Hellblazer's John Constantine Enters the Sandman Universe

In the second year of the relaunch of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman Universe, DC plans to add John Constantine, the chain smoking occult detective and warlock from Hellblazer comics, to the Sandman series in The Sandman Universe Presents Hellblazer #1 by Simon Spurrier and Marcio Takara.

The first issue of Sandman Universe Presents Hellblazer will be published October 30. The character of John Constatine was created by Alan Moore in 1985 and first appeared in an inssue of Moore’s equally legendary series The Swamp Thing, published by DC’s pioneering Vertigo imprint (which was recently folded by DC).

The new combined series picks up at a moment from Gaiman’s The Books of Magic series, in which Constantine is seen to be dying after an epic war of magic. In the new series, Constantine returns physically unaged with all his memories. But the world has gone on in his absence and Constantine attempts to discover what has happened to him. He is also troubled by the rumors of new young magician named Tim Hunter, a boy destined to be either a great sorcerer or the greatest threat to the world.

Following the special issue in October, Constantine’s story will continue in the pages of John Constantine, Hellblazer, available November 27. And in November the relaunched Sandman Universe will continue with new story arcs in The Dreaming, Books of Magic, Lucifer, and House of Whispers.

Gaiman said, “Year One was just the start. Now you get to inhabit the worlds, books, and houses we built for you. I was thrilled when I was told that John Constantine—the original, demon-haunted one who first showed up in Swamp Thing’s “American Gothic” story—is coming back to his murky and dangerous roots. More magic and more darkness and not a few gods and dreams are here for you to explore.”