John Constantine
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John Constantine  | ||||||||
Character information
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John Constantine is the protagonist of the Hellblazer comic book series. A London-based black-magic practitioner, Constantine's dealings with the occult inevitably endanger those around him, but he is fully aware that he is an adrenaline junkie and can't quit.
Modus operandi
Despite having an extensive knowledge of the occult, Constantine is far from a powerful magician. The little magic he can perform is usually limited to rituals, divination and hypnotic illusions. Constantine's true power lies in his ability to lie, bluff and manipulate. Because of this, he has a reputation as a feared magician, one that he will use whenever possible to intimidate enemies to back off. He also has a wide network of contacts in the occult circles which he can rely on for information, or from whom he can collect favors to obtain help with whatever mess he's gotten himself into.
The closest thing to a true supernatural power that Constantine has is his ability to "ride the synchronicity freeway", an ability that has been passed down through his family line. This means that he is sensitive to the flow of synchronicity, the experience of unrelated events "coincidentally" occurring together, and can let it guide him to where he needs to be or away from danger. It is not clear how much of this power Constantine can actually control and how much he uses subconsciously, but this is what allows John to always be in the right place at the right time and survive life-threatening situations against all odds.
Lastly, since the first story arc of Hellblazer, Constantine has had demon blood coursing through his veins, courtesy of a transfusion by Nergal. The blood causes him to heal faster from wounds, and is rumored to make him age more slowly. Constantine has used the demon blood to his advantage more directly in a few occasions, for example by himself giving a transfusion to people in order to heal them. The blood is also highly toxic to vampires, which has saved his life at least once.
Matches
See also: List of Matches in Hellblazer
As the protagonist of the story, Constantine participates in almost all Matches in the series. Rare and notable exceptions have occurred when he is out of the country and other characters such as Gemma or Chas are forced to handle a situation without him.
Stand-alone Tricks
- Keeping Gary Lester off heroine in order to use his junkie hunger to lure the hunger demon Mnemoth, then using the binding patterns taught by a Sudanese shaman to trap the demon inside Gary, forcing the two to consume each other. (Issue #2)
- Pretending to want to sell his soul to the demon Blathoxi on the lead-up to the 1987 UK general election. Knowing that Constantine would not sell his soul unless he had an angle, Blathoxi suspects that he has inside information that the Conservative party will lose the election, which would crash the UK soul market. When word gets out, this causes the market to panic and soul values to crash, ruining Blathoxi's operation. (Issue #3)
