The Stop Button

All of a sudden, Delano seems to decide he needs to make the comic about Constantine. Not immediately, of course. He opens with a little about the cultists kidnapping Constantine’s lady friend, though she’s been reduced to a chess piece at this point.

Then Constantine hallucinates–and Delano gives the reader some hints of the backstory (a botched exorcism)–and finally wakes up to discover himself in a hospital bed.

Apparently Swamp Thing, in an offscreen moment, got Constantine to the doctor. This scene, with Swamp Thing somehow delivering a crushed Constantine to the emergency room door, would be better than anything else in the issue.

Anyway, a demon shows up and tries to get Constantine to join his side against the Christian fundamentalists. Delano amusingly puts the blame not on the fundamentalists… but insensitive angels. The details are interesting, but they don’t make a story.

Still, the writing’s decent.

CREDITS

Intensive Care; writer, Jamie Delano; penciller, John Ridgway; inker, Alfredo Alcala; colorist, Lovern Kindzierski; letterer, John Costanza; editor, Karen Berger; publisher, DC Comics.