HELLBLAZER #250

Review by: Neb

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Avg Rating: 3.7
 
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Size: pages
Price: 3.99

John Constantine is 250 issues older than what he was long ago when he was created. For most, it’s been a topsy turvy run with some issues blowing minds and others causing a dull, numb drool to dribble from people’s lips. Regardless of your personal feelings of Hellblazer, I, for one, have been enjoying the hell out of it lately. This issue is somewhat bittersweet though as it marks the end of Andy Diggle’s run, and offers us a little respite before the next writer comes on. This issue a mixed one of sorts. It’s a double-sized anniversary issue, but each of the stories revolve around the holidays. It’s a “kill two birds with one stone” sort of deal. Unfortunately, it’s also a bit of a mixed story cocktail as well.

There are five short stories in this issue, and most of them worked fairly well for me. There’s some real talent here folks. Dave Gibbons, Sean Phillips, Brian Azzarello, Eddie Campbell, and David Lloyd are just a few of the all stars they have working on this issue. There are some names that I haven’t heard of before, but in looking they’re names, these may be some of the folks that DC and Marvel have been mining from Europe. All of the stories are serviceable with a few standing out. My personal favorite was the opening story by Dave Gibbons and Sean Phillips. It’s probably because of Phillips’ art, but Gibbons writes a great annoyed Constantine. The other stories are all good, and there’s an especially cheeky one for all the Cubs fans out there. The final story in the lot was the only one that really bothered me, and it mainly had to do with the two things. The first is that the story is obviously not written by someone British because John loses his accent completely in his dialog. With Constantine part of his character is the way he speaks, and when its gone, a lot of his dialog seems to fall flat. The second thing that bothered me was the art style. It seemed sort of manga-esque to me, which just doesn’t seem to vibe mainly because the book is always drawn in such a gritty style. Again, the gritty style seems to match John’s personality and gives the book a unique look to go along with its unique voice.

I raise my glass to another 250 issues of Constantine. It’s one of my favorite books on the market, and hopefully, it will remain that way.

Story: 4 - Very Good
Art: 4 - Very Good

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