With the release of Hellblazer #300 in February 2013, the gold star of mainstream comics comes to an ignoble close. Hellblazer started as a spin off from Swamp Thing, a title that was subsequently cancelled and relaunched three times. Improbably, while Swamp Thing lost steam after Alan Moore (not to say there weren't good post-Moore Swamp Thing stories), the spin-off from Swamp Thing had over 80 solid, definitive issues out of the gate (not that every issue was gold, but taken as a whole the average level of quality was remarkably high).
Jamie Delano, under-rated as hell, was hand-picked by Alan Moore and wrote the first arc, which defined the character and his world in terms of leftist politics, paganism and unresolved childhood angst. Delano's Constantine was a White Shaman, who communed with hippies, outsmarted demon stockbrokers, fathered a secular messiah and saved the world a couple of times for good measure.
The second definitive take was Garth Ennis' Celestial Everyman. Here, John Constantine was a working class guy, with drinking buddies and very human needs who outsmarted the devil, enslaved the archangel Gabriel and caught a reborn Jack the Ripper. Ennis' Constantine was more focused on saving himself from the fires of Hell than saving the world.
I doubt any other comic can claim to have such a stellar first 6 years as Hellblazer. Since then Constantine has managed to stay surprisingly consistent through different writers through the years, although he's certainly become more brutal over time. By being confined to the Vertigo ghetto Hellblazer was thankfully spared from editorial nonsense. No reboots, re-tools, or mandated cross overs. Subsequent writers have hewed somewhere between these two versions of the characters. Ellis has stated he imagined Constantine as being the embodiment of the city of London. As written by Azzarello, Constantine is the consummate con-man embarked on a Heart of Darkness style journey into the dark corners of America.
Hellblazer has built a mythology and a supporting cast as intricate as any other comic character, but all the more impressive for two unique reasons. The first is Constantine's thoroughly modern birth. Most comic characters can trace their origins back decades, to the Bronze, Silver or even Golden Age. Constantine is a new type of comic hero (and he is a hero, don't let him tell you different). He would never have been created in any previous era, nor could he have been.
The second reason is that he has been allowed to age. Garth Ennis gave him a 40th birthday party, and since then we've seen a definitive date of birth for him (although no more birthday parties). Since the series has started Chas has had a kid, gotten divorced, and became a grand-dad. Gemma has gone from a pre-teen girl to a capable adult woman. A rather shocking number of supporting characters have been killed, sacrificed as pawns in occult schemes or for simply being next to John at the wrong time of day. And here's the shocking part: they've stayed dead. (Coming back as a ghost doesn't count)
Over time, the editorial walls around Hellblazer have thickened. The first to go were the visits from the Phantom Stranger and other DC characters. Over time, properties that had gotten the Vertigo stamp wandered back into the DC fold. Doom Patrol and Animal Man left Vertigo to get their own new series and to be in 52. The formerly permeable walls between Vertgio and the rest of DC became more solid, although they were never totally impassable.
In the final issue of Flashpoint, an editorial orgy of crossovers and tie-ins, it was revealed that the editorial policy of segregating Constantine and Swamp Thing from the rest of the DCU was because they were in seperate fictional universes. This was never the case before hand, as the Sandman had showed up Grant Morrison's Justice League and Kevin Smith's Green Arrow, among other places. Constantine would now be left alone in Vertigo, his last comrades-in-arms, Shade and Swamp Thing were jumping ship to DC proper.
But Hellblazer was special. Constantine would shoulder on alone, grandfathered into the new editorial policy. No longer, though. As part of a rebranding attempt, NC-17 Hellblazer is ending at 300, so PG-13 Constantine can start up.
Sales have been steady but low for years, but the trades have always sold briskly. As was standard with Vertigo titles, Hellblazer attracted the bookshelf crowd, who bought the trade every six months instead of one issue a month. It wasn't the eternal foe of all comic book characters, low sales, that finally killed him off. No, the man who seduced succubi, outsmarted the devil on several separate occasions and survived prison, mental hospitals and the pits of hell was finally done in by editorial meddling.
Hellblazer was special. It was different. We should be thankful it lasted as long as it did. John Constantine, you will be remembered as the foul mouthed, bad attitude con-man you were, and for one final unique accomplishment no other DC character can claim: an ending.
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