Reviews

Hellblazer, Vol. 4: The Family Man by Various, Jamie Delano

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matt4hire's review

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

nbramanti's review

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dark reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

nraptor's review against another edition

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medium-paced

4.0

The rating breakdown:
Larger than Life
story - 4
art - 3
The Family Man
story - 4
art - 3
Early Warning
story - 4
art - 4
How I Learned to Love the Bomb
story - 4
art - 4
Hold Me
story - 5
art - 5
Thicker Than Water
story - 5
art - 3
Sick at Heart
story - 5
art - 3
Fatality
story - 5
art - 3
Mourning of the Magician
story - 5
art - 4
New Tricks
story - 3
art - 4
Sundays are Different
story - 3
art - 3
The Gangster, the Whore, and the Magician
story - 3
art - 3

keahiinfra's review

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dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

itcamefromthepage's review

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4.0

My first real dive into old Hellblazer comics and man was this one a ride.

The collection ranges from quaint to some of the most disturbing stuff I've ever read. That's just the gambit you get with John Constantine.

lookhome's review

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4.0

Solid book with some very broad and overarching narratives. Talking dogs, serial killers, snappy one liners. It’s the Constantine we know and love

crookedtreehouse's review

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4.0

If you're not super into continuity, this is actually an excellent first Hellblazer story to read as it starts weird, settles into realistic, and then veers a bit at the end.There's a nice balance in this volume for the Delano stories. We get a serial killer villain attached to one of Constantine's more mythical friends, and then we get him revisiting his sister and her family, who deal with a haunting of their own. It's the most human (so far) story in Hellblazer. There's no demon possession or psychic powers, it's just an unfortunate case of being in the wrong place, at the wrong time, that sets everything in motion.

There's no real political statement, other than the serial killer being a retired police officer.

The Neil Gaiman one-shot is well-fleshed out, and provides an excellent coda for Ray, by focusing on the people and the disease around him more than focusing on his character. It reads like a full Delano arc distilled into a single issue.

The Grant Morrison issues read like ... well, early Vertigo Grant Morrison issues. If you enjoy Morrison's magic writing in Invisibles, this might be for you. I found it fell on the Tedious Side of Morrison's writing for me. I enjoyed the covers for his two issues more than the story, even though it does stay fairly true to both Delano's sense of magic and his techno-paranoia.

It's not a bad collection, but if you just want to read The Absolute Best of Hellblazer, this volume is skippable.