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HELLBLAZER #170
"Ashes & Dust In the City of Angels Part One"
Highly Recommended (10/10)
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DC Comics/Vertigo imprint
Writer: Brian Azzarello
Artist: Marcelo Frusin
Colors: Lee Loughridge
Letters: Clem Robins
Editor: Will Dennis
Price: $2.50 US/$4.25 CAN |
Azzarello and Frusin have become as impressive a team as Azzarello and Risso, and though their Hellblazer run has not been universally loved, I've
been enjoying it for the most part since they started. Their final story arc,
about the "death" of John Constantine, reads much like their others, hard-boiled
crime with a touch of the con game and a touch of the mystical, and it provides
a lot more questions than answers. In the hands of lesser talents, this kind of
story would be frustrating; in the hands of this creative team, it only makes me
want to know more.
One of the best aspects of Azzarello's run has been the introduction of a new supporting character into the Hellblazer mythos, the sardonic FBI Agent Frank
Turro, and he seems poised to play the protagonist role in "Ashes & Dust."
Turro is great in this issue, whether it's his condescending interaction with
the police detective on the scene or his masterful interrogation of various
suspects/witnesses in Constantine's death. His dialogue is crisp, informative
and often very funny.
As with many of Azzarello's
stories, particularly the ones surrounding John Constantine, the setting is an
unusual and somewhat disturbing one, in this case a private S&M sex club.
Azzarello always manages to convince me of the reality of his settings, and he
conveys the world of sexual exploration in vivid (maybe even lurid) detail. And
while there's something pathetic about Milton, he comes across as completely
real, a believable person who is like any one of us, but with some strange ideas
of sexual gratification. Ditto for Peggy, who is at once sexy and sleazy, but
whose realistic dialogue makes her seem smart and even funny and equally real.
Of course, a lot of that atmosphere, and that reality, comes from the artist, Marcelo Frusin. Azzarello has been graced with great artists on pretty much every project he's worked on, and Frusin delivers fantastic work, reminiscent of Risso's work on 100 Bullets, on Hellblazer. The club is grimy and frightening, but it has an element of sex along with the sadomasochistic elements, with the outfits, the suggestive shadows and other elements. The interrogation room has a perfect institutional feel to it, along with a "doctor's office" green by colorist Lee Loughridge. And the use of shadows and light is just as masterful here as it is over on 100 Bullets.
Though Hellblazer is definitely a different comic than it has
been before Azzarello took it over, I certainly don't think it's bad because of
that. Indeed, Azzarello and Frusin have explored human horror, the same way that
Warren Ellis did in his short run. "Ashes & Dust" seems like a win-win
situation for everyone: critics of Azzarello's run will soon have a new writer
to read, and fans of Azzarello's run have what looks like a hell of a story to
go out on.
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