Written by: Simon Oliver
Art by: Moritat
Publisher: DC Comics
If I ever get the urge to write a comic, someone tell me to stoppit. It looks too hard. The pressure of the FIRST ISSUE must be overbearing, because the amount of world building, character, and plot you have to force into such a small space while being interesting enough to get people to buy the next installment has to be half impossible. I say half because there are good first issues, though looking back, most are overstuffed. God bless Image and Dark Horse.
I say all that because Hellblazer #1 is, by and large, a first issue. It does some things really, really well, and it does a few things somewhat poorly. I find it very easy to praise it for the former because it’s a first issue; I find it hard to fault it for the latter because it’s a first issue.
Instead of hammering us with new plot elements for what will maybe be a new John Constantine epic, Hellblazer #1 hits us over the head with characters. This is a good thing on the whole. Characters always trump plot. In this case, we get the snark of Mr. Constantine, his love/hate relationship with alcohol, some of the strange world he inhabits, and just enough of his insecurities to make him human.
The problem is, we kind of got all of that in the Rebirth issue. It was good then, and it’s good now, but it feels like a retread of old ground. The point of the almost universally terrible Rebirth issues was to introduce us and get most of this out of the way, right? I mean, I don’t know why else they exist other than to disappoint me (1).
What Hellblazer #1 does that the Rebirth issue doesn’t is introduce Swamp Thing (2). I have no attachment to this character whatsoever; however, I quite like what we get here. He comes to Constantine to collect on a debt, but the debt doesn’t have anything to do with crazy magic or blood sacrifice or whatever it is a Swamp Thing would want. No, it’s about a woman.
If that isn’t how you humanize a swamp monster, I don’t know what is.
From there on it’s the typical banter and snark one expects, with one or two fourth-wall breaks for good measure. It’s entertaining, but like I said, we got this in the Rebirth issue. It would be more fun as a first issue and not a second, even though it’s technically a first. Comics are weird.
It doesn’t help that the comic’s narrative relies heavily on the fact that you know the Rebirth issue, so it not only doubles up on a few things but expects you to double up and like it.
So you have a mix of old and new with plenty of fun thrown in, but not quite enough fun to get me singing from the hills. Fine and dandy. I’d be on board with Constantine regardless because I like him as a character, and I adore the magical, urban-fantasy world he inhabits. It’s strange to think he lives in the same world as Superman and Batman, but I’m also capable of ignoring that fact.
On the art front, the comic looks nice about 85% of the time. I dig the drawing style and the slightly washed-out pallet, both of which work really well. Now and then you’ll get a an awkward-as-hell panel though, such as Chas’s mammoth head on page six or Constantine’s flat-like-a-brick face on page nine, but it’s certainly more better than good. I quite like Swamp Thing’s design.
When the Satanism and demons show up, I imagine we’ll really be in for a treat.
Hellblazer #1 is good but not great, but it’s a first issue. It had an almost impossible-level of work to do, and the fact that it pulls most of it off makes me happy. With the intros out of the way, we can only go up unless it pulls a Green Arrow. I’ll continue reading the series at any rate.
1 I actually enjoyed Hellblazer Rebirth
2 I know Swamp Thing showed up for a bit in Hellblazer Rebirth, but I can’t remember why, so for all intents and purposes, he’s new to me.
