You may already know this mischievous Brit from the pages of JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK or Vertigo’s acclaimed HELLBLAZER series, but come this spring, you’re going to see John Constantine in a dark, gritty, and exciting all-new light.

Hitting stands on March 13, CONSTANTINE #1 kicks off an ongoing series starring John Constantine within the ever-expanding DC COMICS-THE NEW 52. From the co-writers of JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK, Jeff Lemire and Ray Fawkes, and fan-favorite artist Renato Guedes, CONSTANTINE shines a spotlight on the notoriously flawed antihero as he works to protect the world from the darkest corners of the DC Universe.

“CONTANTINE is turning into the window through which readers can see the dirtiest side of superpowers in the DC Universe, the nasty magic side,” Fawkes teased to NEWSARAMA about the series.

“John has a very specific fight he's actually involved in in this series,” Fawkes continued to COMIC VINE. “The first issue will reveal what it is he's after. But he's the instigator in a lot of the stories that are going to happen. In this book, he's the one looking for the trouble. Sooner or later trouble starts to find him because of all the things he's doing … John is not your typical hero-type character. He has a lot of vices. You'll see him indulging in just about all of them. I mean sort of the only thing I can't do with him in this title is swearing directly. In the book, he drinks, he smokes, he does a lot of other dirty things.”

For more from Fawkes about the premiere issue of CONSTANTINE and this eagerly-anticipated series launch, check out the full interviews that ran with him today on MTV GEEK, NEWSARAMA, COMIC VINE, and IFANBOY.

And click here for a special 5-page preview of CONSTANTINE #1, which you’ll also be able to find in the back of all of the DC COMICS-THE NEW 52 releases coming out on February 27.