Issue Description

Mercury dreams of a pale man, who is forced to put a rope around his neck, and then leap from the top of a tall suspended bridge. The man never reaches the end of his fall, though, and over and over again, the jump plays out in Mercury's mind. Waking, she recalls how she had nearly lost the recurring dream when her mother Marj and John Constantine had cuddled. But her mother had become cross when she had said that she liked John too. Coveting the closeness her mother had shared with him, Mercury begins trying to crawl into bed with them.

Suddenly, a police squad smashes through the window and forces its way into the motor home, forcing John and Marj into wakefulness. They drag the three inhabitants out into the daylight, handling them roughly, and not giving Marj a chance to even dress. The police declare the land the commune is camping on private, and proceed to check for drugs and weapons. From elsewhere, the pale man orders that Mercury be brought to him, and Marj and the girl are packed into the back of a truck. John wants to help them, but the angrier he gets, the more the police beat him.

In the back of the truck, Mercury begins sensing the intentions of the guards in there with them. They both have untoward thoughts about Marj, given that she is wearing only a sheet. With the knowledge that they want to rape her, Mercury cries out, and it causes a scuffle. Fortunately, the truck stops and the pale man opens the door. He injects Marj with something that makes her strangely acquiescent, and she simply waves as Mercury is taken away.

John wakes at Sam and Jo's trailer, where they inform him that despite his attacks against the police, only Marj and Mercury were arrested - though they have been warned to be gone within twelve hours. They give him some clothes, and he returns to the central campsite. In speaking with Eddy, John becomes suspicious about who was behind the raid, and decides to investigate at the nearest town.

Once there, John hears a gunshot, and decides to look into it. Apparently, the night before, a storm frightened a pair of local cows. The vicar had been chasing them down, but eventually one of the cows wound up in the house, and the other went into the greenhouse. In the latter, the vicar's sister Flora was trampled to death. The vicar went mad, and has since been taken to the police station.

As it happens, the police station is where John is going, and he poses as a member of the fictional Citizens Legal Defense Group to look in on the pair arrested during the raid. The man at the front desk explains that there have been no women brought in from the raid, but they did find one woman wandering the streets wearing only a blanket. It's Marj, but her despondency makes John more suspicious. He endeavours to get her out of there, but not without noticing that the security guard from the Geotronik site has come in to see a man named Beale. That's two names to look into now, including Davis from the day before.

After returning to the camp with Marj, John decides to check in with Eddy at the sweat-lodge. Eddy confirms John's own suspicion that the police who conducted the raid were special forces, and they had come specifically for Mercury. Eddy explains that after Mercury told him about what happened on the ley lines yesterday with the Geotronik site, he had investigated, and found that the positive charge there had been turned somehow into a black stream of negative energy. Additionally, the Geotronik site had been dismantled without a trace.

The group gathers and decides to go to Scotland and join forces with an ego-guerrilla group called Pagan Nation while they figure out what's going on. Marj is skeptical, warning that while they can try all they want to fight the police, the real problem is that Mercury has been kidnapped, and she wonders if any of them will use their 'magic' to bring her back. John appears behind her, dressed in dark clothes and with a haircut and shave. He will save Mercury, one way or another. As he prepares to leave, Sam offers him a place to stay in London, should he need it.

Marj drives John to the train station, and he promises that he will find Mercury. As he buys his ticket, he realizes that at last he has chosen a side in this new war. But fighting for peace and freedom seems like a long shot, after all.

Elsewhere, Mercury dreams of hearing sobbing, but finds herself unable to move. She wakes suddenly, and the sobbing sound stops. She decides to wash her face, but the reflection in the mirror is of a man, and she is sure he is the one she heard sobbing. The man in the reflection takes a pair of scissors and thrusts them into his eyes, filling the room with blood, and Mercury collapses. The pale man appears to comfort her, but she struggles away from him, warning that she knows what happens to him. She shows him her vision of him being hung until his head disconnects entirely from his body.

Afterwards, the pale man is plagued by the images. The man, whose name is Fulton, believes that Mercury is powerful enough to justify the effort they took in securing her. Meanwhile, Mercury worries after her mother, but she knows John will look after her.

-Source

Hellblazer (1988)

Publisher

Vertigo

Volume Description

House Ad (art by Dave McKean)

Spinning out of the pages of Swamp Thing, popular supporting character John Constantine (created by Alan Moore) was given his own ongoing series first written by British writer Jamie Delano, who was handpicked by Moore and impressed editors with his long term plans for the character. The title was originally to be named "Hellraiser" but was changed to Hellblazer to avoid conflicting with Clive Barker's Hellraiser film released the previous year.

Delano set the tone for the series, which featured heavy social commentary of 80's England and grounded the magical and occult themes within the gritty streets of London. He also fleshed out John's origins first hinted at by Moore in Swamp Thing, which would be continued by later writers.

Many popular writers, most of them British, have had tenures on the title such as Garth Ennis, Warren Ellis, Peter Milligan and Paul Jenkins to name a few. Famous writers Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison were also guest writers early on. The series' cover art was also acclaimed, many popular artists such as Dave McKean, Glenn Fabry, Tim Bradstreet, Lee Bermejo and Simon Bisley all provided memorable cover art work.

Despite its DC Universe origins, the series largely ignored the wider DC and Vertigo Universes but for a few occasions and guest-appearances. The series itself aged in real time, as did John, who would age to his sixties by the time the series had ended.

Perhaps best known as being Vertigo's longest-running comic book series because of the fact that it began before Vertigo was a publisher, five years before in fact and that it was also the Vertigo launch title which stayed in print the longest.

Unlike most Vertigo volumes, due to its extreme length, this one has had various writers (many of whom are better known for other Vertigo contributions), and oftentimes the series is judged within these writer's runs rather then as a whole since the series has changed through the decades.

On November 8th 2012 it was announced that Hellblazer will end at issue #300. John Constantine however will star in a new New 52 ongoing of his own called Constantine in March 2013. Before the cancellation, Hellblazer was the longest ongoing continuing monthly series without renumbering or cancellations/rebirths from either of "the Big Two" due to DC's New 52 and Marvel's reboot of Uncanny X-Men.

Hellblazer Annuals, Specials and Spin-Offs

Hellblazer Annual #1 (1989)The Horrorist #1-2Hellblazer Special #1Hellblazer Annual #1 (2012)Hellblazer: All His EnginesHellblazer: PandemoniumDark EntriesVertigo Secret Files: HellblazerHellblazer: Bad Blood #1-4Hellblazer/The Books of Magic #1-2Hellblazer: City of Demons #1-5Hellblazer Special: Lady Constantine #1-4.Hellblazer Special: Papa Midnite #1-5Hellblazer Special: Chas (The Knowledge) #1-5Collected Editions

New Editions

In 2011 DC/Vertigo began releasing new edition trades. These new volumes were larger, numbered numerically and contained every issue in chronological order which the previous editions skipped or had collected separately. Many of the new editions contain different issues from the originals.

Vol. 1: Original Sins (#1-9, Swamp Thing #76-77)Vol. 2: The Devil You Know (#10-13, Hellblazer: Annual and Horrorist #1-2)Vol. 3: The Fear Machine (#14-22)Vol. 4: The Family Man (#23-33)Vol. 5: Dangerous Habits (#34-46)Vol. 6: Bloodlines (#47-61)Vol. 7: Tainted Love (#62–71, Hellblazer: Special and a story from Vertigo Jam)Vol. 8: Rake at the Gates of Hell (#72-83, Heartland and pin-ups from Hellblazer Special)Vol. 9: Critical Mass (#84-96)Vol. 10: In the Line of Fire (#97-107)Vol. 11: Last Man Standing (#108-120)Vol. 12: How To Play With Fire (#121-133)

Original Editions

Hellblazer: Original Sins (#1-9)Hellblazer: The Devil You Know (#10-13, Hellblazer: Annual, Horrorist #1-2)Hellblazer: The Fear Machine (#14-22)Hellblazer: The Family Man (##23-24, #28-33)Hellblazer: Dangerous Habits (#41-46)Hellblazer: Bloodlines (#47-50, #52-55 and #59-61)Hellblazer: Fear and Loathing (#62-67)Hellblazer: Tainted Love (#68–71, Hellblazer: Special and a story from Vertigo Jam)Hellblazer: Damnation's Flame (#72-77)Hellblazer: Rake at the Gates of Hell (#78-83, Heartland)Hellblazer: Son of Man (#129-133)Hellblazer: Haunted (#134-139)Hellblazer: Setting Sun (#140-143)Hellblazer: Shoot (#144, 145, 245, 246 & 250)Hellblazer: Hard Time (#146-150)Hellblazer: Good Intentions (#151-156)Hellblazer: Freezes Over... (#157-163)Hellblazer: Highwater (#164-174)Hellblazer: Red Sepulchre (#175-180)Hellblazer: Black Flowers (#181-186)Hellblazer: Staring at the Wall (#187-193)Hellblazer: Stations of the Cross (#194-200)Hellblazer: Reasons to be Cheerful (#201-206)Hellblazer: The Gift (#207-215)Hellblazer: Empathy is the Enemy (#216-222)Hellblazer: The Red Right Hand (#223-228)Hellblazer: Joyride (#230-237)Hellblazer: The Laughing Magician (#238-242)Hellblazer: Roots of Coincidence (#243-244, #247-249)Hellblazer: Scab (#251-255 and a short story from 250)Hellblazer: Hooked (#256-260)Hellblazer: India (#261-266)Hellblazer: Bloody Carnations (#267-275)Hellblazer: Phantom Pains (#276-282)Hellblazer: The Devil's Trench Coat (#283-291)Hellblazer: Death and Cigarettes (#292-300 and Hellblazer Annual #1)

Other Collected Editions

Hellblazer: Rare Cuts (#11, #25–26, #35, #56, #84)Constantine: The Hellblazer Collection (Constantine: The Official Movie Adaptation, Hellblazer #1, #27 and #410.Vertigo Resurrected: Shoot (Contains the original #141, the censored story: "Shoot")Vertigo Resurrected: Hellblazer (#57-58, #245-246)Other Related MaterialHouse of Mystery Halloween Annual short stories set in the DCU/Vertigo universe.The Trenchcoat BrigadeThe Books of MagicVertigo EncyclopaediaVertigo Secret Files: Swamp ThingWinter's Edge #1-3. The Three Winter's Edge stories would be collected in Vertigo Resurrected: Winter's Edge.9-11 Vol.2

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