By Comix
John Constantine is one of those characters that refuses to be tamed, like a beautiful, sexy stallion with a cockney accent and a pack-a-day habit. Forever getting in and out of trouble, the trench coat-wearing magick user has been part of the DC/Vertigo (and more recently DC 52) universe for as long as many of us have been reading comics. He has the delectable ability to show up at all the wrong times, making deals with demons he never plans to repay, while stealing the hearts of fangirls and boys everywhere he goes. Is he a wizard? Is he an idiot? Or is he a man who has pushed his luck for a little too long? No one ever really knows, which only adds to his charm. From tripping through universes to punching angels in the face, Constantine has literally seen and done it all, but with the first issue of his post-Hellblazer adventures hitting stands this past week, perhaps it’s time we stepped back and re-explored the origins of this magickal man of mystery.
Constantine made his very first appearance in the pages of Swamp Thing #37, way back in that dark period known as 1985. Written by the great Alan Moore, he was created as an occult detective with his finger on the pulse of the esoteric world (and generously modeled after the singer, Sting). Already incredibly versed in magick and rocking the iconic trench-coat, we find him slugging through the swamps of Louisiana looking for Swamp Thing in an attempt to stop the coming of a ‘dark entity.’ After traipsing around the globe with the hulking figure, it’s revealed that a cult in South America called Brujeria are attempting to raise The Great Darkness, essentially the ultimate evil. With its inevitable threat to Earth, Constantine and Swamp Thing gather a group of the most powerful magicians the planet has to offer and manage to stave off the destruction of mankind with only minimal loss of life. This particular story arc, known as American Gothic, ran for thirteen issues and established John Constantine as the new kid on the occult playground. Though he would continue making appearances in further issues, it’s thanks to his run on Swamp Thing that he got his own series.
January of 1988 saw the first issue of what would be the longest running DC/Vertigo title to date, Hellblazer. Running for a solid three hundred issues, the series not only made Constantine a staple in the DC universe, but in comics in general. It’s here we also get a peek at the strange and sordid past that created the man. John was born the youngest two siblings, and as a child was the recipient of his father’s alcohol-fueled rage, demonstrated by him strangling his own twin brother while in the womb and subsequently killing his mother. After fleeing their home, John and his sister Cheryl lived temporarily with their uncle, before moving back in with their father again. As John grew older, he soon learned he had the strange ability to wield magick, and after running away as a teenager he began to fully develop his life-long talent for wreaking havoc and making deals. He ended up drifting around the country, switching identities from hippie to punk and after a bad magick spell gone wrong, even spending time in an English mental institution. He soon got his act together though and went on to make a name for himself bedding women, traveling the globe, and outrunning one trouble just to run into another one.
Hellblazer was written by a score of comic talents such as Warren Ellis, Neil Gaiman, and Grant Morrison, with the two longest author runs being Garth “The Menace” Ennis and Mike Carey. Artists included Richard Corben, Mark Buckingham, and Ennis’s right hand man, Steve Dillon. During Hellblazer’s two decade run, fans and critics alike gave the series a solid reception. Though sales were never quite on par with those of mainstream comics, the series established itself well enough that it survived the rocky mid-90’s and the following industry crash in the later part of the decade. Also, like every character in the major comics, Constantine has made appearances in other works as well, such as Sandman, Books of Magic, Shade the Changing Man, and Lucifer. He is also one of the few Vertigo characters to have made visits to the separate DC universe, most notably in the Brightest Day/Green Lantern series, in which several dead heroes and villains are resurrected with Constantine muttering “bullocks” at the news that Swamp Thing had been revived. This leads to a three issue mini-series Brightest Day Aftermath: The Search for Swamp Thing, where John spearheads the search for the sludge sucker while crossing paths with both Batman and Superman.
Though the Hellblazer series has had an incredibly long run, the landmark 300th issue was also the shovel that dug its grave. Dropped on February 2013, it marked the ending of an incredibly iconic work, but it was also deemed to be a fitting ending to the comic. Luckily for all of us, this wasn’t the end of John Constantine, as he is now part of not one, but two new series! Incorporated back into the regular DC line after the restart and relaunch of a brand new universe titled The New 52 (in reference to the fifty two new series that will flagship the change), he is part of a brand new superhero group called Justice League Dark. It centers around a group of magickally endowed men and woman who have come together to fight villains that originate from dark and arcane places beyond the scope of regular superheroes. JLD is on it’s eighteenth issue and started incorporating Constantine before his run on Hellblazer ended, mostly because the Hellblazer John is different from the JLD John (though the only real difference is that the JLD John swears a bit less and is about twenty years younger. Don’t worry, it’s literally the same guy otherwise.) The second series, simply named Constantine, follows the solo adventures of JLD John doing what he does best, being John Fucking Constantine. That series has literally just started, and while it’s a great first issue, there’s not much indication of what’s going to happen to him.
He has also made several appearances in other media outlets as well, the one we all know being the movie Constantine with Keanu Reeves. I might be in the minority when I say I liked it, and though it’s not really a true Hellblazer/John Constantine work I felt it was a good anti-hero/devils and angels type of flick. There are also several novels written by John Shirley, who wrote the movie novelization as well. Really, the best way to go are the comics, especially Hellblazer. Most of the series is collected in a whopping thirty five graphic novel collection. Some of the comics are uncollected though: issues 51, 85-128, 144-145, 229, and 250. Not sure why these weren’t collected, but there you go. There are also a few original graphic novels that were not part of the Hellblazer series, and a movie tie-in called Constantine: The Hellblazer Collection. On top of that, there are collections about characters related to John Constantine, like Papa Midnite, Chas, and Lady Constantine about his female predecessor. There is a lot for you to dive into. You can actually read a lot of these as stand-alones as well, so there’s not a lot of pressure to read it all in order.
John Constantine is a character that never knows when to quit and with his ever growing repertoire of stories it’s easy to see why. He’s survived curses, trips to Hell, and some pissed of ex-girlfriends all while saving the world several dozen times. Of course, knowing his luck, he’ll have to save it another several dozen times again. Here’s to another twenty five years, old man.