Writer: Andy Diggle
Artist: Leonardo Manco
Publisher:Vertigo
As Vertigo’s longest running title, Hellblazer has gone through its fair share of writers, including most of the biggest names in British comics - Jamie Delano, Garth Ennis, Mike Carey, Paul Jenkins, Warren Ellis (And, incredibly briefly, Grant Morrison and Neil Gaiman), so Andy Diggle taking over seems almost inevitable.
If you’ve somehow not encountered the title in the (can it really be) almost twenty years since it began, it follows John Constantine, a magic user and conman. He is Liverpudlian by birth but is usually found in London, and often finds himself dealing with the worst aspects of humanity.
The issue opens in London, with John handcuffed to a pole and knee-deep in water, lamenting his lot. As he puts it himself on the first page, “Nowadays, I’m just the bloke who cleans up other people’s mess.” It appears that, as usual, John has rubbed someone up the wrong way. And, as usual, there is a lot more going on than first appears.
This is not Diggle’s first stab at writing Constantine, as those of you that read his brief run on Swamp Thing may recall. That was good, this is better. John’s world-weary voice is right there from the first page, and the twists and turns of the story are classic Constantine, especially the ending.
Manco’s art is reminiscent of many of the older guard of European artists from 2000ad, with several moments that bring Carlos Ezquerra immediately to mind. His pages are well composed, and he draws a good corpse. John’s nose does appear to have suffered a quite nasty break at some point prior to this issue, but for him that’s no surprise.
Diggle’s first issue doesn’t make as big a splash as say, Garth Ennis’ first, but it’s a good, solid start. If he carries on like this, he’ll be more than welcome to stick around. Who knows, he may even be successful enough to inspire DC to collect the entire run from start to finish, like many of us have been waiting for them to do for years.
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Russell Hillman was born in London but now lives in Coventry. His hobbies include precious little. He doesn’t get out much, but thinks reading a lot of comics makes up for it. He’s wrong.