Comic Book Review: Constantine Volume 1 The Spark and the Flame by Ray Fawkes and Jeff Lemire
Disclaimer: I received this book through a Goodreads giveaway on the premise that I would review it.
John Constantine first appeared in the Alan Moore run of Swamp Thing. At the time, he was a relatively fresh look at comic book magicians, scruffy, streetwise and cynical. His magic had a price; anyone who got close to Constantine got hurt. This especially applied to his friends and family, but really everyone got hurt (his enemies too, but most of them never figured this out.)
As a result, Constantine had become a manipulative user of people, screwing them over to push them away. Not that this always helped. The character was interesting, and John Constantine was spun off into his own mature readers series, Hellblazer, under the Vertigo label. It was generally well-received, despite some lesser runs.
With DC’s New 52 reboot, the company-owned characters that had been exiled to the Vertigo imprint were folded back into the main continuity. Constantine showed up in Justice League Dark, while his mature readers title went into its final storyline. Now the New 52 version of Constantine has his own book, the first volume of which has been collected.
We don’t know how much of his backstory has been changed, although this version of Constantine is younger than the middle-aged one in Hellblazer. We do know that when he was younger, he was arrogant in his use of magic, and didn’t realize what the price was, resulting in a lot of horrible things happening. Now he knows the price, but still uses magic because he has to do so to survive the consequences of his earlier actions (and because he likes using magic.)
The plotline starts with Constantine learning that a major magical artifact has come up for grabs to anyone who can find all the pieces. His main competition in this is the cult of the Cold Flame, magicians corrupted by the need for more power. They’re mostly repurposed versions of previous magical DC characters. It’s a race around the globe, with Constantine’s price continually being paid. Of note is that he can no longer operate freely in his original stomping grounds of London, as the entire city is now cursed to kill him.
There’s a breather issue that introduces Papa Midnite, New York’s resident magical ganglord. This is followed by a tie-in to the Trinity War/Forever Evil event, as Constantine manages to bungle an encounter with Billy Batson at the same time the Cold Flame starts their revenge.
This is a horror comic book, so there’s a lot of disturbing imagery crafted by artists Renato Guedes and Fabiano Neves. Trigger warnings for gore and torture.
I know many fans were disappointed by the ending of Hellblazer, and the slight toning down from “mature readers” status might defang the concept some, but the writing is decent and Constantine seems to be in character more than some of the other reboots. It should do all right for horror fans.
