When last we left our world-weary mage, he had screwed up in a rather spectacular fashion, even for John Constantine. He’d gotten the supposed love of his live, Phoebe, killed in an attempt to make her fall head over heels for him, then screwed up an attempt to resurrect her. Not to mention all but got young alchemist Epiphany killed in the process, a fact that pleases her mobster father not at all. And to top it off, John’s wanted for Phoebe’s murder.
A good time to get the hell out of Dodge, wouldn’t you say? Well, Constantine certainly feels the time is ripe to be anywhere but London, and still intent on the idea of bringing Phoebe back from the dead, he heads to India in the hopes of obtaining a level of spiritual purity sufficient to try raising her a second time. Unfortunately for him, India has other things in mind than the state of his mortal soul, or at least, the city of Mumbai does. Constantine’s search for purification, a detective’s murder investigation, and a British fakir’s greed converge, the focal point a particularly nasty demon with a taste for beautiful young women.
Though he’s certain he came to India of his own free will, driven still by insane desire, the sadhu (mystic) that John runs into claims the mage was summoned — to deal with the demon. John’s nonplussed, but when the sadhu offers to reunite him with his young woman, he’s all ears. Of course, when he finds it’s Epiphany waiting in his hotel room, and not Phoebe, Constantine is not pleased. In fact, he’s downright rude, and continues to be so, even as she finds him the means to defeat the demon. That defeat buys him a few precious moments with what appears to be Phoebe’s soul and perhaps, just perhaps, he realizes it’s time to let go. At least he’s man enough to say thank you to Epiphany, and heads back to London with the realization that his soul can never be pure again — he’s too far gone for that. But life goes on.
The second story included in the collection, “No Future,” hearkens back to the old days: Constantine’s punk roots and Garth Ennis’ hatred of the British Conservative party. Something is afoot — politicos are bankrolling present-day punkers and the ghost of Sid Vicious seems to be holding court. It’s up to John to go undercover as an aging punk fan (his look courtesy of Epiphany) and suss out what’s really up. The story’s a sly nod to days gone by, but Constantine’s too old for the punk life — and he really needs to focus on where things are, or aren’t, going with Epiphany, who he’s grudgingly letting sleep on his couch.
The two stories in India are a step up from the previous volumes. The urge to smack Constantine silly over his Phoebe fixation is still pretty high – until he finally comes to his senses. While the final fight with the demon seems somewhat anti-climatic, it’s always been that John’s inner demons are as bad as the real thing and he seems to have conquered this latest one. And though it seems obvious that he’s destined for some sort of relationship with Epiphany, at least she’s no innocent outsider with no clue of his dark past and impure soul. Hopefully Milligan can take the story line to some new and interesting places from here.
(Titan Publishing Company, 2010)
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