John Constantine, Hellblazer: Rare Cuts

Garth Ennis

Perhaps the best thing about movie adaptations of comic books is that they dredge up new printings of old work. In this case, the old work hadn't been collected in graphic novel form before; this series of Constantine-flavored vignettes, published in Hellblazer between 1988 and 1994, were things that slipped through the cracks, or perhaps weren't considered important enough to publish in the collections at the time. We get tales from Grant Morrison (whose two here are the book's strongest), Garth Ennis (oddly, the weakest of the lot), and Jamie Delano.

This probably isn't a book for beginners; a lot of things are bound not to make a good deal of sense until you've got more of a feel for the established characters (Chas, especially). One that does stand on its own, though-- and I realize that every other reviewer has singled this out, as well, and I don't care-- is Morrison's wonderful two-parter, "Early Warning" and "How I Learned to Love the Bomb." This would've made a great movie, actually (a better one, probably, than what we got).

If you're already a Hellblazer fan, pick this one up for the Morrison tale and some good background on Constantine's character. Othwerwise, head back and start somewhere else (preferably at the beginning of Morrison or Ennis' run as writer).