Writer: Tom Taylor / Penciller: Darick Robertson / Colour Artist: Diego Rodriguez / Letterer: Deron Bennett Editors: Andy Khouri, Amedeo Turturro and Maggie Howell / Collects Hellblazer: Rise + Fall #1-#3 / HC / DC Comics Black Label
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The Pitch: If a billionaire falls out of the sky and dies...who gives a damn?! A wealthy man plummets from the sky and is gruesomely skewered on a church spire. Bizarrely, angel wings are attached to his back. More such deaths follow until, hallelujah, it’s raining businessmen. Detective Aisha Bukhari is stumped by this strange phenomenon until she’s visited by her childhood friend, occult investigator John Constantine, who discovers a link between the falling elite and a shocking moment in his and Aisha’s misspent youth. How are these killings tied to the first death on John’s hands? How does this involve heaven and hell? Even if this is kind of John’s fault, will Constantine be happy to let a few more rich bastards fall from the sky, like a vindictive Robin Hood? DC Black Label presents Hellblazer: Rise and Fall―an occult mystery, collecting all three instalments of the degenerate and debauched miniseries along with a variant cover gallery and behind-the-scenes artwork.
Guilt is a ghost, haunting us all. Our favourite heroes, the characters we love, are driven by a strange set of emotions, ones that might not make sense outside the comic book form: Batman strives to make sure he has no reason to exist. Superman has an almost pathological need to do right and be the person that others want to be. Spider-Man puts himself in harm’s way constantly because of the one time he didn't. And John Constantine, everyone's favourite bastard? He's just guilty as sin. Now ask yourself: putting aside whichever character from that list you like best, which of those motivations is genuinely the most relatable to you? I know what my answer is. Underneath our facades, none of us are boy scouts, mate.
TAYLOR AND ROBERTSON TAKE US BACK TO CONSTANTINE’S EARLIEST GUILT
Taylor and Robertson take us back to John's earliest and most indelible guilt: the death of his twin brother in the womb and his mother moments later. John is never allowed to forget his 'crime', especially since his father becomes twisted up with grief and anger towards him. It's these scars that the creative team pick at, giving John another brother to kill in Billy Henderson. His death is almost a wish-fulfilment, in that he feels like a victim of John's class war, being a rich kind from the right side of the tracks versus John, the wrong 'un. With John, Billy and their pal Aisha raising a demon in the opening pages, and Billy's life becoming payment for that raising, the stage is set as another chit of guilt is added to John's already large bill. The story propels forward, bringing us to what seems to be a Garth Ennis-period Constantine. John's class politics are here brought into sharp focus and their morals questioned as billionaires begin dropping from the sky, angel wings attached to their backs. Aisha, now a police detective calls in John to aid her investigation...
THE STORY PUTS JOHN IN HIS LEAST FAVOURITE ROLE: THE MAN WHO MUST TAKE RESPONSIBILTY FOR HIS ACTIONS
The plot itself is well-constructed. There's a cause and effect in John's actions, where he must pay for things he did as a child, even unknowingly. This puts him in his least-favourite position: that of a man who must take responsibility for his actions. This is great for us because we get to watch him squirm, and then we get to have our cake and eat it as he emerges as (sort of) victorious. There's a smugness to Constantine that Taylor enjoys wiping away whenever he can – the scene where John wakes to find just what he did whilst drinking with the literal devil is joy. But ultimately, we want Constantine to do what he does best... Cheat and outsmart everyone around him. But is he due for a true comeuppance this time? Only picking up the book will tell you.
Taylor and Robertson provide forgiveness for John. Genuine character development takes place, rather than the illusion of change we've become so used to in comics. The Vertigo characters were always the ones that had the most room for this and it's good to see the creative team continuing that tradition. John gains a little solace for his soul in this, something we've not seen in a while. Aisha makes a great addition to the supporting roster of characters. You can see years of anger in her, sharpened to a take-no-prisoners attitude. She is a character who has lived and it shows. Taylor and Robertson have fun with The Devil, as all writers should, manifesting him as a sleazy player and sexually experimental sharp. The book was clearly a joy for Taylor to write, here outside of the alt-universe realms he usually roams in. Robertson's pencils accentuate the absurd, almost comedic nature of the story's weirder elements. His faces recall Steve Dillion's humanity somewhat, so you feel the sense of tradition in Hellblazer artists, passing down through the years, Rodriguez does a great colouring job, casting a grey pallor over the streets of Liverpool even as the red Devil and the red blood flow through the pages. Bennett's letters convey the dark stillness that comes over you when you're in the presence of things outside this world. Eerie voices pervade. DC's latest Black Label Hardcover is all in all an attractive package and the book a worthy addition to the Hellblazer canon and I feel no guilt in saying it.
Buy DC comics here and support The Comic Crush. You can buy Hellblazer: Rise and Fall from Gosh Comics or order a copy online from Bookshop.org.
