Comic Info
Comic Name: Constantine/Constantine: Futures End
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Ray Fawkes
Artist: Juan Ferreyra/ACO/Edgar Salazar/Jay Leisten
# of Issues: 6
Release Date: 2015
Constantine #13
Reprints Constantine #13-17 and Constantine: Futures End #1 (June 2014-November 2014). John Constantine is an unwilling servant of the Cult of the Cold Flame. While working as their agent, John is trying to find a way to work out from under their thumb. With Mister E as his prisoner in the Moonblade, Constantine has a plan…but he could end up taking the strangest trip of his life.
Written by Ray Fawkes, Constantine Volume 3: The Voice in the Fire follows-up Constantine Volume 2: Blight. The collection features art by Juan Ferreyra, ACO, Edgar Salazar, and Jay Leisten. The collection includes Constantine #13-17 (June 2014-October 2014) and the one-shot Constantine: Futures End #1 (November 2014) which is a tie-in to the DC event title Futures End.
Constantine always was a character I felt I technically should have liked. The character is written as an ass, but he’s extremely clever. He has a lot of bad luck despite his cleverness, and every issue of Constantine is essentially him trying to get out of the trouble he helps create. Despite a smart set-up, I always find Constantine a struggle to read.
Constantine #17
The volume of Constantine continues the bigger story of the Cult of the Cold Flame which has been running through the New 52’s Constantine storyline. The issues feel like a combination of Doctor Strange’s sorcery and a watered down version of Constantine’s Vertigo Hellblazer series. It isn’t bad, but it is still weird to see Constantine back in the traditional capes and heroes DC universe.
As someone who didn’t read Futures End, the stand alone issue seems like a throwaway. The end of Constantine #17 has a cliffhanger (which is continued in Constantine #18). The collection feels like it should have just ended with that, but you have the additional almost Elseworlds Constantine story to round out this collection…but it holds little interest.
Constantine just doesn’t quite work for me. DC keeps tweaking the character and trying to fit him in as a mainstream character and he doesn’t quite work. I like the character more as a paranormal investigator who might stop by to “help” (or screw) other super-heroes. A limited series here and there wouldn’t be a bad mix, but a continuing, non-Vertigo Constantine title doesn’t seem right. Constantine 3: The Voice in the Fire is followed by Constantine 4: The Apocalypse Road.
Related Links:
Constantine 1: The Spark and the Flame
