Comic Title: Hellblazer #5
Publisher: DC
Imprint: Vertigo
Cover Date: May 1988
On Sale Date: January 19, 1988 Shipping Date January 19, 1988
Source: DC Releases, #48

Shipping Date January 19, 1988
Source: Amazing Heroes, #134

Newsstand Date February 11, 1988
Source: Amazing Heroes, #134

Copyright Date January 19, 1988
Source: Library of Congress, Copyright Office 1988

Cover Price: $1.25
Page Count: 32
Editor: Karen Berger

Title: "When Johnny Comes Marching Home"
Pages: 24

Feature(s):
Hellblazer

Writer: Jamie Delano
Artist: John Ridgway
Letterer: Todd Klein
Colorist: Lovern Kindzierski

Reprinted In:
John Constantine Hellblazer:Original Sins TPB (1992)
John Constantine, Hellblazer:Original Sins TPB (2011)

Feature Character(s)

• John Constantine (last appearance in Hellblazer #4; next appearance in Swamp Thing #70)

Villain(s)

• Frank Ross (a former U.S. marine and Vietnam veteran; dies in this story; no further appearances)

Other Character(s)

• Nancy Ross (Frank's wife; sister of Craig Anders; dies in this story; no further appearances)
• Craig Anders and his unit (U.S. marines; all die in flashback; no further appearances)
• Willy Anders and his wife (parents of Craig and Nancy; both die in this story; no further appearances)
• The residents of Liberty, Iowa (all die in this story; no further appearances)
• Several Vietnamese civilians (all die in flashback; no further appearances)

Cameo Appearance(s)

• An unnamed preacher of the Resurrection Crusade (on the television)

Synopsis:
While visiting America to check in on Swamp Thing, John Constantine takes a side trip to Liberty, Iowa where the Resurrection Crusade has become involved with the townspeople. Liberty is a dying town who lost most of their younger men in the Vietnam war. Only one of their boys came home, Frank Ross, who owns a small gas station near the interstate. Frank is haunted by memories of the war and nearly shoots John when he enters the station. They are interrupted by Frank's wife Nancy who takes John into town.

The townspeople in Liberty are anxiously awaiting the return of their boys who were declared missing in action nearly twenty years earlier. They have been following the Resurrection Crusade and combines their money and prayers in an effort to bring home their children. In a strange convergence of time and magic, the boys do come home, but they bring the war with them.

The soldiers reenact their actions in Vietnam by rounding up the townspeople who they believe to be Vietnamese. Although Frank returned home, he too is caught up in reliving the past. He rapes his wife, just as he raped a Vietnamese girl. While this is happening, the old soldiers march the townspeople to Frank's gas station which they believe is the LZ from the war. During the war Frank ordered an air strike that caused his own unit and the Vietnamese to be napalmed. In the present he opens fire on a gasoline tanker truck. The resulting fire consumes the townspeople and Frank.

Constantine is only a witness to the events and can not intercede to stop them. After the climax, John leaves Liberty behind with a greater understanding of the war and atrocities that became of it.