John Constantine is taking back up the mantle of Hellblazer to join Neil Gaiman's Sandman Universe this fall.
Constantine will first appear in The Sandman Universe Presents Hellblazer #1, by writer Simon Spurrier and artist Marcio Takara. After the one-shot releases on October 30, Spurrier and artist Aaron Campbell will team up for an ongoing series releasing on November 27: John Constantine, Hellblazer.
“Hellblazer's the one title I’ve always aspired to write. Ever since John Constantine slunk from Alan Moore’s brain into Swamp Thing, dropping secrets like grenades, bewildering vegetables, and spinning mysteries, I’ve been drawn to his misadventures with eerie gravity,” Spurrier said of the series. “John Constantine is the cynic’s magician: a man of selfish drives and cataclysmic self-knowledge, who tries to do the right thing in spite of himself, in spite of the cost, in spite of the vile and violent world he occupies. He may not be the hero we need, but he’s definitely the bastard we deserve.
“In this new era, everything is different," he continued "Everyone and everything he loved and knew is dead or despises him. Alone, angry, older, and wiser, he beholds a world that is clearly going insane. The shadows are deeper than ever. So he does what he does. He breathes smoke. He grins to himself. And he goes to work.”
Along with a summary of the one-shot, you can see the covers for The Sandman Universe Presents Hellblazer #1, by Bilquis Evely, and John Constantine, Hellblazer, by John Paul Leon, below.
In THE SANDMAN UNIVERSE PRESENTS HELLBLAZER #1, the story begins in a moment originally seen in Gaiman’s miniseries THE BOOKS OF MAGIC. John Constantine finds himself haggard, bloody, and dying in an epic magical war—a battle that will soon consume the world. As he lies there, the vision of a young Tim Hunter stands above him, the naive youth seeing firsthand what his destiny holds. Horrified, Hunter flees back into the past, and Constantine is left behind to die.
Now, years later, Constantine reemerges, physically un-aged but with all of his memories intact—and yet the world has passed him by. Constantine must now fathom a new world torn apart by the same old political and social woes, while attempting to discover how he returned after all this time. But most troubling of all are the rumors of a new young magician named Tim Hunter, a boy destined to be either the greatest sorcerer of all, or the greatest threat to the world. If history is repeating itself, then is it John’s role to die all over again? Or is John here to stop the cycle—and stop Tim Hunter?
Created by Alan Moore, Rick Veitch, Steve Bissette and John Totleben, John Constantine first appeared in 1985's The Saga of Swamp Thing #37. The immensely powerful magician is a fan-favorite character and has since appeared in his own film, played by Keanu Reeves, and on the CW, played by Matt Ryan.
The Sandman Universe is a line of comics curated by Neil Gaiman. Other series include The Dreaming, House of Whispers, Lucifer and Books of Magic, which will start new arcs in November.
The Sandman Universe Presents Hellblazer #1 hits shelves Oct. 30.