Issue Description

Having heard a scream from the upstairs of their hotel, Harold and Ken burst into reporter Simon Hughes' room to find John Constantine struggling to save Simon's life. Simon had been hogtied and hung upside-down with a bag over his head in the wardrobe of his room. Harold and Ken are reluctant to call the police, given their hotel's reputation, and the fact that John is wanted for murder. Fortunately, Simon is alive, if quite shaken by the realization that someone tried to kill him.

John spends the night listening to what Simon has to say about the organization called Geotroniks, and the string of suicides among former employees. Geotroniks is a defense sub-contractor, supposedly working on a tracking system for nuclear armed submarines using the planet's electromagnetic landscape. John can see how that could be a cover for using ley lines as the delivery system for some kind of weapon. This would explain why the Russians had wanted it. He realizes that whatever it is must have been what the train he was on was attacked with. The Black Squad being run by Beales and Davis must have kidnapped Mercury, and are using her psychic energy to control the weapon somehow. However, even with all of that information, John wonders who might be behind all of it.

Elsewhere, Mercury has decided that she won't cooperate with her captor Dr. Fulton anymore. Though he had established a rapport with her, something recently changed the way she feels about the work she's been doing. The girl runs away, and enters the psychic device which uses the ley lines to extract fear from phobics and transfer it to a second device, which stores it. She warns that if he touches her body while she's psychically linked to the machine, she will release what hides within the fear-trap. As Fulton goes over the day's extractions, looking for anomalies, he wonders if the fear machine is producing some kind of background radiation filling those near it with fear.

Earlier, Mercury had helped a young boy with a fear of cancer to expel that fear and place it in the fear machine. With every extraction, Mercury had felt stronger and stronger, and she had reached a point where she felt she could handle seeing what happens to the fears once they're inside the machine. The thing that she saw inside made her feel the way she felt when she was nearly hit by a car at four years of age - dread; certainty of death. The creature she saw was a man called Siskin, who had been used for the same purpose as Mercury until he burnt out at the Wyke's Valley facility.

At the Pagan Nation settlement in Scotland, Mercury's mother Marj engages in a ritual meant to awaken magics that will help to find and return Mercury to her. This ritual is led by Zed, whose philosophy is one that places men below women. While Marj still wants and needs John Constantine's love, he will never know the mysteries that mothers share of love, sex, and life - that is a kind of magic that man can never know.

Mercury had encountered Siskin in the fear machine, and he had cried out for help. Unfortunately, he was beyond all help. He warned that the fear growing in the machine is much bigger than the Geotroniks people know - bigger than everything. As he is absorbed further by the fear within the machine, Siskin cries out the word "Jallakuntilliokan". Seeing this, Mercury realizes that it is time for her to take a stand and attempt escape. She wakes from her psychic trance, and uses her abilities to influence Dr. Fulton to take her out for a drive in his car.

John returns to London after a jaunt with Dream, to take Simon to meet Detective Geoff Talbot, who also knows about Geotroniks. He hopes that by pooling their resources, the three of them can figure out how to help Mercury and stop the fear machine. For the last three days, John has been followed by a homeless man who continually utters the phrase "I'm a broken man," though John has ignored him. With the man following them, John and Simon attend Talbot's wife's funeral, and try to convince him to help them.

Talbot agrees to help, as they enter the tube station. He decides that they should return to his house to meet a certain Russian man. Before John can ask about who this Russian man is, the homeless man leaps out and shoves a piece of paper into John's mouth. He then leaps in front of the oncoming train shouting out "Jallakuntilliokan!"

Despite the surprise of seeing a man leap in front of a train, John is more concerned about the paper in his mouth, and unfolding it, he sees that it states "Tremble. The G.O.A.G. is Coming." A symbol on the paper sends Simon screaming, when he realizes that the man who tried to strangle him earlier wore a ring that bore the insignia on the paper.

-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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