Art By: Jeremy Haun
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: October 8, 2014
Woah! Woah! Wotan!
I've already apologized for this little mistake, but what the hell I'm pretty self depricating so I'll bring it up again. In issue #17 of Constantine, our hero found himself transported out of the past when Doctor Occult thought he was trying to stop his world peace spell and put a whammy on him. Not knowing where he'd end up John added some magic to the spell and found himself breaking the chains of reality. Now I said that Constantine had transported himself into last month's Futures End event, mostly because I thought it would be really cool to have a hero from the present dealing with the effects of the future, but since I didn't bother to read the solicits before I wrote it and I'm generally clueless in most aspects of life, I was wrong. It seems that our hero really did break the chains of reality, that reality being Prime-Earth and found himself being towered over by a hoard of Parademons in Earth 2. So yes folks, another Earth 2 tie-in. I know I've been wishing for this for awhile, but damn am I getting Earth 2-ed out this week. Okay let's check out how our brash Brit will do in a parallel world.
Explain It!:
Our story begins with Constantine in a really bad predicament. Now that' he's crossed universes his body is suffering the affects of a bad magic hangover. If not getting his bearings back wasn't bad enough, our pseudo hero is also surrounded by Parademons. I guess it's safe to say that Constantine is not having the best day.
Now it's up to you to decide whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, but right before John was about to see what his insides look like by the Apokoliptian hell breed, Wotan shows up and disintegrates the lot. So yeah the Parademons are kaput, but now we have to deal with the New 52 debut of Dr. Fate's arch nemesis.
Elsewhere on this dying world, John's Earth 2 counterpart is having some birthday drinks with friends that our hero said goodbye to years ago. Yeah I found it interesting that Constantine actually has a counterpart on this Earth, because for the most part we're looking at a world of Golden Age heroes, but I guess it makes sense that most people would have a double even if they never became as important in that world as our versions did on Prime-Earth. So yeah, this Constantine isn't a mage and seems to live a quiet life where he has time to sit down with close friends and shoot the shit at the end of the world. So with that said I want to get into the way that magic works between these two worlds. It's really a toss up for me between two things about how John's magic works here. Either magic is different between worlds leaving Constantine a little out of his element or because there are two John Constantines' in this world the magic isn't working properly. It's magic and it's one of the hardest things for me to write about because there could be any number of possibilities on why something does or doesn't work. When all else fails............"A Wizard Did It".
Getting back to the story and away from my inability to convey a story dealing with magic, it seems that Wotan can see the writing on the wall and wants to leave this world before it's all gone. Since he can tell that Constantine traveled here from another, he plans on using John's body as a portal, which would pretty much kill him in the process. But John being John starts talking to the dark mage and telling him that he can perform a spell at the same time that will allow him to live through the ordeal and if he does then everyone wins. Wotan gets his portal without John trying to stop him the whole way and John gets to survive the ordeal of a man going through him.
In the end Wotan agrees to the terms, because I really just think he wanted to get the hell out of there and the spell begins. What Wotan doesn't know is that John has a double and for whatever reason since there are two Johns, the portal acts between the two. So Wotan walks through our John and winds up coming out of the Earth 2 John before everything is shut down and Wotan's New 52 debut ends with him cut in half down the middle. With Wotan dispatched, John realizes that he has to find his double if he's ever going to get off this strange Earth and get back home. So the search for John Constantine begins next month.
That's it for this month's Constantine and while I enjoyed the issue, I have a little trouble with the "Why's of Magic" I just wish things were explained to me a little more so I could completely wrap my mind around it. Maybe I'm just a big dummy and everyone else will get this but I just want to be able to understand how and why things work the way they do. Another thing I'm disappointed with is that I wish Wotan was allowed to live longer than one issue. We've got one of Dr. Fate's biggest enemies and an upstart like Constantine simply crosses worlds and dispatches him right off the bat. I would of just liked to see him more down the line. Hell maybe I will........ you know with magic. But besides for these minor gripes I had a good time with this issue and can't wait to see what other trouble John gets in while he's visiting my favorite parallel world. See you next month as we find out together.
Bits and Pieces:
Right away I'd like to say that it was great having Jeremy Haun on this book. I've had some issues in the past with this book having different artists and trying to understand what they were presenting me, but no issue with the issue this month because Jeremy's art was solid and I hope he stays on for a long time. So we've got Constantine on Earth 2 and while normally this idea would make me produce a squeak sound for some reason, I'm a little blown out on Earth 2 this week. I guess it makes sense to have all this Earth 2 stuff go down at the same time, but man it's been a lot and while yes John was on Earth 2, there was nothing really Earth 2-y about the issue. Maybe I just don't enjoy subtly and wanted this issue to scream Earth 2 in my face. Even though there was no face screaming, I enjoyed the issue and the prospect of things to come in future stories. Go check it out.
Now it's up to you to decide whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, but right before John was about to see what his insides look like by the Apokoliptian hell breed, Wotan shows up and disintegrates the lot. So yeah the Parademons are kaput, but now we have to deal with the New 52 debut of Dr. Fate's arch nemesis.
 |
| TRANSLATIONS SHOW THAT WOTAN SAID "SUCK IT" |
Elsewhere on this dying world, John's Earth 2 counterpart is having some birthday drinks with friends that our hero said goodbye to years ago. Yeah I found it interesting that Constantine actually has a counterpart on this Earth, because for the most part we're looking at a world of Golden Age heroes, but I guess it makes sense that most people would have a double even if they never became as important in that world as our versions did on Prime-Earth. So yeah, this Constantine isn't a mage and seems to live a quiet life where he has time to sit down with close friends and shoot the shit at the end of the world. So with that said I want to get into the way that magic works between these two worlds. It's really a toss up for me between two things about how John's magic works here. Either magic is different between worlds leaving Constantine a little out of his element or because there are two John Constantines' in this world the magic isn't working properly. It's magic and it's one of the hardest things for me to write about because there could be any number of possibilities on why something does or doesn't work. When all else fails............"A Wizard Did It".
Getting back to the story and away from my inability to convey a story dealing with magic, it seems that Wotan can see the writing on the wall and wants to leave this world before it's all gone. Since he can tell that Constantine traveled here from another, he plans on using John's body as a portal, which would pretty much kill him in the process. But John being John starts talking to the dark mage and telling him that he can perform a spell at the same time that will allow him to live through the ordeal and if he does then everyone wins. Wotan gets his portal without John trying to stop him the whole way and John gets to survive the ordeal of a man going through him.
In the end Wotan agrees to the terms, because I really just think he wanted to get the hell out of there and the spell begins. What Wotan doesn't know is that John has a double and for whatever reason since there are two Johns, the portal acts between the two. So Wotan walks through our John and winds up coming out of the Earth 2 John before everything is shut down and Wotan's New 52 debut ends with him cut in half down the middle. With Wotan dispatched, John realizes that he has to find his double if he's ever going to get off this strange Earth and get back home. So the search for John Constantine begins next month.
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| SO LONG WOTAN! |
That's it for this month's Constantine and while I enjoyed the issue, I have a little trouble with the "Why's of Magic" I just wish things were explained to me a little more so I could completely wrap my mind around it. Maybe I'm just a big dummy and everyone else will get this but I just want to be able to understand how and why things work the way they do. Another thing I'm disappointed with is that I wish Wotan was allowed to live longer than one issue. We've got one of Dr. Fate's biggest enemies and an upstart like Constantine simply crosses worlds and dispatches him right off the bat. I would of just liked to see him more down the line. Hell maybe I will........ you know with magic. But besides for these minor gripes I had a good time with this issue and can't wait to see what other trouble John gets in while he's visiting my favorite parallel world. See you next month as we find out together.
Bits and Pieces:
Right away I'd like to say that it was great having Jeremy Haun on this book. I've had some issues in the past with this book having different artists and trying to understand what they were presenting me, but no issue with the issue this month because Jeremy's art was solid and I hope he stays on for a long time. So we've got Constantine on Earth 2 and while normally this idea would make me produce a squeak sound for some reason, I'm a little blown out on Earth 2 this week. I guess it makes sense to have all this Earth 2 stuff go down at the same time, but man it's been a lot and while yes John was on Earth 2, there was nothing really Earth 2-y about the issue. Maybe I just don't enjoy subtly and wanted this issue to scream Earth 2 in my face. Even though there was no face screaming, I enjoyed the issue and the prospect of things to come in future stories. Go check it out.
7.5/10
This wasn't the first appearance of Wotan, his debut was in Earth 2 #9
ReplyDeleteOh damn, you're right. I completely forgot about that. I'd like to say that Wotan being a woman threw me off in that and I just put it out of my mind, but I have no idea if that's true or not. I do have to say that the way Wotan appeared in Constantine, didn't make me think woman either though. Good catch.
ReplyDelete