Hellblazer #239 - Vertigo

This issue starts a new story-arc. It's about a Shaman in Africa. Actually, it's about 2 Shamans. The one, the old man who's lived on the same piece of ground, in the same hut, forever . . is just trying to defend his people . . his life . . his heritage. The other . . a young upstart . . it seems to me, is going around Africa looking for the "old ones", and are killing them and absorbing . . . for lack of a better word . . . their power. It seems they've both had this dream about a "laughing magician". The old man has been a Shaman for a long time, so he knows how to use his powers. And he knows better how to interpret visions. So he knows where the laughing magician is. The young one has a lot of power by now, but wields it like a hammer. Just striking at whatever's in front of him. He's had the same vision. He knows it's important, but he doesn't know how to read all the signs . . so he doesn't know how to find him. He begins the painful process of trying to extract it from the old man. But just before he dies he realizes that the old man gave all that information away. There's not a hint of it left inside him. Before the young Shaman came to their village, the old man could sense his approach. So he transferred the knowledge in to a tree root, and sent it with one of the younger men of the village. He's to go to London and find the laughing magician. The young man knows what's at stake and does whatever he has to to gain passage. Once he arrives, in his frantic fervor to find him, he comes across to the authorities as a maniac or terrorist. So they end up shooting him down. Luckily, at that moment, Constantine arrives and picks up the root. It looks like John's going to be taking a nice little trip to Africa. Well . . . unless the Shaman comes to London looking for him. Fantastic story. Andy Diggle has really seemed to find his groove on this series. It also seems to have improved Leonardo Manco's work. Right now I think this series is probably the best it's ever been. Great stuff. Oh yeah . . and we can't forget the incredible Glenn Fabry cover. Awesome series!