Hellblazer - Justice League Dark, Constantine and Cancellation

Justice League Dark, Constantine and Cancellation

As part of the DC universe reboot in September 2011, Peter Milligan started the new title Justice League Dark, which will feature John Constantine as a prominent part of the team. Milligan has explicitly stated that the continuity of the two series will be mutually exclusive, and that there will now be a Vertigo John Constantine, and a younger DC Comics Constantine. Milligan wrote eight issues of Justice League Dark, with writer Jeff Lemire taking over on issue nine to present.

On November 8th 2012, DC announced that Hellblazer would be cancelled following its 300th issue, and would be replaced by Constantine written by Robert Venditti and drawn by Renato Guides starring the younger New 52 John Constantine, rather than the version from Hellblazer, depicted as being in his late 50's.

The announcement was met largely with disapointment from the industry, even by DC's own creators, with I, Vampire writer Joshua Hale Fialkov expressing sadness he would never get to write the "'real' John Constantine", noted crime author and former Hellblazer writer Ian Rankin stating Constantine was the only comic book character he ever wanted to write for, and Alan Moore's daughter, Leah Moore expressing doubt that Constantine could replace Hellblazer, among others. As a result, DC co-publisher Dan Didio issued a statement defending this decision, stating that, "Hellblazer's had a long and incredibly successful run and that's a tip of the hat to all the great creators that have worked on the book over the years. The new Constantine series will return him back to his roots in the DCU and hopefully be the start of another incredible run."