This volume contains the last of Delano’s main run on Hellblazer and I’m honestly just relieved.

Delano’s a man with lots of good ideas but he’s so up his own arse that the resulting story on the page is a mess. Anyone who’s gotten this far will know he has a habit of putting a load of words together to try and sound deep and tortured, but the resulting mess is barely comprehensible.

Despite Delano’s faults as an author I did for the most part enjoy his issues in this volume. It was interesting to see Constantine as child, although he was portrayed far creepier as a child than he’s ever come off as an adult. The issues that followed Mercury were well done, and it was nice to get a break from John’s tortured inner monologue.

And I enjoyed the story surrounding Constantine’s twin brother. One of these issues has fantastic art, some of the best in this series so far. Ultimately though Delano’s run ended unintelligible and confusing.

The second half of this volume is dedicated to Ennis’ story “Dangerous Habits”. This is the most famous of the Hellblazer stories and it’s easy to see why. For one thing Ennis’s Constantine is more capable than Delano’s, and a compelling as an underdog is it’s nice to get a win now and again. Despite the cancer Ennis’s Constantine is also a lot less self pitying. Ennis had Constantine being proactive in finding a solution to his problem, while with the same story you know that Delano would have spent pages on John whinging.

Ennis’s writes Constantine as a bastard, but he’s a bastard you want to see succeed. His story is moving, sad, funny, clever, and ultimately makes you want more. I’m looking forward to reading more of his run. ( )