Trenchcoat Brigade #1

Vertigo's 1999 four-part miniseries kicks off in fine style, bringing together four of DC's most enigmatic occult figures — the Phantom Stranger, Doctor Occult, John Constantine, and Mister E — rendered here in a brooding, atmospheric cover by Glenn Fabry. The quartet looms out of a murky background, each figure distinct: Constantine foreground with cigarette in hand, the wide-brimmed Mister E partly in shadow, the Phantom Stranger pale and hollow-eyed, and Doctor Occult in his familiar trenchcoat — a lineup that feels genuinely electric. Writer John Ney Rieber and artist John Ridgway open "Misery: Book I: Mercy Killer," promising the kind of dark, thoughtful storytelling that made the Vertigo imprint a destination for mature readers.