YMMV / Hellblazer

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Supposedly, the First of the Fallen was one of the first things God had created, acting as a sort of conscience on God's shoulder before God petulantly banished him, having dwelled and ruled over Hell long before Lucifer Morningstar fell. When we see the First of the Fallen during the events of Hellblazer, he is portrayed as a conventionally evil Satan who is every bit of the Evil Incarnate people associate with the Devil, in contrast to Lucifer's Chaotic Neutral approach to life. Is the First of the Fallen's origins and level of power really everything they say, or is he just another demon who managed to convince the rest of Hell's Hierarchy that he's more impressive than he really is? In The Sandman (1989) and the Lucifer spinoff, Lucifer Morningstar (or any of the other related characters) don't even bother mentioning the First of the Fallen and his place in the cosmos, almost as if he was far lower in importance to the universe's hierarchy and wasn't worth mentioning at all. Later in Hellblazer, we find out that the Second and Third of the Fallen, two beings who claim to be equal to the First, were fabrications created by God as insiders to Hell's internal politics, so how can we be sure that the First isn't something similar? He openly flaunts the laws everyone in Hell goes by, but is that because he made the rules and therefor feels no moral obligation to adhere to them, or has he spent so long convincing everyone that Hell was his idea that even he started believing it? Considering The Sandman establishes the idea that belief shapes reality and that all of the gods and mythical beings in the DC Universe are the products of shared belief, any of these options are equally valid.
• Awesome Art: Plenty of amazing (and some not-so-amazing) artists have lent their talents to this series over the years, but the overwhelming majority of fan praise usually goes to Lee Bermejo's◊ short-lived contributions. Other noteworthy mentions include Leonardo Manco and Tim Bradstreet.
• Complete Monster: See here.
• Cry for the Devil: Darius, who's the lover of the King of the Vampires, is so distraught when said king is caught outside at sunrise that he's Driven to Suicide. While he was a monster who gloated about finding pregnant woman and draining their unborn children of blood, it's hard not to feel a little sorry for him when he decides to face the sun.
  Darius: I am just going outside. And may be some time.
• Fanon Discontinuity:
  • Many fans—including, it's becomingly increasingly clear, several of its writers—reject much of Brian Azzarello's run due to Azzarello completely removing Constantine from his usual setting simply because Azzarello couldn't be bothered to research that setting and story arcs largely revolving around Prison Rape, underground redneck pornography rings, and sadomasochistic gay revenge fantasies designed simply to shock.
  • Peter Milligan's run is disdained by much of the fanbase for valuing style over substance, the Chickification of the tough, streetwise Gemma Masters, and the unpopular pairing of John and Epiphany. The unfortunate fact that the series was ultimately cancelled during his run hasn't helped.
• Fridge Brilliance: In his backstory, the First of the Fallen was originally created as God's peer, only to be banished to Hell when he had come to the conclusion that God couldn't be trusted with his immense power, becoming God's Arch-Nemesis and the embodiment of evil. This can feel a little jarring, until one realizes that in Judaism, "Satan" is still a servant of God, but his job is to act as a sort of prosecuting attorney who's whole job was to argue with God and make a case to test his creation, like with what happened with Job. That stereotype where Jews Love to Argue? There is a grain of truth to that since a lot of Jewish culture views arguing as a positive sociological activity, and that even applies to their divine hierarchy to an extent. It was in the split of the Abrahamic faiths in the rise of Christianity and Islam did the Devil go from being an entity made to be argued with to a corrupting figure that had to ignored or else face eternal damnation. And since this is set in the DC Universe, where people can have an existential effect on the divine and mythical entities they believe in, the First of the Fallen went from being God's Jiminy Cricket to the God-Emperor of The Legions of Hell because the theists of the world came to see it that way.
• Funny Moments: During the ending of Red Right Hand we realize that the disappointment and hatred felt by the soldiers keeping the quarantine on Glasgow once England is left out of the Soccer World Cup may be strong enough to negate everything our heroes have been doing to prevent an empathy virus to extend. England loses... and the soldiers cheer, since they were Scottish and hate the English team
• Genius Bonus: There's a room in the Vatican warded so that God cannot see what is inside. In some interpretations of Hell, it is defined as out of God's sight. Needless to say, the room is a bad place.
• Growing the Beard: While Jaime Delano's run is viewed as a respectable jumping-off point for the series, Garth Ennis hit the ground running with the iconic "Dangerous Habits". It's often seen as the defining HB story that doesn't involve Newcastle.
• Harsher in Hindsight: In the "Royal Blood" arc, one of the members of a secret society of sexual sadists is, though never named or clearly pictured, implied to be Prince Andrew, younger son of Queen Elizabeth II. Twenty years later, the real-life Andrew was accused of involvement in a sex slavery ring.
• Heartwarming Moments: "Hold Me", "The Lord of the Dance".
• Moment of Awesome: "Up yours."
  • He backs down a bar filled with some of the most powerful magic users in the DCU in The Books of Magic. With words alone, no less! And no small amount of leaning heavily on his reputation before the crowd could key on the fact that said reputation is mostly crap he made up.
  • Casting a curse on a wanna-be Satanist punk by making up some nonsense words on the fly and letting his mythical status in the kid's mind make it real.
  • Even Chas, Butt-Monkey extraordinaire gets one, when he manages to send a demon back to Hell... on his own, as John is out of town.
  • Chas finally gets fed up with John exploiting their friendship and bashes his head repeatedly into a toilet.
• More Popular Spin-Off: Hellblazer has had a considerably less rocky continuity than its progenitor series, Swamp Thing.
• My Real Daddy: Alan Moore created John Constantine, but Garth Ennis perfected him. Jamie Delano and/or Mike Carey are also in the running for this.
• Narm: In the Fear Machine storyline, the story, concerning a machine that consumes and releases fear through ancient English ley lines, is pretty good until it reveals that the villains are the Freemasons, who don't resonate with modern audiences as a murderous, world-dominating cult. Worse, while the Masons summon their dragon through consuming fear of hundreds of people and dozens of ritual human sacrifices, Constantine and Co defeat it by summoning its female counterpart through the power of a threesome.
• The Scrappy: Epiphany Greaves is outright despised for being a cocky, manipulative Jerkass, an obvious Ms. Fanservice, and for having a poorly-written romance with John Constantine. It really doesn't help that she shows up at the tail-end of the comics, meaning that it's impossible to simply skip her without missing the ending.
• Strangled by the Red String: Epiphany Greaves and John Constantine's romance, which sees them quickly thrown together with little to no actual development. Furthermore, it results in John acting extremely out of character on more than one occasion (such as being afraid to die and leave Epiphany behind). To add insult to injury, John's exes show up for their wedding... and they're all portrayed as being jealous, with any other characterization being thrown under the bus in an attempt to make the pairing (and Epiphany) look better. Needless to say, it backfired, resulting in the pairing being widely hated by the fandom (to say nothing of Epiphany herself).

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