nemof.org blog

I’ve just had the pleasure to start reading Hellblazer. This comic might be more well known to you as the film ‘Constantine’, of which it has very little in common with. Alan Moore sure has a habit of writing comics, selling the writes to the Silvers and then disowning the whole thing. I guess I should lay off growing my beard to the point where I become as dramatic as that - although I fear some would say I was already a lost cause.

It is worth noting when to begin to read this comic that it was first penned in ‘88. As such the style is aged in comparison to the airbrushed, photochopped offerings we see on our comic stands today. However Hellblazer reflects the spirit of the times, and the gritty drawing style reflects the content.

We see Constantine, an ambivalent anti-hero move through a Thatcher Britain, depressed and dark in both soul and body. As an ’80s child I am struck by things half remembered from my childhood, and other things that I was shockingly unaware of.

Constantine seems frequently forced into a position of making a moral choice, something that reflects a concern of the time. As the audience we urge him to make the right choice, but throughout the first few chapters he makes some entirely selfish ones - some might argue for self preservations sake - which leave us ill at ease with him as a hero.

Constantine seems to be a morally bankrupt character, however this benefits us as the reader as we can watch with incredulity as he makes choices we couldn’t our selves. This incredulity on our part is perhaps even more humorous than anything, because we rely on Constantine’s ability to think first of himself before others,  so we can sit safely on his shoulder and come along for the ride.

However, having said all this I must admit that I have a great deal to read as of yet and will look forward to Constantine’s character developing. Plus, he’s fucking blond — not fucking Keanu Reeves.