John Constantine
John Constantine is a male comic character who features in DC Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
John Constantine
When he was 5 years old, John’s father took him to his mother’s grave, and he knew just how much his father blamed him for her death. John was always miserable, and he was often blamed for anything wrong that happened in the neighborhood. He had a vision of a radiant, perfect boy, and approached him, wanting his goodness to rub off on him. He also despised the 'Golden Boy', and wanted to ruin his perfection. The Golden Boy apparently read his mind, sneered, and left, leaving John in a fit. The Golden Boy would appear occasionally in his childhood, always fleeing, and John was convinced his dad loved the Golden Boy, not him. (Hellblazer v1 #39)
John and Cheryl spent their summers as children at their aunt Beatty’s beachfront home, accompanied by their father. Those magical summers of exploration were some of John’s only happy childhood memories. (Hellblazer v1 #13)
John Constantine was an insolent child, and the demon Nergal taught him a lesson in manners. John would forget the incident over time. (Hellblazer v1 #8)
Later on, John’s father got in some trouble, so he sent him and Cheryl to live with their aunt Dolly and uncle Harry for a bit. John was angry he didn’t have his mates to play with, and amused himself by having toys walk the plank into a fish tank and pretending to be the pirate Captain Death. With the grownups out of the house Cheryl convinced John to get lost so she could have a boy over. John dreamed of living in Never-Never Land, and when he heard stories of a quarry filled with a bottomless pit of tangled wire to drown children, he fantasized that he could hold his breathe and reach his dreamland. The quarry had a local boogeyman, but as a self-proclaimed tracker he was sure he could elude him. He met some older boys who taunted him about his mum being dead, and one of them knew uncle Harry through his father, and knew John’s dad was in jail for stealing ladies’ knickers. John didn’t back down, telling them he wanted to join their gang, and they told him to get a dirty mag from the boogeyman. John employed his tracking skills to reach the boogeyman’s shed and steal a magazine, but the older boys alerted the shack’s owner by throwing stones. John ran from the rambling old man that emerged, and hid in bushes where he discovered a skeleton with a veiny rock in the ribcage. He fancied it was a dead boy’s heart petrified, and a gift fir for a warrior. He made his escape, but suffered some bruises at the hands of the older boys, and when he came home Harry thrashed him for being places he wasn’t allowed, and John knew he enjoyed doling out punishment. John lay in his bed, full of hate, and rubbed the heart on his body, believing it was taking away his pain. He made a prison for insects, smashing them with the heart to bring out its power. Cheryl was horrified, but he warned her he’d tell Harry about her date if she didn’t leave him be. She said she hated him,. And was was used to that sentiment. Convinced the heart was bad magic he went back to the quarry and hurled it away. It went straight through the boogeyman’s tin roof, and John was pretty sure he killed him. He ran, resolved to never tell a soul, and thought that killing a boogeyman now made him one. (Hellblazer v1 #35)
In 1967 Constantine came from a long line of magicians, and despite fighting it, he grew up being exposed to the dark arts. John was deep into the hippy movement, and was kicked out of school for starting an “Out demons out” chant at assembly. His father was furious, and burned all of John’s occult books. John seethed, and wanted revenge. A few books were charred, but survived, and he cast a slow death curse on Thomas, linking his soul to a cat that he killed and buried. Thomas grew ill and frail, and John was pleased that he ran the household until guilt set in. He cried and prayed when he couldn’t find a reversal spell, but he came up with his own solution. He put the rotting cat in formaldehyde and hid it under his mother’s tombstone. Thomas didn’t get better, but he didn’t get worse, and father and son grew more distant and more resentful of each other. (Hellblazer v1 #31)
By 1978, John’s new wave band Mucous Membrane played the Casanova Club in Newcastle. The owner, a seedy conjurer named Alex Logue, invited them to a tantric session, but John was creeped out by the way Alex interacted with his daughter Astra and left. Later John’s occult contact reported disturbances in Newcastle, and the club seemed like a good starting point. John assembled his mates Anne-Marie, Judith, Frank, Benjamin, Gary Lester, and Ritchie Simpson to investigate. They broke into the Casanova Club, and found several mutilated bodies inside. Astra was in a state of shock, and after John put her in a trance he learned of her abusive childhood, and how in desperation she’d summoned the terror elemental Norfulthing to dispatch her father and his wretched friends. John planned to summon a demon using the Grimorium Verum Ben procured for him to destroy the terror elemental. John left Astra with Anne-Marie, and told Frank to burn the place if his ritual didn’t work. John and Judith tried to summon Sagatana, but the spell failed. Names were important in magic, and the spell described the demon Nergal, so he decided to chastise John and his friends. He appeared to Anne-Marie as John, whom she lusted after, and after tormenting her convinced her to run for a nunnery. He then possessed Astra, and ripped apart the Norfulthing. Nergal, keeping his true name from John, told him of his failure, and since he’d helped John without being commanded, decided to take Astra to Hell with him. John offered himself, but Nergal told him he’d damned himself, and was already his to claim when he died. He allowed John to accompany Astra into his gaping maw, an entrance to Hell, but John panicked, and tried to escape. He made it, but Astra was swallowed whole except for her arm, which John still clung to. The Newcastle Gang torched the Casanova, and they all lost a bit of sanity, especially John, who blamed himself for Astra’s death. (Hellblazer v1 #11)
He had heard tell of a coming dark entity, and he used many of his contacts to determine what that thing was and how it would appear. Eventually, he was led to the Louisiana swamp, where he met the Swamp Thing. He revealed that the Swamp Thing was, in fact, a plant elemental, and connected to all other plant life through a force called The Green. However, he refused to reveal more until Swamp Thing agreed to meet him in Rosewood, Illinois. (Swamp Thing v2 #37)
Swamp Thing and John Constantine met in Brazil at the source of the river Tefé, where John explained that Swamp Thing's destiny as a plant elemental has heritage which extends back through something called the Parliament of Trees, to whom he then introduced the Swamp Thing. (Swamp Thing v2 #47) John, Swamp Thing, and the remainder of the Newcastle crew prepared to face the Brujeria in Argentina. In the ensuing battle, the Brujeria managed to transform John's friend Judith into the messenger they sought, and Swamp Thing allowed her to escape rather than allow John to be killed by the cultists. (Swamp Thing v2 #48) With the Great Darkness' coming inevitable, John and Swamp Thing split up to recruit a force who could help them fight the evil off. John gathered many occultists and magicians including Zatanna and her father John Zatara; Mento; Baron Winters; Doctor Occult; and Sargon the Sorcerer. (Swamp Thing v2 #49) Together, John's team used Mento as a conduit to send their magical energies to aid the Swamp Thing's own team in the Spirit World. Unfortunately, the Great Darkness lashed out, and Sargon was burnt to death. They were forced to maintain their circle, holding his charred hands, lest they lose contact. Later, the Great Darkness chose to attack young Zatanna, but her father redirected the magic on himself, and she was forced to watch her father burn alive. Angrily, she cursed Constantine for involving them. After Swamp Thing managed to ease the threat of the Great Darkness, Mento watched as the Darkness clasped hands with the Presence, which drove him insane. With three casualties on his team, John Constantine declared the event a draw. (Swamp Thing v2 #50)
Much later, John Constantine sensed that something was amiss in The Green, and realized that it was a reaction to the Swamp Thing's attempts to avoid being the protector of the Green, and focus on his relationship with his wife. He went to Louisiana to chastise Swamp Thing for shirking his duty, which was not at all well-received. (Swamp Thing v2 #65) Seeking alternative methods, John reconnected Jason Woodrue with the Green in order to discover that the turmoil was caused because the Parliament of Trees had begun to create a replacement for the Swamp Thing, thinking he had been dead, after disappearing from Earth in Gotham City. (Swamp Thing v2 #66)
Hellblazer
One day, John returned to his apartment to find that his old friend Gary Lester, who had become a drug addict over the last ten years, waiting for him there. Unfortunately, Gary had been touched by a demon that he had failed to exorcise properly. (Hellblazer v1 #1) Recruiting Papa Midnite, John concocted a plan to trap the demon inside Gary and let their mutual hunger cancel each other out. Unfortunately, this meant allowing Gary to be consumed by the demon, thereby reducing the already dwindling numbers of the original Newcastle Crew by one more. (Hellblazer v1 #2) Despite being haunted by the ghosts of his dead friends, John had the good fortune of meeting a strange and beautiful woman named Zed, who he took as a lover. When John heard that his niece, Gemma was kidnapped by a strange man, Zed accompanied him to Liverpool to deal with it. While investigating his sister's home, John encountered his brother in law, who had fallen in with a new fundamentalist Christian group called the Resurrection Crusade. While John managed to save Gemma, he could not help but notice that Zed seemed to have a troubled past with connections to the Resurrection Crusade. Additionally, an opposing force called the Damnation Army was discovered. (Hellblazer v1 #4)
Brightest Day
Superman took him to the Star City forest, where he was attacked once again. They realized there, that without Alec Holland's consciousness, the Swamp Thing had become a brutally savage manifestation of The Green, attempting to eradicate humanity. He wasn't merely trying to kill Constantine, he was trying to absorb him as a host. (Brightest Day Aftermath: The Search for Swamp Thing v1 #2) Constantine teamed up with Batman and Superman again to calm the Green at its nerve center, while they stopped an attempt by LexCorp to control it. Alec Holland, meanwhile, learned that to bond with Swamp Thing again he would have to die, and instead chose to live. (Brightest Day Aftermath: The Search for Swamp Thing v1 #3)
Post-Flashpoint
Following the Flashpoint, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events. John Constantine was born in Liverpool, England. During his childhood experiments with magic, he attempted a spell taught to him that would make him a powerful magician. However, he was not told that the spell required a sacrifice; while performing it, his family home caught fire and resulted in the death of his mother and father. (Constantine v1 #14)
Journeying into the Tower of Fate, he found the Justice League Dark locked in a struggle against the Otherkind who had been freed from their place beyond the veil. The Upside-Down Man had attacked the mystical heroes with Constantine entering into the fray but he was unable to stop the powerful entity who ripped the demon blood from John's body. (Justice League Dark v2 #3)
Arriving at the bookstore, they found Ragman battling monsters crafted from its pages by Merlin's magic which Zatanna helped destroy. It was then that they determined that Merlin was looking for knowledge within his lost Book of Eternity which had been destroyed. However, a copy of the book existed within the Library of Babel that was an infinite library containing every book that was ever written. Constantine used his magic to help transport them into the Library through a book where they sought to prevent Merlin from finding a copy of the tome within that realm. (Justice League v4 61)
Overview
Personality and attributes
Powers and abilities
One type of blood magic spell allowed him to temporarily stop time. (Justice League v4 #59)
Among the spells he knew included:
- Blackmare Curse : an incredibly dangerous spell that dug deep into the deepest and darkest parts of the soul with all the dark emotions being unleashed to transform the wearer into a powerful demon giving them increased abilities whilst their mind remain trapped until the curse was removed. (Justice League Dark v1 #27)
Notes
- John Constantine was created Alan Moore, Steve Bissette, and John Totleben where he made his first appearance in Swamp Thing v2 #37 (June, 1985).
Alternate Versions
- In Injustice: Year Three v1 #1 (2014), John Constantine appeared in the alternate world setting that was a tie-in to the video game. At some point, an encounter with a woman led to her becoming pregnant with his daughter who was named Rose Constantine.
- In The Wild Storm: Michael Cray v1 #7 (2018), an alternate version of the character was shown in a world in the Multiverse. Dr. John Constantine was a bald-headed occult sorcerer who used magic in conjunction with science to achieve various feats.
In other media
Television
- In Constantine, John Constantine appeared as the protagonist character in the live-action NBC television series where he was portrayed by actor Matt Ryan. John Constantine was born on May 10th,1982 in Liverpool, England. John's mother died giving birth to him. John's abusive father blamed her death on him and gave him the nickname "killer." After every night in the pub, John's father would hit him in the head, saying the phrase "That's for what you did to your mother, Killer." He was also prone to putting cigarette's out on John's arms. After his sister moved out, John was so upset about being left alone with his father that he considered suicide and at the time decided to not go through. However later on in the season he tries to commit suicide to banish a demon. By 15, he was living in London and getting involved in the magic scene, with help from his friend Anne Marie. John eventually started a punk band with Gary Lester named Mucous Membrane. Bernie Reed, a friend of John, produced the band's first record. Delving deeper down the path of occultism, John would read everything he could about the magic. He taught himself spells, rituals and curses, and was able to conjure the dead, though not his mother. After earning his reputation, John starts to travel with a group of friends, including Ritchie Simpson, and Gary Lester. In Newcastle, England, John had a case involving a young girl that was possessed by a demon, called Astra. Astra was the daughter of John's friend. John went ahead on his own and conjured up a more powerful demon to expel the lesser demon that was possessing Astra. This however, resulted in the demon ripping Astra apart. Astra was then damned to hell, along with John's soul.
- In the Arrowverse, John Constantine made a number of appearances in the shared continuity setting.
- In Arrow, John Constantine made a brief appearance in the live-action television series fourth season where he was portrayed by actor Matt Ryan. He was shown in flashbacks in the episode "Haunted" where he had gone to Lian Yu and encountered Oliver Queen where he sought to stop the power of a totem that resided there. During this time, he introduced Oliver to magic and gave him a magical tattoo that protected him thus saving Queen's life.
- In Legends of Tomorrow, John Constantine guest starred in the live-action television series third season where he was portrayed once again by actor Matt Ryan.
- In Constantine: City of Demons, John Constantine featured in the animated television series where he was voiced once more by actor Matt Ryan. He was shown to had grown upon alongside Chas Chandler who was his best friend with the two being polar opposites of one another in terms of personality. He finds himself in his apartment surrounded by miniature trench-cloaked projections of his inner demons. They attack John, who then uses magic to absorb the demons back into his subconscious. He is visited by his old friend, Chas Chandler, whom he has not seen in a decade. Chas asks John to help his daughter Trish, who has unexpectedly fallen into a coma, which Chas suspects to be the result of dark magic. John uses magic on Trish and discovers that her aura is tainted. He summons Asa, the Nightmare Nurse, to help pinpoint a diagnosis but Asa cannot find Trish's soul. Trish is briefly able to communicate through Asa before a demonic entity takes over and gives John an address. As John and Chas travel to Los Angeles to get Trish's soul back, Asa and Chas' wife Renee stay with Trish.
- In Justice League Action, John Constantine appeared in the setting of the animated television series where he was voiced by actor Damian O'Hare
Films
- In Constantine, John Constantine starred in the live-action film where he was portrayed by actor Keanu Reeves. This version is an American based in Los Angeles who possesses the psychic ability to see 'half-breeds' as they truly are, and wields tattooed magical glyphs and Christian relics as his primary exorcism tools. In the film's novelization, it is explained that Constantine comes from a Christian culture and he has a greater natural understanding of the power of Christian relics, which makes it easier for him to use the objects. Furthermore, Constantine's exorcisms were motivated by a desire to redeem himself for his past suicide, but he's constantly doomed to fail as everything he had done has benefited himself rather than others.
- In Justice League Dark, John Constantine appeared as a character in the animated film where he was voiced by actor Matt Ryan.
Video games
- In Constantine, John Constantine featured as a playable character in the setting of the video-game tie-in to the live-action film where he was voiced by actor Dave Fouquette
Appearances
- Swamp Thing: (1985)
- Hellblazer v1:
- Brightest Day Aftermath: The Search for Swamp Thing v1:
- Constantine v1:
- Justice League Dark v1:
- Constantine: Hellblazer:
- Justice League Dark v2:
- Justice League v4:
External Links
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