John Constantine: Hellblazer #156 (January 2001)
Plot summary[]
Richie hears Dickie 's dog howling in the distance and takes off in a sprint through the woods. John Constantine wipes a splatter of blood off Dickie's mobile phone with a leaf and calls Rose, asking her to meet her in the old house in the woods. Following the continued howls of his brother's dog, Richie comes across Dickie's horribly gored corpse up against a tree trunk. John once again comes face to face with the naked woman chained up outside the old house, this time he works on setting her free, only to be interrupted by Rose. She asks after the whereabouts of her husband and he casually informs her that he's where he belongs - knowing full well what Constantine means, Rose cries for her dead spouse. John returns to picking the lock on the chains binding the naked woman but again he's interrupted - this time by the arrival of a large number of the town's residents.
Richie catches up with the boar and finds it locked in combat with Dickie's dog, as he arrives on the scene the boar drives one of its tusks up into the dog's belly. Howling in anger, Richie casts his rifle aside and pulls a knife before joining the fray. Rose delivers the denouement, explaining to Constantine how Dickie came up with the plan of making nasty movies for the internet in order to fund the town's survival after the mine was shut down. Nobody liked the plan but all agreed that they had no choice, that it was the only way they could survive, so everybody took their turn being chained up and used as fodder for the website. A bloodied Richie arrives on the scene, carrying Dickie's dead dog in his arms. Grief stricken over the death of his brother, Richie collapses to the ground and cries over the dog's corpse.
An angry Rose asks John why he came to Doglick in the first place, he tells her about wanting to apologise to Lucky's wife and she laughs at him - explaining that Marjorie (Lucky's wife) cashed in Lucky's life insurance and got out of town just as soon as she could. Rose tells Constantine that Dickie was so fond of having him around that he wouldn't have done anything to drive him away, which explains why he never told John that Marjorie was no longer living in the town. John asks Rose to leave Doglick with him but she refuses, saying its her turn to take her place chained to the tree. We get one final flashback to London, where a young Constantine is seemingly unable to ask Rose to stay with him so she leaves to return to America.
Continuity[]
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Discontinuity[]
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Goofs[]
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Notes[]
- Enjoy the soundtrack while you read.