Hellblazer #264 - Vertigo

This issue wraps up John's story in Mumbai. He's been chasing after this Colonel whom after death turned in to a demon. It appears a local Sadhu, a shaman, in his younger years had put a curse on this man before he died. He knew how evil he was and was trying to make sure that he paid for his sins. So . . the Colonel hooks up with a local Bollywood producer and has him bring him young females as sacrifices. I'm sure the guy was just scared, but . . he didn't realize that with every sacrifice the Colonel demon was becoming stronger and stronger. Anyways, this Sadhu had summoned John to Mumbai to help take care of this demon. In return he promises to try to help reunite John with Phoebe. John probably could've figured this out on his own, but Epiphany shows up to offer her help and support. John doesn't want to involve her, but . . she does have certain talents. So while John is being questioned by the local police, Epiphany comes up with a concoction to draw out the demon. John's done this before, but this time . . this time Epiphany has learned it's weakness. It appears that there was a battle with the Sepoy's where the Colonel turned tail and ran. Leaving all of his men at the mercy of the enemy. However, since he survived, he lied about the story and ended up getting full honors for bravery. That's the chink in his armor. John confronts him with that memory, the Colonel lets his guard down and John strikes freeing all of the lost souls that the Colonel has collected . . the source of his power. The Sadhu does fulfill his promise, but . . Phoebe channels herself through Epiphany. 'J . John . .? Wh . . what you are doing . . it is . . wrong . . I . . I need to move on. Y . . you're stopping me . . I am dead. Let me go . . get on with your life. I must . . .' So . . the story kind of has a happy ending, and . . it doesn't. The Colonel has been vanquished, but . . Mumbai remains pretty much unchanged. I'm sure there's other demons out there. And for now John is going to leave Phoebe behind. I'm sure until he gets another glimmer of hope somewhere. And he's still clueless as to how Epiphany really feels about him. That, or he's scared to death of her father. It could go either way. I really liked this story by Peter Milligan and Giuseppe Camuncoli. I thought they did a great job with it, and it fits right in with the rest of the Hellblazer stories, or . . urban legends. The cover is by Simon Bisley, whom apparently is returning next issue to do the interiors. This really is a good book. If you're not reading it, you should give it a shot. There's lots of TPBs out there to whet your whistle with.