The effort to save the Constantine comic book from cancellation just won a welcome ally; author Neil Gaiman. Not only has Gaiman shared a Change.Org petition regarding the endangered book on his social media, but he has allowed his name to be officially tied to the fan-driven effort to save John Constantine: Hellblazer.
The recent acquisition of Warner Bros. by AT&T has led to widespread turmoil across the entertainment industry. This is particularly true at DC Entertainment, which lost one-third of its staff in the wake of the latest round of lay-offs. This coincided with the cancellation of a number of low-selling titles, including John Constantine: Hellblazer, which had only seen eight issues hit the stands since its premiere in 2019
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Despite not having a lengthy run on the original Hellblazer series, Gaiman is still closely associated with the character of John Constantine. Gaiman wrote a one-off story for Hellblazer, “Hold Me,” which was printed in Hellblazer #27 and centered around Constantine trying to put the spirit of a homeless man who froze to death to rest. “Hold Me” is widely considered to be one of the best one-shot stories to feature John Constantine ever written. Gaiman also gave Constantine a prominent role in the first Sandman graphic novel, Preludes and Nocturnes, with Dream of the Endless turning to Constantine for assistance in recovering his magical bag of sand, which Constantine had owned at one time.
After spending the better part of the last decade as part of the mainstream DC Comics’ universe, John Constantine returned to adult comics with John Constantine: Hellblazer, which was introduced as part of The Sandman Universe line curated by Neil Gaiman. The new series focused on the John Constantine of another reality being brought back into a world much like our own, in all his chain-smoking, politically-incorrect glory, and following the trail of a sinister magician who seemed determined to cause as much chaos as possible by empowering some truly wicked people. The new series mixed weird horror with current events in the same way the original Hellblazer series tackled Thatcherism in the 1980s, with John routinely confronting mundane evils wrought by man that rivaled the fiendish schemes of the demons. For instance, one recent storyline saw Constantine having to save a mermaid from an unfaithful lover who exploited her to save his failing fishing business.
It remains to be seen if the efforts of Neil Gaiman and the Change.Org petition might win John Constantine: Hellblazer another chance. While a similar effort to save the short-lived Constantine TV series was ultimately unsuccessful, it did prove the character’s popularity well enough for actor Matt Ryan to join the Arrowverse with one appearance on Arrow, before joining the cast of Legends of Tomorrow. Between that and the fans of the Keanu Reeves Constantine movie, which has seen a similar effort to bring about a sequel, it wouldn’t be wise to bet against John Constantine finding a way to beat the odds and dodge the damnation of comics limbo once again.
