Hellblazer Musings

I recently bought a twenty-five cent issue of Batman from 1990. In the letters’ page was a column by editor Denny O’Neil discussing some recent issues of Jamie Delano’s Hellblazer he had read (#14-22, ‘The Fear Machine’ storyline). It’s great to see a response from the that period to a book like Hellblazer. O’Neil was struck by the book’s darker tone, the fact that these nine issues constituted a “novel” in their own right, John Constantine’s status as an anti-hero, and that, in 1990, when the column was written, this format of character and story was becoming more common than it was when Hellblazer first debuted (and, with the birth and growth of Vertigo, has become even more common since).

It got me reflecting on Hellblazer. I’ve recently been making my way through the title. Well, ‘recently’ might not be the best word. I’ve been slowly taking out the collected editions of the series from Toronto Public Library over the past while. I’m up to Brian Azzarello’s run on the book (beginning with #146). Given that a lengthy section of the book, as written by Paul Jenkins, is not available in trade form, Azzarello is my fourth writer on the book. (As a side note, I can’t help but think that Jenkins’ run being uncollected is a shame, especially after finding out Sean Phillips drew much of it).

I’ve generally greatly enjoyed the series, and the different take each writer has brought to it. Jamie Delano’s inaugural run was challenging. At times extremely rewarding and at others almost baffling, it certainly got my attention. The book, at least in Delano's earliest issues, is mired in the time period it was written, with John facing any number of social issues in Thatcher’s England and generally lamenting the state of the country. It’s a great milieu for the book, even if Delano sometimes takes it a little too far down that road. ‘The Fear Machine’ story that Denny O’Neil mentions was a highlight for me, especially the early issues where John settled down on a commune.

Garth Ennis had a lengthy run on the book after Delano. Paired with artist Steve Dillon for much of it, it’s almost a precursor to their legendary Vertigo book, Preacher. John’s girlfriend Kit is a focal point of their stories, and their portrayal of John, even at his flawed, weaker moments, is vibrant and compelling. This run isn’t perfect, but it has a grit and energy that carry it through. It should be required reading for any Preacher fan, as it showcases that title’s creative team on a prior project, working out the tone and sense of humour they perfected on that book. My favourite story from this run is probably Ennis’ first, ‘Dangerous Habits’ (#41-46), which Dillon didn’t draw. Will Simpson drew it, and it details John’s struggle with terminal lung cancer and the deals with various devil-figures he makes to get out of it. For all the flair and humour that come with John’s devil dealings, it’s his vicious struggle with the disease that still stands out for me. Other highlights of Ennis' run include various vampire fights and John hitting rock bottom and living on the streets, but his whole run is stellar.

After this is the uncollected Jenkins years, then Warren Ellis comes in to write a short ten-issue stint. Which is a crying shame, as Ellis has a great take on John and produces some great issues. Comprised of one six-part story, ‘Haunted,’ and a string of single issue stories, it’s a taut and effective little run. The single issues in particular, collected as ‘Setting Sun,’ feature rotating artists, including fantastic cover artist Tim Bradstreet doing interiors, and offer some fairly creepy tales. I don’t know if Ellis had long-term plans for the book, but even if he had stuck around to produce more one-issue vignettes like these stories, it would have been great. A short little run that I wish there was more of.

So that brings me to Brian Azzarello’s run, of which I’ve only read the first collection, ‘Hard Time’ (#146-150). It’s certainly a departure from almost everything that’s come before. I’m not sure how it was received as a full run, but I could imagine long-time readers not taking a shine to ‘Hard Time.’ Personally, I really liked it. John is in prison in the US, due to circumstances not revealed until the final scenes of #150, navigating through a prison culture that wants him to assimilate with one of its existing groups, lest he face the wrath of prisoners and guards alike. The fun here was watching the Constantine's troublemaking side show up almost every time things got bad, calling on either magic or good old manipulation to get out of a jam. Of course, John faces some low moments here as well, bringing back the feeling of his most desperate days, living on the streets in Ennis’ run. The setting (both prison and America) and some elements of the tone are such a radical departure for the book that it certainly caught and held my interest. I’m all up for a departure like this if the story is worthwhile, and, so far, Azzarello has produced some very good issues. I’ll check in again once I’ve read more of his run and see how I’m feeling about it.

Iron Man V. 3 #3 – “The Art of the Deal” (February 1998)

Kurt Busiek (writer) Sean Chen (pencils) Eric Cannon, Sean Parsons (inks)

Synopsis: Overwhelmed by the Dreadnoughts, Iron Man is able to lead the robots into battle with the Siege Engineers, and leaves to investigate the ruins of Stephanie’s chalet. He finds Stephanie and her butler alive and flies them to safety, then returns to the site of the battle to find it deserted. Tony contacts Pepper, to get her help in identifying the handiwork behind the Siege Engineers' facemasks. Stephanie later confides her business troubles to Tony. After her husband’s death, his friend Andreas Kapelos tried to strong arm the manufacturing company from her, and slowly began taking control of it. Tony learns from Pepper that the Siege Engineers' facemask is connected to the Arms Merchant. He calls for a tv interview to reveal how close he is to bringing down the Merchant and exposing his client list. The Dreadnoughts attack Iron Man that night. He overloads their heat centres, and leads them to Kapelos, in Stephanie’s facility. He blackmails Kapelos for info on his clients, receiving it in return for leading the Dreadnoughts away and calling the police. Tony does so, as the robots follow him into the mountains and explode. Later, Tony rekindles his romance with Stephanie, while worrying about the major project Kapelos was working on for an unknown client.

The Subplots: More troubled comments are exchanged between Happy and Pepper, although their divorce isn’t outright mentioned. Happy later takes Doreen, a woman delivering supplies to Stark Solutions, out for dinner. She then contacts a mysterious informant with her insider knowledge of the company; Last issue’s shadowed figure, employing the Arms Merchant, watches Tony’s interview angrily. He steps considerably out of the shadows, and is clearly the Mandarin. He is also behind the Dreadnoughts; Tony surmises that the Arms Merchant’s biggest client is building a fortress or a space station.

Notes: Stephanie and her butler survived by hiding in the stone-walled wine cellar.

Pepper identifies the Siege Engineers' facemasks from a Daily Bugle photo of the Thunderbolts arresting a flunky of the Arms Merchant in Thunderbolts#3. That was the first appearance of he and his staff, when they were caught selling weaponry to Don Fortunato.

Thoughts: Busiek wraps up this story, and while it’s a bit clunky in its execution, it’s so slickly done that it’s easy to ignore some of the choppy plotting. For the second issue in a row, Iron Man leaves a fight in the Alps, and goes about his business with Stephanie, and then is drawn back into another battle. This worked fine last issue when the conflict was still building up, but it ruins any sense of urgency created by the opening battle scene (which looks stunning) to have Tony casually chatting with her in the middle of the issue. There had to be some other way for Stephanie to tell Tony her troubles than at a dinner smack in the middle of an action issue. But this isn’t the worst offender – Tony’s tv interview about the Arms Merchant really stunts momentum. It’s such an odd transition and its sole purpose seems to be to alert the Mandarin of Iron Man’s involvement in his scheme. Again, for the sake of the story’s flow, couldn’t there have been a better way to do this?

Still, somehow, Busiek holds the issue together despite the loopy plotting. I think this is mainly accomplished through Tony’s narration. Busiek is overloading this title with it, but it largely works, and here it holds together those choppy scenes. Busiek is really presenting Tony as a tactician in battle. He also has a softer side, but is much edgier than the Tony of #1. It’s Tony’s voice that unites the issue, navigating the readers through the clues of the overarching mystery. Although that mystery, of the Arms Merchant’s client, isn’t too complex, it’s coming together well and there’s a good sense of Tony’s frustrations with the unknown assailant. It’s not the most exciting story so far, but it’s backed by strong art, and there are worthwhile elements to it.

Ultimate Spider-Man V. 3 (#14-21) – Double Trouble

Brian Michael Bendis/Mark Bagely

This is the last of the arcs I read back when Marvel.com was experimenting with free comics on its site, and it's the one I remember the least. It's also my least favourite so far. There are a boatload of strong and well-executed ideas here, but there were too many times when reading this that I felt Bendis has overloaded this arc with too many elements and characters. When reading volume 2, I thought adding Electro to a strong Kingpin story was too much, but that's nothing compared to the deluge of new characters and situations presented here. I'm so conditioned to the slow pace of Bendis' Spider-Man origin, which worked so well, that I think he would have been well-served by building the character's world at an equal speed.

The overload of characters and plotlines hurts because the concept behind Dr. Octopus and his motives is so strong. Bendis creates an effective and creepy vibe to the introduction of the character and his mechanical arms. The character is so familiar that I applaud Bendis for making the moment he wakes up and discovers his condition so haunting and powerful. This ominous vibe is continued when Ock kills the resident of his former home. The early thread of reporter Ben Urich investigating the case and trying to figure out what is behind Ock's rampage contributes to the danger behind the character. I like the concept of Ock being created by Norman Osborn's actions, strengthening the threads that connect to Peter's origin. When Peter worries that Ock may figure out who Spider-Man is because of their shared origins, the threat feels real and viable. Bendis has crafted a strong web to connect these formerly disparate characters.

But suddenly, in an admittedly great monologue, the Ock story takes a turn. Ock is suddenly directing his anger towards a new character, Justin Hammer, not Norman Osborn. The rage and feeling of a ruined life he's projecting works really well, but it seems misdirected. Similar to how Peter began investigating the Kingpin in volume 2, the crux of the story's action now feels off-kilter. I know Osborn is believed dead at this point, but it feels strange from a story point of view to have Ock so angry at a new character we've barely met. As the central conflict of an eight-part story, it does feel off. Hammer himself has interesting elements (particularly when he's connected to the creation of Electro and a new Sandman); but there's suddenly a lot of effort put in to building him up as a corrupt businessman, and it begins to run counter to establishing Ock as a threat, which the story had been doing so well up to that point.

The battle scenes between Spider-Man and Dr. Octopus and generally good stuff, with Bagely ably pulling off the acrobatics and Bendis presenting Ock as a credible threat in battle. The strongest element of the first battle scene is the legitimate threat of Spider-Man being apprehended by the authorities. It's these moments of Peter's inexperience that Bendis most shines with, and the extended, underwater chase scene worked because it feels like Peter's predicament with the police, usually such a minor problem in the main titles, is a real threat. The final battle, with Ock, Hammer, and a makeshift press conference, is a little much. But it's again well choreographed and Ock comes off as a dangerous opponent.

Added into this main conflict us the Ultimate introduction of Kraven the hunter as an Australian adventure-type personality who has a reality show. As a ratings ploy, he's traveled to New York to taken down Spider-Man. There's actually some really interesting stuff in one of his early scenes, regarding raising interest in his flagging show in order to get enough episodes filmed to go into syndication. But none of this really fits into the already troubled Ock/Hammer story and it feels superfluous. It doesn't help that we don't get much of a read on Kraven himself, who possess little of the cavalier attitude or danger that has at least given him a personality in the main universe. The only consolation regarding this weak plot line is how it ends, which is perfect. When Kraven does finally confront Spider-Man, as the final Ock battle is winding down, he is quickly dispatched of with a single punch. Whether this is Bendis commenting on the empty celebrity of reality tv personalities or realizing there was nowhere else to go with this story, it fits perfectly. Kraven had been nothing but a diversion in this story, and it's fitting that he's dispatched of so quickly and effortlessly. But even with that perfect ending, the Kraven story didn't need to be crammed in to this already busy volume.

Into this mix is also added two persistent SHIELD agents, one of which is Sharon Carter, investigating Ock's actions and his connection to Hammer and Norman Osborn. They leave with Ock at the end, but end up as nothing than yet another element in the mix here. Instead of creating an exciting vibe, these multiple elements just make the story feel to cramped and busy at points, stifling some of the more interesting stories, like Ock's struggle to accept his predicament.

The strongest material in volume 3 comes from Peter and his high school life. Bendis puts a spotlight on Kong, who is portrayed as a Spidey-worshipper. There's a great subplot where Kong believes he's pieced together Spider-Man's identity (in a wonderfully paced scene by both creators); it's a really good twist on what we've typically gotten out of Peter's high school life. Liz Allan continues to be portrayed as slightly uncomfortable with the superhero craze, given the danger at the school. There's also strong interaction between Peter and Mary Jane, as the latter helps him with sewing his costumes and disguising his wounds. There's the beginnings of inevitable jealously between Mary Jane and a new female character, just as she and Peter are getting physically intimate.

That new character is the Ultimate version of Gwen Stacy, a radically different character than I'm used to. She's a new student who comes off as mysterious and strange to her new classmates, waxing about the nature of powers and superheroes in her first scene, then brandishing a knife on Kong when he bullies Peter. Bendis doesn't play that for the expected commentary on high school violence; instead, he uses it to present us an instantly interesting and damaged Gwen, making me question throughout what drove this teenage girl to behave as she did. Her father, police captain Arthur Stacy, also plays a role, investigating one of Ock's murders (yet another character thrown into the mix, but he's fairly minor). I quite liked the scene where Gwen apologies to the class for the knife and questions why Kong hasn't been asked to apologize to Peter for what he did. She's an interesting addition to the book.

Thankfully, Bendis keeps focus on Peter throughout everything going on here. There's good material with him volleying through the challenges of Ock and Kong discovering his identity, as well as finally getting a moment of public adulation at the end. At the very end, May confronts him for his disappearance, is a very good scene. Bendis has added a real complication to his life as Spider-Man, by having May exist as more than just a doting, worrying aunt, but a younger, more vital member of the cast.

Bagely continues to be a valuable member of the creative team, particularly on the action scenes. There were times when his work got cramped here, reflecting the nature of the story, and I'm worried that his angular style might be too harsh for some of the more emotional character scenes, but it's still a strong looking comic.

The final twist, of Ock revealing that he knows Peter is Spider-Man, is a great scene, but it caps off an overly busy story that volleyed and shifted focus too many times from it's interesting central villain. I'm beginning to wonder if Bendis is rushing into this world too quickly, as the pieces he set up in the opening arc created a real and vibrant world. Even with the many strengths of this volume, I don't see the need to throw this many elements into the world this early.

Iron Man V. 3 #2– “Avalanche!” (January 1998)

Kurt Busiek (writer) Sean Chen (pencils) Eric Cannon, Sean Parsons, Al Milgrom (inks)

Synopsis: Tony takes on his first consulting assignment for Stark Solutions, helping his former girlfriend, Countess Stephanie De La Spirosa with accounting irregularities in her manufacturing company in Switzerland. Tony notices she is keeping him from getting any work done, and goes to investigating her company’s facility as Iron Man. He’s quickly attacked by armed troops referring to themselves as the Siege Engineers. He covers them in an avalanche and escapes, with suspicions that Stephanie’s company is manufacturing advanced weapons. The next day, Tony confronts her about her efforts to evade him from doing any work. He escapes after a skirmish with the armed men in her house, and is soon suited up as Iron Man, flying towards the facility. The Siege Engineers re-emerge, and, while Tony fights them, Stephanie’s chalet explodes. Out of the smokes emerge a squad of Dreadnoughts.

The Subplots: Happy and Pepper are now both working for Stark Solutions. Hints are dropped about their separation; At an undisclosed location, a young girl informs a shadowed figure that their Swiss supplier has been compromised, and that Tony Stark is involved. He asks for the counter measures to be activated; Tony is still pondering who hired the Death Squad to kill him.

Notes: Countess Stephanie De La Spirosa first appeared way back in Tales of Suspence#69 as a jilted lover of Tony’s, who interfered in his fights with the Titanium Man, and, later, the Thinker. They have apparently buried the hatchet since.

The Dreadnought robots were once the exclusive possession of Hydra, but have been employed by other criminal organizations, such as AIM and the Maggia.

Although the mystery figure is shadowed, it’s not too difficult from the decor to determine who it is. It’s heavily implied that his “counter measures” are the Dreadnoughts. The mention of his “Swiss supplier” implies another figure involved in all of this.

Thoughts: For me, things pick up considerably from the first issue. Gone is the Tony who exclusively sat around and moped. He’s replaced with a Tony who is astute and a bit harder, but still thoughtful and likable. Busiek is also doing a great job in his portrayal of Iron Man. Getting into the way Tony uses his armour and his components has made for some fun scenes. Chen has thrown in a bunch of POV shots that demonstrate Iron Man’s different abilities, livening up some standard battle scenes.

Busiek also does a good job jumping into Tony’s first Stark Solutions case. In typical Busiek fashion, he brings back a minor character from the 1960s for a major role But this appearance barely relies on that continuity and works well, and better than just creating an “old flame” for Tony. The intrigue of her business troubles is well-done, if straightforward. The breakfast scene, where Tony confronts her, is a fun, dramatic one for all involved. The only drawback is the villains. The two fight scenes, both nicely rendered against the snowy Alps, are fun, but this far all Tony has faced in this title are armed soldiers.

Overall, it’s still a good, straightforward superhero story, with effort put in to make its lead character seem intelligent and interesting. Sean Chen is doing a great job. The scenes with Iron Man in action look excellent, as all of the technology looks great and the battles are well-staged. His people can look a little stiff and not too expressive, but Liquid’s colours really bring them to life, rounding them and their surroundings to make them pop.