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Hellblazer Vol 1 8

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"Intensive Care"

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Image:Quote1.png Disaster's snapping at my heels and it's time that I was somewhere far away. It's all up to me again, ennit? Somehow, I've got to stay ahead and get some news aces up my sleeve. But right now, all I really need's a smoke. Image:Quote2.png
-- John Constantine


Appearing in "Intensive Care"

Featured Characters:

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Other Characters:

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  • None

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Synopsis for "Intensive Care"

In Glastonbury, members of the Resurrection Crusade brainwash Zed and address her by her given name Mary. They recondition her to the point that she is barely a shell of the woman she once was. The Resurrection Crusade conducts a service, declaring that it is their holy mission to rid the world of Satan's influence, and that Mary (like the Biblical Mary) will become a key figure in bringing about salvation. As the service concludes, Mary is handed over to the Crusaders' shock troops, the Tongues of Fire. They bring her body down into a dank cellar where they begin conducting "surgical adjustments".

Meanwhile, John awakens inside of a hospital room. His body is bruised and broken as a result of leaping off of a moving train after being tormented by the ghosts of his dead colleagues. Even in the hospital, John is haunted by nightmares from his past; particularly the two years that he spent as a patient at Ravenscar under the care of Doctor Roger "Piggy" Huntoon.

Shaking away the memories, he sees the demon Nergal standing at the foot of his bed. Nergal is cleansing John's body with his tongue, and reminds him about their recent telephone conversation. Nergal wants John to act as his instrument against the Resurrection Crusade. John tells him that he doesn't work for Hell or Heaven. Nergal plays upon John's guilt and tells him that the Tongues of Fire have captured Zed and murdered Ray Monde. He further informs him that the Resurrection Crusaders are going to use Zed as the means to give birth to a supernatural Christ figure that will usher in a new age. As Hell is already in the midst of a civil war, Nergal does not want such a marriage between the natural and the supernatural confounding matters even further. He assures Constantine that the birth of such a being is destined to take place and has been prophecied in stone even in Hell. John asks why he doesn't just kill Mary himself, and Nergal explains that he is not powerful enough to breach the wards erected by the Crusaders' arcane science. John refuses to assist the demon, but Nergal convinces John otherwise when he threatens to start eating babies from the hospital's maternity ward. John relents, but tells him that if he is going to work for Nergal, he will need to be healed first. Nergal infuses John Constantine was a concentrated dose of his own demon blood. John convulses in his bed in sheer agony, but the demon blood does its job, and John is healed from his injuries. Nergal vanishes, and John leaves the hospital. He despises the notion of being manipulated into serving a demon.

Notes

  • The Swamp Thing appears in flashback only in this issue.
  • Being infected with the blood of Nergal will have long-reaching ramifications in John's future, particularly during the "Dangerous Habits" story-arc from Hellblazer #41-46.


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