DC Announce New Sandman/Constantine Crossover

DC may have announced the closure of their Vertigo imprint the other week, but it lives on in Sandman Universe. Cushioning the blow of its death - albeit just a little - is the announcement of a brand-new Hellblazer crossover with Neil Gaiman's Sandman, set to release later this year.

Unveiled on the official DC website on Tuesday, this new one-shot comic will be written by Simon Spurrier with art from Marcio Takara. Once it wraps up, Spurrier will then commence work on a new Constantine ongoing with artist Aaron Campbell. The former will hit shelves just in time for spooky season on October 30, with the ongoing following shortly thereafter in November.

Oh, and Bilquis Evely's cover is absolutely stunning.

If that isn't enough to get you excited, then Spurrier's interview with DC surely will. The writer refers to the titular Hellblazer as "the cynic’s magician: a man of selfish drives and cataclysmic self-knowledge, who tries to do the right thing in spite of himself, in spite of the cost, in spite of the vile and violent world he occupies." He wraps up his comments by referring to him not as the "hero we need", but as "the bastard we deserve," and - to be perfectly honest - that's perfect.

Constantine fans will likely be thrilled to see the occult expert back in familiar territory. The character has been mingling in the mainstream DC universe since the start of the decade, but it seems as though Spurrier is keen on returning the character to his roots. After all, it was in Vertigo that John Constantine first appeared (in the pages of Swamp Thing's American Gothic, no less), and it was Vertigo that published the original Hellblazer series.

The Liverpool-born anti-hero even showed up in an early issue of Sandman, so it'll be great to see Spurrier and co. expand upon that premise in this comic.

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