I’m doing a Hellblazer read-a-long with a friend, and I actually haven’t sat down and read the original run all the way through (just pieces here and there). Strange, since John Constantine is one of my favorite comic book characters. Original Sins has all the things I love about 80s horror comics: trippy art, wild storylines, dramatic text (some would say “purple prose”), and clear politics. Some readers may be off-put by some of these things, and it’s worth noting that the comic is very much a product of its time. But even so, I thoroughly enjoyed this volume.

Things I Liked

1. Politics: The original run was written in the 1980s, and like Moore’s Watchmen, you can definitely see moments where the creators’ politics shine through. Constantine’s stories are steeped in them: he laments the economic turmoil, the dangerous nationalism, Thatcher’s harm, rampant racism, and neglect of the AIDS crisis. Constantine is very much influenced by the punk movements of the 70s and 80s, and it’s interesting to see a character embody some of those ideals. While readers shouldn’t expect glaring social commentary, there’s enough in there that will very startling if all you’re looking for is a horror comic.

2. Art: The art in Hellblazer is trippy, to say the least. But more than that, I appreciated the variety in the way panels were laid out.

3. Setting Up Long-Term Stories: Constantine’s followed around by a bunch of ghosts who were killed due to his direct or indirect involvement with the supernatural. I love this trope for representing guilt, and I think the comic handles it really well. I also love the demon blood set-up: I can tell it’s going to be an issue in the long run, and I can’t wait to see what the comic does with it.

4. Emotion: The Constantine some people are familiar with is a bit emotionally repressed, but in this volume, he’s not completely indifferent towards suffering, nor does he always feel the need to act like it. I liked this more openly emotional Constantine, since it made him out to be a character who makes tough decisions, not a character who takes the easy way out at others’ expense.

Things I Didn’t Like

1. Representations of Race: While I find Midnite an interesting character, I don’t think this comic handled the depiction of voodoo well, nor the depiction of black characters in general. I can see where it was trying to be inclusive, but from a modern stance, it doesn’t quite work.

Recommendations: I would recommend this book if you’re interested in horror comics, dark fantasy comics, the supernatural, demons, sorcery, magic, and antiheroes. You might also like this book if you liked Swamp Thing, Sandman, or Lucifer