Steve Dillon

Hellblazer by Garth Ennis Omnibus is the run that turns John Constantine into a bruised, funny and spiritually exhausted survivor. Ennis and Steve Dillon balance pub realism, religious horror, old guilt and vicious comedy, making Constantine feel less like a superhero occult lead and more like a man who keeps winning by losing pieces of himself. Its shelf value is character voice: cynical, wounded, profane and still strangely human.

Punisher by Garth Ennis Omnibus collects the Marvel Knights era — the run that brought Frank Castle back from irrelevance and made him a star again. It opens with "Welcome Back, Frank," where the Punisher wages a one-man war on the Gnucci crime family, and runs through the whole black-comedy Marvel Knights series, mixing brutal action with a rogues' gallery of grotesque villains. Garth Ennis, reunited with his Preacher partner Steve Dillon, writes the definitive, character-defining Punisher — the run that set up his later, even grimmer MAX era. Note: this is the Marvel Knights run, distinct from Punisher MAX.