soft glow of a cigarette lighter held to the tip of a Silk Cut. This seedy character is the uncanny, unlikely John Constantine. You'd never expect it from the week old stubble and rumpled, stained suit and ancient brown trench coat, but this is a man who is not allowed to die, because his passing would ignite a war in Hell the likes of which has not been seen since the Fall.

He's stopped the apocalypse more times than Batman and defeated both more angels and demons than Spawn. He's a hustler and a hero, the hard living street magus we've all come to know and love over the past thirty years.

Of course John wasn't born the smooth operator who teases powerful demons like they were sick neighbourhood dogs. There was a time when he practically scraped by on luck and audacity alone and his mortality loomed large in front of him. The records of this improbable time were kept out of print for over thirty years, originally seeing publication when Thatcher was quoting Queen Victoria to whip the dogs of war into a frenzy over the Falkland Islands.

The new Hellblazer trade, The Devil You Know, is only the second collection of Jamie Delano's original groundbreaking run on the series, the solid foundation from which more recent classics such as Mike Carey's All His Engines or Brian Azzarello's Hard Time sprung up. While these are not the specific issues I referred to in my review of All His Engines back in 2005, they are the ones that Andy Diggle evoked in his mission statement for his current run.

The title of the trade comes from the line that firmly establishes John as the Humanist that Diggle defines him as and sums up the biggest strength of Delano's tenure on the series. After barely surviving his first major victory over Hell, John brushes off the importance of the institutions of Heaven and Hell to define the most important struggle for humans as The Devil You Know, overcoming our own fears and insecurities.

The volume in question drops us right into the closing chapter of Constantine's battle against the demon Nergal. As a favor to his longtime "ally" Swamp Thing, Constantine lends him the use of his physical body in order to impregnate his wife Abby, given that he can't exactly do it in his green, mossy normal self. In return, Constantine's ethereal self is torn out of his body and flung far away, so as not to intrude on the proceedings.

Given just those bare details, it's fairly self evident that Delano's Hellblazer is not the gritty and largely grounded magical realism that was the stock and trade of Brian Azzarello's run. This is about as far as one could get from a jumping on point; this is essentially a gift from DC/Vertigo straight to the hardcore fans who have been pestering Karen Berger and Dan Didio for years. I myself made a valiant stab at pestering both of them at last year's SDCC, but it seems that they've both come to the realization that one does not allow someone dressed like Spider Jerusalem to ask questions at in public at the world's biggest comic book convention. It's not like I was going to ask when the last time they had sex with a transient prostitute was. That's for Frank Miller.

So if you're reading this review and the only times you've heard the name John Constantine were in reference to a Keanu Reeves movie, start with either Original Sins, the beginning of Delano's run, or something more current like Mike Carey's All His Engines or Brian Azzarello's Hard Time. However, once you've read those or if you're already familiar enough with the bastard, The Devil You Know is a rare treat indeed.

The comic is very anachronistic, tying itself tightly to Thatcher's England which has a certain amount of value all of it's own. Not just for the historical context, but for some of the conceptual elements, such as the early confluence of cyberspace and neo-shamanism that emerged in the early 80s that Delano makes use of to have John chased through an almost Tron like vision of cyberspace by Nergal in the most pivotal issue of the collection.

As an added bonus, The Devil You Know also includes the first Hellblazer Annual, lavishly illustrated by V for Vendetta co-creator David Lloyd. The issue itself is a haunting study in the coldness and alienation of eighties England, and the carefully crafted numbness that John uses to fight his way through it. The story itself is much darker and in some respects far more disturbing than the rest of the collection, as the moments of levity or irony that keep those issues from plunging into the abyss are kept carefully out of play, and the cruelty usually associated with otherworldly entities like the demon Nergal are instead perpetrated by people alone, including John himself.

The real power of the annual is David Lloyd's haunting illustration that completely outclasses his work on the legendary V for Vendetta. He captures the coldness, isolation, fear, and every other nuance that Delano pours into it with frightening accuracy and clarity.

The Devil You Know is a harrowing and vital dive into the Hellblazer saga, at once the most esoteric and vital installment of the series, it should be the cornerstone of any Hellblazer fan's library.