Constantine #18

By Ray Fawkes, Jeremy Haun, Richard & Tanya Horie

Constantine #18 signifies a change in approach for the series, taking the titular character out of his old world into Earth 2, where the man immediately finds himself in a situation where he’s clearly out of his depth. Whilst it’s somewhat frustrating that this series is tying in with the World’s End weekly especially given the fact that a character with as bigger world already built as John Constantine shouldn’t really need to be involved with messes like this, it does allow for an interesting prospect to see the character come face to face with his Earth 2 counterpart.

One John Constantine is bad enough. Now imagine two. Whilst they don’t actually meet per say in this issue, Fawkes does a good job at laying the groundwork and from what we’ve seen here it looks like if you harm one Constantine whilst he’s in the same universe as the other, then both Constantines will be hurt. It will be interesting to see what happens going forward, especially given the fact that most first encounters in comic books generally don’t tend to go down too well.

The artwork is by Constantine newcomer Jeremy Haun and it looks good. It’s fantastic to see Constantine in action, and the difference between both John and his Earth 2 counterpart is handled extremely well. The pages split between them both and it’s clear that we’re dealing with very different Constantines with the difference recognisable in both artwork and narrative. Earth 2’s Constantine still has his allies, including Chas by his side, unlike the one that we’re familiar with who operates mostly on his own. Aside from that, Haun’s action sequences and magical scenes are handled well and with Richard and Tanya Horie operating on the colours, Constantine has never looked better. It’ll be great to see where this book goes in the future artistic wise, especially with the amazing covers that this series constantly has to offer.

Of course, it’s pretty clear by now that Constantine isn’t Hellblazer, but that doesn’t stop this from being one of DC’s stronger titles even with it involved in the Earth 2 drama right now (which at least so far, Fawkes is making it newcomer friendly). It’s always good to see this reviewer’s favourite comic character in action and going forward this series should be great to read, especially with the upcoming television show. Fawkes is getting better with each issue so hopefully he can make the first meeting of both Constantines pretty memorable. Next issue can’t come quickly enough.