Comic Review: John Constantine: Hellblazer (2019-) #5

John Constantine: Hellblazer (2019-) #5

DC Comics

Writer: Simon Spurrier

Art: Matías Bergara & Jordie Bellaire

Last month, John Constantine met Tom Willowtree. A vegan, environmentalist wizard who does pun magic and claims to have succeeded John in being the One True Magelord of All England. Now, knowing that Constantine has returned, Tom asked him if he wants to claim back the position. Yet, John has no idea what he’s talking about.

In this new chapter, John wakes up after a night of heavy drinking with Tom Willowtree. Constantine wakes up and realizes just how kind and different he actually is from Tom and wonders why and how the mystagogue has heard of him, especially as an authority figure in England’s magick scene since we all know very well, everyone hates John’s guts. At first, Con-job plays along with Tom and his rambles about England’s mage lord but only so he can sneak out of Willowtree’s apartment and find out what the hell is going on.

Spurrier continues to deliver in this new iteration of Hellblazer. Every story brings out the most sarcastic and witty of John Constantine and it really hits the spot for a classic Vertigo fan. That is without mentioning the absolute genius of John’s new companions, Willowtree being the most recent one, a hipster, an environmentalist mage who does pun magick and is John’s extreme opposite. This not only makes John’s traits stand out even more but creates interesting exchanges between the culture of the past and the culture of today in the best, “Damn, I just wanted bacon” kind of way.

The artist who steps in for the line-art in this new story-arc is Matías Bergara. I don’t actually have much to say about Bergara’s work because I just love it all. What I think I liked the most, however, is that it helped to establish the contrast between the modern, smiling mage Tom (portrayed with smooth lines and not many details in his expressions) and the classic, beaten-up frowning John Constantine (shown with a lot of expression lines and other details like a poorly maintained beard and dark circles under his eyes).

This reviewer also has to commend, once again, the colorist, Jordie Bellaire who stayed after the story-arc change and adapted to Bergara’s completely different style incredibly! The colors compliment the details I mentioned about the line-art beautifully. Bellaire’s work also does wonders for Bergara’s backgrounds changing the setting in a way more impactful manner through colors and shadows rather than through the elements they contain.

This new issue in Hellblazer‘s new series has been another joyful read for any magick and urban fantasy fan. The mystery elements are being written masterfully by Spurrier and the art is an eyeful in every panel with a talented team of penciler and colorist. Once again, I recommend picking up this title now, before it goes on for a long time and you have to catch up on too much because you’re probably going to want to read it all eventually.