Politicians and the wealthy elite are being stripped nekkid, having angel wings glued to their backs and dropped from the sky - sounds good to me, what’s the probs? Constantine sets out to investigate anyway - expect supernatural reasons why!
Tom Taylor and Darick Robertson, the team that gave us the best part of DCeased - the Constantine intro - have reunited to produce this, a full-length story for DC Black Label, Hellblazer: Rise and Fall. And… eh, I was a bit disappointed with it.
There’s a lot of sombre childhood stuff in the first half that wasn’t very interesting. For no reason he’s separated from his birth mother by medical staff - why, and why didn’t his dad do anything?? The theme of guilt continues as he accidentally kills a friend when dabbling in magic as a teen. What I liked so much about Taylor’s characterisation of Constantine in DCeased was the fun and irreverence of the character so not seeing any of that here is a let down.
Because Constantine’s world is so limited, a new character is introduced: Aisha, one of his childhood mates, who’s grown up to be a copper. She’s a fairly unmemorable addition but some of the dialogue between Constantine and her family the morning after their drunken jolly was kinda amusing.
I like Darick Robertson’s art - it remains emotive and stylish - and the visuals of the impaled “angels” are striking. I guess I sorta want to see what that’s all about. But the rest of the comic is your standard Constantine fare - more supernatural shenanigans. Ho hum.
I’d hoped Taylor’s Hellblazer would be as witty and enjoyable as the Constantine part of DCeased but it turns out Rise and Fall is just standard Hellblazer: a gloomy crime story with a dash of rubbish about the predictable cost of magic - unimpressive stuff unfortunately.
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