Hellblazer #97

John Constantine stares out from this January 1996 Vertigo issue with a cigarette burning at his lips, holding up a beautifully rendered card bearing the face of a fox — its unsettling yellow eyes staring right back at you — while a badger motif lurks along the left edge, hinting at the wild, folkloric menace suggested by the title "The Nature of the Beast." Sean Phillips's cover art has a painterly, almost dreamlike quality that perfectly suits Constantine's uneasy relationship with forces older than civilization. Paul Jenkins and Phillips make a compelling team here, and this issue promises the kind of dark, grounded storytelling that defined Hellblazer at its Vertigo best.