After having read and (as I recall) enjoyed volume 2 and 3 several years ago, I was a definitely underwhelmed when I finally decided to go back and read volume 1. Depending on how my second read through of volume 2 eventually goes, I might actually have to recommend that people just skip this first volume all together if they want to really enjoy this series.

First off, I really felt like the explanation behind how Jessie got his powers was really overdone and completely unnecessary. Unlike in the no doubt much compared Sandman, Ennis has decided to just make shit up as he goes along. Coming up with bogus angel categories (as far as I can tell, I've never really been much of an angels person but there is google) that are just close enough to actual names of angels to sound extra silly and uncreative. The incorporation of heaven and hell into titles such as Constantine and Green Arrow are actually a big part of why I love DC comics so much, it's the mythic level they take things to. Even, as I said earlier, when I had only read volume two, the level of mystery that was there for me kept things a lot more interesting and that's why this first volume was such a big fat disappointment.

Another big reason that I thought this volume really fell short was the artwork. While I realize that not every vertigo title can look like Constantine, I do think it's a fair critique to say that this book is pretty visually boring. There were a few panels where the facial lines really emoted something, but more often then not the colours were flat and lines felt pretty lethargic really.

The page layouts and framing of the panels also felt pretty expressionless as well. While this comic gets a lot of praise for its ultra-violence, I have to disagree and say this first volume at least felt incredibly tame. Despite the fact that some scenes could have had a lot of impact, the way in which the artist chose to depict them felt incredibly plodding. The only thing that came close to really catching my eye was the one scene where the guys face has been removed and the serial killer is tacking it back on again. Even this scene could have been done a lot better, maybe showed a bit more detail and drawn it out in such a way to build tension and really brought out the gruesome details. As it is, the artist (and the author to a large extent) just seem to think that throwing out a few f bombs, making everyone ass ugly and having a few bullet splatters makes something gritty, edgy and adult.

As the volume progressed things tended to get a bit more interesting. Detective Tool was a bit of an interesting spin on the racist caricature that a lot of DC and Vertigo authors go to when depicting black men and Tulip continues to strike me as rather promising. Of course then there was the self-loathing gay super-cop guy at the end, which felt like a really stupid thing to just sort of tack in there. I guess Ennis has issues with bdsm? I guess Sunstone has ruined me for almost any other depiction of bondage.

I'll let you know how the next one goes.