Hellblazer #197

A lone, cloaked silhouette stands framed in an arched church doorway bathed in amber light, while the ominous words "YOU HAVE BEEN JUDGED" are scrawled across the stone steps leading up to it — Tim Bradstreet's cover sets an unmistakably cold, foreboding tone. This August 2004 Vertigo issue kicks off "Stations of the Cross," a three-part arc written by Mike Carey with art by Marcelo Frusin, promising the kind of dark, spiritually charged atmosphere that makes Hellblazer so compelling. If you enjoy morally complex occult storytelling soaked in dread, this opening chapter looks like exactly the right place to be.