Haunted (John Constantine Hellblazer)

It's interesting to me just how many facets there are to a character, and how each writer can bring them to light. Warren Ellis is able to bring John Constantine down to earth with a bang; show a completely different side to him and root his life more in the humdrum, human existence without losing the sense of dark and dangerous magic. When I read some of Brian Azzarello's Hellblazer he had John's character almost down to pat but had lost that sense of magic and wonder - for me, he'd brought it too much to earth.

Somehow Ellis manages to walk that line perfectly. In this story John must avenge the death of an old friend of his which leads him into battle against a rival Magus - one who is basing himself on the Grand Master himself, Crowley.
This is a story in which even John is vulnerable - which immediately makes the reader vulnerable. Hellblazer is one comic where you have no real guarantees that the protagonist will survive in one piece and perhaps that's just one of the reasons I like it so much!