Hellblazer #281

John Constantine has seen better days — battered, bleeding, and wrapped in the coils of a massive serpent, he still manages to keep that cigarette dangling defiantly from his lips on Simon Bisley's visceral cover to issue #281. The image captures everything that makes this long-running Vertigo series so compelling: Constantine ground down but unbroken, staring out with those mismatched eyes like he's daring the world to finish what it started. Peter Milligan, Giuseppe Camuncoli, and Stefano Landini bring "Phantom Pains Part Five: Choke" to a head in this September 2011 installment — and if the cover is any indication, the title is more than a little literal.