It needs to be said yet again: JOHN CONSTANTINE MAKES THE WORST ENEMIES.
This second installment for the Guys and Dolls story arc is such a delight. It was a brisk twenty-five-paged flashback piece about dramatic revelations concerning yet another scintillating cornerstone of John's sordid past.
Ennis as a writer is starting to grow on me too. With the exception of This is the Diary of Danny Drake, he's been giving me average, entertaining stories in the meantime but that was until we get to this one which is proving to be a riveting story.
We discover the connection between John and Ellie by the time the first page starts. Apparently, post-Newcastle during Christmas, John was visited by an odd couple in the most literal sense. They were seeking not only shelter but his help. The woman is with child and the man is anxious to keep her safe. They reveal themselves as the most unlikely pair imaginable; John even dubbed them as "Romeo and Juliet on acid".
It turns out that the man is an angel named Tali seduced by the pregnant woman in question, Chantinelle (or Ellie, for short) who is a succubus. Their forbidden union was blessed/cursed with a baby on the way.
They sought out Constantine because he doesn't play favorites and because up to that point he was reckless enough to dare help them. And he was, just because he's curious to see what kind of progeny/abomination is about to be unleashed from Ellie's womb.
He started asking around to see if Hell was privy of this and found out that they weren't at all. After stashing away the lovers in some house protected by spells, he stumbled upon Ellie who is just about to give birth, only for it to be hijacked by a bunch of white-hooded men I am not at all familiar with but they seem to be legitimately powerful enough to take away the baby after brutally obliterating the angel-father and then leaving the succubus-mother to almost bleed to death. John was cowering in a corner while this was all happening, too fearful and out of his depth to even attempt to stop whatever atrocity is being committed. He just closed his eyes, placed his hands on his face and hoped that whatever that thing was, it was disposed of in case its creation is a harbinger of destruction on Earth. Still, a small part of him hopes that it did live because as a human being, he would still look at that monster as an innocent child who didn't ask to be born the way it had been. So he does owe Ellie big.
We then jump back to the present with Ellie trying to seduce John but he just dismisses her and goes off to prepare for the war that is about to smack him in the face courtesy of the First of the Fallen. Speaking of that amusing bastard: he's busy tormenting Nergal, the Newcastle demon enemy of John who condemned the little girl Astra to Hell, for the sole reason that he failed to eliminate Constantine when he had the chance. FotF easily reversed Nergal's demonic nature to render him back into his mortal form just so his tortures would be a thousand times more painful to bear. That was honestly creepy to witness. FotF later claims that, unlike Lucifer, he doesn't get bored with power. He doesn't stall or soliloquy about the unfairness of eternal damnation. He fucking loves being the king of Hell and he is determined to bring down John Constantine because, apparently, he is his main adversary, the only thing standing in his way to...I don't know.
At this point, FotF's motivation still perplexes me. His ego was wounded so now he's lashing out. That's basically it. He couldn't stand the fact that he was duped by a mortal. Poor sod.
That means he's going to steal John's soul, right? And that would affect the contracts John has with the other two demon kings which really means war will happen...and all because John Constantine got his fingers all lubed up and stuck in those tight asscheeks owned by the most ferocious leaders of Hell itself. It looks like his reputation is catching up to him in such an untimely manner especially now that he's finally wiser and happier with what he does, little by little forgiving himself for the man he once was.
RECOMMENDED: 8/10
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