Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, DC Comics | Tagged: greek, hellblazer, john constantine, Roman, sandman, si spurrier, TS Eliot

John Constantine, Rewriting Sandman, Hellblazer & TS Eliot (Spoilers)

John Constantine: Hellblazer: Dead In America series has been doing a little rewriting and retconning of the early days of Sandman.

Last year, Bleeding Cool told you that the new John Constantine: Hellblazer: Dead In America series would be doing a little rewriting and retconning of the early days of Sandman, that saw Dream track down John Constantine, who was once in his possession of his leather pouch full of sand.

John Constantine: Hellblazer: Dead In America #1 revealed that he had lied.

HE had indeed used the grains for his own ends.

So in exchange, Constantine is obliged to put right what once went wrong and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home.

"I will show you fear in a handful of dust", paraphrased to promote the Sandman comic initially and from The Burial of the Dead in The Wasteland by TS Eliot, "And I will show you something different from either. Your shadow at morning striding behind you. Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; I will show you fear in a handful of dust."

And so Constantine urged to seek out the Cumean Oracle to find more of his sand. And he finds Clarice Sackville, created by Warren Ellis and John Higgins in Ellis' aborted Hellblazer run back in 1999, an elderly magician, a high-ranking member of The Tate Club and former lover of Constantine. She first appeared in Hellblazer issue 134 and was at least 200 years old then.

Appearing again in Mike Carey's run, and also in Andy Diggle's, often drawn by Leonardo Manco as well as in the DC Rebirth version of Hellblazer by Simon Oliver. But she has never been who she says she is.

The Satyricon is a Latin work of fiction believed to have been written by Gaius Petronius in the late 1st century, credited to Titus Petronius. The surviving aspects fo the text include the exploits of the narrator, Encolpius and his sex slave Giton. And has former slave Trimalchio state that he had seen Sibyl at Cumae "hanging in her jar", a line that gained greater fame when translated as "For I indeed once saw with my own eyes the Sibyl at Cumae hanging in her jar, and when the boys asked her, 'Sibyl, what do you want?' she answered 'I want to die'" and quoted in the Epigraph to T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland.

Turns out he always knew who she was as well. Sibylla was a Greek priestess in Cumae near Italy, famed as an oracle and painted into the Sistine Ceiling of Michelangelo, and believed to have prophesised the birth of Jesus Christ. Ovid's Metamorphosis has her living a thousand years, when the god Apollo offered to grant her a wish in exchange for her virginity, taking a handful of sand and asked to live for as many years as the grains of sand she held. But after refusing  Apollo's love, he allowed her body to wither away because she failed to ask for eternal youth. Her withered body was eventually was kept in a jar until only only her voice was left.

Which is basically where Swamp Thing is right now… and maybe a chance for some empathy on Clarice's part? Because this is, it seems, who Clarice Sackville was. The oracle Sibyl at Cumae.

Are the grains of sand those from the pouch? But this oracle has a history lesson to impart.

Rewriting history and myth, as well as Sandman and Hellblazer.

Not the first time Sandman has done this of course, with Calliope or the Kindly Ones.

Talking of which…

Of course, not everything goes according to plan.

And yes, that is basically how Greek and Roman scholars, and even TS Eliot have framed the story of Sibyl at Cumae. This week, Clarice Sackville gets to frame it back again, courtesy of Si Spurrier and Aaron Campbell.

JOHN CONSTANTINE HELLBLAZER DEAD IN AMERICA #2 (OF 8) CVR A AARON CAMPBELL (MR)
(W) Si Spurrier (A/CA) Aaron Campbell
With the specter of mortality breathing down his neck, John heads to the Big Easy, where he enlists the skills of old friend Clarice Sackville to heal the fractured mind of Alec Holland, the Swamp Thing, and use that elemental power to kickstart his own dead heart. Perhaps she can do that–but it will require a drug-induced journey into distant realms that'll shake John to his rotten core. And meanwhile, Nat and Noah learn the magical lengths Clarice is willing to go to in order to extend her own terrifyingly long life… Retail: $4.99 In-Store Date: 2/20/2024

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!