The Series

John Constantine is the star of the comic book Hellblazer. The character was originally created by Alan Moore, John Totleben and Steve Bissette. The comic has been running under the name Hellblazer since 1987 and its debut story ‘Original Sins’. A trade paperback (TPB) collecting the first nine issues of Hellblazer, and the ‘Original Sins’ storyline was released in 1992 (ISBN 1-56389-052-6).

The series has now been running for twenty years and is still in print, the character John Constantine has also made a variety of appearances in other comics as a regular character or cameo appearance. He has been seen at various events in the DC universe, as well as others such as Green Lantern #81 where he was spotted at the Funeral of Hal Jordan.

The Character

John Constantine is by no means a hero, he may fight the good fight in his own way, but this is mainly due to the lifestyle of magic and danger that he lives. Despite living in England for most of his childhood, Constantine has moved around the world on several occasions, following occult and mysticism throughout the world.

The character is one of the very few comic characters that have actually aged with real time, Constantine is normally shown wearing a dark brown trench coat with shirt and tie, his dress sense hasn’t changed from the start of the series where his first appearance is leaving a taxi after the flight back to England (Before this his whereabouts are unknown). During the first series he is shown wearing a dark blue or black suit including the suit jacket (which is often missing in later issues) with a white shirt and tie, his hair is short and often slicked back and pale blond in colour

Constantine is a chain smoker and has been from the very start of his characters introduction, his brand of choice is Silk Cut, though he has been seen smoking Marlboro or Camel’s from time to time, presumably when out of the country or when Silk Cut are unavailable. Despite being a chain smoker himself, Constantine does not take any other drugs, and once called his friend a “Dirty lowlife bastard” when he found a needle with a nondescript drug in. (Issue 1, collection Original Sins, Page 12).

Constantine’s obsession with the occult started from a young age, his first notable occult dealings were in the 70’s, when he became actively open with the occult circles in London, England.

History

In 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. There, we found out that he was born in Liverpool, England, on May 10, 1953. His mother, Mary Anne, died giving birth to John and his stillborn twin brother because an earlier abortion—forced on her by John's father, Thomas—had weakened her womb. Because he was unable to accept responsibility for his wife's death, Thomas blamed John and the pair grew up with a deep dislike for one another. Whilst in the womb, John strangles his twin brother with his own umbilical cord; in a parallel universe glimpsed in Hellblazer #40, the twin survives to become the well-loved and well-adjusted magician that John never was.

While only children, 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 later then moved back to Liverpool when their father was released. As a child, one of John's first acts of magic was to hide all of his childhood innocence and vulnerability in a box to rid himself of it. Later, in the 1960s, a teenage John ran away from home, but not before a botched curse on his father caused him to become withered and frail. John eventually made his permanent home in London in 1969, rooming with Francis "Chas" Chandler, a young man who has since gone on to become John's closest — and longest surviving — friend.

During the 1970s, John became involved in occult circles in London, and visited San Francisco, where he met, and subsequently began a relationship with, the female magician Zatanna. He also became enamored of punk rock; after seeing the Sex Pistols at the Roxy Club in London in 1977, John cut his long hair and formed his own band, Mucous Membrane, whose members included Chandler (as a roadie), a drummer named Beano and fellow Liverpudlian Gary Lester.

John's first venture into occult "heroism", as depicted in a flashback in Hellblazer #11, was a disaster. On tour with Mucous Membrane at the Casa Nova Club in Newcastle, he found the aftermath of a magical orgy gone horribly wrong: an abused child, Astra, had conjured a hideous monster that took revenge on the adults who were tormenting her, and the monster refused to leave.

With typical recklessness, John convinces some members of the band, along with several occultist friends, to try destroying the creature by summoning a demon of their own. Unfortunately, this demon was not under their control and after it had destroyed the child's monster, it torments Constantine's friends and took the child to Hell. John suffered a nervous breakdown after this incident, and was committed to a mental institution, which he drifted in and out of over the years. He was severely abused by the staff during the time he spent there, as they believed that he was the one who had molested and murdered Astra. John was never officially cured in any way — his time at the asylum ended when a local criminal used his influence to spring John for his own purposes.

The guilt of Astra hung over him for many years until, in his mid-forties, he used some magic and con-artistry 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.

Years later, John was able to persuade the same group to help with his investigation of the Brujería cult, as seen in Swamp Thing #37–49. However, the cult murders 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 one of his only human friends to have survived a long-term association with John.

In his late thirties, John contracts terminal lung cancer. During this time, he came to the aid 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 tricks him into drinking holy water, which renders 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 hatches 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.

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 has been wanted for questioning in relation to several cases (ranging from murder to extortion) that have since been solved and has, in America, a prison record serving time for the suicide of a man called Lucky that the police had misconstrued as murder. After a prison riot and an FBI agent orchestrated his release from prison Constantine traveled across America for a time on a personal quest to ask the forgiveness of the widow of Lucky, for whose death he felt responsible even though he was innocent of his murder. After encountering, roughly in order, the psychotic pornography-making relatives of Lucky, a huge black boar, and a group of snowbound killers, Constantine's journey culminated in his discovery that Lucky's widow had joined a neo-Nazi group. Constantine, who has often evinced a dislike for "fascists", disassembled the group from the inside and burned the widow's house to the ground after Lucky's ghost revealed the real reason for his suicide.

At this point Constantine was contacted by the same FBI agent who had initiated his release from prison and asked to take part in an attempt to incriminate billionaire Stanley Manor (whom the agent knew was responsible for numerous illegal and immoral acts but who, because of his wealth, could never be brought to justice). To this end Constantine frequented a BDSM sex club, seduced Stanley, raised the ghosts or the illusion of the ghosts of Stanley's parents, and finally faked his own death.

As yet it is unclear how Lucifer's retirement and Azazel's capture by Dream has affected the deal he made to save his life, or what he traded Azazel and Beelzebub his soul for in the first place.

Relationships

Constantine has been shown to be bisexual in various issues throughout the comic series and has also shown bestiality tendencies (whether this was a joke or not was never actually revealed), he has had several relationships with other characters from the DC universe such as Zatana.

Constantine is an only child, references site that he was actually one of twins but an unborn John managed to strangle his brother with his own umbilical cord. Constantine’s mother died while giving birth to John due to complications at the hospital, it has been noted that this was due to an earlier abortion though this has never been openly talked about in the comics. Constantine also has an Older Sister by the name of Cheryl (she has been seen in flashbacks and her current whereabouts and status are unknown.)

Constantine’s father, Thomas Constantine was a abusive alcoholic and pervert, John ran away from home in the late 1960’s (aprox age 15 – 19) with his older sister to live with their Aunt and Uncle in Northampton, the reason they ran away from home was partly to do with the stigma of their father being arrested for stealing a neighbours underwear and being imprisoned for being a pervert and voyeur (Talks about but never actually seen in the comics.)

After living with his Aunt and Uncle for several months (the time has changed in several flashbacks, early on in the series he notes that he lived with them for several months, but in later issues he states that he lived with them for years.) Constantine moved in with his friend Chaz in London.

At the end of the series “Original Sins”, John was seriously injured due to diving out of a drain on its way back to London, the extent of his injuries were never actually talked about but he is shown with two broken legs, a broken arm, his other arm fractured and various head injuries. In is not known how he actually survived this accident but a silhouette was shown stood over the unconscious form of Constantine before he went into hospital, the silhouette bared a striking similarity to that of Swamp Thing (Series Original Sins, Page 214 / 215)

While in hospital, Constantine was approached by a demon / devil and asked to join them. He replied simply by saying “No, for the last time, I don’t work for heaven or hell.”, this answer leads us to believe that he has been offered chances with both sides before, though this was the first time we actually saw someone make the offer.

The Demon / Devil spoke of a child that had been born who would throw off the balance between Good and Evil. The Demon / Devil say’s “It’s happening again, God born of woman, and the female you call Zed, they call her ‘The Mary’.” So whether this in another coming of Christ in this realm in unsure, as Constantine say’s on many occasion that you should never trust a demon or anything they say.

In order to get Constantine’s help with this matter, the Demon threatens to start eating babies from the children’s ward beneath Constantine’s room. He agrees to help, but on the terms that he takes care of his own business first and that the Demon / Devil heals him. The Demon / Devil does this by injecting Constantine with Demon / Devil blood, the ramifications of this deal are widespread and dealt with later on in the comics.

After escaping the hospital, Constantine suffers from various hallucinations and withdrawal symptoms. During this part he also celebrates his thirty fifth birthday with a pint of beer. After this the hallucinations get worse and he ends up in an abandoned building where he was visited by a spirit version of himself, after a discussion about the future, and sharing a smoke with his spirit self, Constantine leaves the building just in time for it to be demolished.

At home he showers and shaves, trying to return to the man he once was. He then catches a flight to Glastonbury where he meets up with Zed, the mother of the child the Demon / Devil came to see him about. After confessing their love, Constantine and Zed spend a night together before he leaves her alone sleeping, stating that he must be back on the road to recovery as he’s already playing the traitors game again.

Abilities

Constantine has been shown to rarely use magical spells, unless he absolutely has to, especially when engaged in combat. Constantine faces most of his opponents relying first and foremost on his cunning, his vast knowledge of the occult, manipulation of opponents and allies, and an extensive list of contacts.

Constantine's blood has been tainted by demons, initially by a blood transfusion from the demon Nergal, and later by engaging in intercourse with a succubus. His blood has displayed healing properties and has acted as a defense mechanism.

Although John is generally shown to lose most fights against superior combatants and generally avoids all physical fights - he has been known to win some battles, by either wielding a magical weapon or by fighting dirty.

Some examples of Constantine's magic:

Divination - Used a pendulum and map to find the location of a magical disturbance.

Demon summoning - Summoned the demon Nergal to destroy a monster for him, which it did (although John lost control, due to his inexperience).

Black magic Cursing - Placed a curse on his father that caused him to waste away.

Spirit Ward creation - Placed a magical sigil on a succubus named Chantinelle that prevented the forces of

Heaven and Hell from tracking her. As well as using sigils to hide himself from Satan (graphic novel collection Rake At The Gates Of Hell)

Golemancy - Raised a golem.

Oclumancy - Erased a man's traumatic memories.

Necromancy - Raised a group of murder victims as zombies to attack their murderer (Hellblazer #230)

Illusion - Making people think he's someone or something else. Or using Illusion to scare susceptible opponents into catatonic insanity (graphic novel collection Hard Time)

Synchronicity Highway or Synchronicity Wave traveling - An instinctual supernatural ability to be in the right place at exactly the right time. This has led John to uncanny luck, like winning incredible amounts of money from Arcade machines and Casinos. Avoiding harm. And more times than not - to meet the right kind of ally to help prevent or stop an apocalyptic event from happening. (Jamie Delano's Hellblazer run). It is questionable how far John's "good" luck can stretch given that his allies and any bystanders that become involved in his schemes and plans often pay a steep price for it.

Constantine has also exhibited considerable mastery in "stage magic skills" - Hypnosis, Sleight-Of-Hand and Escapology.