Hellblazer #137

Part four of Warren Ellis's six-part "Haunted" arc finds John Constantine brooding beneath a glowing gas lamp against a darkened Gothic skyline — cigarette dangling from his lips, a crown of thorns tangled in his disheveled hair, his expression carrying the weary defiance that defines the character. Tim Bradstreet's cover rendering captures Constantine in richly atmospheric shadows, the sickly amber light emphasizing every line of a face that has seen far too much. If you've been following this Vertigo run, this is exactly the kind of quietly menacing image that makes it hard to set the issue down unread.