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Hellblazer Vol 1 9

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"Shot to Hell"

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Image:Quote1.png Heroic bloody Captain goes down with his ship, eh? You selfish, spineless git! What right have you got to just down tools and quit? Image:Quote2.png
-- John Constantine


Appearing in "Shot to Hell"

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Synopsis for "Shot to Hell"

John Constantine is walking the back streets of Gotham City. Tired and unkempt, he passes by an apartment complex in the process of being demolished and sees a man attacking a woman. He stops inside of a bar and orders a drink. He sees a local copy of the Gotham Gazette and realizes that today is his birthday. John is thirty-five years old. The ghosts of people he's known begin appearing before him including Emma, Ray Monde, Benjamin Cox, Sister Anne-Marie, Ritchie Simpson and Frank North. Feeling guilt-ridden over their deaths, John begins yelling at them. The bartender doesn't see the spirits and tosses John out on his ear. Ray's ghost is the only spirit that follows after him, but John tells him to leave him alone. Ray tells John that the infusion of blood he received from Nergal has given him a sort of "psychic poisoning". John yells at Ray and takes off.

Alone again, John rents a room and contemplates his misery. A pile of dirty clothes begin moving by themselves and pantomiming the movements of a human being. The spirit inhabiting this "clothes-man" begins chasing John and he runs out into the night. He finally stops at the demolition site he had seen earlier and sits down to rest. He doesn't seem to care that the building is still in the process of being destroyed by a wrecking ball. Suddenly, black tar from the walls begin stretching forward as if to attack him. John flashes his cigarette lighter at the goo, then begins running again.

The mysterious spirit that is now plaguing him takes the form of an ambulating pile of newspaper and chases him further down the street. It later causes dollar bills to spring from a cash register that swirls all about him.

John eventually returns to the partially demolished building and sits on an old sofa. The spirit appears before him, but now assumes a form that John recognizes. It is him. The spirit is actually John's subconscious mind trying to deal with all of his recent pain and guilt. The spirit admonishes Constantine for feeling sorry for himself and tells him that it's time to get his act together. The "tough love" approach appears to work, and John cleans himself up. He scores a few dollars from a back alley craps game and books a flight back to England.

He goes to Glastonbury where he finds Zed wandering alone in a field. He beckons her inside the bole of a large tree and the two make love. John feels that if he taints Zed with his demonic stain, then the Resurrection Crusaders will no longer desire her. Afterwards, Zed lies down to rest and John leaves.

He returns to his apartment where he finds the Swamp Thing manifesting from the tobacco of his cigarettes. John pinches a wad off the Swamp Thing's body and begins rolling it into a cigarette. Swamp Thing criticizes John for his behavior and tells him that the lives of an entire species are at stake. As the Swamp Thing lifts John into the air, Constantine tells him to calm down, and that he has a plan.

Notes


Trivia

  • This issue takes place on May 10th, 1988, John's 35th birthday.

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