Around 2011 to 2015 I held the vehement belief that the Vertigo characters (John Constantine, Swamp Thing, Shade the Changing Man etc etc) should not be mixed up in the DC universe proper as they had been since 2011. My reasoning for this was partly irrational nostalgia for the 90s Vertigo titles, and a more practical line of thinking that the somewhat (grounded? realistic?) appeal of the DC Vertigo titles such as Sandman or Hellblazer would be squandered if their characters were inserted into the DCU, which is much more larger than life and fantastical.

However I have changed my mind about mixing the Vertigo characters with the mainstream DC ones. I feel the mythology of a book like Animal Man or Swamp Thing being brought to the DC Universe, makes the Universe richer. Ultimately, nowadays I feel my prior belief of segregation between the Vertigo and DC universe book immature and laughable. John-Bloody-Constantine.

No matter what, I feel like Constantine and the wider world of superheroes and aliens are fundamentally incompatible. In Hellblazer, (excluding issue 9 in which John ventured to Gotham City) you always had the sense that, in spite of the fact that God, Angel's, and Demons appeared, Constantine's stories in his title could not exist in the DC Universe. While the DC Universe is larger than life, bright, and hopeful (most of the time, heh...) the world of Vertigo Hellblazer was dirty, grim, and nihilistic in a sense. Whenever a new Hellblazer title comes out (New Fifty Two, DC You Rebirth), Constantine seems to just be a depressing shadow of his former self, in the glory days of Vertigo. I just don't think he can work in the DC Universe.

Do you agree? Now I know there are some New Fifty Two Constantine fans on this thread. I am especially eager to see what they think of this issue.