Some thoughts about Hellblazer: Rise and Fall #1

 

Who is going after John Constantine this time?

John has made many mistakes over the course of his life but a particular one from his childhood is coming back to haunt him, literally.

I must say that I wasn't expecting big things from this when it was announced. The idea of Tom Taylor of all people writing about Constantine always seemed iffy to me. Don't get me wrong, Taylor can be pretty entertaining at what he does but let's be honest, he's not a particularly deep writer, and I don't even refer to his obsession with shock value to create an "interesting" story but I'm mostly refering to the shallow social commentary he often uses that are as subtle as a brick to the face. Garth Ennis he isn't.

I'm sorry if I'm rambling here but I can't help but keep comparing him to other writers and I hate to use the terms "Geoff Johns-lite" or "He's Geoff Johns without the things I like about Geoff Johns" because I have seen them so often and even more frequently wrongly (I've seen Rick Remender and Dan Slott put in those categories despite that they have very different writing styles from Johns) but seriously, can you honestly call Taylor anything else but "Geoff Johns-lite"? He has pretty much the same execution of big moments except that Taylor keeps abusing the same amount of violence that Johns grew out of years ago and without the respect of characterization and continuity that is so prevalent in Johns' work.

That being said (Yes, I'm getting to the point now), I was preasently surprised by this opening issue.

The story goes right from the beginning of John's life, touching the delicate moment of his birth in fact and how that could have set the course of his life including his problematic childhood and his constant challenge against authority. The plot itself is about how one of the people John harmed is back somehow and this case is connected to yet another familiar face which unfortunately will learn that getting close to Constantine is only bad news.

Character-wise, this is pretty solid. I'm not saying that Taylor particularly nails Constantine' voice but he still manages to get pretty close to it presenting him as his charming but extremely flawed self, most importantly, he doesn't showcase his trademarked intelligence yet but fortunately he's not portrayed as a guy who thinks is smart but is actually just dumb like other writers did either (Looking at you James Tynion IV). His dynamic with a recently introduced old friend is also pretty entertaining ("I borrowed your boyfriend") just like the interaction with her family and really, the character bits is where I believe Taylor's work shines the most so I hope for more moments like these.

Speaking of the execution of moments, there's gore here but not as much gore as some of the worst examples of Taylor's writing. I would say they're well-handled actually and allows for a compelling direction which ends-up in a rather fun and appropriate scene.

Best of all though, there's not the already mentioned shallow social commentary (aside from Taylor's overused "Rich people suck, hyuk hyuk") so this is a big win so far.

Darick Robertson handles the art and I'm not particularly fond of how he draws faces but I must admit they convey the character's expressions really clear and the storytelling is extremely on-point.

Promising beginning, hope things stay this way.