Comics Fondle

Once again–I’m not sure when the last time was, looking would depress me (wasted reading time and all)–Vaughan gets close to having a good comic book here. Tefé and Constantine go for a walk and talk about some stuff. Some of it’s cool stuff, like Tefé being an over-powered twit and her sidekicks being lame, but then, instead of listening, Tefé informs Constantine she’s punk rock and she’s going to kill everyone or some blather. (Tefé is, of course, a punk rock hero like anyone who watched a VH1 special on punk rock then went to high school rambling about it would be a punk rock hero).

Lots of Vaughan’s writing here is good, which is why the idiotic conclusion is so bad. He writes Constantine really well, for example. The idea of Tefé being fourteen is a little problematic (as it turns both her “boyfriends” into predators, regardless of her superpowers), as is the idea Swamp Thing wouldn’t be able to find her if he needed to. Really, the issue is all about Constantine, which is only fair, since he’s the best character Vaughan’s had in the book.

The Roger Petersen art, usually decent, fails here. He can’t do a talking heads book. It’s either boring or bad and he’s always emphasizing the signposts. I’m not sure if the spotlight on ‘25′ is supposed to mean anything, but whatever… it’s distracting and pointless to the story at hand.

And Vaughan’s Gotham City reference, which–given Swamp Thing’s history with Batman–could have been cool, comes off as forced as the Superman reference in Batman & Robin.

C+

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