159 The Hellblazer Vol 2: The Smokeless Fire

I have always loved John Constantine.  The Vertigo series is top notch (though if you read a few posts back, I didn't love ALL of it) and I've been enjoying reading through it again.  A few years back DC decided to end John's Vertigo life and replanted him firmly in the proper DC Universe.  In effect, they took everything awesome about the Hellblazer series and cut it off at the balls.  It's been a few years now and they seem to finally be ready to give John his balls back again, or at least one of them.

This book was kinda, sorta great.  It's still not quite where John should be, but it's the closest we've seen from the proper John Constantine in years.  He sounds like John again, he acts like John again, he's a bastard again.  I like.  My only real quibble with this book is the art.  The art is just not right.  It looks like a lighter, more kid friendly style that doesn't jibe with the happenings in the book.  To me, at least.  The art is lovely, but it just doesn't fit.  I want Simon Oliver to stay with this book for a good long time.  DC finally has found a decent writer for this series.

The Hellblazer Vol 2: The Smokeless Fire

Writer: Simon Oliver

Artist: Davide Fabbri, Philip Tan, Jose Marzan Jr, Karl Kesel

DC Comics

046 Suicide Squad Vol 1: The Black Vault

Admittedly, I'm not a big Suicide Squad fan.  I think the New 52 Suicide Squad was shit.  There was nothing slightly enjoyable about it to me.  With hesitation, I tried this.  The Rebirth stuff I've read hasn't been horrible.  Some of it has been surprisingly good.  I'm afraid I would have to say the same about this.  This volume was surprisingly good.  Good?  Or not bad?  There's a fine line between the two.  But I did find myself enjoying it.  There's still a lot of stuff I'm not hot on in it, but it was decent.  I'd love to see Deadshot's look redesigned back to his pre-New 52 look.  It's still dreadful.  And I don't particularly care for this version of the Enchantress.  But I do like that Amanda Waller is suddenly no longer Angela Bassett.  She's got her heft back.  This is my Amanda Waller.  I'm intrigued by Katana being in this group.  On the surface, I wasn't hot on Killer Croc being here, but there's always been a lot more to him than meets the eye.  I'm willing to try another volume of this to see if this is a fluke or something that will be worthwhile to read.

Suicide Squad Vol 1: The Black Vault

Writer: Rob Williams

Artist: Jim Lee, Philip Tan, Jason Fabok, Ivan Reis, Gary Frank, Scott Williams, Jonathan Glapion, Scott Hanna, Sandu Florea, Oclair Albert, Sandra Hope, Trevor Scott

DC Comics