![]() Title Hellblazer 1: Original Sins Words by Jamie Delano Art by John Ridgway Alfredo Alcala Story ![]() ![]() ![]() Art ![]() ![]() ![]() Overall ![]() ![]() ![]() Buy this book: ![]() ![]() |
Hellblazer 1: Original Sins![]() Delano brings a uniquely British perspective to the book, setting it largely in the UK and blending his horror stories with a critique of the political climate of the eighties. Constantine's enemies range from fundamentalist Christians to demons, linking yuppie money-grabbers, racist skinheads and sick paedophiles with dark demonic forces. ![]() Ridgway's art is scratchy and downbeat, becoming cleaner with the addition of Alfredo Alcala in the last couple of chapters. This is also when the crossover distorts the plot though, muddying the waters a little. A cameo dream sequence by Brett Ewins and Jim McCarthy is a welcome aside, providing a starkly different view to John Constantine's mind. Perhaps you're looking to get a strong over-all picture of John Constantine, because you've read or heard about one of the later writers on the series like Warren Ellis or Garth Ennis, in which case you may find this version of the character a little tempered. But as gritty urban horror with a smattering of the demonic and a sprinkling of left-wing politics, this is certainly of interest in its own right. It's the only selection of this run of stories to make it into a collected edition, but that makes it all the more interesting to fans on the look-out for the development of Constantine's character. |
Published by DC Comics First published 1992 Originally published as Hellblazer 1-9 ISBN 1-56389-052-6 Links Jamie Delano Straight to Hell Hellblazer Index Next in series Hellblazer 2: Dangerous Habits |