Hellblazer from the beginning
Apr. 29th, 2026 01:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI read three more issues of Hellblazer, including
Waiting for the Man (scarier and makes more sense on paper, the TV version made the girls older and lost the logic)
the one with the yuppie soul traders
and the one where the ghosts come back from 'nam to treat their home town the way they treated the 'enemy'
The more demony it is the less scary it is. The yuppie stuff is basically funny. The very real damage the real people are doing with poverty and exploitation, the way the language they use is plausible as both yuppies and demons, solid horror stuff, but then they get all demon faced about it and with their masks off they're just caricatures. Still a good story but you don't doubt how it ends.
And it contrasts well with John hiding from the guy with a gun. Because in Heolblazer what even could he do? In Legends he's got the kind of big flashy magic that can fight, but in Hellblazer he's just out there making deals and knowing how to pay attention. Guns is problems.
And it's still jarring watching him go from daring Hell to hiding while watching real human horrors happen.
It's better story knowing he has limits, but it's easier watching when superpowers can just sort it all out.
It's also rather obvious that this is a series that has politics front and center. You cannot miss his feelings about Thatcher, or poverty, or how welcome the marginalised people are here. Going to visit a very camp friend is very politics at the time. The specificity gives it things to say.
And you could try and translate those things to a modern series, but it's interesting to see which ones were attempted.
One other funny thing said so far: John explicitly says "I'm not a masochist"
along with saying "all that messing about with rotten corpses and pain stuff is just to impress the marks".
... aside from directly contradicting Justice League Dark, that first bit is news to a *lot* of people.
Actually it is interesting that New 52 put on a lot of the old school set dressing that Hellblazer clearly and deliberately discarded. It's like they're making the iconic version, trenchcoat edition, not... John.
And in that particular instance it's difficult to see how that's meant to make him more mass market.
Still, good stuff to read so far.
Waiting for the Man (scarier and makes more sense on paper, the TV version made the girls older and lost the logic)
the one with the yuppie soul traders
and the one where the ghosts come back from 'nam to treat their home town the way they treated the 'enemy'
The more demony it is the less scary it is. The yuppie stuff is basically funny. The very real damage the real people are doing with poverty and exploitation, the way the language they use is plausible as both yuppies and demons, solid horror stuff, but then they get all demon faced about it and with their masks off they're just caricatures. Still a good story but you don't doubt how it ends.
And it contrasts well with John hiding from the guy with a gun. Because in Heolblazer what even could he do? In Legends he's got the kind of big flashy magic that can fight, but in Hellblazer he's just out there making deals and knowing how to pay attention. Guns is problems.
And it's still jarring watching him go from daring Hell to hiding while watching real human horrors happen.
It's better story knowing he has limits, but it's easier watching when superpowers can just sort it all out.
It's also rather obvious that this is a series that has politics front and center. You cannot miss his feelings about Thatcher, or poverty, or how welcome the marginalised people are here. Going to visit a very camp friend is very politics at the time. The specificity gives it things to say.
And you could try and translate those things to a modern series, but it's interesting to see which ones were attempted.
One other funny thing said so far: John explicitly says "I'm not a masochist"
along with saying "all that messing about with rotten corpses and pain stuff is just to impress the marks".
... aside from directly contradicting Justice League Dark, that first bit is news to a *lot* of people.
Actually it is interesting that New 52 put on a lot of the old school set dressing that Hellblazer clearly and deliberately discarded. It's like they're making the iconic version, trenchcoat edition, not... John.
And in that particular instance it's difficult to see how that's meant to make him more mass market.
Still, good stuff to read so far.