This month's issue of Constantine: The Hellblazer takes a bit of a vacation from John's ongoing problem of ghost murders and forces him to face his past instead — but as expected, it's all related.

In Constantine: The Hellblazer #3, we get a flashback of John in his younger, more devil-may-care days. There, we see him with some old friends, including the twice-deceased Gaz, magician peer Georgiana Snow and love interest Veronica. This backstory leads to some new discoveries by John in the present, as well as confirming the lost soul in the character that we've always been familiar with.

Perhaps it's the writing by Ming Doyle and James Tynion IV that brings this point home: we've never seen John in a lonelier state. It's so bad that he actually asks Georgiana for help — but of course, he's already burned that bridge and she turns him down. This is after she tells him that Veronica is dead and that it's his fault, adding that all of his friends are dead because of him.

By the end of the issue, John's desolation becomes even more obvious, and that's with the added weight of having to figure out who or what is running around killing the ghosts of John's friends.

The story however falters a little with the art: whereas the first two issues featured Riley Rossmo's panels, this one has pencils by Vanesa R. Del Rey, with the coloring done by Ivan Plascencia. That makes this issue feel different from the previous two — it might be intentional, but it feels somehow wrong.

Nevertheless, this new art style works well for the flashback scenes, which show a livelier John surrounded by a bright, vibrant and colorful world with sharp lines. Present John, though, seems blurry — lost in a sea of murkiness as if drawn with chalk. This does a good job of separating the flashback from present day, but this John isn't consistent with the one Rossmo created in issues #1 and #2. It doesn't detract from the story, per se, but it is a noticeable difference that makes the series feel a little inconsistent.

Rossmo did however do the cover for this one, which features Georgiana Snow in strong lines, her dark eyes sketched behind her. She seems a lot more formidable on the cover than she does throughout the pages, but so, too, does John when Rossmo draws him. Then again, maybe that's the point of bringing in a different artist for the panels: this story is showing John at his weakest.

It leads into what we'll expect for issue #4, with the last panel telling us what happens next in text: "John gets very, very drunk." Which is probably exactly what John will do, given his history. This also means that the writers plan on building up to the finale of this particular story arc, which ends in October.

Constantine: The Hellblazer #3 is available now in comic book stores and on ComiXology.

Story

★★★★☆

Art

★★★☆☆

Overall

★★★☆☆

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