Review by Frank Plowright
Despite Good Intentions taking it’s title from a multi-chapter story featured within, Riley Rossmo’s cover instead pictures John Constantine in jail from a different five chapters, and manages neither the power nor variety of prisoners Richard Corben provides inside.
Corben’s art is magnificent, presenting a dingy confined environment populated by utterly distinctive threatening convicts through whom Constantine passes unscathed, eventually turning one against the other for a bloodbath. If there were concerns about Brian Azzarello being the first American writer to tackle the resolutely English Constantine, they were laid to rest with this tale of dark deeds and authority discarded. Azzarello captures Constantine’s voice and adds his own astounding facility for realistic conversations. Be warned against assuming the voice in the narrative captions is ever Constantine. They concern how people see him and how they see themselves.
From jail Constantine heads to a rural American community drained by economic recession. It’s convincingly realised, not least by the magnificent darkness of Marcelo Frusin’s art. Preceding the same type of situation so diligently portrayed in TV show Justified, Azzarello and Frusin supply complicated relationships and a sordid atmosphere where no-one is really trustworthy and everyone’s seeking an advantage. The question is whether the circumstances shape the people or if the personalities adapt to the circumstances. ‘Good Intentions’ is a deliberately slow crawl through deprivation asking whether the preservation of a community is worth all costs. The characters are memorable, and the good intentions manifest in several ways at the end. Of course, we all know what the road to Hell is paved with.
Hard Time and Good Intentions were previously published as individual collections, but the final story is taken from Freezes Over, and features two conversations simultaneously occurring in the same bar. Constantine is talking with NSA agent Turro, an uncomplicated type despite pretending otherwise, while a trio of men with something to hide discover they didn’t hide it adequately. The brief return of Steve Dillon as artist immediately echoes Hellblazer’s former glories, while Azzarello delivers a clever piece of counterpointing leading to an excellent ending.
Over what was originally four slimmer volumes, Azzarello weaves a single story with diversions. It’s clever in connecting Constantine’s older teenage years with his present, and rolls out a plot of revenge and degradation decades in the making. However, this opening half is definitely the stronger portion. Azzarello’s view of Constantine in ‘Hard Time’ is of a very subtle practitioner of small magic that can have devastating consequences, but ‘Good Intentions’ minimises the sorcery and has Constantine as a provocateur living on his wits. Following collection Highwater diminishes the supernatural still further.
