Customer Reviews

Hellblazer: Lady Constantine

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Lady Constantine delves into the ancestry of the Hellblazer, John Constantine, taking us back to 18th century London and Lady Johanna Constantine, practitioner of the arcane arts. This traded paperback collects the four issue Lady Constantine mini-series. She is summoned before the mysterious Interventionists to locate a mysterious box sunk in a ship in the Arctic Sea with warnings that the box must not be opened. The Lady's price is high but the Interventionists agree. She soon sets off with her young sister Mouse, who she disguises as a young boy, aboard the ship of her friend Rafe McCallister bound for the Arctic. But Lady Constantine is not the only one seeking the box. The centuries old Lady Blackwood, cursed with immortality, also seeks the box she once owned. But now rather than being the boxes guardian, she seeks to open it, and unleash oblivion on the world. To do her bidding, she has created a mass of simulacrums to retrieve the box and bring it back to her. But Lady Constantine has her own allies, including the 18th century wood elemental and Swamp Thing ancestor Jack-in-the-Green. The race is on to see who can find the box first! In a nod to Clive Barker, the large box looks like one of Barker's puzzle boxes from the Hellraiser films.

I was pleasantly surprised by Lady Constantine. It was a solidly written story. While Lady Constantine certainly has some of the dark traits and thirsts for power of her later relative, she is also good-hearted and quite jovial. Almost a complete opposite of John Constantine. It probably won't take astute readers long to figure out just what this box really is, but it's still a fun ride getting there. The inclusion of the period's Swamp Thing was also a nice touch and helps tie this being's ancestry to that of the Constantine family. The ending certainly is left open for a sequel which I would love to see down the road and to also tie it to modern day events.

The art by Goran Sudzuka capped off this trade paperback in fine fashion. Sudzuka's art is less esoteric than many of the other artists who've worked on Constantine over the years. It's straight-forward and very polished and doesn't intrude on the story. The colors of Patricia Mulvihill finished things off perfectly. One of the better Vertigo books I've read this year!

Reviewed by Tim Janson

This short, but entertaining story gives us great insight to Lady Constantine, and shows the connection to her "later" cameo in The Sandman (which was actually written first). So you could consider this a prequel to both John Constantine: Hellblazer and The Sandman.