John Constantine: Hellblazer — Dead in America

I enjoyed writer Simon Spurrier’s run on “Hellblazer.”  Up until its end.  At which point the writer, and regular artist Aaron Campbell showed us just how dark a story involving John Constantine had to be to keep the reader from enjoying it.  It’s worth noting that this wasn’t supposed to be the end as the writer had a lot of plans for the title character and his supporting cast, but DC wasn’t interested in giving that series any more rope.  A few years and some behind-the-scenes jockeying later (Thanks, Chris!) and we’ve got this follow-up series back to pick up where its predecessor left off.  Which turns out to be almost as miserable as how things ended last time – until it isn’t.

The previous series left off with a lot of important British people dead and John, angry Welsh headcracker Nat, and aspiringly violent amateur mute magician (and John’s secret son) Noah on the run as a result.  As a further complication, John’s body was dead even though it still kept moving.  So, with everything against them, where do three British expats go when they need a new start while laying low from the law?  Why, where else but the Colonies!

This isn’t John’s first time in America – he’s made frequent trips, including an extended one that started with him in prison during “Hellblazer’s” original run – but things have changed since he was last here.  There’s new management in the country, of the spiritual variety, and it’s keeping Dream of the Endless out.  Which is why he’s having Constantine do some of his dirty work for him:  Reclaiming the grains of dream sand that were stolen from his pouch and misused over the decades.

You can usually count on a good “Hellblazer” story to deliver an intriguing magical problem that needs to be solved, a convincing threat for its protagonist to pit himself against, and Constantine proving that he’s the smartest guy and/or biggest bastard in the room.  For most of “Dead in America’s” first half, these things aren’t delivered on all that well.  While the business of setting up the new premise of this series and its major players is handled well enough early on, things get rough once we get to the actual stories of the supernatural threats John and company face across the country.

I don’t think that we get any truly bad stories in this regard as Constantine has been no stranger to tackling issues relating to social justice over the years.  It’s just that most of them here tend to just flag up the fact that things are bad right now in this country without offering anything more than that.  Crazed militia guys trying to keep our border safe.  High school boys sexually assaulting a girl for fun.  Out of work writers working metamancy (okay, maybe that one was just indigestibly weird).  I’m not saying that every encounter Constantine has needs to be fun, but the stories told in the first half make it feel more like a grind than anything else.

Things don’t start turning around until Constantine hooks up with Doctor Diablo and the greater shape of the narrative starts coming into focus.  Even then it feels like Spurrier is leading the reader by the nose and clearly banking on their goodwill to sustain them while he lays everything out.  The writer loves doing stuff like this, but he’s also done it better elsewhere – like in last year’s “Coda” sequel miniseriees.

So, is it worth it?  The writer cuts it a bit closer than he should’ve for a series of this length, but it does wrap up in a very satisfying fashion.  Particularly if you’ve read DC’s Vertigo titles for as long as he (and I) did.  There are a lot of nods there, and throughout the series, to the old shared continuity between that imprint’s key titles and you may find yourself a little lost if you’re not familiar with it.  For everyone who is, it’ll come off as one of Constantine’s greatest schemes which will show that for all of his knowledge of magic, the man’s greatest power is his ability to bullshit better than nearly anyone else.

All of this is rendered moodily and murkily by Campbell.  I think he’s better about making the supernatural stuff look clearer when he goes in for a blurry effect compared to “Suicide Squad:  Blaze,” but there are plenty of parts where his regular look comes off as too gritty.  To the point where things start to blend together and get in the way of the storytelling.  There are definitely memorable bits strewn throughout here – like John’s glee at encouraging the demons to come and get first dibs on him at the end – but then you get Lisandro Estherren coming on for issue #8 and delivering a marvelously enchanting and malevolent vision of Hell and you wish that he could’ve done the whole thing.

This is not a perfect “Hellblazer” story and it is emphatically not for those who have no prior experience with the adventures of John Constantine.  However, if you’re like me and were hoping to see Spurrier and Campbell’s take on the Working Man’s Magus right itself, then this will fit the bill.  It may take a while to get there, but it eventually delivered the kind of storytelling I like in my “Hellblazer” stories in spades.  Which is good since it looks like John won’t be back for a while after this one.  Sorry, anxious readers.