Aliases: None

Base of Operations: NYC, NY, formerly Liverpool, England

First Appearance: Justice League Dark #1 (November, 2011)

Powers: Constantine was a powerful magician whose powers included probability alteration, mind control, demonic summoning, projection of mystic energy, precognition and time-space alteration.

History:  (Constantine: The Hellblazer #3 (fb)) - Manchester; John stole tickets for The End of the World show for himself and Gaz. The End supposedly had a demon in their band, piquing John's interest. Gaz introduced John to his friend Georgiana Snow and her girlfriend Veronica Delacroix. John thought Snow was stuck up, and she thought he was a little boy playing at magic, but she started to get uncomfortable when she saw how strongly attracted John and Veronica were to each other. The crew ended up hitting it off, and John convinced Snow they should pool their occult knowledge to enjoy the power of being young and having fun forever.

(Constantine: The Hellblazer #4 (fb)) - John formed the band Mucous Membrane with Victoria and started drifting from Snow, except when he needed something from her. As he sunk deeper into the world of magic the band started getting supernatural attention. Victoria was worried because her own family knew her, edging into the magical world was messing with her existence. John told her she was no fun, and dumped her. He later missed her and burst into Snow's library job asking where Veronica was. Snow said Veronica had come to see her, but she'd turned her away. She was tired of cleaning up after John's messes and being his backup plan.

(Constantine: The Hellblazer #8 (fb, BTS)) - Constantine came to NYC for the first time, and Papa Midnite kidnapped him, bringing him to his high-rise penthouse. He told Constantine to look out over the city, and Papa said he owned everything John could see. Constantine accidentally unleashed a hunger spirit, and Papa was there when he sacrificed his best friend to keep it from devouring the city.

(Constantine: The Hellblazer #3-5) - John met Georgiana Snow in Manchester while she investigated a series of death caused by succubi. Snow thought John was as boorish as ever, and initially turned down his offer to help, assuming he had some sort of angle. He convinced her he had no ulterior motives, and tracked the succubi to the Meridian Lines club. It turned out to be an incubus den led by Meridian, who had met John a few times in the past, and he was about to consume John when snow saved him. She revealed that she'd already solved the murders, but wanted to see John fall flat on his face. She told him Veronica was dead, and she blamed him for it. He pleaded that with Veronica gone he had no friends left, and she assured him they were not friends. John drank to drown his misery, and started looking at old Mucous Membrane albums in a record store and turning a deaf ear to his ghost friends. He stormed the stage of The Slight Hand magic club and told the audience they couldn't handle real magic or what it did to people. Victoria, now a vengeful spirit, appeared and killed John's ghost friends, while he watched on, continuing to drink. He visited Wren Library and the librarian Ahmes told him Victoria likely experimented with spells that let her travel the planes of life and death, but her mind was ripped apart in the process. She was brought to the material plane by her justified hatred of Constantine. John asked Georgiana Snow for help in exorcising her, promising he'd stay out of her hair forever if she helped. Snow wasn't thrilled with seeing her ex, still resenting her for dropping her for Constantine, but also realized she owed her. She tried to use the Soul Displacement book that created the spirit to help Veronica, but when that failed she burned it, destroying Veronica's spirit. She knew John had suckered her because he wanted Veronica gone without the guilt of having been the one to destroy her.

(Constantine: The Hellblazer #6) - Constantine returned to his apartment to find Mister Gobbles, a demon he gave a place to live behind the boiler, trying to eat his benevolent demon neighbor Walter, and banished Gobbles for taking advantage of his generosity. He stripped naked in his apartment and relaxed for the first time in ages without ghosts to bother him, but soon got bored. He needed money for the rent, and checked the kregslist profile his ex-boyfriend set him up with after laughing at him for still advertising in print. He found a possession case in need of his attention, and the demon turned out to be his old pal Gordred, so they went for some drinks. He took on several more possessions, invading monsters and one false alarm that called to be a raccoon in a customer's walls. The gargoyle Bartleby told him he felt magic in the city changing, and thought John would have noticed how many more supernatural occurrences there were lately. John said he was no hero, and Bartleby agreed, calling him a crap person, but said the city had a need of him, and would nudge him in whatever direction it pleased. He ended the night with a meeting with Linton Midnite, and when he returned home his crush Oliver, a local restaurateur came over with a delivery, and he decided to invite him inside.

(Constantine: The Hellblazer #7) - Oliver spent the night, and was about to take a shower when vegetation started coming out of the drains. Swamp Thing manifested, and he promised Oliver he'd stay in touch. Swamp Thing said a dark magic had been animating trees in Central Park and disemboweling people, and whatever it was had closed off the Green of the park to him. He needed Constantine to spread his form around Central Park so he could regain control, and admitted John was not his first choice for an assistant, as he avoided the magician whenever he could. John spread his sproutlings across the park, and some trees animated revealing themselves to be nymphs. Swamp Thing tried to contain them, but his powers in the park were still too weak, and he left to find an authority the nymphs would listen to. John held the nymphs off with fires he started using his cigarette until Swamp Thing arrived with the Great Nymph Mother. She said no new children of hers had formed in ages, and these newborn nymphs needed her guidance to coexist with humanity. She warned Constantine that dark magic was funneling into NYC. Swamp Thing thanked John, and warned him that if he cared about Oliver he'd let him go because Constantine's friends always met awful fates. John went home and called Oliver, only to learn that he'd been kidnapped by Papa Midnite.

(Constantine: The Hellblazer #8-10) - In an effort to increase his profits Midnite had signed over his club to shadowy bankers, and they voted him out. John laughed at Papa, refusing to help him now that he no longer had control over the Midnight club or an army of zombies. Papa would not tolerate his insolence, and had his serpent familiar bite Oliver, telling him the antidote was in his old penthouse on top of the club. Constantine disguised himself and Papa as demons to gain entry to the club, and Papa thought he was playing fast and loose. John was scared when he learned that Neron was the new owner of the Midnight, a powerful Arch-Duke and the last person he wanted as an enemy. Papa never figured out how Constantine got through his defenses to reach his penthouse, his rooms of hungry zombies, lost souls, flames that burnt away the mind, and trials that stripped the souls of humans. John showed him a back stairway that avoided the elevator and main entrance. A Hellgate powered the pocket dimension the club existed in, and John knew that was why Neron wanted the club. Neron worked with the demonic banker Mister rumor, and they'd been buying up great sections of NYC, and were responsible for the recent increase in supernatural activity. Rumor saw through Constantine's illusion, and removed it as demons crowded around John and Papa. Neron had John and Midnite taken to the city of Dis in Hell to be tortured by demons until they broke and sold their souls. Neron revealed his plans to make NYC into an infernal marketplace, opening wide the world and powers of magic to those who paid him in souls. John was defiant, and Midnite said he would not forgive Neron not dealing directly with him instead of stealing from him. Blythe showed up with a deal, she'd help John and Midnite escape a side-gate in Hell if they brought her with them. Walking through Dis John gave himself away by smoking a cigarette, and they had to speed things up. Blythe used a blood signal to open the gate, and when Midnite told her to take her time John reminded him that Oliver's life was at stake. Midnite said voodoo took a price, so he didn't really poison Oliver, he just tricked John. John said everyone treated him like a commodity, and entered the gate, closing it behind him. He was confronted on the other side by angry Faeries. Lady Alexandriel had dealings with Neron, and because John had nothing to offer her, she intended to return him to Hell. John knew Faeries operated on raw feeling and pleasure-seeking behavior, so he told the faerie Flutterbee that NYC had delights he'd never dreamed of. Flutterbee transported them to the city, and John snapped his neck. John rescued Oliver, who said they were going to have a long talk soon. John met his children, and decided he couldn't risk their safety by hanging around their father. Oliver, who wanted to help John see the conflict with Neron through, said that was a cop out, but John left, and told him to get out of the city for the time being. Neron's demons started taking over the magical community of NYC, and John decided he was finished trying to save the city.

Comments: Created by Alan Moore, Steve Bissette & John Totleben.

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