Writers: Si Spurrier, Aaron Campbell (#5) / Pencillers: Aaron Campbell (#1-#11), Kelsey Ramsay, John Pearson, John Mcrea (#5) / Colour Artist: Jordie Bellaire (#1-#11), Francesco Segala, John Pearson, Mike Spicer (#5) / Letterer: Aditya Bidikar (#1-#11) Steve Wands (#5) / Editors: Matthew Levine, Chris Conroy / Collects: John Constantine - Hellblazer: Dead In America #1-#11 / HC / DC Comics' Black Label
18th February 2025 (Released: 25th February 2025)
The Pitch: The celebrated creative team of Si Spurrier and Aaron Campbell return to Hellblazer! John Constantine has cheated death once again--but his heart's not beating, his body is decaying, and he, his friend Nat, and his son Noah are on the run in America, wanted for murder. Naturally, it's all John's fault. But as it turns out, Dream of the Endless needs John's help. Collects the complete miniseries JOHN CONSTANTINE, HELLBLAZER: DEAD IN AMERICA #1-11.
The dead rise in John Constantine's world --
Of course, this goes for the book itself. back in 2021, Spurrier and Campbell's tenure was brought to an unceremonious end with the cancellation of what was perceived as a popular, successful comic. Dead, as it were. But resurrection is a speciality in comics and after the success of the distinctly Hellblazer-esque Damn Them All over at Image, one assumes that DC saw the advantage in bringing back Constantine once more. A character that has outlived the imprints and relaunches he's been foisted into over the decades, he is in the right hands nothing if not durable. So rise again he does. But not alone and not at his best. Would we have it any other way?
Spurrier knows that Constantine is deep down happiest when he's on the run, or at the very least, we like him when he's on the run, usually from his past. Or his own, self-serving actions. Here, the past runs with him. John's son, Noah and his maybe bodyguard Nat have arrived in America with the trench-coated magician to escape the law, both real and ethereal back home. As is usual with John, bodies are in his wake even though the blood's on Noah's hands, whilst John's remain clean. But you can never say the same for his conscience. One of the great things about having an amoral bastard like Constantine as your lead is watching as the weight of the world slowly presses down on his shoulders, making you realise he's not as bad as he likes to make out. John’s been in America before and as with most things in John’s life, it didn’t go well. But he knows the lay of the land. And that the land is older than the dreams of its people - but their dreams still count. And those dreams are sometimes given a fair shake. The land comes for the men who crush dreams... If nothing else, Hellblazer is the story of the working classes meeting the unannounced conspiracies of the elites that keep them down. Delano's Hellblazer was a riposte to the Thatcherite boot back in the late eighties. Spurrier and Campbell's Hellblazer is a warning against the rising tide of corporate fascism.
Like Grant Morrison's The Invisibles, there's the notion in these pages that civilisation and the cities we built to contain it destroyed the land and any magic it could teach us, but Spurrier and Campbell expand that take with the idea that now the land has enslaved us, as we build churches to it to contain it's fruits, its grain. The book is a tour through the mytho-American landscape. From the indigenous to the imported. Native Americans to the religion of entertainment to which everyone must kneel. The comic looks in on itself and the medium it spawns from. The real and fictional histories of the world. But history, too, is considered 'dead'. Thus it reaches out to keep the dreamers in check. How can you build the future or even a good enough present when the past has curled its fingers around your neck and choked the flow of oxygen? That sort of chokehold gives rise to demons, like the ones John faces, the ones that take on familiar guises: Cop (Authority), Matriarch (nurture), and young girl (the future). But also, this is a family that matches Constantine's idealist yet unrealised world. Father, Wife, Daughter.
Spurrier writes both an excellent issue and a great overall arc. His writing doesn’t lean towards the novelistic expanse that previous incarnations of Constantine have had but contains the same cynical heart that we all love in John. Campbell creates a netherworld full of soaked-in atmosphere as if John brought the autumn weather with him from England. It’s up there with the best of those eighties and nineties Hellblazer runs. Bellaire does excellent work, creating a painterly, otherworldly palette that accentuates and blends with Campbell’s pencils. Just a few pages into the first issue and you know why she’s arguably the best colourist in the business. Bidikar’s skilful letters let the voices from beyond the realms we know have an audible presence. If John Constantine wants a new life, he could do worse than having this team raise him up once more!
Hellblazer: Dead In America HC is available from 25th February at your local comic shop!
