Writer: Brian Azzarello
Artist: Richard Corben
Colourist: James Sinclair
Letterer: Clem Robbins
Price: £8.99 / $9.95
Publisher: Titan Books, Vertigo/DC Comics
Collecting HELLBLAZER #146-150 ISBN: 1-84023-255-2 (Titan) 1-56389-696-6 (DC)

An American writing Hellblazer? Horrors! They won't be able to do it. They'll get the accent wrong. They'll take John out of London! They'll ruin the book!

That was more or less the reaction to Brian Azzarello being chosen to follow Warren Ellis on Vertigo's longest running title. Of course, this was all before the book came out, and was therefore horribly unfair.

HARD TIME is Azzarello's first arc on the title. The preview information was interesting, offering us the premise of the story: John Constantine's crimes catch up with him and he goes to jail - a new experience for the man who gets away with it all. It sounded like a sensible start, and would give Azzarello time to play to his strengths while he worked out what he wanted to do with title, having been deprived of the usual lead time by coming onto the title a bit suddenly following Ellis' unexpected departure.

The story opens promisingly, with an inmate narrating the story of John's arrival in prison, and the various inmates' attempts to gain power over him. This being John Constantine, they fail, and suffer various unpleasant consequences.

The six parts of this story move along at a nice pace, saving the mystery of exactly why John is in jail for until the last part. By this time, John is running the prison, and the authorities are eager to get him out of the way if only so that they can get back control. But it's in this last part that the story goes horribly wrong.

Azzarello openly acknowledges that, given the kind of man Constantine is, and with the powers he has, the only way John's going to wind up in jail is if he allows himself to be put there. This is fine and sensible. What is less sensible is the reason he gives us for John giving in (which, in an effort not to spoil the ending, we can only allude to here).

The blurb on the back of this book has Alan Moore (John's creator in SWAMP THING) saying that the creative team have John "down, cold and to the life". While Moore's Constantine might have been like the one presented in this book, the fact remains that John has changed substantially in the decade that he's had his own title, and the motivations that Azzarello ascribes to him ring jarringly false. Given that the revelation of John's reasons for being in jail forms the climax of the story, this cannot be considered anything but a gaping flaw in the piece. The finale undermines our belief in all the characterisation that has gone before, and destroys any faith we might have had in Azzarello's handle on Constantine.

In addition to this failure, while it may not be true that no American can do convincing British dialogue, it is sadly true that Azzarello's grasp on it seems very shaky at times. Some of the time it sounds like John is sarcastically putting on an exaggerated upper class British accent. However, since this put-on accent seems to be more in evidence than John's normal speech patterns, even in situations where there doesn't seem to be much sense to it, one is forced to wonder exactly what Azzarello is trying to achieve. It's possible that Azzarello does feel that this is how John would treat Americans to his sarcasm, in which case, it's just something else that doesn't quite ring true as Constantine. Once or twice for a joke is fine, but used constantly, it just doesn't work. More likely, though, the unusual accent just reflects an inability to get the dialogue right.

The art also seems slightly off. It's excellent art, as one would expect from a horror veteran like Richard Corben, but there's a nagging sense throughout that this is not perhaps the best style for HELLBLAZER, or for the prison horror story that is being told. All of the characters come out looking slightly rounded and rubber faced, when one cannot help but suspect that harder lines and sharper edges would suit this story better. On the plus side, though, the storytelling is clear and easy to follow, and the characters look consistent throughout and possess a certain degree of subtlety of expression.

The story itself is well told, and the horror handled sensibly by both writer and artist, keeping a solid wall of mystery around exactly what it is John does to his victims and leaving plenty to the reader's imagination, as good horror should. John is played as a cold bastard throughout, always in control, always one step ahead, right at the heart of the terror.

The horror in the piece does not rely on ghosts or demons or anything supernatural, but rather on what people will do to survive when things get bad, and more specifically, what they'll do to their fellow men, and to themselves. Azzarello handles his theme well, here. The opening pages seem horrifying enough on first reading, detailing the steps a weaker convict has had to take in order to stay safe in prison, but by the time the last chapter arrives, we've all but forgotten this horror in the face of the much greater horrors that John has unleashed. Constantine is shown to live up to his description as "The Devil ... come home to hell."

All things considered, this is an excellent horror story told well by two talented men. Any fan of a good horror story could do a great deal worse than put their money down for this. Sadly, while it's a good horror story, the final chapter means that it's not a good HELLBLAZER story. Perhaps Azzarello is laying seeds for later on in his run on the ongoing title, but that's well outside the scope of the story and this review. The first four chapters are as good as any that have appeared in the title, but the final chapter rings so strange that it spoils all the earlier ones. Poor HELLBLAZER, but a perfectly good piece of horror.

Alasdair Watson is the author of the Eagle Award-nominated RUST.

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