I’ve mentioned before that my pile has extended to my bookshelf of graphic novels and collected editions. And so I need to air that out even more. But this was also to help clear out the regular pile as well since the two volumes I’m looking at are the first portion of another story told by the same creative team.

Why do I have collected editions and single issues of what’s, ostensibly, one series? Because Diamond Distributors (Rest In Piss) has a vendetta against me. But at least I’m still able to read a series from Simon Spurrier, Aaron Campbell, Matías Bergara, Marcio Takara, Jordie Bellaire, Cris Peter, and Aditya Bidikar like John Constantine: Hellblazer.

John Constantine, the character, was notable since his introduction in 1985 for a couple reasons. He was a relatively cool magician who eschewed the typical magician look of top-hats and tails. He was also meant to age in real time, famously having a 40^th birthday party in Hellblazer #63 in 1993, putting him at 72 right now. But this is comics—no one gets to age forever. After reverting back to a younger man during the New 52 era, there’s been some weirdness about his age. When we get to John Constantine: Hellblazer, we’re with a Constantine that feels very much like his original iteration at Vertigo, but back to a younger self. And maybe that’s needed as he’s disappeared for fifteen years and has a whole map pocked with magical incidents left by an older version of himself that he may have promised his soul to when he dies.

This series, however, does this incredible balance between the classic humor from the series as well as an interrogation of Constantine as a character. We get to see him win—we see him fixing these small puzzles left for him to build up his pride. But then we see the failures. And those failures are where the story happens. His old, prideful self is a dangerous entity because it wants nothing more than to be real. But if everything is easy , then there’s no pride to be gained by going through those tribulations. A balance is always needed to help push the story forward. And when there’s a character like John Constantine, a man who’s escaped death more times than any other comic character outside of the ones who actually die, then showing us those failures makes him feel much more human than the tupla of his perceived successes. Because even when confronted with an entity wearing his future face, someone happy with their life, he can’t help but be repulsed by it. 

There’s a reason a character like John Constantine can’t die: there’s too many good stories still in him. Constantine has that guilt bearing down on his shoulders in every panel and that guilt propels his story like nothing else, certainly not pride. 

Get excited. Get real.

Drew Barth (Episode 331, 485, 510, & 651) resides in Winter Park, FL. He received his MFA from the University of Central Florida.