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Hellblazer #230
Words by Andy Diggle Pictures by Leonard Manco If you find yourself writing Hellblazer, it’s usually a sign that your star is rising, given that it probably has the most prestigious alumni of any ongoing series in comics today. Originally created by Alan Moore for Swamp Thing, John Constantine has come alive under the pens of the likes of Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison, Warren Ellis, Paul Jenkins, Garth Ennis, and most recently Mike Carey. Unlike Scottish novelist Denise Mina, whose arc started strong and petered off into mediocrity, Andy Diggle worked his way up into the pantheon slowly and with determination, beginning with a Swamp Thing run following his smash hit 100 Bullets spin-off The Losers and going on to write the criminally underrated Lady Constantine that wrapped up John’s ancestor Johanna’s plot thread from The Sandman. Coupled with a brash and ambitious manifesto for his run, Diggle has inspired no small amount of optimism that the title would return to glory under his watch, which is- in different words- what he said in the February 7th edition of Vertigo’s On the Ledge: “The heart of HELLBLAZER has always been supernatural horror with a social conscience — and that's what Leo Manco and myself will be serving up, starting next month.” Other readers may disagree, but to me that particular quote evokes some of the earliest Hellblazer material (and to my mind the best) that got its strength from the spirit of the times whether it was anxiety over Margaret Thatcher’s re-election or the fears surrounding nuclear energy and weapons. Jamie Delano’s initial run in particular tackled a wide range of social and political issues including the Vietnam War and the prejudice and persecution faced by the pagan community during the eighties. Diggle goes on to reaffirm John as a humanist, an affirmation much needed after his callous and often sadistic attitude that took hold through the majority of Brian Azzarello’s run and was only shortly interrupted by Mike Carey before coming back into fashion with Denise Mina’s run, but Diggle also accounts for his mean streak: “They say that inside every cynic is a disappointed idealist. Constantine doesn't believe in self-appointed higher authorities; he believes in people. Small, weak, flawed, struggling people. But the problem with being a humanist is… well, humans. We keep letting the side down, don't we? Which probably goes some way toward explaining why the world is in the state it's in. And that, ultimately, is what drives him.” Then again Mina also said all the right things regarding John and her plans for them, and her run hardly lived up to it. So after one issue of Diggle’s Hellblazer, what can be said so far? I’m prepared to say that if nothing else, Diggle has shown a tremendous amount of promise. With issue #230, he presents a stripped down and streamlined Hellblazer that doesn’t much need any of the operatics of far reaching cosmic conspiracies or apocalypse come hither overtures. It’s John, tied to the support beam of a warf with the tide rising and his would be killer looking on. The social conscience, the pathos? It seems that Diggle is telling us all that can wait; he wants to prove his chops first, and prove them he does. He wisely holds his cards close to his chest and rations out the story carefully. He misleads the reader by leading them to assume one thing while he’s building towards something very different. Diggle approaches the issue as if he’s John writing John, pulling a narrative trick just as clever as Constantine’s ruse. What Andy Diggle understands about Hellblazer that many don’t, is that the best issues are like going to a really good magic show, but more Penn and Teller than Copperfield. You’ll be fooled, love it, and have no idea how they did it until they tell you- if they even do. As for the art, well it’s the same it’s been since Carey came on board. Love him or hate him, Leonard Manco is here to stay. Mark Osborne, Editor in Chief of Binary Culture, is not a motherfucking happy kitten. |
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