Etrigan's third go at an ongoing lasted almost 60 issues, the first 40 of which were done by Alan Grant and, for the first couple years, Val Semekis as artist. I don't own any of those, and from what I've seen there's far more Lobo in those issues than anyone should be exposed to. What I do have is 8 issues of Garth Ennis and John McCrea's run. All of which, not coincidentally, are part of storylines that involve Tommy Monagahan, aka Hitman.
We'll look at his first appearance next week, but focusing on this stretch, it feels like Ennis really ramped up the animosity between Etrigan and Jason Blood. Not that either of them was ever happy with their arrangement, but here it's really played up that Etrigan has amused himself by torturing Jason Blood at every opportunity. That he has more than once, over the centuries they've been bonded, done things so awful it broke Blood's mind for decades. Meaning Etrigan had free reign to do whatever he wanted, because Jason couldn't summon the will to tell him no.
That continues here, as Blood's hopes of having some semblance of a happy life with his lady friend Glenda are dashed by Etrigan accepting an offer to be "Hell's hitman", which will send him all over the world killing demons. When it turns out Glenda's pregnant, that too is part of Etrigan's plan to destroy Blood once and for all. It backfires on him spectacularly, and gives Jason the upper hand.
That leads to Blood, who is enjoying the hell out of his moment, letting Etrigan out with the oath, 'Gone o little man so tame, arise the demon whathisname.'
(Blood will eventually lose that upper hand due to Tommy's desperation, but in Tommy's defense, Blood also stiffed him on his $2 million for shooting Merlin in the head first.)
Ennis' Etrigan is gleefully cruel and violent, but it's overlaid over a lot of anger and hurt that comes out if anyone crosses him. He's like a particularly moody teenager, yelling about how no one knows hate and pain like him.
McCrea goes an entirely different direction with Etrigan from basically any other artist I've seen. Most of them default to Jack Kirby's bulky, muscular Demon. Sort of the conventional superhero build. McCrea makes him this jagged, almost emaciated looking creature. He has muscles, but his wrists and joints are all thin and bony, his ribs are visible, his shoulder blades jut out, his neck can be unsettlingly long. His clothes fit on him in a way that reminds me of a Dr. Seuss character somehow. It's a very unique look to be sure.
If I remember right, the run ends with some particularly angry archangel taking control of Heaven and deciding to try and destroy Hell once and for all, and Etrigan pulling himself out of a funk to lead a defense of Hell. I assume it succeeded, but I don't remember for sure.
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