HELLBLAZER: ALL HIS ENGINES (2005)

I have only an irregular acquaintance with the HELLBLAZER series, starring John Constantine, ruthless, seemingly hellbound occultist, but most of what I've read so far amounted to near-myths. However, ALL HIS ENGINES shows considerable inventiveness in presenting the liberation of a "Persephone" from both pagan and Christian conceptions of Hell.

To be sure, only once do writer Mike Carey and artist Leonardo Manco evoke the Persephone myth, and even then, Carey uses the Roman name for the Greek woman taken to hell by the god Pluto, in the opening chapter title "Proserpine Gathering Flowers" (the phrase derived from a Victorian painting depicting the famed myth). The innocent virgin this time is Trish Chandler, who is one of several persons struck down by a mysterious coma. Trish's father Chas happens to know something about the world of the occult inhabited by his mate Constantine, and he calls upon his old buddy to sort things out.

A divinatory ritual sends Constantine and Chas to Los Angeles, and there they meet a corpulent demon, Beroul, who has trapped the spirit of Trish in his capacious gut. Beroul holds her hostage to ensure the cooperation of Constantine in Beroul's big project: to knock off all the other demons floating around the City of Angels.

Constantine then decides that he must play along with Beroul to preserve Trish's life, and thus, he must find a way to kill all those other demons. He decides his best course is to take advantage of the many persons of Hispanic heritage in L.A., or rather, of a select few who are still tied to the Aztec death-god Mictlantecuthli. (I"m just going to type "Deathgod" henceforth.) The modern-day believers lead Constantine to the Deathgod while Chas eventually ends up enjoying a booty call with a comely young Hispanic woman, Melosa. The name is a Spanish variant on "Melissa," which in Greek myth signifies a priestess of the bee-goddess cultus, though Melosa is not an actual priestess of anything and in fact is pretty much a practical modern woman.

Constantine converses with the Deathgod, essentially mocking him with his inability to enjoy the glory days of his ancient pantheon. He plays the ancient death-deity, egging him to strike out at these latecoming Judeo-Christian parasites. Accordingly, Constantine traps all of Beroul's enemies in a deconsecrated church and the Deathgod devours them all. However, Beroul then shows up and forges a deal with the Deathgod, and then refuses to honor his pledge to release Trish from his demonic male womb.

On top of that, Chas has a crisis of confidence, believing that he'll never see his daughter freed-- and there's a strong implication that he sees himself starting a new life with Melosa. Thus, even though Melosa isn't a pagan priestess, there's a sense that she provides a temptation that can cause Chas to stray from his righteous course. But Constantine makes a special deal with the Deathgod to betray Beroul, liberating Trish from the demon's gullet-- after which Constantine must also manage to liberate the innocent "Persephone" from the control of the Deathgod.

The conclusion is actually fairly upbeat for a HELLBLAZER story, except that Chas, reunited with his daughter, essentially breaks things off with Melosa. One can trust Constantine to put a pessimistic spin on any salvation, though, as he ends with his meditations on the unadvisability of "giving any hostages to fortune," because "you're on your own in the end." This recalls the context of the Milton quote that provides the novel's title. In PARADISE LOST Milton pictures Satan being hurled to perdition despite "all his engines"-- and throughout the narrative, Carey and Manco suggest that Constantine will never be able to save himself as he saves others.