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by **Punchy** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 4:09 pm

What was so bad about killing the Housing Developer? He was a cunt.

Constantine is not a hero.

by **Stephen Day** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 8:11 pm

BlueStreak wrote:Next week's pick:

Avengers #10

Ah good, that series is on my pull list. I'll certainly be able to review it.

by **Victorian Squid** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 8:14 pm

GHERU wrote:G-ddammit!
just once, I'd like a book I pick to be .. you know ... good, and I thought this was a guanteed win.

and I was wrong

As an aside, I love Hellblazer, I fucking love this series, my personal comic book gola used to be to have every issue of Hellblazer in the single issue format - and I achieved that goal a little over a year ago. Yes, I have read all 267 issues of this book, and #276 has shot up to the top 3 of the worst issues of the whole series and definitely the worst of Milligan's otherwise superb run.

This issue read as if it was going to be a starting point for morons by morons. Nothing about the writing showed any kind of inspiration at all, and the plot was juvenile at best and malicious at worst. Basically John killed a man for no reason. He never tried to reason with him, he never tried to solve the problem, all he did was prove to himself and his wife that he really is a bad a person as he claims to be, and although I do not have perfect memory of the whole series, I cannot think of any thing else he has done that is an inexcusable as his actions in this issue.

Yes, John is an ass but usually he is not an evil ass.

At least we had Simon Bisley as the artist, so there was a bright side

Story - 2
Art - 9
Overall - 5.5

sorry guys

Not your fault, I was sort of keen on seeing where the book was at after a number of years, but yeah it was not a great issue and for Vertigo a treading water instead of breaking new ground book. Very underwhelming.

by **Victorian Squid** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 8:19 pm

The writer didn't do his job convincing the reader the "bad guy" deserved his fate, and it could have. It just relied on the warped and oversimplified financial crisis to raise that level of ire, and it fell short. Yes, he was a cunt. So was Constantine. I wade through cunts daily.

Either the story needed to do its job and make him out to be more than just a bit of a prick, or Constantine should've spared him when he came a'knocking. IMO.

by **Punchy** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 8:29 pm

Viktor Ian Skwydde wrote:The writer didn't do his job convincing the reader the "bad guy" deserved his fate, and it could have. It just relied on the warped and oversimplified financial crisis to raise that level of ire, and it fell short. Yes, he was a cunt. So was Constantine. I wade through cunts daily.

Either the story needed to do its job and make him out to be more than just a bit of a prick, or Constantine should've spared him when he came a'knocking. IMO.

If he spared him, he wouldn't be Constantine, and this would be a DCU book.

by **Victorian Squid** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 8:48 pm

Punchy wrote:
If he spared him, he wouldn't be Constantine, and this would be a DCU book.

That's just a silly thing to say, it's not a truism in any way.

by **Punchy** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 7:47 am

Viktor Ian Skwydde wrote:
That's just a silly thing to say, it's not a truism in any way.

Maybe it is, but I stand by the fact that Constantine killing this bloke is not a problem. That probably makes me a terrible person though.

by **Victorian Squid** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 9:41 am

Punchy wrote:
Maybe it is, but I stand by the fact that Constantine killing this bloke is not a problem. That probably makes me a terrible person though.

It's not like I'm crying on his grave or anything, but it reduced most of the book to watching a couple of assholes making out. Which is always a cue to take the party elsewhere.

by **guitarsmashley** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 12:21 pm

just got back from vacation last night so no review from me this week.

by ****** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 12:23 pm

guitarsmashley wrote:just got back from vacation last night so no review from me this week.

Your vacation is killing Vertigo! :smt013

by **guitarsmashley** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 4:23 pm

Johann Snow wrote:
Your vacation is killing Vertigo!

I'm guessing this has been the drama caused by this thread and you have no idea. I'm not sure what my employment/living situation I cancelled my next BOC, the funny thing is out of all the books I get vertigo ones are the only ones I'll be picking up in stores once a month or so.

by ****** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 4:37 pm

guitarsmashley wrote:
I'm guessing this has been the drama caused by this thread and you have no idea. I'm not sure what my employment/living situation I cancelled my next BOC, the funny thing is out of all the books I get vertigo ones are the only ones I'll be picking up in stores once a month or so.

Yeah, I was speaking purely of the oncoming Vertipocalypse. I had no prior knowledge of your personal situation, hope everything works out.

by **Zero** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 4:41 pm

I've read it but reviewing requires caring. It was pretty meh apart from the art and I don't like seeing Constantine getting his hands so dirty himself. A three will be forthcoming in the morning I suspect.

by **guitarsmashley** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 7:41 pm

Johann Snow wrote:
Yeah, I was speaking purely of the oncoming Vertipocalypse. I had no prior knowledge of your personal situation, hope everything works out.

It's a pretty recent development. I'm looking for a new job because the security isn't here and no job means no place to live. I'm not sitting back and letting it happen but comics are $40-$60 a month habit that can be dropped before things like groceries and gasoline.

by **S.F. Jude Terror** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 10:19 pm

I've never read Hellblazer before. I think it's an issue of Twigglet's Second Theory of Comic Book Continuity Alienation, where I find it intimidating to jump onto issue #200something of a long running indy book. In any case, I gave it a shot, and I was not impressed. John Constantine comes off as a kind of obnoxious narcissist. The dialog tries way to hard to be cool. I'm not sure if Constantine is supposed to be a sympathetic character, maybe he isn't, but he certainly isn't written like one. The businessman (who should be commended for being successful in the corporate world while sporting Jerry Only's devil lock hairdo), wasn't sympathetic either, but his actions also weren't all that offensive to me, so the result was a story that I had absolutely no emotional investment in. If every character in the story died, I would be happier, as I don't like any of them. Again, maybe that's the point of the character, I don't really know. Either way, not for me. In addition to that, it was difficult to follow, which doesn't speak well for the artist. Overall, the book wasn't horrible. Just uninteresting.

Story: 2
Art: 2
Overall: 2