John Constantine

John Constantine, Hellblazer by Jamie Delano, collected as a pack of 2 oversized omnibus volumes and cheaper than buying them one by one. John Constantine first appeared in Swamp Thing #37 in 1985 and got his own title two years later, becoming the character DC has adapted into film, television and animation more than any other Vertigo creation. The early run establishes the format everything since has used: Constantine's magic is mostly lying, his friends die because they know him, and the horror is usually political. Jamie Delano wrote Thatcher's Britain as a haunting, which gives these issues a specificity that later runs traded for mythology. John Constantine, Hellblazer by Jamie Delano Omnibus Vol. 2 collects the second half of the run that invented Hellblazer as a genre of its own: political horror set in Thatcher's Britain, where the monsters are usually institutions and John's real weapon is being willing to sacrifice his friends. Delano's Constantine is nastier, funnier and sadder than any version that followed.

John Constantine first appeared in Swamp Thing #37 in 1985 and got his own title two years later, becoming the character DC has adapted into film, television and animation more than any other Vertigo creation. The early run establishes the format everything since has used: Constantine's magic is mostly lying, his friends die because they know him, and the horror is usually political. Jamie Delano wrote Thatcher's Britain as a haunting, which gives these issues a specificity that later runs traded for mythology.

Garth Ennis wrote Hellblazer for three years in the early nineties and produced the run most people mean when they talk about John Constantine. Dangerous Habits is the story where Constantine cons three lords of Hell into saving his life because none of them will let the others have his soul, and it is the single best trick the character has ever pulled. Ennis also writes his friendships better than anyone: the pub scenes are the reason the horror lands.

John Constantine, Hellblazer by Jamie Delano Omnibus Vol. 2 collects the second half of the run that invented Hellblazer as a genre of its own: political horror set in Thatcher's Britain, where the monsters are usually institutions and John's real weapon is being willing to sacrifice his friends. Delano's Constantine is nastier, funnier and sadder than any version that followed.

Paul Jenkins and Sean Phillips took over Hellblazer after Garth Ennis and pushed it toward the quieter, sadder register the character had never been allowed. Jenkins' run is where Constantine stops winning: the schemes get smaller, the friends stay dead, and the best issues are about failure rather than trickery. Sean Phillips' art, muted, grubby, entirely unglamorous, is the visual template he would later carry to Criminal and Sleeper.