John Constantine experts???

I just finished reading Phantom Stranger volume 1 and John Constantine was in it. I did research and I dont understand how John got his powers.

Why is he so good with magic?

Where did he get his powers?

Why is he so cunning?

And this might sound weird but i read somewhere that he tricked the prescence into thinking he wanted to die so the prescence let him live?

P.S sorry for these strange questions i really know nothing about Constantine.

He learned magic from Nick Necro, Zatanna and the Cult of the Cold Flame in the New 52. As for why he's good with magic and cunning, he just....sort of....is? Those are two of the character's trademarks, particularly the cunning.

He didn't exactly trick the Presence, he kind of manipulated him a bit. John had sold his soul to the First of the Fallen and so he was going to go to hell once he died. The Presence asked him how he felt about it and John replied that he wasn't worried, because he knew and the Presence knew that John would be running the place in a few centuries' time, and that the Presence should be more worried about it than John was. The Presence ultimately decided that giving John Constantine access to Hell was more trouble than it was worth, and so he restored John's soul and set him free. It was in Jenkins' Hellblazer run, #128.

any time someone talks about Nick Necro it makes me want to hang my self

@citizenbane: Uh, so the way he got out of going to hell changed?

@mugsyog:

This is from wikipedia and is accurate.

In 1991 while in his late thirties, 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.^[23]

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 discover 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. However, they were also far too stubborn and proud to enter anything resembling an alliance. As a result, they were forced to cure John of his cancer.

Why?

@dondave: Because that whole thing was total crap, having the guy from the Constantine movie be Johns mentor? Argh total bull.

@vortex13: That was a different time to what Bane is talking about

Different instance........this was from Dangerous Habits, and the Presence never appeared in it. The instance I described and the one that mugsyog was asking about is from How to Play with Fire. Props for using wikipedia for "accuracy" and managing to screw that up to boot. Must have been very hard.

Wait a minute!

You mean to tell me that online resources like Wikapedia could have contradictory information on DC character details!?

Thought New 52 did such a great job of "fixing" that problem...

In the New 52 John learned magic from Zatanna and Nick. The reason he is so good is because he has a habit of stealing other peoples tricks. He can even use Zatanna's backwards magic. Basically he's so good at magic because he takes the best stuff that he can find from other magic users.

In Hellblazer John actually had demon blood in him which was where some of his powers came from. Thus far in the New 52 it hasn't been shown if this is still the case or not.

There's no special reason for this he just is. Part of John's character is that he is ludicrously manipulative and cunning beyond all reason. He's just that good. No special reason for it.

IIRC he didn't trick the Presence per se. What happened was he was going to die and if he died he'd go to hell. However if he went to hell he'd take it over and become the master of it. He simply said to the Presence that it would not be a good idea for him to die because Hell would corrupt him and suddenly Hell would have a leader so powerful and manipulative that it wouldn't end well. The Presence just agreed. No tricking was involved it was just better for everyone that John didn't die and go to hell because he would become the new devil.