“Aye, ’tis an ill omen, Hellblazer.”

§ June 8th, 2011 § Filed under publishing, swamp thing § 14 Comments

So, when I first read DC Comics’ announcement of Justice League Dark, a series teaming up John Constantine, Madame Xanadu, Deadman, and others to fight supernatural-type thingies:


…the first thing that crossed my mind was, of course, my most fervent hope that Constantine will be wearing the costume he had in Doom Patrol #53 (March 1992), the Jack Kirby parody/tribute issue:


If you claim not to want this as well, I shall call you a dirty, dirty liar.

…Also, apparently the new Swamp Thing series is official, written by Scott Snyder and drawn by Yannick Paquette. Well, that sounds like it might be good. I’ve not read anything by Snyder, but I know his American Vampire series is well-regarded, as is his recent run on Detective, and I’ve enjoyed Paquette’s work in the past. So…um, yeah, I’ll pick this up in three months’ time. But was there ever any real danger of me not picking up a Swamp Thing comic?

I wonder what it would take for me not to buy a Swamp Thing series. …Don’t say “if it were written and drawn by Rob Liefeld” because I’d buy the hell out of that.

images from (presumably) Justice League Dark #1, cover by (also presumably) Mikel Janin, and Doom Patrol #53 (March 1992) by Grant Morrison and Ken Steacy

14 Responses to ““Aye, ’tis an ill omen, Hellblazer.””

  • Damn… that looks sweet.

    Looks like I’m going to be reading at least one DC title.
    (Now to back-issue hunt for the lead-up stuff)

    To the longboxes!

    ~P~

  • philip says:

    Justice League Dark? Mmm… that’s good coffee!

  • Anonymous says:

    Actually, I’m sure YOU DID pick up a comic by Snyder. Think MARVEL. Remember the time the Hulk knocked out Thor with his own hammer by grabbing his hand first?

    And Banner losing his trusty purple pants at the end?

    That was Snyder–who may or may not be Twisted Sister’s son! Just don’t tell the Gores that!

  • Happenstance says:

    So, will the first five pages of JLD feature Shadowpact being brutally murdered, with a splash panel of Nightshade on her knees begging for her life before someone slices her head off?

    Hey, it’s DC.

  • Rich Handley says:

    I’m having trouble with this whole Justice League Dark concept. I’m a long-time fan of Hellblazer, and the idea of John on ANY team doesn’t seem to fit his persona–he’s a loner, he’s antisocial and he can’t stand the superhero crowd.

    Still, I suppose if they played that up, it could be amusing. I’ll certainly give it a shot before writing it off.

    My other concern is that it’ll be written by Milligan, whose Hellblazer tenure just isn’t thrilling me at all. He doesn’t seem to get Constantine’s character. I was kind of looking forward to his run eventually ending… and now I find out he’s adding a second one. Ah, well.

    I suppose I should try to be more of an optimist. In the end, two Constantine series is better than one or none–provided they’re done right. And if that turns out to be the case, I’ll be the first to admit I was jumping the gun on disliking the idea.

    But if they cancel Hellblazer so they can put Constantine on a superhero team, which is pretty much the last thing that should be done with him, I’ll be very put out.

  • John Platt says:

    Is the new Zatanna an amputee?

  • Lima says:

    The ‘Justice League Dark’ cover is by Ryan Sook, actually.

  • John says:

    I just read that Liefeld will be handling the art for a new Hawk and Dove series. Or as DC puts it in their press release, “illustrated by legendary superstar comics artist Rob Liefeld.”

  • Adam Farrar says:

    When I think of Justice League Dark, I think of it more like John’s manipulating of Swamp Thing, Zatara, Zatanna and the others during the American Gothic storyline. They’re begrudgingly working together because of a threat that requires all of them. And of course they don’t trust one another completely and so on and so forth.

  • Anonymous says:

    Hellblazer and House of Mystery should be cancelled in August.

    Come September they’d just be boring and redundant with everything else going on.

  • The Mutt says:

    Would you buy Swamp Thing by Tom Batiuk?

  • caleb says:

    Say, did “Hellblazer” wear that, or a similar costume, in the superhero portion of…some Books of Magic special that George Perez illustrated part of…that I can’t remember the title of, or anything about, other than that it had Perez drawing Vertigo folks like they were New Teen Titans characters…?

    Wait, I’m on the Internet…Oh, it was Books of Magic Annual #3, and it wasn’t Perez, it was Jiminez. And that portion was written by some newcomer called “Mark Millar.” Weird.

    I was actually wondering if the team from 2000’s TOTEMS special was going to get their own book now that so much of the Veritgo Universe is rejoining the DCU.

    You know, these guys:
    http://www.comics.org/issue/63144/cover/4/

  • Anonymous says:

    How did Madame Xanadu get her eyes back?

    Oh right, new and different DCU!

    Nevermind…

  • John Parker says:

    You’d never buy the Dan Diddleysquat/Rob Granito Swampy, would you?