The first thirteen pages of the current issue made me worry that writer Andy Diggle had decided to leave the book with a whimper instead of a bang (that was not a “Southland Tales” allusion). I’m glad I was wrong.

In this issue, Diggle picks up the previous issue’s tale of priests and Vatican officials being naughty in a secret room deep in the bowels of the Vatican library. Metaphysically sealed off the consequences of sin by a bad boy Renaissance Pope Alexander VI, this room allegedly became a birthing chamber for a demon made of all the evil committed there. A lowlife priest, Father Grimaldi, found himself the guardian of this monstrosity. Enter Constantine. A fun concept but I worried last issue how Diggle might resolve this beyond having everyone’s favorite dark sorcerer show up and kill the demon.

The opening of this month’s issue seemed to confirm my fears that Diggle was having a bad month. Grimaldo entered the "Black Library” to get a secret book that would lay the beast to rest. The book turns out to be “a lost gospel” that contained with in it some great secret about the very origins of the Catholic Church (Dan Brown called and wants his semi-original idea back). Big nasty demon appears as does Constantine who proceeds to mouth some of the lamest, unConstantine like lines you can imagine (“Do your worst, HellSpawn!”). Is Diggle serious with this stuff?

Well, of course not. But I don’t want to spoil it for you. I’ll just say that we get to see Ellie the Succubus and Diggle ends his run with a little contribution to the John Constantine mythos. The “lost gospel” business ended up being significantly less lame than it sounds.

I’m looking forward to the new creative team coming on board next month as I think this book deserves a bit more than Vertigo has given it lately. Hellblazer’s new crew will feature writing by Jason Aaron (Scalped and Ghost Rider) and art by Sean Murphy. Aaron’s work on Ghost Rider has really energized that title and I hope to see the same kind of carnival-esque fun from his Constantine.

This time around, Giuseppe Camuncoli did do a great job on the page and panel layouts. There is a great splash page with an insert on page three of the book that really captured poor Grimaldi’s plight. The demon for this issue is suitably scary and also fairly icky (Think Man-Bat spliced with Alien and the frumpiest elementary school teacher you can remember). My major criticism in Lee Loughridge’s coloring. He does some interesting things with tonal change to underscore the pace and even the meaning of the narrative but some sections of this issue are pitch black and others washed out with bright yellow. On the other hand, if you like stylish demon women, you’ll love Lee Bermejo’s cover.

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