(2006) Mike Carey, Marcelo Frusin & Doug Alexander Gregory, Titan Books, £9.99, trdpbk, 168pp, ISBN 1-84576-233-9
This volume collects issues 187-193 of the ongoing Hellblazer title. The opening two-parter, "Bred in the Bone", features John's neice Gemma and an island full of semi-vampire thingies, something of a filler with Doug Gregory's art. The five-part story-arc "Staring at the Wall" concludes Carey's opening plotline of impending doom: Constantine and some friends corner and kill the mystical dog that has been threatening everyone's dreams, only to discover it was a guard dog that was keeping something else at bay. Now it looks like Constantine has opened the way to a global massacre. After a run-in with the Phantom Stranger, John enlists the aid of the Swamp Thing to battle the now-revealed evil, but can he make a difference before the end comes...? Carey's writing is very good, but Frusin's art continues to disappoint (me anyway). Lovely covers still from Tim Bradstreet. Still one of Vertigo's better titles.
Tony Chester
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