Hellblazer #9
DC Comics
Written by: Simon Oliver
Art by: Davide Fabbri, Jose Marzan Jr., and Karl Kesel
Colors by: Carrie Strachan
In the 3rd installment of “The Smokeless Fire“, we pick up where we left off in issue #8. John, Mercury and Misabel are following Dante’s shoe, that Constantine put a spell on. Predicatively though, they are double-crossed by Misabel, who ends up sending them on a wild goose chase searching for Henry’s journal for the remainder of the book.
Mr. Carver, assistant to the prime minister, is uhm… persuaded to work with the Djinn Marid. Leaving Marid one step closer to his objective, and John no closer to finding the journal to be able to stop him.
I did enjoy part 3 much more than I have enjoyed the rest of “The Smokeless Fire.” It seems to be building and ramping up to something big, and I can’t wait for the payoff. I enjoyed Fabbri’s art much more than the other installments. It is a bit more like normal house style art, which isn’t bad at all. It’s actually quite refreshing after the last two issues. There is a fun little gag where John throws down an issue of Swamp Thing #37 while looking through old books and comics, that I quite enjoyed. It was a nice little poke at comic books in general, which I felt added a little charm to the book.
To me, this issue was a bit of an upwards swing from the last few issues of Hellblazer, I hope it continues this trend.