Art By: ACO
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: April 9, 2014
Coming To Terms With The Spellbinder
Forever Evil: Blight is over, and last we saw of our antihero, he was cowering away and leaving his friends to fend for themselves. Luckily Zatanna picked up Constantine's slack, and the Justice League Dark survived Nanda Parbat and Project Thaumaton. So where does this leave Constantine? Let's dive into this very strange issue, and try to decipher what's going on together.
We begin the issue in Moscow where Constantine tracks down the Spellbinder to enlist him into the Cold Flame. Looks like Constantine picked right back up where he left off before Forever Evil, and I'm seriously disappointed. So as bad ideas go, trying to threaten Spellbinder is right up there with making a joke about Batman's parents. It's just not advisable.
So Spellbinder does his thing, and the comic book becomes a mess to look at and understand. With what I could decipher we're taken through Constantine's mind, and what I only assume are false memories that Spellbinder is manipulating, and times that are reminiscent of A Nightmare On Elm St. where you don't know if something is a dream, or reality.
The parts of the book I believe to be real are that Papa Midnite and Constantine created a plan to take down the Cold Flame, but the plan hinged on Constantine gathering other mages, and not knowing he was a part of it. So bring in some amnesia spell, and we have the beginning of the plan. I guess Constantine going after Spellbinder was a part of it as well, because now that he's inside Constantine's mind, Spellbinder knows that he's a part of the plan too. But then we're shown Papa Midnite going to the Cold Flame willing to sell out Constantine with his knowledge of the plan in exchange for New York being Papa's territory, and the agreement that the Cold Flame will stay away.
Then we start up with some more of Spellbinder's mind fucks where Zatanna may or may not of used a spell to try and make Constantine a better man in the past, but to finish up Spellbinder's head games a protection spell inside Constantine's mind made up of Nick Necro and Billy Batson, tell Constantine what he needs to do to overcome Spellbinder's magic. So in the end Constantine is freed from Spellbinder, and Spellbinder says he'll either be at Constantine's side when he's needed, or he won't. Yeah good to know. Spellbinder leaves, and John is shown a vision of a burning house, and someone telling him to come to them. So I guess next issue will have to do with a burning house. See you then, and hopefully I can understand what I'm looking at a little bit better.
Bits and Pieces:
To begin with I hate seeing Constantine being part of the Cold Flame, even if it is a ruse. But what I really hate is reading a comic and having no idea what I'm looking at. This issue's art is a mess, and it just made me angry how hard it was to get through it. So not much to say on the issue, because I don't know what was Spellbinder's magic, and what was real. So if you're a die hard Constantine fan by all means pick it up, but besides that I'd hold off on a better issue.
5/10
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