Hellblazer: Dangerous Habits

Garth Ennis has suggested that, when he took over the on-going story of John Constantine in the Hellblazer comic back in 1991, he wanted to add something to the mix that none of the previous writers had tried. It's easy to argue that he succeeded with Dangerous Habits, writing a story that lumbers the chain-smoking modern-magician with terminal tobacco related disease - lung cancer.

The proximity of death (and Ennis' no-nonsense writing) makes Constantine more foul-mouthed, bitter and laden with regret than ever, and Ennis whisks up a whirlpool of characters to interact with him. In Ennis' hands, Constantine also becomes even more cunning, sly and believable, despite the bizarre world he inhabits.

If anything, Ennis' finely crafted plot is let down by the quality of the colouring - most panels struggle to break out of three or four colours, giving faces and places a duo-tone look that barely does justice to the story it disfigures.

Dangerous Habits is a great entry into the title. Typical of Ennis on form, he shakes up the world enough that readers know there's a new boss in town, while remaining faithful to the character so fans won't be disappointed. The shame lies in the fact that the same amount of devotion wasn't put into the book's pictorial element.