Constantine #3 – Review

By: Ray Fawkes & Jeff Lemire (story), Renato Guedes (art), Marcelo Maiolo (colors)

The Story: Constantine has always had an eye for choice magical relics—unlike some people.

The Review: Never having written any serial fiction, I can’t say I have any firsthand insight into the medium, but from the outside looking in, I’ve noticed one thing: once you get locked into certain habits, it’s very hard to course correct afterwards.  I imagine it’s a little embarrassing to do so, too.  Making radical changes early on clearly signals poor initial choices, and who would ever want to admit that?

Fawkes-Lemire better be careful, because they can easily fall into the same trap with these opening-page monologues of theirs.  Besides serving as less than subtle mini-recaps of previous events, they’re also strangely preachy.  This is John Constantine, after all; broodiness doesn’t suit him much: “Every single one of us is stupid enough to think we’re smarter than everyone else.  And how d’you think that works out for us?  On average.”