Posted in: Comics, DC Comics | Tagged: Black Label, darick robertson, dc comics, hellblazer, john constantine, Tom Taylor

Hellblazer: Rise And Fall Gives Us John Constantine With Wings

Published Wed, 10 Jun 2020 16:15:37 -0500

by Rich Johnston

Last updated Wed, 10 Jun 2020 16:18:12 -0500

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Comic book author of DCeased Tom Taylor posted the following news on Twitter concerning a new Hellblazer series.

Announcing HELLBLAZER: RISE & FALL! I'm teaming with my good mate and superstar artist @DarickR (THE BOYS, TRANSMETROPOLITAN) on a Black Label series for @DCComics. We've been working on this in secret for a long time, and it's bloody magic!

A new John Constantine limited series by Tom Taylor and Darick Robertson. I am totally down for that. And I'm not alone. Hellblazer ongoing series writer Si Spurrier has added,

EXCITE! More proper Constantine is more good comics.

The series artist Darick Robertson stated

Keeping this secret has been EXCRUCIATING

While editor Andy Khouri stated

This is as cool a Constantine story as I've ever read. We've been working secretly for a while. Tom Taylor has written a Hellblazer story that's at once thoroughly modern and reverent to the classic tales of John Constantine. And if you know Tom & Darick's work, it's darkly funny as well. If this is your first Hellblazer comic or just your next, you will dig this. Promise.
(Fun fact: John Constantine was the very first thing I worked on my very first day at DC Comics with @JamesTheFourth
and @mingdoyle, on what would become our series CONSTANTINE: THE HELLBLAZER with @rileyrossmo1. That was a fun book you should seek out.)

As to why John Constatine has been drinking Red Bull instead of whisky, we do not yet know, But DC Comics has a nice big press release thing.

In Hellblazer: Rise and Fall, a new three-issue mini-series by Tom Taylor and Darick Robertson launching this September, a billionaire mysteriously falls out of the sky and is gruesomely skewered on a church spire. Even stranger, they have angel wings attached to their back. More bodies soon follow, raining death and causing widespread panic. Detective Aisha Bukhari is stumped by the phenomenon, until she's visited by her childhood friend, occult investigator John Constantine.

"This is a very twisted book," says Tom Taylor. "But, I actually want to give people exactly the John they've seen before. I want to write the bloke who steps out of the shadows with the smirk, the lit cigarette and all the answers. I want a story of shocks and sadness and triumph in the face of utter horror."

DC's Hellblazer soon discovers a link between the falling elite and a shocking moment in his and Aisha's misspent youth. How do these killings tie to the first act of magic ever committed by John Constantine? How does this involve Heaven and Hell? Thirty years later, Constantine's no stranger to supernatural threats and hard-pressed to consider stopping any monster who haunts a nation by killing the most corrupt among its citizens.

"I love writing characters who speak truth to power," continues Taylor, "John doesn't just speak truth to power, he tears power a new one any chance he gets. He's also not your standard perfect hero. He makes a lot of mistakes and people in his orbit get hurt. But there's a beautiful heart beating in the bastard…there's something very cathartic about class warfare where the upper class doesn't win every damn battle."

Even if this mess is kind of John's fault, will Constantine be happy to let a few more rich bastards fall from the sky, like a vindictive Robin Hood? Does John have any interest in stopping the 1% from…trickling down?

Hellblazer: Rise and Fall, a three-part 48-page Prestige Plus format (approx. 8.5" x 10.875") mini-series written by the bestselling Tom Taylor (DCeased, Injustice: Gods Among Us, Suicide Squad) with art and cover by master storyteller Darick Robertson (Transmetropolitan, The Boys), debuts September 2020.

All three issues of Hellblazer: Rise and Fall will carry DC's Black Label content descriptor (Ages 17+) and will retail for $6.99.