Constantine #22 Review and *SPOILERS*

Written By: Ray Fawkes
Art By: Jeremy Haun, The Horries
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: February 11, 2015

Just When You Think You're Out, They Pull You Back In

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

When last we looked at our Brash Brit, he was attempting to escape the doomed world of Earth 2 with his doppelganger and his family.  As we learned though throughout Constantine's exploits on this parallel Earth, while there are two of him in this world his magic won't work.  So after making all the sigils and runes to make his escape and contemplating if his life was more important than his counterpart, John finally gave into his selfish nature and murdered the other Constantine and his spell activated leaving a very unpleasant Dr. Fate pissed that he was denied his escape with this mage that travels worlds.  Let's see if Constantine's trip back to his Earth is a smooth ride and if his counterpart's family will ever forgive him for what he did to save them and himself from World's End.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

I want to start this off by saying that I'm not completely sold on everything that this issue is selling.  We're shown a lot of strange things that you might just chalk up to magic but it just doesn't jive with what we've seen in the rest of Earth 2 and Earth 2: World's End and hell, I guess the rest of the New 52.  Let me get into this.  Our story begins with John feeling more power than he's ever felt before now that his doppelganger has died and his spell activates transporting him and his counterpart's family out of Earth 2.  The problem John finds is that he needs to maintain a certain level of concentration in order to keep all of them hidden from prying magical and godly eyes, but this becomes extremely hard when the rest of his travel party sees him as a murderer and want to take their grief out by murdering him.  With his concentration broken, Dr. Fate is able to find them and send out chained hooks to try and postpone their departure as to not be left behind and even though John was able to release himself and his counterpart's father from the hooks, he ultimately loses his mother again for a second time in his life as she is pulled out into oblivion.  John tries to reason with his not-father saying that he will do whatever it takes to eventually find her but at this point it doesn't seem that there's any love for John in this group of Earth 2 survivors.

After the group pass out of Dr. Fate's reach, they extend past heaven and see that it too is under Darkseid's attack as they witness parademons wrecking up the joint and we find out that even heaven considers Earth 2 a lost cause as it un-tethers itself to the world as a way to try and save itself.  We move past heaven and through all the kingdoms of Earth where we see that parademons have reached The Green, The Rot, The Red, etc. etc. and from what I've seen in Earth 2: World's End, this kind of comes off as a new concept that doesn't really jive with the rest of the Earth 2 books and how they describe the war that these forces are fighting against Apokolips, but like I said in the beginning these different levels could all just be a magicy way of conveying the danger that the Earth is facing.  I don't know though, it just comes off odd but trust me that isn't the oddest part.

In the end, Constantine breaks through all the barriers and comes out at his Earth.  Since he couldn't keep the proper concentration though, it looks like he's been spotted by Darkseid and somehow Darkseid reaches out with a gigantic hand............ somehow and tries to pull Constantine and his band back.  Somehow throughout his journey between Earths, John picked up a couple of stragglers also trying to escape Earth 2............ I guess and to save himself and his pseudo friends and family, he casts these hitchhikers towards Darkseid's grabbing hand.  As the issue closes Constantine tells himself that he'll only have one shot to con a god and he has to use the sacrifice of the people he just cast aside for one last trick.

That's it for this issue of Constantine and while it's leading up to a big finish with next month's final issue, this just wasn't as strong as previous issues dealing with Constantine in Earth 2.  A lot of strange visuals and concepts that go against what we've seen in Earth 2: World's End and while it tried to remain a more internal story dealing with Constantine's struggle to get himself and his family that never was safe, it just came off as more of the same from previous issues.  Jeremy Haun's artwork remains strong with the exception or possibly inclusion of Constantine's drastic sideburns....... Really I'll leave it up to you, I just think he should trim that shit.  With one more issue left, I really hope that this series can go out on a high note.

Bits and Pieces:

While I've been loving the more personal internal storytelling that's been going on in Constantine since he made the leap to Earth 2, this issue comes off as more of a repeat of things that we've already seen on that front and the external story comes off strange and to me contradicts concepts that we've explored in World's End.  I really hope that this series can go out on a strong note next month.

6.5/10