Hellblazer #254

John Constantine stands his ground in this June 2009 installment of Vertigo's long-running mature-readers series, holding aloft a blazing torch while a pale, ghoulish figure looms at his back amid a mass of shadowy, writhing bodies below. Lee Bermejo's painted-style cover work gives the scene an unsettling, atmospheric weight — Constantine's cigarette and trenchcoat perfectly in place, his expression grimly resolute against whatever surrounds him. "Regeneration Part One: Plague Doctor," written by Peter Milligan with interior art by Goran Sudžuka and Rodney Ramos, promises the kind of dark, character-driven horror that makes Hellblazer essential reading.