Review by Frank Plowright

When Tim Hunter was first introduced as a youngster with a magical destiny John Constantine was among the tour guides showing possibilities. Constantine has now returned from an era where Tim was as bad as it gets, and in a clever opening chapter running parallel sets of perceptions, Constantine brings his own sordid bag of troubles along. Simon Spurrier co-writes with Kat Howard, potty mouths abound and the entertainment is had.

Constantine isn’t the only tempter on the loose, and for her final story arc Howard picks up on the ending to Second Quarto and fleshes out the alternative version of Tim Hunter introduced on the final page. Some recognise it as a faked identity, a body worn as a suit, but Tim sees a more interesting version of himself willing to reveal what’s being kept from him by others, and therefore an alluring personality. Until it’s too late.

Magic is a tricky business, and after an ordinary start Howard took a big leap last time, but here it’s back to magic working to serve the needs of the plot. Resolute logic isn’t to be expected in a magical world, but we ought to be able to expect more than the inexplicable occurring without explanation just because it’s convenient to keep things moving, and that’s what Howard sets up as her swansong. It’s disappointing, and the ending is too easy.

Tom Fowler again provides page layouts, with Craig Taillefer dealing with the finishes this time, apart from a single chapter drawn by Fowler alone. The result is tighter and more restrained art than the previous volume, but just a different approach, not necessarily a poorer one.

When David Barnett takes over the writing for the final five chapters there’s an uptick in more adult content, but also in imagination. The starting point is introducing a character able to wrap Tim around her little finger, but without malice intended, and so immediately raising his social possibilities manyfold. Tim’s unfortunate father is given a better role, and after a solid introduction at a festival, Barnett’s title strip filters in several other characters associated with Sandman. And Emily Dickinson, who isn’t, but all things considered, could be. She’s of that type. There’s some interesting musing about choices and destiny and Barnett has an even better surprise in store regarding mystical villains the Cold Flame.

Until his revelation, the Cold Flame have been all-purpose aloof and dull magic practitioners pulling the strings behind the scenes, yet all of a sudden there’s substance to them. There’s more to Tim also, and clever manipulation of past events to supply a valuable lesson. The series ends here with one major question still unresolved, but it’s not something to be tidied up in a page, and Barnett handles the avoidance well.

This is a half and half collection, and the suspicion is that anyone who’s enjoyed Howard’s work all along won’t care much for Barnett’s observations, but for anyone else he’ll be an injection of vitality.