It's officially the nineties for Hellblazer, y'all! And we have a brand new writer on the black named Eddie Campbell who is now about to give us a riveting story arc that we're supposed to sink our teeth in. From what I understand, Campbell is only going to be present for this arc alone, and a more constant writer by the name of Paul Jenkins will take over, making that guy the official successor of the entire line-up. So let's tackle the story arc entitled Warped Notions.
The premise issue #85 features a cover that at first I thought was a callback to the previous Delano issue about Chas' grandchild whom John refused to hold. I thought this was a sort of wish fulfillment scenario or something--but I was mistaken IN THE MOST HORRIBLE WAY POSSIBLE. But before we touch upon that, let us talk about what happened in the premise. John was consulted by a friend of his whose uncle was being possessed by apocalyptic visions of the future. He tried to exorcise him but failed spectacularly because the uncle, Arthur Shinbone, died in his bed. John wasn't too eager to tell the family how he fucked that up, so it was fortunate that a bunch of dead people greeted him in the living room instead.
These unwelcome guests are spirits, and the spokesperson of the triad is the historical Sir Francis Dashwood, one of the founders of the original Hellfire Club. The other two companions who are less willing to see John are Bona Dea (a handicapped woman missing her arms, legs and eyes, resembling the Venus de Milo statue) and Murnarr, a giant cat. Sir Francis Dashwood sought for John Constantine's help about some case which I instantly forgot once I started typing this review.
Now that sounds neglectful, I know, but I'm sure I'll make up for it in my next review when things start making more sense later on because for now I don't think either Sir Francis or John have a clue as to what they are about to face. However, they are going to Philadelphia to track down more supernatural activity that has something to do with their case at hand. It's something to do with mobs. Yeah. Mobs are a product of 'the delicate power of terror' as Sir Francis creatively put it. People will riot about anything for any reason. Ah, the poor, gullible masses indeed.
All I can gather for now aside from that socio-political stuff is that urban legends are coming true. One of them is a half-dead rodent climbing up a man's anus to eat his internals. Another is a baby sewed up to become a drug mule. The issue ended with that happy note where a dog apprehended a mother and her babe in the airport because the baby is apparently full of drugs inside. So that's where the cover idea came from! How quaint. This is a very short review and I promise that tomorrow I will come up with something that actually expounds the plot and the characters included. For now, the premise issue was baffling in a lot of places yet I'm still interested to see what Campbell intends to do with the story as it develops.
All I can gather for now aside from that socio-political stuff is that urban legends are coming true. One of them is a half-dead rodent climbing up a man's anus to eat his internals. Another is a baby sewed up to become a drug mule. The issue ended with that happy note where a dog apprehended a mother and her babe in the airport because the baby is apparently full of drugs inside. So that's where the cover idea came from! How quaint. This is a very short review and I promise that tomorrow I will come up with something that actually expounds the plot and the characters included. For now, the premise issue was baffling in a lot of places yet I'm still interested to see what Campbell intends to do with the story as it develops.
RECOMMENDED: 7/10
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