John Constantine
John Constantine, also known as Hellblazer, is an antihero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. He was created by Alan Moore, Steve Bissette, and John Totleben, and first appeared in Swamp Thing #37. Initially a supporting character who played a pivotal role in the "American Gothic" Swamp Thing storyline, Constantine became popular with readers. As a result, he received his own comic in 1988 titled Hellblazer, which became the longest-running and most successful title of DC's Vertigo imprint. In the DC Universe, Constantine, the titular Hellblazer, is portrayed as a working-class warlock, occult detective, exorcist, and con man from Liverpool who is stationed in London. Known for his cynicism, deadpan wit, ruthless cunning, and constant chain smoking, he is also a passionate humanitarian with a deep desire to make a positive impact.
The character has received a mix of acclaim and criticism over the years. He won the Eagle Award for 'Favourite Supporting Character' twice in 1986 and 1987, and has been listed among the greatest comic book characters. He was praised for his charm and resilience despite his flawed nature. However, he has faced criticism for his portrayal in certain contexts, including controversial depictions of his bisexuality and relationships.
The character made his live-action debut in the film Constantine, played by Keanu Reeves. On television, Constantine was played in the television series Constantine by Matt Ryan, who later reprised the character in the Arrowverse series Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, and The Flash, and several animated productions. Jenna Coleman later portrayed a female version of the character in the television series The Sandman, adapting both Constantines' roles from the comic series.
Publication history
John Constantine first appeared in 1985 as a recurring character in Swamp Thing, in which he acted as a "supernatural advisor" to the main character.In these early appearances, Constantine was depicted as a sorcerer of questionable morality, whose appearance was based on that of the musician Sting. Alan Moore created the character after artists Stephen R. Bissette and John Totleben, who were fans of The Police, expressed a desire to draw a character who looked like Sting. They had already drawn at least one character in Sting's likeness, a briefly glimpsed background figure wearing a black-and-red-striped T-shirt in Swamp Thing #25. In his earliest Swamp Thing appearances, the character is drawn with a marked resemblance to Sting, and in Swamp Thing #51, Constantine appears on a boat with the name The Honourable Gordon Sumner on the bow. Sting's connection to Newcastle was also incorporated into the character's story.
John Constantine's official debut was not until Swamp Thing #37, when he was drawn by Rick Veitch and Totleben. Crisis on Infinite Earths #4, his second official appearance in a cameo role, shipped two weeks after the release of Swamp Thing #37. In that issue, written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by George Pérez, Constantine is wearing a green suit as opposed to his more traditional black suit and tan trenchcoat ensemble. Moore describes Constantine as being drawn from a number of "really good ideas ... about serial killers, the Winchester House, and ... want to draw Sting in a story". Calling these disparate strands a "big intellectual puzzle", Constantine was the result of "fit it all together". Initially created "purely to get Sting into the story", by the time of the 1985 San Diego ComicCon, Moore stated, "It's turning into something more than that now." Veitch's contribution was to give Constantine an earring, something he considered risque for 1985.
Asked in 1985 about the similarities between John Constantine and the character Baron Winters, Moore revealed that he was a "big fan" of Wolfman and Night Force, but that "no intention to rip off Baron Winters" existed. He said:
Constantine and Winters met each other during Moore's run on Swamp Thing and again in Neil Gaiman's The Books of Magic.
Speaking to comics magazine Wizard in 1993, Moore elaborated:
In 1988, Constantine was given his own title, Hellblazer. In 1993, at the launch of DC's Vertigo Comics imprint, Hellblazer was made an official Vertigo publication. It was the longest continuously published Vertigo title. Before the launch of the Vertigo line, Constantine appeared in several DC Universe titles, but for many years afterwards, editorial policy forbade him from appearing outside the Vertigo line. The policy was reversed in 2011, when a version of Constantine appeared in the DC Universe crossover series Brightest Day. In 2011, Peter Milligan added him to the inaugural key roster of The New 52 series Justice League Dark. Milligan began writing Justice League Dark while also writing the Vertigo's Hellblazer series, being a writer of both series at the same time. In an interview, Milligan told Newsarama:
Beginning in Justice League Dark #9, Jeff Lemire assumed writing duties on the series, replacing Milligan, who had remained on the Vertigo title. Lemire said he considers Justice League Dark his dream gig at DC Comics because Constantine is one of his all-time favourite characters not just in comics, but in all fiction. Lemire also teased that while Constantine, Zatanna, and Deadman would remain on the roster, the team would change in his opening arc and expand.
Fictional character biography
Youth
In John Constantine's early appearances in Swamp Thing, his past was a mystery; his life as a child and young adult was not developed until Jamie Delano's Hellblazer stories. He was born in Liverpool on 10 May 1953, the son of Mary Anne and Thomas Constantine. Mary Anne died giving birth to him and his stillborn twin brother because an earlier abortion, forced on her by Thomas, had weakened her womb. Since he was unable to accept responsibility for his wife's death, Thomas blamed John and the pair grew up with a deep dislike for each other. While in the womb, John strangled his twin brother with his own umbilical cord; in a parallel universe, the twin survives to become the well-loved and well-adjusted magician John never was.In their childhood, John and his older sister Cheryl lived briefly with their aunt and uncle in Northampton to escape from their father's alcoholism and subsequent imprisonment for stealing a female neighbour's underwear. They moved back to Liverpool when their father was released. John's bloodline and ancestry were known as the Laughing Magicians, legendary mages who have the power over synchronicity and were infamous for bluffing and tricking gods. This ancestry later drives John to partake in his lineage and practice magic. One of John's first acts of magic, as a child, was to hide all of his childhood innocence and vulnerability in a box to rid himself of it. Later, in the 1960s, a teenaged John ran away from home after a botched curse caused his father to become withered and frail. John eventually made his permanent home in London in 1969, rooming with Chas Chandler, who would later become his closest and longest-surviving friend.
During the 1970s, John became involved in occult circles in London. He travelled to other countries and visited San Francisco, where he began dating Zatanna Zatara, a female magician he had previously met in New York City. He also became a fan of punk rock; after seeing the Sex Pistols at the Roxy Club in London in 1977, he cut his long hair short, called himself Johnny Con-Job, and formed a band called Mucous Membrane. Its members included Chandler, a drummer named Beano, and fellow Liverpool native Gary Lester. They released an album called Venus of the Hardsell. John also performed as a stage magician in the 1980s, where he became famous for predicting the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan.
John's first venture into occult "heroism" was a disaster. On tour with Mucous Membrane at the Casanova Club in Newcastle upon Tyne, he found the aftermath of a magical orgy gone horribly wrong; an abused child named Astra Logue had conjured a hideous monster that took revenge on her father, the club's debauched owner, and the other adults who were tormenting her, but the monster refused to leave. With typical recklessness, John convinced some members of the band and several occultist friends to try destroying the creature by summoning a demon of their own. Unfortunately, this demon was not under their control and tormented John's friends after it had destroyed the other demon before taking Astra to Hell. John had summoned the demon by one of its names, but not its true name of Nergal, which would have been required to bind and control the demon. Nergal went on to be a regular antagonist throughout the series. John suffered a nervous breakdown after this incident, and was committed to Ravenscar Psychiatric Hospital, which he drifted in and out of over the years.
The guilt of Astra hung over John for many years. In his mid-40s, he used some magic and trickery to free not only her but also the souls of all the other children trapped in Hell. As for the rest of the "Newcastle Crew", the incident left the group both physically and psychologically scarred. After helping Dream retrieve his sands from John's own dying ex-girlfriend Rachel, Dream in turn relieves Constantine of the nightmares that had plagued him since the incident.
Occult "hero"
John is later freed from Ravenscar by London gangsters, who threaten to torture and kill his sister and her family unless he helps to resurrect a mob boss's dead son. Knowing that resurrection is impossible even by magical means, John instead summons a demon to take the boy's place; a desperate act that has bloody consequences many years later. Years later, John was able to reconvene the surviving members of the "Newcastle Crew" to help with his investigation of the Brujería cult, as seen in Swamp Thing #37–49. The cult murdered most of them, including John's then-lover, Emma. These people, and others who have died due to John's carelessness, have continued to appear to him as silent, reproachful ghosts. Chas is the most prominent, one of very few human friends to have survived a long-term association with John.John first met Swamp Thing in 1985, after being interested in the creature. John later acts as the Swamp Thing's protector, guide, and voice of omen, even teaching the Thing to amplify his powers. Both would have further adventures with each other, such as John introducing the Thing to the Parliament of Trees, Thing using John's body to make love to his wife and father a child named Tefe, and fighting off the Damnation Army from summoning the Anti-Christ. Both carry a dull, but nevertheless fruitful friendship with each other. Constantine even invites Swamp Thing to his 40th birthday and assures the Thing he will try not to bother him again. In 1991, while in his late 30s, John contracted terminal lung cancer. During this time, he sought the help of a dying friend, Brendan, who had sold his soul to the First of the Fallen, the most powerful lord of Hell. When the First came to collect the soul, John tricked him into drinking holy water, which rendered him helpless and prevented him from collecting the friend's soul at the appointed time.
For this, the First promised to make John suffer unprecedented torment in Hell when he dies. Slowly dying from cancer, John hatched a plan to save himself from eternal torment. He secretly sold his soul to the other two Lords of Hell. When they discovered Constantine's actions, they realized that they could not allow him to die, or else they would be forced to go to all-out war over his soul, a war whose only winner would be "the Lord of the Hosts"; i.e., God and his angels. They were also far too stubborn and proud, however, to enter anything resembling an alliance. As a result, they were forced to cure John of his cancer. This led to the First plotting a grand revenge on Constantine, who manipulated the demon via his ally Ellie, a succubus, into coming into a trap; the plan only barely succeeded, and while the First was temporarily defeated, many of John's friends were killed.
Constantine then went on to have a series of adventures and misadventures playing the role of puppet and puppeteer with his signature style and profane sarcasm. He managed to free Astra and every other child in Hell, but at the cost of the First returning to power; also, as part of the scheme, John's worst attributes were given separate existence as "Demon Constantine", which meant he himself could not go to Hell. As part of an attempt to regain his nastier edge, he used Ellie, and this led to her taking out a revenge scheme in 1998 that forced him to turn to the First for help; Ellie ended up in Hell, and several of John's oldest friends left him. John, being tired of all this, contacted God. God appears and the two converse in a campfire. John then tells him his reason for contacting Him. He warns God that if his soul is ever sent to Hell, he would easily take over, and do nasty things such as unleashing the demons and locking away Hell so that the damned cannot enter and have no resting place. John blackmails God to do his bidding, and that is to keep his soul away from Hell. God, knowing of John's abilities, does so, but warns him of what will come next.