This is really more like 2.5 stars, and represents a pretty massive dropoff in quality following Ennis's character-defining run. Whereas Ennis's approach to Hellblazer was full of energy and life and humanity, while still managing to be a constantly surprising Constantine vs. The Minions of Hell thrill ride.Now, we're left with what feels like a book trying to figure out what to do with itself now that it's dad has gone. Yeah, Garth Ennis is Hellblazer's dad, who cares.I mean, the book starts wi...

Yo, John, if you're in the habit of making copies of yourself, maybe send one my way, yeah? Thanks in advance.

Hellblazer Vol- 9: Critical Mass collects issues n º 84 to 96 of the title "John Constantine: Hellblazer". In the previous volume Garth Ennis finished is long-running work on Hellblazer; Volume 9 brings us the first stories of a writer that will also have a long and seminal run on "Hellblazer", a run that oddly enougth remained uncollected in tradepaperback form until now. The writer in question is Paul Jenkins. However this Vol. 9 does not open with Paul Jenkins run in the title but with a grea...

This is a half-n-half anthology which consists of parts that were plainly never intended to be welded together. So it's a not entirely rewarding experience.Yet there are some entertaining interludes and these include a simply brilliant back-story set in John's youth. This explains his close relationship with Chas and features Constantine at his best, using guile and deceit to bamboozle a bestial horror (which happens to be... erm... Chas' mother). It's deliciously crude and clever, a perfect ble...

Well, it literally took me two weeks to read this because I kept staring it at on my shelf and just going 'uuuuuuuuuuugh' so ...that pretty much sums up how I feel about it lol. It starts with a random issue from Delano that is just ...such a thing. Includes Chas' mom and John trying to seduce a monkey and me thinking about how Delano's stuff is always so weirdly sexist. Next we've got some weird urban legends coming to life evil ghost dude trying to end the world thing. Features John going to A...

Critical Mass is a mess of a story. It came to a point I did not care for any character in it. It gets a bit better later on - when it stops being preachy.Knocking off a couple of stars because of the preachiness.

This is a bit of a mixed bag of stories due to three different writers in this one. Jamie Delano's story about why Chas will do anything Constantine is pretty good and quite disturbing. Then there's Eddie Campbell's story about urban legends coming to life. It's a neat idea but Campbell's storytelling is so obtuse I didn't know what was happening throughout most of it. Then new creative team Paul Jenkins and Sean Phillips begin what will be a great long run of Hellblazer. John's in Australia at

Constantine is at his beat in the UK, when half the book takes place in the South Pacific it drags.

In “Critical Mass”, the ninth volume of John Constantine, Hellblazer: the ghost of Francis Dashwood, an 18th-century rake and founder of the infamous Hellfire Club, enlists a reluctant Constantine to stop the Apocalypse (or at least a relatively inconvenient cosmic approximation); Constantine ends up in Australia, meets some aborigines, goes on a spiritual walkabout, and makes friends with an aboriginal serpent deity who’s hungry for land-poachin’ whities; a friend of Constantine’s who went miss...

Paul Jenkins is one of my favorite Hellblazer writers so far. I thoroughly enjoyed the Critical Mass arc, and couldn’t put it down. The Australia bit was fun too, and I liked Eddie Campbell’s writing, and the way the Dreamtime was represented, visually and narratively. Overall, this is a very solid volume, and a great example of why I love Constantine and his misadventures.

I've been waiting just short of 20 years for this volume. I'm thankful for a horrible movie and a whitewashed TV show finally getting the old Hellblazer collections on track.In Another Part of Hell (84). Delano's back, and this is a terrific story. It's a powerful one-off, and it's also great for the light it sheds on the Chas/John relationship. [8/10]Warped Notions (85-88). I've never been able to connect well with Eddie Campbell's writing, and this is no exception. It may be that he's too subt...

Volume Nine of Hellblazer was very good. It starts off with a very cool story about why Chas owes John Constantine and is willing to do anything for him as a true friend. I enjoyed seeing the reason behind their friendship.The next story arcs were just ok. In one, JC must deal with a restless spirit that can change reality and in the other, JC goes to Australia to deal with a Serpent spirit and help the locals while he takes a spirit walk. These two stories, for me, were just ok. The Australia s...

A volume with comics by three different writers is almost inevitably a mixed bag. (Though occasionally they might all be top notch like the ones in vol. 4, The Family Man, which included stories by Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison, as well as my favourite HB writer so far, Jamie Delano.)The Delano story here, in #84 - apparently set in the 1970s when John & Chas were young - gets a bad rap, but, whilst some of the details about the monkey aren't great, I like the overall arc of Chas' mother, the c...

So Ennis jumps off and here comes Jenkins. Well not too quick. First we have Delano come back first, and...it's a pretty great issue. Then we have Eddie Campbell, a writer I never heard of, chun out one of the most long, tedious, and confusing stories I've ever read in comic medium. Once we get past that we're introduced to Jenkins Hellblazer...except the first short story is like a bad ET knockoff. Then we FINALLY get to the Critical Mass story and...it was pretty good. Seriously the middle is

Oh, This was awesome. Totally bravo performance. The first couple of one-shots preceding this volume weren't all that! But Critical Mass takes Paul Jenkins to a whole other field, writing wise. The story follows an old friend of JC, Richard meeting up with him and introducing him to his family, Michele, the wife and Syder, the gawky, but adorable son. While on a field trip to a haunted house, Syder gets lost and stumbles upon an old gnarly gentleman, who happens to be the demon, Buer. Buer is ou...

The story this collection is named after has been a favourite of mine for a decade. I hunted the issues down on ebay, and held a grudge against DC for not collecting it in a trade paperback. So I'm very glad to finally get my hands on this book.Paul Jenkins, for all that DC didn't seem to appreciate him, writes a pitch-perfect Constantine, and Sean Phillips' art doesn't just capture John Constantine as well as he's ever been captured, and drench his world in the appropriate amount of shadow, and...

Took me forever to get through this, but it was so good, I already can't wait to read more Hellblazer! 🖤

Now this is more like it. I honestly did not expect to enjoy this as much as I did. In large part, this was because Sean Philips, the new main illustrator, is stunning. His linework and inking has so much weight and texture to it. The layouts (which honestly were rarely weak in Hellblazer) haven't looked this good since Dave McKean did a story. It just finally looks... occult. Everything is so sinuous, expressive and dark. I just love looking at the book, and this is the first time a main illust...

I'll put this review right down the middle. Half almost gibberish in its incoherent story telling (Eddie Campbell) but it ends with a five parter that was as satisfying as any I have read in Hellblazer (Thanks to Paul Jenkins). Jenkins took a few issues to get his feet after Campbell's mess of a story (Warped Notions) but the entire volume is made better due to Sean Phillips' excellent art. Warped Notions had a semi interesting idea...I guess...a ghost wants to get John to go around the world so...

Probably my least favourite volume so far, considering how long it took me to force my way through it. That said, there are some great stories in here, the done-in-one issues being a highlight and the titular Critical Mass story being Constantine at his scheming best. The Hellfire Club story is a bit odd, and the Dreamtime story is probably an issue too long, which drag the volume down and make for slow going at the beginning, hence why it took me so long to motivate myself to read the better, l...