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As one of the few practitioners to have a grasp of magic's
true potential, Constantine is too shrewd to lose himself
in it completely - but he cannot escape its hold, or its accompanying
dangers. Unfortunately, while he may understand the real price
of power, there's a never-ending supply of amateurs out there
eager to sign away everything for a taste of it - and like
it or not, Constantine's hard-won knowledge guarantees that
he'll always be in the middle of the mess that follows...
Original
Sins reprints
some of the classic Hellblazer stories. It's
the late 1980's: when yuppie demons roam the Earth, trading
the futures of souls; the "greed is good" mentality
is twisted into a worldwide plague; ghosts come home from
Vietnam; and Heaven and Hell alike try to raise up armies
for the apocalypse. Only one man can stop their interference
with our lives... if he can be bothered.
The
fact that the writers go all political on the readership is
a little disappointing. The government of the day (Thatcher's
reign in this instance) is always an easy target, but politics
is not something Hellblazer fans have come to expect.
These digs are a little lazy and make it appear like a student
rag. Thankfully this doesn't really reflect too badly on the
collection as a whole - as the political stance of the writer
only raises its head briefly, and then everything returns
to some demon kicking - which is how things should be.
The
only story that let this collection down, for me, was the
Vietnam ghost story When Johnny Comes Marching Home.
It is incredibly slow and rather dull, and neither offers
anything new on the countless Vietnam tales that have been
told already, nor forwards Constantine's character in any
real way. It's a bit of a lame ghost story that feels a little
out of place here.
Now,
it may seem that I had a downer on this collection - nothing
could be further from the truth. It's just that these quibbles
were a minor hiccup in an otherwise faultless collection.
Demons, religious cults, plagues of flies and a creature created
by the body parts of a group of vicious skinheads - in a freakish
Frankenstein's monster sort of way - all present serious headaches
for Constantine.
If
you want to get your hands on some classic Hellblazer
then this collection is a must own.
Nick
Smithson
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