It is hard to think of a comic character more iconic in the horror genre than the protagonist of the Hellblazer series, John Constantine. This working-class wizard is a drifter, grifter, chain-smoking ne'er-do-well, and overconfident conman. He has swindled the devils of Hell and conned a plant elemental into saving the world. He also tends to ruin the lives of everyone around him.
Those who deal in the dark arts tend to have dark lives. Constantine is living proof of this (though how he managed to live so long is a mystery in itself). These are his ten darkest stories.
10 Shoot
This story deals with the prevalence of mass shootings in the United States and was written just before the Columbine Shooting. Knowing that DC Comics would want to sanitize the script in light of recent events, writer Warren Ellis told the company to take his name off the book and quit working for the company, rather than have this harrowingly story be altered.
The reason this story is so dark is that mass shootings are always relevant in the United States. In this story, John Constantine tells Americans a truth they don't want to believe. Refusal to listen to the message written in ink has spelled out consequences written in blood. The observations can be triggering to readers who have grown numb to living under the constant threat of gun violence.
9 Fear and Loathing
In "Fear and Loathing" there are two main narrative threads. The first involves the archangel Gabriel contemplating the violent acts he committed in service to his Lord, doubting himself for the first time, thanks to something Constantine said in a previous issue. The other story involves a group of white supremacists from old money who target Constantine and a friend.
This story deals with spiritual horror as much as those of racism and class oppression. It has gut-wrenching violence but it also burrows holes into the psyche with philosophical questions that are as powerful and painful as a power drill to the temple.
8 The Fear Machine
This is the first long story in the Hellblazer comic series, dealing with lay lines, police brutality, occult rituals, pagan activist groups, and the Freemasons. At the time this was published, many readers found it tedious, but in its collected form, this is the story that makes John Constantine relevant, engaging, and worth reading.
All of the narrative threads revolve around a group of British Freemasons plotting to end the world through ritual murder and magical conduits. Meanwhile, Constantine organizes a resistance, bringing together figures of the counterculture with enforcers of the dominant culture, working together to stop the plot as events spiral out of control.
7 When Johnny Come Marching Home Again
This tale takes place in the American heartland at a small farming community. The town lost most of its wealth when a new highway was constructed that passed them by and left them out of the modern economy, while most of the young men went away to fight in Vietnam and never came back. The town signed up to be part of a new Christian cult that uses mass prayer to bring their sons home.
The boys return, but they bring the war with them, committing the same heinous crimes on their loved ones that they inflicted in Vietnam. It's an unflinching look at real-world horrors and those left behind by their country.
6 The Family Man
While "The Family Man" refers to issue #24 of Hellblazer specifically, in this case, it's a reference to the longer story which began in that issue.
John discovers an old friend was working with serial killers. One such killer, known as the Family Man, learns about John and goes after his family. This book deals with inner turmoil as John grapples with the nature of evil and the injustice of committing murder, wondering if it's ethical to kill a killer.
5 Hellblazer Special #1
If "The Family Man" is the story of how John loses the last of his innocence, Hellblazer Special #1 is the beginning of his fall from grace. It involves a flashback to the late '60s when Constantine is still a teenager. While hitchhiking, a man picks him up in a truck and then tries to pick him up in a very different way that the young Constantine is not okay with.
Part of what makes this story so dark is that John is young and relatively innocent. When he defends himself from his assailant, there is a tragic twist that shocks him, exposing hidden horrors. This whole story is framed as a church confession, making it even more poignant.
4 Rake at the Gates of Hell
The final story of Garth Ennis's run on Hellblazer, "Rake at the Gates of Hell" balances a number of disparate plot threads in a tangled mess of violence and despair. The Archangel Gabriel has utterly fallen by this point, defiling himself at the whims of a demon. John's friends are killed off in horrible ways. One of the lords of hell achieves victory over John and destroys his life.
This tale of torture and tragic loss reminds Constantine that there is always something more he can have taken from him, always a new way to suffer.
3 Early Warning & How I Learned To Love The Bomb
This two-part story written by Grant Morrison is collected in the trade paperback for The Family Man that was mentioned before. John goes to visit an old friend in the occult community for a festival in Thursdyke. When the nearby subterranean military facility begins using microwave transmitters, it drives the whole town mad.
Ancient pagan rituals combine with Thatcherite Cold War weapons systems to create a psychological breakdown that spurs the whole town to take out the knives and begin to cut into one another, worshipping nuclear weapons as a form of divine manifestation.
2 Hard Time
The American prison system is the perfect setting for a savagely political horror comic like Hellblazer.
"Hard Time" opens with a character being assaulted by his cellmate and only gets darker from there. As John enters a maximum security facility, he is cornered by one gang after another, using his magic and his wits to survive and even thrive in an environment where the worst of humanity is on full display.
1 Saga of the Swamp Thing
John Constantine debuted in Saga of the Swamp Thing. He swaggered into the story, a grifter and conman whose confidence knew no limits, dangling occult knowledge as a way to tempt the Swamp Thing with the secrets of self-discovery.
Constantine's arc is pretty profound, for even as he sets the Swamp Thing down the right path, the two lose themselves in the darkness surrounding them. The horror elements get progressively darker, building to a spiritual gash that cleaves the heart of Hell itself. The Swamp Thing finds answers, but John Constantine learns he's not as clever as he thinks, losing people he loves as he is set down the start of his long journey in the dark.