Publisher:  DC Comics

  "John Constantine, Hellblazer: All his Engines" is a brand new and original graphic novel written by Mike Carey with art by Leonardo Manco. As a Hellblazer fan ever since the blokes first appearance in Swamp Thing # 37, I can tell you it's one of the finest stories yet. When the granddaughter of Constantine's friend Chas goes into an unexplainable coma, he contacts John to try and help. Little Tricia is just one of dozens of victims of this same mysterious affliction. Constantine soon finds there is demonic influence at work which leads him and Chas to Los Angeles and the mansion of a demon named Beroul.

   Beroul and several other demons have decided to open up their own, little parcels of hell on Earth...think of it like a franchise. Beroul wants Constantine to eliminate the competition and is holding little Tricia as ransom to secure his services. Constantine can cause no harm to Beroul without risking the life of Tricia as he has her soul imprisoned within his own fat, putrid body. There's a marvelously wicked scene when John first encounters Beroul at his swimming pool...a foul built-in, filled with decaying bodies that the demon is liquefying down in order to bathe in...Constantine is up against it again. He finds his only recourse may be to make a deal with an immortal being even worse than the demons...an Aztec God of Death!

   "All His Engines" is typical of most Hellblazer stories with John making a mistake in judgment that leads to the death of an associate and in generally puts his friends in danger. And of course, in typical fashion John gets the snot kicked out of him on a number of occasions. But as ever, he proves his ultimate resourcefulness, particularly in dealing with Beroul's competition. You get a good idea of why just about every demon in the underworld would love his head on the end of a pole.

   Hellblazer has always had artists who do a wonderful job of capturing the palpable darkness that is Constantine's world and Leonardo Manco is no exception. His depictions of the various demons and the Death God are truly horrific. The use of this being of a near forgotten mythology comes off as brilliant in its execution.

   The book concludes with some fantastic resource information about the character and his creation by Alan Moore twenty years ago. Hard to believe it's been that long. Great story!

 - Tim Janson

The Horror Review © Copyright 2005/2006 - Present. All rights reserved.

All Reviews on this website are strictly the opinion of The Horror Review team and do not express the opinion of any one else but their own.

 All films reviewed are copyrighted with their respected owners and the United States Copyright Office.

 Please do not take anything from this site without the permission of The Webmaster