Whither Constantine? - My Thoughts On The Hellblazer Cancellation

SOUIRCE: DC Cancels Its Longest Running Series, Hellblazer, And Replaces It With New 52 Title, Constantine

Am I upset?  Yes, but it's the same, muted sadness you get when an elderly relative who has been dying a slow death of cancer finally passes on.  You've already seen the worst and accepted the inevitable, so there's nothing left but the moving on.

I've already been accused of being a heartless bastard and a DC Comics apologist once over this point.  So really, there's no harm in my refuting all the whining I've seen over this point this morning.



They're replacing it with a PG version!

As of this afternoon, the only person I've seen saying this is Warren Ellis.  And unless there was a revolution I missed this morning, Warren Ellis is not in charge at DC Comics or Vertigo.

If Constantine is part of the New 52 line, that means it will be a PG-13 equivalent, at worst.  I think it far more likely Constantine will be a T+ title aimed at 16 years old and up.  Which, I will say as a librarian and comics fan of some years, is probably the age at which most comics fans start reading Vertigo titles.  No less a luminary than Andy Diggle said he first read a John Constantine title at the age of 15.



They can't possibly do the same things in a New 52 title that they could with a Vertigo one!

This point is true in one respect.  They'll probably have to bleep out the swearing and cut the nudity.  But if that's what you're reading Hellblazer for, let me blow your mind - you can see real tits, asses and dicks for free on the Internet EVERYWHERE!   Those of us who just want to read a story about a smart-arse, lower-class mage dealing with magical weirdness can imagine what is happening just off-panel just fine.

Seriously, Animal Man and Swamp Thing are a part of the New 52.  And they're just as disturbing and messed-up as ever.  I think John will be fine, particuarly with a writer like Robert Venditti at the helm.



How Can They Cancel It?  It's The Flagship Title Of Vertigo Comics!

Perhaps in the minds of British comic fans, Vertigo = Hellblazer.  As an American who worked in the comic-selling business, I can confidentially say that Fables has been ruling the roost at Vertigo for some time now and that most long-time comic fans are more likely to name Sandman as the title that defined Vertigo Comics rather than Hellblazer.   In all honesty, the Vertigo shared universe hasn't really existed outside the pages of Hellblazer since Lucifer came to an end.   In recent years, Vertigo has been more of a creator-owned imprint than an adults-only line.  And with DC Comics' new ratings system, having an entire adults-only-only line isn't quite as neccesary as it once was.



It's Disrespectful To The Rich History Of The Character To End The Book!

In my opinion, the legacy of John Constantine has been disrespected for a while now. And judging by the most recent sales figures on Hellblazer, most of his fans agree.  The sales have been dropping steadily for a while now.

196 - HELLBLAZER (Vertigo)
09/2007: Hellblazer #236 -- 12,938
09/2008: Hellblazer #247 -- 11,851
09/2009: Hellblazer #259 -- 10,813
09/2010: Hellblazer #271 -- 9,851
----------------------------------
09/2011: Hellblazer #283 -- 9,597 (+2.4%)
10/2011: Hellblazer #284 -- 9,608 (+0.1%)
11/2011: Hellblazer #285 -- 9,500 (-1.1%)
12/2011: Hellblazer #286 -- 9,404 (-1.0%)
01/2012: Hellblazer #287 -- 9,368 (-0.4%)
02/2012: Hellblazer #288 -- 9,553 (+2.0%)
03/2012: Hellblazer #289 -- 9,363 (-2.0%)
04/2012: Hellblazer #290 -- 9,472 (+1.2%)
05/2012: Hellblazer #291 -- 9,426 (-0.5%)
06/2012: Hellblazer #292 -- 9,533 (+1.1%)
07/2012: Hellblazer #293 -- 9,247 (-3.0%)
08/2012: Hellblazer #294 -- 9,396 (+1.6%)
09/2012: Hellblazer #295 -- 9,143 (-2.7%)
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6 months: - 2.4%
1 year : - 4.7%
2 years : - 4.6%
5 years : -29.3%

To put the above numbers in perspective, the last issue of the recently canceled Resurrection Man sold 16,672 copies. Even at it's lowest, it was still selling just over 13,000 a month.  It's honestly a miracle Hellblazer has been allowed to go on so long as it has.

I personally stopped reading the book back in October of 2009, precisely because I thought Peter Milligan was ignoring the rich history of the character so that he could promote his own love interest for John and do whatever the hell he wanted with the rules of magic in John's universe.  Besides that, John stopped aging and should- by all rights - be looking 70 years old if the plan to age him in real time meant anything anymore.  At this point, closing out the door on this version of John is a mercy killing.
 

52 Pick-Up - Week Four

AQUAMAN #2 - Another solid issue, which gives a little more development to Aquaman's wife Mera, reestablished as a fiery redhead with water-control powers for those new readers who missed her star-making appearance in Blackest Night. While Johns' cracks about how Aquaman is perceived by the public at large in the DC Universe are starting to become wearying, the action of this issue - in which Cthulhuian horrors from the deep come to the surface looking for food - is well-executed and amazingly drawn by Ivan Reis. This is going on the pull list.


GREEN LANTERN: NEW GUARDIANS #2 -The plot thickens as Kyle Rayner escapes Earth and heads to Oa, taking with him six rings he doesn't want. He goes to seek the console of the Guardian Ganthet, who it seems has been radically changed by the other Guardians, his old personality having been entirely erased! Bedard does a great job pacing this issue, delivering some good action scenes while explaining away the special relationship between Kyle, Ganthet and The Blue Lanterns for new readers. The one stumbling block is that while Bedard has a good grasp on the character relationships, he fails to explain some of the special ring powers - such as the presence of a Blue Lantern super-charging nearby Green Lantern rings. This too, is going on the pull list.


JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #2 - This issue wouldn't be so bad if I at least had the sense that it was building toward something. As it is, we get a lot of random scenes as our team STILL hasn't come together and isn't showing any signs of doing so anytime soon. The two pages with John Constantine, for instance, seem to have been accidentally pasted into this issue from this month's issue of Hellblazer, having no relation to anything else in the issue! Even the art - supposedly by Mikel Janin throughout the comic, looks totally different on those two pages. This one is off the list. Not even going to pick up the trades.

Justice League Dark #1 - A Review

I’m probably one of the few who didn’t blanch when it was announced that one of the New 52 titles would be a Justice League book featuring John Constantine. It sounds like a joke but the case for why such a move would be necessary was made years ago by the late and lamented Unca Cheeks on his gloriously mad website. So it was ironically, with a good deal of hope and optimism, that I opened up Justice League Dark #1.

Most of the issue is told from the perspective of fortune teller Madame Xanadu., whose visions keep showing her a woman named June Moone – an ordinary woman who is bound to a spirit of wild magic known as The Enchantress. As three members of the Justice League barely escape with their lives after trying to confront The Enchantress, Xanadu has an epiphany and realizes that a diverse group of people with unique magical talents will be needed to stop The Enchantress and save the innocent soul of June Moone. In order of appearance, they are...

Shade The Changing Man – guardian of the M-Vest;. a garment that allows the wearer to change reality, even as they themselves risk being warped by it.

Zatanna – the Justice League’s magic expert, who casts spells through the use of backwards-spoken words.

John Constantine – a con-man whose talent for getting into and out of trouble may be the greatest magic he has.

Deadman – A selfish man in life, trapeze artist Boston Brand was cursed in death to walk the world until he helped enough people to earn his final rest.

Peter Milligan’s script puts us in the thick of it and sets the stakes high early on. It is ironic that our first glimpse of the new Justice League – at least, our first glimpse as they will be – should come in this book where they are so clearly out of their element. He does a good job of introducing us to just how serious a threat The Enchantress is.

Sadly, the our main cast isn’t as well established. We learn quite a bit about Madame Xanadu, Zatanna and Shade The Changing Man but John Constantine’s appearance is limited to one page. Yet even he fairs better than Deadman, who doesn’t get so much as a line of dialogue or an internal monologue to describe himself! While Deadman’s background was extensively covered in last week’s DC Universe Presents #1, it seems a bit of a gamble to presume that readers of this book would have read that book already.

Newcomer artist Mikel Janin does an amazing job on this first issue. Avoiding the heavy inks and shadows that are the bread and butter of most Vertigo-toned series, he has left Justice League Dark looking brightly colored and well-defined, for the most part. This might seem an odd choice given the title but I think it works, giving everything the look of a standard superhero book that is slowly coming apart as the “dark” invades. If forced to make a comparison to another artist, I’d say that Janin’s style is reminiscent of Terry Dodson but without the heavy emphasis on cheesecake.

Despite some of the cast not being as well developed as others, I rather liked this book. Fans of Milligan’s previous Vertigo works (particularly Shade The Changing Man and Hellblazer) will want to check this one out, as will fans of the Shadowpact. I dare say that anybody who enjoys good modern-day urban fantasy will get a kick out of this series as well. I enjoyed it. And I’ll be back for more next month.

Red Lanterns #1 - A Review

When I first heard that a team book devoted to The Red Lanterns was one of the New 52 titles, I must admit to being confused. While Geoff Johns’ invention of an emotional electromagnetic spectrum, where different emotional states can be tapped to generate energy, was a brilliant conceit The Red Lanterns did not strike me as being a group who could be readily tapped for a mini-series, let alone a monthly series. For Red is the color of Rage, and those who possess a Red Lantern ring become possessed themselves, berserkers who turn their uncontainable fury upon everything around them. They are a group in name only, not given to teamwork nor coherent thought.

Peter Milligan masterfully explains all this for new readers, with the focus of the issue upon Red Lantern founder and leader Atrocitus. Atrocitus was one of Johns’ greatest creations in Green Lantern and Milligan conveys the characters voice perfectly in this issue. Milligan also concisely recounts the recent events of the War Of The Green Lanterns storyline in explaining Atrocitus’ current malaise and his eventually decision about what he must do now that the revenge that he sought is unattainable.

Ed Benes is probably better known for his work as a pin-up artist among the general comics-reading public but he proves to be an excellent choice for the art duties on this book. Drawing a book centering upon a non-human protagonist can be a difficult task for some artists but Benes rises to the challenge, depicting all of the various alien creatures – humanoid and non – with equal ease.

Green Lantern fans will likely see this title as a welcome edition to their pull lists. New readers who enjoy good space-opera stories or books with anti-hero protagonists will likely enjoy it as well. I know I plan to keep buying this one.