HELLBLAZER #172 (Best of the Week!)
"Ashes & Dust in the City of Angels, Part Three"
Highly Recommended (9/10)
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DC Comics/Vertigo imprint
Writer: Brian Azzarello
Pencils: Marcelo Frusin
Colors: Lee Loughridge
Letters: Clem Robins
Editor: Will Dennis
Price: $2.50 US/$4.25 CAN |
The plot begins to come into focus... not just for "Ashes & Dust in the City of Angels," but for Azzarello's entire run as writer on Hellblazer. The intricacies of the grand-scope tale are impressive, but "Ashes & Dust" holds up well on its own as well. Combined with Frusin's sharp and dark figures, it makes for yet another great read. The truly disturbing aspect of this haunting story aren't the supernatural aspects, but the dark humanity on display before Agent Frank Turro.
As Turro continues his interrogation of the patrons and staff of the S&M club where John Constantine's body was consumed by flame, he begins to hear of a tense encounter between Constantine and the club's other unusual guest: a man derived no pleasure from the specialized pain offered at the establishment, but a sense of earned punishment. Elsewhere, that man talks of a different kind of punishment with his priest. He feels he is haunted, by Constantine and by his past.
In my reviews of the previous two issues, I've gone on and on about Frusin's simple but deep and dark style, and how effectively he conveys the corruption of the human soul. The same holds true here. Loughridge's eerie colors -- notably the green hue in which the police station is bathed -- add to the haunting plot elements and atmosphere. Bradstreet's cover design -- both for this issue and those before it -- merits mention as well. This deco/vignette approach teases the reader, drawing one into the seduction and danger of the story.
Though it's been touched upon in previous Azzarello story arcs, it's reinforced here. Constantine hasn't been wandering aimlessly around America. He's been dealing with some business -- old and new -- and it's all connected. Those who haven't been following Azzarello's Hellblazer run from the start might find themselves a little confused while reading pages 18-21, but while "Ashes & Dust" seems to be the culmination of one uber-plot, it's also a story in and of itself. The catalyst(s) for the plot is secondary to the ideas it explores and feelings it elicits from the reader.
Depravity. Self-pity. Envy. Pettiness. Self-indulgence. Self-destruction. Torment. Disdain. Azzarello explores all of these ideas and more in this story. It's disturbing not because it revolves around a charred corpse that burned inexplicably, but because when one removes that element, it remains a plausible tale. People and places depicted in this book could be all too real. It bothers us to know of such realities, but even more bothersome is how it piques one's curiosity.
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