Having failed to stop the Brujería from dispatching their messenger to wake the Darkness, Constantine falls into despair and does nothing when the sorcerers begin moving toward him. The Swamp Thing, however, won't have it. Ordering Constantine to flee the caves, he makes the roots above ground poke through the ceiling, thus causing the chamber to fill with soil and drown all the Brujería members.
Outside the caves, the two remaining teammates devise a plan to combat the Darkness once it's summoned. The Swamp Thing heads for the afterworld realms to gather his contacts there, as it's within those realms that the threat will first surface. Constantine, meanwhile, assembles a team of living occultists to assist them by channeling their collective power to their otherworldly allies.
He begins with Baron Winters in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. After some initial resistance, John secures the use of Winters's mansion as the team's power base, as it's situated at a spacetime threshold unconnected to the present. Next, he obtains the help of Sargon the Sorcerer and John's onetime lover Zatanna; her father, John Zatara, insists on chaperoning her.
Meanwhile, the Swamp Thing journeys to the afterworld and gathers Deadman and the Phantom Stranger, who already knows of the threat. So does the Spectre, who shocks the others by boasting that he not only saw the messenger bird fly by, but deliberately let it do so even though he could've easily destroyed it, because he's eager to take on the Darkness personally and finally face a truly challenging opponent. Etrigan, who did try his best to destroy the bird, also comes on board, as does Doctor Fate when his helmet summons him. Etrigan says that the demons of Hell are evenly split between those willing to oppose the Darkness (as a threat to the familiar cosmic order) and those fighting in support of it.
Constantine's team meets at Winters's home, joined by Doctor Occult who's come on his own initiative after dreaming of the threat and Constantine's plan to stop it. The final team member is Steve Dayton, AKA Mento. Despite Mento's fear, as well as signs of paranoia from overuse of his mind-enhancement helmet, Constantine insists on his participation because the helmet will be the team's power conduit as well as its eyes for the battle in the afterworld.
To that end, John has Mento do a "test run" of the helmet and give an ongoing report of what he sees. Mento locates the bird, now passing over Hell and into the chaos beyond. In its last moments, as the chaos tears it up, the bird remembers its former existence as Judith. With its dying scream, it releases the pearl of distilled fear and paranormal belief into the chaos, from which something begins to emerge. "The summoning is over," says the perspiring Dayton. "Here comes the night."
Tropes
- Avengers Assemble: DC Comics is no stranger to this trope, of course, but the recruitment montage in this issue is probably the first time it's focused on mystics rather than 'standard' superheroes.
- Better the Devil You Know: Etrigan cites this as the reason he and half the demon population of Hell are fighting on Heaven's side.
- Call-Back: The Swamp Thing's Pre Ass Kicking One Liner to the Brujería—"Fools. You are in a cave...beneath the clean Earth...in the center...of a rainforest...You...do not even...have a chance"—recalls his pre-beatdown speech to Arcane in The Brimstone Ballet: "I am of...the clean earth. I am in...my place...of power...AND YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE COME HERE!"
- Celestial Bureaucracy: Deadman, on duty in the Realm of the Just Dead, has this to say about resuscitation procedures: "Another cardiac massage...They really make a mess out of the schedules up here."
- Challenge Seeker: The Spectre is this trope up to eleven. He's willing to risk the overthrow of Heaven and the entire ordered cosmos so he can face an enemy who'll truly test his mettle.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The Swamp Thing easily disposes of the Brujería.
- Fetish: John's costume fetish comes up when he and Zatanna reminisce about the time they took part in a tantric studies group.John: You had your old costume then. Pity you changed it.
Zatanna: Oh, come on, John...A top hat and fishnet stockings?
John: Yeah, well, I liked it. - Guile Hero: Once again, John Constantine demonstrates his skill at manipulation and deceit for the greater good. When Baron Winters initially refuses to help, claiming that Constantine's abilities are limited, Constantine punctures his arrogance by reminding Winters that he too has limits, as he's unable to exit from his house into the present-day outside world. Next, he claims, falsely, that Sargon has already volunteered his help. Constantine does the same with Sargon, claiming that Winters is already on board, and thus clinches both their participation. Also, John varies his argumentation style according to his audience: he meets Winters's arrogance with his own cockiness, while speaking politely to the more gentlemanly Sargon. Finally, he out-and-out lies to Mento about the danger he may face, but is careful to do so when his back is turned to him.
- New Old Flame: This issue mentions for the first time that Constantine and Zatanna were once lovers. They reminisce fondly about old times, and she gives him a passionate kiss when he heads out for the night. Could a renewed romance be in the making? Not after she blames him for her father's death in the following issue.
- Not in This for Your Revolution: Like Winters, Sargon at first declines his help, but for a different reason: having embraced both good and evil in his lifetime, he has no preference for one over the other. All he cares about is maximizing his occult knowledge. Thus, when he does decide to join the other mages, it's solely for the opportunity to see Winters's mansion again...and the "secrets" it houses.
- Not So Invincible After All: The Brujería may be millions of years old. They may have been powerful enough to cause outbreaks of horror around the world. They may have outwitted the Chessmaster Constantine and ensured the summoning's success. Yet all it takes to destroy them, to the last man, is the Swamp Thing causing a mudslide.
- Pride: The Spectre allows the bird to summon the Darkness because he's confident he can defeat it, and is looking forward to the challenge of doing so.
- Restraining Bolt: Although his mansion can serve as a gateway to other places and times, Baron Winters is unable to go outdoors in the present.
- Serious Business: Cain chokes Abel to death over an argument as to what species the bird is.
- Shout-Out: "Here Comes the Night" was a 1965 hit for Van Morrison and Them.
- Swapped Roles: Earlier in "American Gothic," Constantine had been the leader, goading the Swamp Thing into furthering his plan, while the Swamp Thing had wanted to give up. At the start of this issue, it's Constantine who's ready to give up and the Swamp Thing who insists they keep trying.
- Talks Like a Simile: Mento does so when describing the bird's path and the minds of the beings watching it.There's something as big as a continent beneath me. Some sort of massive fortress, like a huge concentration camp [...] Could it be Hell?
The yellow thing has a mind like a tub full of boiling cats...The plant creature is a dark green pool... - Unwanted Revival: In the Realm of the Just Dead, the Swamp Thing finds Deadman trying to persuade a heart attack victim to return to life because they've given him a cardiac massage. The man refuses, because he's in debt to the IRS and hates his family. However, upon seeing the Swamp Thing, he mistakes him for a demon come to take him to Hell, and changes his mind.
