Moving into less seedy territory, The Devil You Know is the end to Constantine's initial confrontation with Nergal, the demon who took Astras soul as seen in the trailer. It involves the reappearance of one of Constantines friends thought dead (a usually safe assumption) in computer whiz Ritchie Cunningham. In an earlier issue Ritchie was trying to track a fundamentalist group for Constantine by uploading his consciousness into electronic reality. Look, it was the 80s - people just assumed computers worked on Shadow Run logic. Anyway, while Ritchies mind was hooked up his body overheated and combusted, leaving him trapped in the virtual world. When Constantine learned that Ritchie was still alive, he hooked up his own consciousness to computer in a bid to to lure Nergal into the matrix where, with Ritchies help, hed have the advantage. Surprisingly the plan worked - Nergal was destroyed and Ritchie had a fresh demon body to inhabit. Unfortunately, the damnation twins Agony and Ecstasy got wind of this and dragged Ritchie to hell so he could properly earn the title of a demon (the paperwork alone is a nightmare!). As you might have guessed, the level of 80s era cyberpunk nonsense would never fit well with a serious, supernatural detective show. Even if our understanding of computers hadnt massively improved over the years no ones going to believe a demon strapping on an Oculus Rift and getting killed by the nausea.
