Lemire casts spell with 'Justice League Dark' spectacle

• "Justice League Dark Annual" ends Jeff Lemire's current story line
• Constantine and his team of oddballs races to find the Books of Magic
• Stars of three other books stop by to enter the fray.

For the end of his magical superheroes' latest story line, Justice League Dark writer Jeff Lemire has an extra-sized trick up his sleeve.

Guest stars, plot twists and large spectacle are all jam-packed into DC Comics' Justice League Dark Annual No. 1 (available Wednesday digitally and in comic shops) that pits antiheroic con man John Constantine and his motley crew of oddball supernatural types vs. his old mentor Nick Necro to save the world.

Necro's riding the House of Secrets (yes, a residence that moves through interdimensional limbo) to the Nanda Parbat in order to find the mystical Books of Magic — four tomes that hold all knowledge in the universe — and face off with his former apprentice while holding his former love Zatanna hostage.

But to combat Necro's forces — which include the traitorous Dr. Mist, Felix Faust, Blackbriar Thorn and Black Boris, who've been big bads in Lemire's current arc — Constantine's rallied a few extra members to the House of Mystery to fight alongside Deadman, Black Orchid and the rest of his team against Necro.

"Everything revolves around Constantine, whether they like it or not," Lemire says. "Even if he's (ticking) everyone off, you have to follow him."

The writer wanted the extra space of a double-sized annual (illustrated by Mikel Janin) to have "a really bombastic finale," he says, but he also hoped to stop the trend of the last decade or so when "annuals in my mind stopped counting anymore."

Back in the 1980s, annuals in superhero books were usually where fans found their crossover events and big, line-wide summer story lines.

For example, the four-part "The Judas Contract" adventure in the pages of Tales of the Teen Titans ended in an annual in 1984. "It was pretty much my favorite comic as a kid," Lemire says.

A bunch of superheroes made cameos in that annual, and the same goes for Lemire's Justice League Dark one — namely Sword of Sorcery heroine Princess Amaya of House Amethyst, I, Vampire star Andrew Bennett and the title monster from Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E.

The Sword of Sorcery comic just launched and DC wanted to raise its sword-wielding girl's profile, so she'll be around for a few issues, Lemire says. "It's fun to play her as a fish-out-of-water teenage character against somebody like Constantine who's jaded and cynical."

Bennett enters the fray when Constantine calls in a favor — "It seemed like the perfect time to play that card because he needs some muscle," Lemire says — and the writer included Frankenstein, whose DC series Lemire launched last fall, because the team needed somebody really great at punching people.

Plus, Lemire says, "he's like a foil for Constantine's arrogance." (Frankenstein will also be sticking around the series, as his own book ends in January.)

Another character who plays an important role is Timothy Hunter, the boy created by Neil Gaiman in 1990 who's destined to become the world's greatest sorcerer. His appearance and the climax of the annual sets up the Lemire's second Justice League Dark story line beginning in issue 14 (out Nov. 28).

Constantine hopes Tim lives up to his prophesized billing, "but something completely different happens," Lemire says. "It was what his true destiny was that was sort of misinterpreted."

Going into his second arc after first taking over from Peter Milligan with the ninth issue and moving it in a more Indiana Jones-style action-adventure direction, Lemire says he's surprised about how difficult the book has been to write when it comes to his team and their magical abilities.

"I've had to be real careful in not making anyone too powerful. Then you have this 'Get Out of Jail Free' card."