In Review: John Constantine: Hellblazer (2019-) #7

Synopsis: How are all those poor British fishermen supposed to keep the French out of their waters? By summoning an ancient merwoman, perhaps? Of course, there’s the little matter of what to do with her once she’s served her purpose…and what to do about this John Constantine fellow who’s come sniffing around to find her himself…

The Story

While investigating a case in the fishing market of Billingsgate in London. Constantine hears the story of how a Merwoman and a young untested Fisherman fell in love and the Merwoman’s love for her man saw her help him bring in the biggest catches of Monkfish that the market had ever seen. The entire issue is told from the point of view of the Merwoman who tells Constantine everything that she did for her human lover but is ultimately betrayed by him.

The Artwork

Aaron Campbell’s art for this issue is fantastic. I loved how he managed to capture the atmosphere of a fish market to a point where you could actually hear the hustle and bustle and near as damn smell the raw fish being sold. I also liked the drawing of the Merwoman in general. Particularly the moments where she was engaged in a passionate embrace with her human lover. The linework was really solid throughout and helped somewhat by some great colorwork from colorist Jordie Bellaire.

Overall

A promising start to what could be the best story arc we have seen to date in 2020 for this book. I enjoyed the backdrop of the fishermen blaming their misfortunes on the French and the Tory MP talking about the fishing quotas that were supposedly being imposed by the EU. But the best part was how the Merwoman is relating her story to us as well as to Constantine. It will be interesting to see how Constantine will help the Merwoman get some retribution in the second part of this story, which will hopefully release at some stage in July.