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Hellblazer Vol 1 1

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"Hunger": In New York City, a man named Henry Wambach feels something dark rumbling in his gut. The feeling drives him to want to eat more and more. His hunger is insatiable. The more he eats, the more he wants to eat. Stumbling into a restaurant, his hunger becomes so intense that he tries

C'mon then, you maggoty piece of Hell meat! Eat me! I'll bloody choke you!
— John Constantine

Hellblazer #1 is an issue of the series Hellblazer (Volume 1) with a cover date of January, 1988. It was published on September 22, 1987.

Synopsis for "Hunger"

In New York City, a man named Henry Wambach feels something dark rumbling in his gut. The feeling drives him to want to eat more and more. His hunger is insatiable. The more he eats, the more he wants to eat. Stumbling into a restaurant, his hunger becomes so intense that he tries to eat the other patrons. Eventually, though, he collapses, dead. Strangely, Henry Wambach has starved to death, despite the fact that he has eaten copious amounts of food.

In London, John Constantine arrives at his Paddington flat. He's forgotten his key in Patagonia, so he has to buzz his landlady, Mrs. McGuire to get inside. Ms. McGuire is annoyed with him for a number of reasons, foremost of which is the fact that one of John's friends invited himself into the apartment, and had her post a package for him all the way to the United States, at a cost to her of £17.50. John is suspicious of the fact that he has any guests at all, but he gives the woman £20 note, and reluctantly enters his apartment.

Relaxing into his apartment, John doesn't find anybody. He does, however, find evidence that his old acquaintance Gary Lester has been there. The place is a mess, though, and on top of that, he is down to his last cigarette. John is disgusted to find Gaz' junk needle hidden underneath a smut-rag, and he is further disgusted to see that the needle contains insects. This prompts him to investigate his apartment further. In the kitchen, the dishes have been left undone for quite some time, and the fridge is full of horrible insects, who have begun to feast on the bounty of its rotten contents. John is overwhelmed by the stench and stumbles out, only to hear some horrible sounds from his bathroom.

Inside, John finds Gary Lester, cramped in the bathtub, rambling about how his heroin withdrawal symptoms have got him hallucinating bugs crawling over his skin. He doesn't realize, however, that there really are bugs crawling all over him, and John is so disgusted that he simply slams the door. Grumpily, he goes down to the local tobacco shop and picks up some silk cuts and some bug spray before calling up his acquaintance Chaz, and having him come over.

After veritably fumigating his apartment with twelve cans of bug spray, John manages to drag Gary out of the bathroom, despite the coating of dead bugs crunching underfoot. Chaz arrives, and with his help, John hypnotizes Gary into explaining how this came about.

Gary had been in Tangiers, where he saw a young slave boy who was obviously possessed. Not only is Gary addicted to junk, though, he is also addicted to exorcism. He found the thrill of exorcising the boy so tempting that he stole him away and perform the ritual. A cloud of insects burst from the boy's skin, killing him. Desperately, Gary bound the demon Mnemoth into a bottle. But the demon tempted him from within the bottle, demanding to be let out. So, Gary's thoughts turned to John Constantine, hoping that his old friend could help. He stole a passport and sold it for a ticket to London. But John wasn't home, so Gary had the bottle mailed to the United States, to the home of John's friend Emma.

Grumpily, John assigns Chaz to look after Gary for a few days while he goes to the Sudan to find out how to exorcise the demon. John travels to a Sudanese village where a Dinka shaman is already expecting him. John explains why he is there, and then she shaman provides him with a psychedelic root to chew on in order that they can share their experience of the boy and how to exorcise the demon. The shaman had found this boy, and in order to protect his people from the hunger and famine of the demon Mnemoth, he had sealed the demon within one of the children of his tribe. However, he had not known that the boy was later found and sold to slavers. With his new knowledge, John returns to England to pick up Gary, and they go to America together.

John drags Gary (whose addictions are becoming rather grating on John's nerves) to the Midnight Club, where Haitian crime boss and Voodoo magician Papa Midnite resides. John breaks in through the back, and they are surprised to encounter one of Midnite's zombie servants attempting to capture a chicken for one of its master's rituals. The servant attacks, but a stern talking to from John sends it into submission.

John and Gary surprise Papa Midnite on the roof of his club, where John tries to convince the stern and imposing man of the fact that having a hunger demon running amok in New York will be bad for business. That said, John needs Papa Midnite's help in resealing the demon. Midnite will say only that he will consider it, as John leaves him to look after Gary.

John makes his way to his friend Emma's apartment. Gary had sent the bound demon-in-a-bottle to her address, not knowing that she had already been killed by the Invunche, some time ago. An artist is now living in her apartment and has used her death as an inspiration for his own art. John is put out, and furthermore, regretful about Emma's demise. On the stairs outside her old apartment, John is accosted by Emma's ghost. She offers her help, and they head out into the street.

Outside, John catches sight of a man who is supposed to have been a vegetarian breaking into a butcher shop and eating all of the raw meat there. It is clear that this is another victim of Mnemoth's influence. Unfortunately, the man dies in just a matter of minutes. John and Emma follow the trail of insects to a church. Through the great doors, John sees the demon Mnemoth in the form of a giant carrion fly. The demon is left with the choice to possess either Constantine or the priest. John dares the creature to take him, but Emma warns that he is not a strong enough magician to deal with the demon. John persists, but eventually, he is forced to run away as Mnemoth takes the priest.

Appearing in "Hunger"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Mnemoth the Demon (First appearance)
    • Mnemoth's hosts (Possessed)
      • Eddie (Single appearance; dies)
      • Henry Wambach (Post Office director) (Single appearance; dies)
  • Papa Midnite (First appearance)
    • Cedella (First appearance; unnamed) (As a spirit) (Also as a corpse)

Other Characters:

  • Ali (Evening Standard market owner) (First appearance)
  • British Boys (First appearance)
    • Kenny
    • Wayne
  • Eddie's wife (Single appearance) (Unnamed) (Cameo)
  • Gino (New York hot dog vendor) (Single appearance) (Cameo)
  • Marty (New York restaurant client) (Single appearance)
  • Marty's girlfriend (Single appearance) (Unnamed)
  • Mrs. McGuire (John Constantine's landlady) (First appearance)
  • Metropolitan Police (Flashback only) (Cameo)
  • United States Postal Service
  • Unnamed occult professor (Single appearance) (Cameo)
  • Aleister Crowley (Mentioned only)
  • Billy the Kid (Mentioned only)
  • The Devil (Mentioned only)
  • Genghis Khan (Mentioned only)
  • Jesus (Mentioned only)
  • Invunche (Mentioned only)
  • Mighty Mouse (John Constantine's neighbour) (Mentioned only)
  • Mucous Membrane (Mentioned only)
  • Newcastle Crew (Mentioned only)
  • New York City Police Department (Mentioned only)
  • Satan (Mentioned only)
  • United Nations (Mentioned only)
  • Zombies (Mentioned only)
  • Manson Family (Mentioned only)
  • William S. Burroughs (Mentioned only)

Locations:

Items:

Vehicles:

  • Subway Train

Events:

Concepts:

Notes

  • The events of this story (and the series) were originally set on New Earth. However, after the creation of the Vertigo imprint, the Post-Crisis DC and Vertigo continuities were split, along with the two iterations of Constantine, retconning the events of Hellblazer (Volume 1) in the Vertigo Universe which technically makes its first appearance with this issue.
    • All of John Constantine's stories that preceded this issue have happened in the Vertigo continuity;[1]
    • Despite being set in another universe, various events from the Vertigo continuity are also experienced by New Earth Constantine albeit with some differences.[2][3][4]
  • Issues #1 and 2 of this series take place around Spring 1987.[5]
  • This issue features a fictitious magazine article written by Satchmo Hawkins entitled, "Faces on the Street". The column appears as a feature in XS Magazine and is partially printed on the inside front cover of this issue.
  • Forty-page premier issue.
  • This issue is reprinted in Hellblazer: Original Sins.

Trivia

  • The original title for this series was Hellraiser, but it was changed prior to publication so as to not be confused with the 1988 Clive Barker horror film, Hellraiser.
  • This issue makes reference to the botched Newcastle exorcism. The details surrounding this event are revealed in Hellblazer #11.
  • The back cover to this issue features a testimonial to the series written by Alan Moore, the creator of John Constantine.
  • When speaking of Gary Lester's exorcism skills, John makes a tongue-in-cheek reference to William Friedkin, the director of the 1973 motion picture The Exorcist.


See Also

Recommended Reading

Links and References

  1. ↑ Hellblazer #2
  2. ↑ Swamp Thing (Volume 2) #74
  3. ↑ Swamp Thing (Volume 2) #75
  4. ↑ Swamp Thing (Volume 2) #76
  5. ↑ Vertigo Secret Files: Hellblazer #1
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