Constantine #5 review

Bloody Shazam

 

Constantine and Shazam walk into a bar.... Insert punch line here. This sentence alone, makes me happy to be reading the New 52. Who would of ever thought that these two would ever be walking around together? Now you want to read Justice League Dark #22 first to get the full effect. This story continues where Constantine and Shazam left the other heroes in JLD. Constantine lures Shazam away with the promise of information concerning Shazam's birth parents. But when they get to the bar, Constantine informs Shazam that he really asked him there to warn him of a surge of power that is following him and that he believes it's a weapon spell, and Shazam needs to power down so that he can neutralize the magic. Shazam agrees and well SHAZAM!. Billy Batson emerges and Constantine starts his double cross. Constantine produces a magical artifact, and as Billy realizes something is wrong. Ta-Da, Constantine and Billy Batson switch voices, giving John the power of the word.


 
Elsewhere, a magical degenerate named Mop Mop calls Mr. E with Constantine's location, and proves his devotion to the cold flame by speaking a magic word given to him by Mr. E. A demon emerges from Mop Mop and goes back to the bar with the specific instruction that he must kill John Constantine. Back at the bar, Constantine talks about the power of Shazam trying to tear it's way out of him, and that he bottle it up so that Billy and him can talk. He continues to say that he is trying to get Shazam off the playing board, because he believes that Shazam will cause pain and darkness. But before he can cork the power up, the demon bursts through the door. Constantine left with no other option.....SHAZAM! Awesome. Pure Awesome. Constantine fights the demon, but unable to control the power, does rather poorly. Billy Batson comes up with a plan since he has Constantine's voice, he yells to the demon that he is Constantine and that he switched bodies with the boy. The demon takes the bait. As he moves across the bar Constantine uses the distraction to rip the demon's head off.

During the tussle Billy snatches the artifact, and uses it to reverse the spell. Constantine collapses to the ground. Constantine warns Shazam that Pandora's Box is a global bomb, and no matter what good Shazam thinks he's doing, do not touch it. It will only light the fuse. Shazam walks off in a huff, and we finally see that Constantine was badly wounded in his fight with the demon. The owner of the bar tries to patch him up when Constantine has an out of body experience. He floats above himself looking down, when his attention is swayed by Chris. The poor boy Constantine got killed in issue #1 and he informs us that it's payback time.

Just another one right out of the ball park. This is a tie-in done right. The only complaint I have for this issue is that it wasn't longer. Well that and Shazam still being a little snot. It isn't really his fault this time, creepy British dude kidnaps him, lies to him, and steals his power. Just miss the days of Billy Batson being a naive true force for good, but maybe we'll get there. Plus the ending bringing Chris back for his revenge is great. Best part of issue #1 was Constantine getting him killed, and not really caring about it. That part alone made me want to continue this title and made me believe that Constantine would be in good hands in the New 52.

8.9/10