John Constantine
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John Constantine (born May 10, 1953 in Liverpool, England) is the fictional protagonist of the comic series Hellblazer. The character first appeared in the horror comic Swamp Thing, written by Alan Moore in which he was a recurring character. He has also made regular appearances in the various incarnations of The Books of Magic, and has made cameo appearances in several DC and Vertigo comics.
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[edit] Characteristics
Although a compassionate humanist and occasionally even heroic, John pursues a life of magic and danger mainly for the sheer thrill of it. It is an adrenaline addiction that only the strange and mysterious can sate.
John is typically portrayed wearing a brown or khaki trench coat, white shirt, black tie (though his wardrobe was somewhat more varied in the original series) and chain-smoking Silk Cut cigarettes. In the movie Constantine, he wears a short black jacket and tie with a white shirt.
John Constantine is bisexual; it was established in issue #51 ("Counting to Ten") that he had had boyfriends in the past and during the Ashes and Dust in the City of Angels (issues #170-174) arc he seduced a male character as part of an elaborate con.
[edit] Character history
In Constantine's early appearances in Swamp Thing, his past was a mystery; his life as a child and young adult were 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 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 strangled his twin brother with his own umbilical cord; in an alternate reality glimpsed in Hellblazer #40, the twin survived to become the well-loved and well-adjusted magician that John never was. He and his older sister Cheryl lived briefly with their aunt and uncle in Northampton to escape from their father's alcoholism and imprisonment (for stealing a female neighbour's underwear), then moved back to Liverpool. 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 Chas Chandler, a young man who went 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 Zatanna the magician. 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 convinced 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 tormented Constantine's friends and took the child to Hell. The guilt of causing this hung over him for many years until, in his mid-forties, he managed to free her and the souls of every other child 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 in Swamp Thing #37-49, but the cult murdered most of them, including John's 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 only human friend who has survived a long-term association with John.
In his late thirties, John contracted terminal lung cancer. During this time, he came to the aid of a dying friend 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 died. With his terminal lung cancer slowly killing him, 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. Due to a recent "civil war" in Hell, the three couldn't dare wage war as the only winner of a war in Hell would be "the Lord of the Hosts" (i.e God) and the 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.
[edit] Appearances in other comics
John Constantine appears in an early issue of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman. In the issue, he helps Dream recover a pouch of sand which had served as one of Dream's totems of power. John had purchased the pouch during Dream's imprisonment and it had then been stolen from him by an ex-girlfriend. John and Dream find the woman using the sand as a drug and driven mad by it, and Dream recovers the pouch, granting the woman a peaceful death at John's request and promising to end the nightmares John had been having "ever since Newcastle". John's ancestor Lady Johanna Constantine also plays a significant role in multiple storylines of The Sandman, and an Elizabethan-era "Jack Constantine" is mentioned.
In another of Gaiman's comics, The Books of Magic, John is at hand to show the hero, Timothy Hunter around the then-present day DC Comics Universe, along with Mister E, Doctor Occult and The Phantom Stranger.
Constantine is one of the few people aware of the Crisis on Infinite Earths, and one of the very few to have seen it coming. Although longtime allies Zatanna, the Phantom Stranger, and Swamp Thing are still either active or frequently referred to in the DC Universe's world of superheroics, the world of Hellblazer has become more realistic and no mention is made of John's interactions with superheroes, which include attending the funeral of Hal Jordan (wasn't invited, "...just here to watch the show", as he put it), went drinking with Doom Patrol member Mento, and met Batman (and is subsequently infamous for cheekily referring to the Dark Knight as "Squire"), attended the opening of Guy Gardner's Green Lantern theme bar, and, in his own comic, played host to (a very stoned) Zatanna at his fortieth birthday party.
[edit] Powers and abilities
Unlike many comic book magicians, Constantine is rarely seen using magical spells, and almost never in combat. Constantine faces most of his challenges relying primarily on his cunning, his knowledge of the occult, manipulation and an extensive list of contacts.
Constantine's blood is demonically tainted, first by a blood transfusion from the demon Nergal and later from sex with a succubus. Should his blood be injected into another person, it will instantaneously heal them, although they will then suffer the same taint.
John has generally been shown to be a poor fighter and generally avoids physical battles. However, he has on occasion managed to win a fight, either by using a magical weapon (Hellblazer #217) or by fighting dirty (Hellblazer #57 and the graphic novel All His Engines).
Some examples of Constantine's magic:
- Used a pendulum and map to divine the location of a magical disturbance. (Hellblazer #4 and #182)
- Summoned the demon Nergal to destroy a monster for him, but lost control. (Hellblazer #11)
- Placed a curse on his father that caused him to waste away. (Hellblazer #31)
- Placed a magical sigil on a succubus that prevented the forces of Heaven and Hell from tracking her. (Hellblazer #60)
- Raised a golem. (Hellblazer #167)
- Erased a man's traumatic memories. (Hellblazer #217)
Ironically, for all of his abilities, Constantine never learned to drive and in the past has often relied on his old friend Chas for transport.
[edit] Real-life appearances
Alan Moore claims to have met his creation on two occasions. In 1993, he told Wizard Magazine:
| One day, I was in Westminster in London—this was after we had introduced the character—and I was sitting in a sandwich bar. All of a sudden, up the stairs came John Constantine. He was wearing the trenchcoat, a short cut—he looked—no, he didn't even look exactly like Sting. He looked exactly like John Constantine. He looked at me, stared me straight in the eyes, smiled, nodded almost conspiratorially, and then just walked off around the corner to the other part of the snack bar.
I sat there and thought, should I go around that corner and see if he is really there, or should I just eat my sandwich and leave? I opted for the latter; I thought it was the safest. I'm not making any claims to anything. I'm just saying that it happened. Strange little story. |
His second meeting with his creation was illustrated in 2001's Snakes and Ladders, an adaptation by Eddie Campbell of one of Moore's performance art pieces:
| Years later, in another place, he steps out of the dark and speaks to me. He whispers: 'I'll tell you the ultimate secret of magic. Any cunt could do it. |
They met a third time in fiction, when Moore was written into issue #120 of Hellblazer by then-author Paul Jenkins. Moore is seen sitting in silhouette at the back of a bar as John Constantine (who is on a pub crawl with the reader) raises a drink to him.
[edit] Film adaptation
John Constantine was portrayed by Keanu Reeves in the 2005 film Constantine. In this adaptation, his origin story and talents were revised somewhat; he was recast as a bitter, cynical man who had been granted the power to see the half-demons and half-angels that secretly walk the Earth. Constantine finds out that full-blooded demons are trying to force their way onto the Earth, and he is the only one who can stop them - if his terminal lung cancer doesn't claim him first. The latter element of the film is very loosely based on the "Dangerous Habits" storyline from the Hellblazer comic.
As well as giving him this superpower, the film completely changed his motivations. Rather than being a strident humanist with a complete disdain for both Heaven and Hell, the movie's Constantine was a Catholic whose only goal is to get into God's good graces by performing exorcisms. In one scene, Constantine pleads with the angel Gabriel to be let into Heaven; in the comic upon which this scene was based, he only wanted to cure his cancer so that he could go on living. In the comic, Constantine has met and spoken with Jesus Christ on a number of occasions, with John addressing Christ in his usual flippant and irreverent tone.
Another big change was in Constantine's theological universe. In the comics, Constantine lives in a world where all the gods and their pantheons exist simultaneously, feeding off the beliefs of mortals. In this way, he can walk through the Christian Hell one month and talk to an Aztec God of death the next. However, the movie used an exclusively Judeo-Christian design for its afterlife. This, critics argue, meant that much of the subtlety and imagination of the series was lost[citation needed]. It also meant that Constantine changed from being a magician into being a standard exorcist.
Although the movie had a good opening week, relatively healthy DVD sales, and acceptable worldwide grosses [1], it does not seem to have been profitable enough to warrant a sequel. [2]
[edit] Homages and analogues
- The character of Jack Carter in Warren Ellis' graphic novel series Planetary is an analogue of John Constantine. Ellis had previously written several issues of Hellblazer, a run which ended when DC Comics refused to publish his story "Shoot" because it dealt with the sensitive subject of high school shootings (such as the Columbine High School massacre).
- Constance Johnansen was also created by Ellis for his Pryde and Wisdom series for Marvel Comics. She is a female parody of Constantine.
- Grant Morrison originally wanted Constantine to become a supporting character in his Doom Patrol series, but DC's editorial policy at the time prevented Constantine from making extended appearances in superhero comics, for fear of spoiling the realism of Hellblazer. As a result, Morrison created the magus Willoughby Kipling. Like Constantine, he was a chain-smoking, trenchcoat-wearing cynic. Unlike Constantine, however, he was a lifetime alcoholic and looked rather like Richard E. Grant's character in Withnail & I. It was revealed in Hellblazer #51 that he and Constantine have met, and he had a brief voice-over cameo in Warren Ellis' JLA: Classified story "New Maps of Hell".
- Ambrose Bierce (named after, but not related to, the author and journalist) was used by Phil Foglio for Stanley and His Monster, after being refused permission to use Constantine. He looks exactly like John. As the character described it "You learn the basics, have a hideous experience in a graveyard, they give you a trenchcoat and steal your razor. Like an assembly line, really."
- Rasputin is a magician who has helped Firestorm come to terms with his position as a fire elemental, in much the same way that Constantine helped Swamp Thing. His role was originally going to be taken by Constantine himself, but like Morrison and Foglio, author John Ostrander was refused permission. Rasputin also turned up in Captain Atom.
- Neil Gaiman, a long-time admirer of Alan Moore, created John Constantine's Ancestor for his award winning series, The Sandman. Johanna Constantine, despite being more polite than her descendant, showed the same daring attitude. The crowning achievement of her career was included transporting the severed Head of Orpheus from France to Greece. After a deal with the Witch/Tramp Mad Hetty, who John himself had made contact with several times, she died at the age of 99, despising her immediate family, and was buried somewhere near the temple where she had left Orpheus. The Two Constantines have met on at least one occasion.
- In the Doctor Who Virgin Missing Adventures novel Millennial Rites, a wave of psychic energy engulfs the world. Amongst those affected is "a blonde haired man in a dirty beige trenchcoat" in a Dublin pub.
In John Shirley's novel Hellblazer: War Lord, the British Constantine describes alternate universes, mentioning his movie counterpart (Shirley also wrote the novelisation of the movie):
"There's many another world. I don't know how well they briefed you on the other side, but alternate universes ain't a myth. There's a kaleidoscope variation on this full-tilt mess always goin' on. Blue Sheikh told me there's another John Constantine in an alternate universe, has black hair and lives most of his life in Los Angeles. Gets the bloody lung cancer and gets out of it, too, just like me. Black coat instead of a trench coat: he's me but not me. I sure as bleedin' hell don't want to be him-point is, with lots of everyound around in some universe somewhere, who needs this world?"
[edit] Real time aging
Constantine is unusual among comic book characters in that he has aged in real time since his creation. During the first year of his solo series, Constantine celebrated his 35th birthday. Five years later, in 1993, he turned 40.
There have been no mentioned birthday celebrations since then, but nothing in the comics has stated a retcon of Constantine's age or the real time development of his comic. In fact, DC Vertigo published a timeline in their Rare Cuts TPB, which establishes birthdates of many characters. This is further supported by the use of dating in the comics themselves. For instance, "All His Engines" takes place at a specific date in 2004, and shows both Geraldine and Tricia Chandler as having aged roughly ten years since their first appearances in issue #84.
[edit] External links
- Hellblazer at DC Vertigo
- Hellblazer Trades - chronological list of all trades in which John Constantine has appeared
- Constantine family tree
- Straight To Hell - Fan site with summaries and discussions of the Hellblazer series
- The Sting connection - Interview with Alan Moore about the creation of John Constantine
- The Ultimate Hellblazer Index - List of Constantine appearances.
- Gay League Profile - Profile page centering on Constantine's bi-sexuality.
- Hellblazer Art - A collection of fan renderings of John Constantine
- CHUD interview - Lorenzo DiBonaventura admits that there will be no Constantine sequel
- Box Office Mojo - Constantine comes in at #237 in the all time worldwide box-office grosses
