Hellblazer #114

Face to face and nose to nose, John Constantine — cigarette dangling from his lips, trenchcoat collar up — squares off against a crowned, bearded medieval king in a tense, close-quarters confrontation on Sean Phillips's striking cover for Hellblazer #114. This is part five of the "Last Man Standing" arc, written by Paul Jenkins and drawn by Phillips, and that charged standoff between the scruffy modern occultist and the regal figure from another age makes it clear Constantine's troubles are anything but ordinary. A fine entry in Vertigo's mature-readers lineup from 1997.