Maybe it's just me, but the Constantine graphic novels have gone a touch random lately; more and more of the issues at this point in the series are one-offs. Thankfully the stories are usually entertaining, and it's nice to finally get some of the backstory that's constantly alluded to. In this case we bear witness to the first time John and Kit meet (a booze-fueled get together at Brendan's) besides the regular disjointed plotline. Even back then Kit was a piece of work and kept John in place, so it's no wonder he had a thing for her.

As for the regular story, Constantine takes a journey through almost-hell just when he thinks he's got his life back together after his last big meltdown. Life doesn't stop when your drama catches up to you Constantine, and when you have as many enemies as Constantine does it miight be a good idea to keep an eye on them even when things are looking up. John also takes a rather random walk with Branden (now dead), and winds up waking up on a bridge, and he finally meets up with Chas again and they patch things up. hopefully the next volume will actually have some proper action instead of all this set-up. ( )

A fun, dark and somewhat hallucinatory read. John Constantine, the main character of the Hellblazer series, skirts hell on earth and elsewhere. Conflict with soul supposed to be in the middle of the pack as far as this long lived series goes...this is one I just happened to find at my favorite used bookstore (Reader's Corner in Raleigh, NC) Have found the Graphic Novel movement of interest as it seems a vivid mixture of two things I love....books...movies. It is no accident that the movies seem to love comic books. The value of the human soul seems to be a recurrent theme in this series....also something I find of interest. ( )

The first time I read this, I wasn't that into it, but having finally read all of the collections up to this point I enjoyed it a lot more and it made a lot more sense. I'm still not hugely fond of the main story arc, but the shorter stories following it are completely excellent. ( )