The Good

After the events of CONSTANTINE #5, John is left for dead and battling Chris, who died in the first issue. The Cold Flame makes their move, and it's up to Papa Midnite to put his personal feelings aside in order to help.

Artist Renato Guedes does a fantastic job on this issue, especially with the beautiful two-page spread of Tannarak cutting off the heads of two people. Colorist Marcelo Maiolo also does great with his color work throughout the book. His color palate is consistent and gives this issue a very distinct style.

Papa Midnite returns, once again, and has to set aside how he feels about John because it's for the greater good of the world. It's a pretty cool scene, and Guedes and Fawkes really pace out this scene well. On top of that, there's some great caption dialogue from John as Papa attempts to help him come back to the world of the living. The description gives the reader a better idea of what is going on, internally, with John while we physically see what's happening to him.

CONSTANTINE #6 leaves the reader with a pretty awesome cliffhanger page, which will not be spoiled here. Although the issue was a bit down the middle, this final page is tremendously exciting.

The Bad

First half of the issue is a bit slow and could have been trimmed down a tad. The scene with Chris and Constantine dragged a bit too long, and the scene with Tannarak, the Cold Flame, and Mister E and Sargon did as well. It felt like the information that needed to get out during these scenes took way to long to actually get out. It takes about 10 pages for this book to really get interesting.

The book does feel a bit like a quick "connect-the-gaps" issue where the reader is left with John dead at the end of CONSTANTINE #5, and the Cold Flame needs to move forward with their plan. It comes off as a lot less interesting than the rest of the issues in this series.

The Verdict

CONSTANTINE is fine series. This wasn't the best issue in the series, but overall, it's still a very solid read. The first half of this book is a bit slow and it feels a bit like filler, more than anything else. However, the second half of this book is fantastic and the reveal page is pretty darn exciting. If you enjoyed the last issue of CONSTANTINE, you're going to want to pick this up. Newcomers, this may not be the best place for you to jump on. Overall, I give this a mild recommendation.

How has this book been? I flipped threw the first two issues and it seemed to me it was trapped trying to be a teenage book and one for adults. Has it found its place?

Something tells me Hellblazer was better

a lot better

Like, A LOT better, much much better

Oh man that last page was epic. Poor Dotty...

This series, unfortunately, has been disappointing at best. For me, the New 52 version of John is really lacking something that the Vertigo version of the character had. I get that the versions aren't going to be exactly the same, but I feel like the writers (not just Fawkes, but anyone who has written John in the New 52 so far with the exception of Milligan on JLD) are trying to recapture the charisma John had in Hellblazer (where he could be a total ass and screw you over, but at the end of the day you still wanted to buy him a drink) and they are failing at it.

I am liking this book. The art is excellent and the story line has been interesting so far. It's definitely not Hellblazer but I didn't come in expecting it to be.

I dropped this book, just didn't have the magic I was looking for.

I set aside my personal feelings and gave this series an actual shot. Being a fan of JLD and Renato Guedes I thought "what the hell". It started off well enough but by issue 3 or 4 I was already turned off. It just isn't worthy of my dollars or John Constantine.

Maybe we'll be lucky enough that DC will bring John back to Vertigo at some point in a new series.

I MISS HELLBLAZER!!! The day it got cancelled was one of the worst days of the year for me. Next to Batman, Constantine is my favorite character and now he gets dumbed down and kid friendly. I would love to read a Hellblazer comic where John meets the DCU version of himself and kicks him in the balls.

The big problem with this series is...

if I don't buy it, I don't get my John fix and DC thinks nobody likes the character, so they cancel this series too and destroy any chance of getting Hellblazer back.

If I buy it, I pay money for a watered down version of something I love, and DC thinks I actually like it and won't change anything.

Oh man... I want Hellblazer back.

I know this is blashemy but I have been enjoying this run. yeah its no Helblazer but I'd rather have this than no Constantine at all.

I don't really think this book is kid friendly by any means. The imagery in this book is by no means as graphic as Hellblazer but it really doesn't have to be for me to enjoy it.