John Constantine

John Constantine is an antihero from the DC Comics.

Background

The Constantine family and its relation to the supernatural dates all the way back to the Arthurian Era of the 1st century A.D. And like his ancestors before him, John Constantine became enamored with magic from an early age.

Though his path to becoming one of DC's most feared magicians was far from pleasant. John’s mother, Mary Anne, died giving birth to him, leaving John and his sister, Chery, with a single, alcoholic, and abusive father (never a good combination). To deal with being a 'bad kid with a bad father', John, in one of the first of many magical acts, locked away his childhood memories and vulnerabilities in a box. Something that would... Come back to bite him in the future, but hey, he got better.

After running away from his home multiple times as a teen, he finally settled in London with his friend, Chas. There, he established an occult punk band 'Mucous Membrane', and got into all sorts of trouble. After one particular summoning ritual went awry, John had his first run-in with his long-time enemy and former Babylonian god, Nergal.

Who, as payment for his summoning, took the soul of an innocent abuse victim, Astra. The trauma from the experience landed John in a sanitarium that he’d struggle to leave. Stricken with guilt over Astra's fate, John continued pursuing Nergal, while confronting all sorts of supernatural threats, such as: The Brujeria cult, The Damnation Army, and DC's literal Satan, The First of the Fallen.

But soon, a threat would emerge that not even Constantine was prepared to face: Cancer. Turned out all of John's smoking was starting to catch up to him. And because he had promised his soul to the First of the Fallen, he wasn't in for a pleasant afterlife. But rather than accept his fate, he instead sold his soul to all 3 of the lords of Hell, The First of the Fallen included.

This made it so all 3 lords were forced to keep him alive, as if any of them tried to take his soul or bring him to the afterlife, all 3 would be forced to go to war to make their claim on said soul, sending their domains into an anarchy even Hell wasn't ready for.

Having escaped death and outwitted the devil himself, John continued his occult ventures, getting wrapped up in numerous supernatural threats, and eventually managed to free Astra after tricking Nergal, as he has so many other demons.

Once he began approaching 60 years of age, John received a message from the Three Fates saying he would die in 5 days. But to the surprise of absolutely nobody, John managed to, somehow, fake his own death once again. But no longer wishing to rope his friends and loved ones into his affairs, he decided it would be best if he disappeared from their lives. Despite a lot of mistakes, and a lot of people suffering because of him, John could say he lived a life no one else has.

And that’s where John’s story ends… In his original continuity.

Much of his story remains the same in New52, though this time, his childhood was disrupted when he experimented with magic, and attempted to cast a spell that would make him into a powerful magician. A spell that unfortunately required a sacrifice, and backfired, burning his home, and killing his mother and father in the process.

Despite the harrowing experience, John wasn’t deterred, and continued to learn as much magic as he could. This occult fascination eventually became more, and he began a relationship with a police officer named Margaret Ames. The two bonded by going on amateur magical adventures together until Constantine decided she deserved a normal life and left her without an explanation.

Finding himself cursed from ever returning to London again by a demon he had crossed, Constantine instead returned to one of the places he had first learned magic - New York City. There, John Constantine would make a name for himself as one of the most powerful magicians to ever exist, taking on demons, dark organizations and even god-like beings when his assistance was required.

Constantine would ultimately find himself as a founding member of the Justice League Dark, fighting alongside beings of godly power, such as Etrigan, Deadman, Swamp Thing, The Spectre, and his ex, Zatanna. He never abandoned his skills as a conman though, and was able to steal the powers of Shazam for himself and even worked as a Yellow Lantern for a time. This all assisted him in taking down the Cult of the Cold Flame. He’d also find himself helping out the OG Justice League and Doctor Fate from time to time.

John would eventually find himself living a comfortable life in New York, taking on cases as a freelance exorcist and paranormal investigator. And demons, magicians and everything in between came to know the name of the Hellblazer, John Constantine.

Powers & Abilities

• Tainted Blood Physiology: After receiving blood transfusion from the demon Nergal, John Constantine’s blood became tainted with demon blood and it would be further tainted after he had sex with a succubus. Despite John having demon blood running in his veins, he did receive some upsides to it. His blood now possesses healing properties and has even slowed down his aging. In addition, John’s tainted blood can act as a defense mechanism, as it’s corrosive enough to burn the King of Vampire’s jaw off. However, because John’s blood is tainted with demon blood, it’ll boil whenever he steps foot inside a church.
• Magic: John is a highly skilled sorcerer, having been practicing magic since he was a teen. He quickly mastered all the magic that Europe had to offer and went to America to train under Nick Necro, a notable magician. John is skilled in various forms of magic, most notably Black Magic, a dangerous and malevolent sort of magic that is known to come at a high cost to its practitioner.
  • Astral Projection: John Constantine is able to create astral projections of himself. He can project himself anywhere he wants. John even claims that he can project himself inside a computer. When he had his body controlled by Swamp Thing, John entered the Astral plane. However, he can enter the Astral plane physically. With prep time, John can enter the Dreamtime.
  • Chlorokinesis: Apparently after a good ol’ night of card sharping and drink spiking with a druid, Constantine gained the ability to control plants, trees, and other biotic factors.
  • Chronokinesis: John knows a blood magic spell that allows him to temporarily stop time.
  • Cosmic Awareness
  • Demon Summoning: John is capable of summoning demonic entities through various spells.
  • Dimensional Travel: John Constantine can use his magic to travel between different dimensions, universes, and afterlifes. He can easily open portals between Earth and the afterlife, especially to Heaven, and can travel to Hell with ease. John can even create a portal to the Between, a place that exists between realities. With enough time, he can teleport a large group with him when traveling between realities. He also traveled between Earth 2 and Earth Prime and took a large group with him. Using an unprecedented level of skill, John can use his dimensional travel to escape from an astral trap. He can teleport objects to pocket dimensions before they can hit him. Lastly, John can open portals to such places like Gemworld and the Green.
  • Divination: John Constantine can perform divination magic, allowing him to gain prior knowledge or an understanding of what will happen in the future. Examples are him being able to sense who used a bed last, look into the past, and having a premonition about a “rising storm” all the way in Louisiana. He uses objects to locate people or magical disturbances, such as when John located his kidnapped niece by using a trinket that belonged to her or when he located a magical disturbance in reality by using a pendulum and a map. Instead of using objects, John can also cast a tracking spell.
  • Disintegration: John was able to use magic to incinerate a cultist.
  • Enhanced Senses: John is able to sense the presence of magic. He can also see supernatural beings that others cannot, such as ghosts.
  • Energy Construct Creation: John can use magic to form solid energy constructs, such as shields or bridges.
  • Energy Manipulation: John Constantine can blast bolts and beams of energy and enhance them with magic. He was able to hurt Blight with an energy blast. Larger energy blasts from Constantine can create holes in walls. From a distance, John can cause a lightbulb to blow up in a person’s face.
    • Eldritch Blast
    • Electro-Blast: John is capable of using magic to project bolts of electricity.
    • Photokinesis: John was able to create a burst of blinding light, which was powerful enough to harm a group of vampires.
  • Exorcism: John Constantine is able to forcibly remove possessing entities, such as demonic spirits, from the body they are possessing. He was able to exorcise and banish the Hindu goddess Kali. John got a ghost to leave by telling it to “piss off”. John can create a sigil that sends the dead to either Heaven or Hell. He can also use spells to destroy demons. John can also use the right kind of spell that can destroy gods or seal them away.
  • Illusion Casting: John Constantine is able to create illusions to fool people. He does so by making people think he is someone or something else and by changing another person's image. John’s illusion casting is so powerful, he can bend time and space as a distraction to escape. He can make it seem as if a cat is talking. John had used his illusion casting to make gangsters see dead people. He made another guy look like him. He casted a spell that swapped the light coming out of one window with that of another. John can make an illusion of himself being dead. In fact, the illusion of his corpse is so accurate, a person can actually even smell it. He can make the yellow pages look like a rare book, create an illusion of Hell, and cast an illusion of himself winning roulette. John also used his illusion casting to force a demon to reveal himself and made a guy think he shot John. Finally, John once tricked Darkseid into thinking he is dead by casting a universe wide illusion convincing Darkseid that this is a dead dimension he has already consumed.
  • Infection: John can use a spell that allows him to poison the ice in a person's drink, killing them.
  • Invisibility: John Constantine is capable of turning himself invisible, whether with magic or sigils, and can also do the same for any item he chooses.
  • Necromancy: John Constantine is a skilled necromancer, having the magical skill to communicate with the dead and raise them from their graves. He can raise multiple undead as his personal army or as a golem. John can also summon a soulstorm of ghosts to attack his enemies.
  • Power Absorption: John knew a spell that allowed him to temporarily steal the powers of Shazam.
  • Pyrokinesis: John Constantine is capable of using magic to create and manipulate fire or hellfires. He can engulf his hands in flames as well as turn the small flame from his lighter into a flamethrower.
  • Electrokinesis: John Constantine can shoot bolts of electricity in a single blast, which he used against the Nightmare Witch.
  • Sleeping Spell: John Constantine can perform a spell capable of sending people to sleep. He can easily do so on people and even successfully used the spell on Swamp Thing with a simple touch.
  • Transmutation: John Constantine is capable of transforming objects into another form, such as turning a piece of cloth into a feather.
  • Sigil Magic: John is able to project a powerful magic sigil that he claims is powerful enough to kill a god.
  • Binding: John Constantine can use telekinesis to bind people against objects. He once binded a reality warping ghost to a tree. John can bind a powerful demon and did so inside one of his friends. He can also forcibly remove a demon from one person and bind it inside another. John has also binded Shade the Changing Man so his meta vest isn’t as violent. He can cast a holding spell capable of restraining a Watcher Giant. John has also binded a demon somewhere between life and death. Lastly, he trapped Blackbriar Thorn in the body of a medium and then forced him out.
  • Resurrection: John Constantine can revive himself from the dead. He can do so by either casually putting his spirit back into himself or by simply leaving the afterlife by winning a game of cards.
  • Synchronicity Wave Travel: The Synchronicity Wave is an ability that allows John to effectively manipulate probability to his favor and be at the right place at the right time. As shown above time, movement, and distance “beg for him”, and he can utilize the wave to cause others to be right where Constantine needs to be. He can utilize it in combat, such as causing a pistol to jam, and even carry multiple people on it, such as when he took a plane full of passengers on to the wave.
  • Mystical Barriers: John Constantine can call upon mystical barriers and magic circles to protect him. They’re a form of protection magic that he uses for defense against both supernatural and physical attacks. His magic circles are capable of draining Superman if he tries to cross them, and advanced forms of this protection magic can hold up against Swamp Thing. In addition to protecting himself, John can create these barriers to stop demons from escaping, even if temporarily.
  • Hypnosis: John Constantine can bend the will of others with hypnotism, whether by magic or by leaving hypnotic messages in letters. His hypnotism can force people to do what he asks, such as receiving money by hypnotizing bank managers. Other times, John can use hypnosis for any convenience such as getting through airport security. He can use hypnosis to get people to recall events that happened to them, forget pieces of information, describe events in intimate details, and obey and not to remember him. Finally, John can perform hypnotism by using subliminal hypnotic suggestions in his words.
  • Mind Control: John Constantine is able to use magic to control the minds of others, whether they’re human or a supernatural being, allowing him to influence the thoughts and decisions of others. He can even mind control animals. John can also mind control multiple people at once, having mind controlled a whole penitentiary of inmates to madly riot and bring him a cigarette. He can mind control a person to only selectively hear a conversation. However, John’s mind control abilities also have various other effects. He can also erase people’s minds and use his magic to block memories as well. John can also suppress people’s memories and switch them to other bodies. His mind control can also reduce the minds of grown adults into an infantile state. Lastly, John can create a psychic deadzone around himself and allies of his choosing.
  • Telepathy: John Constantine can easily tap into people's minds and read them. This allows him to easily obtain information about people or events that took place in the past. He can also read the minds of non-humans, such as a djinn. John can pull a name out of a guy’s head and can tap into a person’s memories despite them already being a skeleton. He can mend minds with fellow magic users. Lastly, John can pick up “vibes” from people.
  • Mental Resistances: John Constantine has a strong mental resistance that is beyond ordinary. In fact, John’s mental resistance is so strong, he has the will to resist the Presence. If you don’t know who the Presence is, he’s the Christian God of the DC Universe. John is also the only person who has ever resisted Spellbinder. He was able to resist the influences of the Books of Magic long enough to warn Madame Xanadu. Even ghosts like Deadman are unable to possess John Constantine, and mystical artifacts like Pandora’s Box can’t corrupt him. John also knows a spell that can prevent possession.
  • Spirit Ward Creation: John Constantine knows how to create protection circles where he can’t be harmed once he enters them. He has sigils written on his body that protects him from magical attacks and possessions and can write more on his body to prevent any demons from physically touching him. John can also use these protection circles to hide himself, preventing Archdukes of Hell like Nergal from locating him. He can also create these protection circles to hide other beings, such as keeping a succubus and her consort hidden from any being of Hell. John can even carve a masking sigil into a being’s soul, which he did to prevent the First of the Fallen or Triskele from finding a succubus. He even used these sigils to hide himself from Satan.
  • Telekinesis: John Constantine is able to telekinetically freeze and restrain people. With his telekinesis, John was able to restrain Andrew Bennett. He was able to prevent a gun from being shot at him. John also used his telekinesis to open up a lock.
  • Teleportation: John is able to teleport himself, others and even objects to various locations or even across dimensions (More on that in a bit) he can teleport a short range or use it to swap items.
  • Time Travel: John Constantine is capable of time travel. He can do so by performing a time-portal spell, which he once used to travel back in time to 1979.
• Demon Blood: Before it was ripped from his body by the Upside-Down Man, John's body contained demon blood, which is what allowed him to channel magic and cast spells without facing the cost of it, as well as withstand a level of magic that a human body cannot normally handle.
• House of Mystery: A mystical house that John won in a poker game with Father Time and Doctor Occult. Existing outside of time and space, the House can be used by Constantine as a method of containment for various entities. Those within the House can become lost and lose their minds, to the point where it even affected beings such as the Phantom Stranger. The House can be used as a form of protection, being able to survive Pralaya’s consumption of all of creation. In the event the House is damaged, it can always repair itself.
• Power Null/Removal: John Constantine has the ability to remove a person’s power or cut them off from their power source. The biggest example was him cutting off Swamp Thing’s connection to the Green. John can also trap people like Zauriel and a demon in a cage. He was even able to trap Dr. Fate within his heart and even used a mimicry of the Heart of Anubis spell to kill him. John is capable of shutting down magic, even for a while. He once broke Zatanna’s protection spell. Lastly, John was able to summon the Phantom Stranger against his will.
• Blackmare Curse: Like John himself says, “a spell so complex…and so bloody dangerous…that no magician in his right mind would ever attempt it.” So naturally, he cast it. It takes a moment to do and requires extreme concentration as well as baring your soul and your body completely to the world, but pulling it off allows you to drill down into the deepest pits of your soul and let out all the darkness contained there. This leaves your consciousness caged in the back of your mind, and personifies all your sins as a demonic force that takes control and turns you into a powerful yet rabid and animalistic monster. Constantine and Nightmare Nurse both used the Blackmare Curse to transform and attack Blight, and were able to knock over and bite into him, before Asa briefly regained enough of her mental faculties to knock them both into the water so Constantine wouldn’t end up killing Blight’s host.
• Hand-to-Hand Combat: John’s skills in hand to hand often varies with him either portrayed as a poor physical fighter or a competent one but one thing that is almost always consistent is his knack for fighting dirty (I mean what would you expect from him) traditionally with his legendary move the “Constantine Kick” which is a good old fashioned kick to the balls...or bollocks or whatever Bri’ish people call them. Aside from traditional close quarters combat John is also quite skilled in using stealth to take down his opponents though sometimes it's with the help of...

Equipment

• Trench Coat: John Constantine’s trench coat isn’t just a snazzy outfit. John has enhanced it with some demonic powers that makes it sentient. The trench coat obeys every command John gives to it. It can move on its own and strangle people. The trench coat is also capable of acting as a lightning rod, absorbing stray magic around John. It’s very hard to permanently damage as it will transfer any damage sustained to other people. Lastly, the trench coat can mind control people.
• Moonblade: According to John Constantine himself, the Moonblade is a unique weapon where its shape changes depending on the current phase of the moon. At a full moon, the weapon is a long-sword. At a new moon, the weapon is a dagger. The Moonblade is capable of storing concepts, thoughts, dreams, and strange energies. The weapon can steal the souls of others, including gods.
• Enhanced Knife: John keeps an enchanted knife hidden within his trench coat and can pull it out at any time. The knife is powerful enough to burn through demons and humans with ease.
• Ace of Winchester: Bounded with ivory of saints and crafted from halo-steel and Hades-gems by an occultist and mystic, the Ace of Winchester is a mystical rifle designed to kill demons with a single shot.
• Twin Blade: The Twin Blade is a 3 to 4 feet longsword with two protruding blades created from the remains of the omnipotent Second of the Fallen and Third of the Fallen. The weapon is powerful enough to even kill Satan. The Twin Blade deals massive damage to anyone it wounds and can pierce through a demon's hide, which is known to be stronger than steel and armor, and can create damages to the victim's souls. Because it was created from the remains of two omnipotent beings, a wound from it can cause instant death to anyone, even omnipotent and omnipresent beings. The weapon was used to kill the First of the Fallen.
• Gun: John also packs some heat by carrying firearms on him. While he’s not keen on using them, he’s adept and is a capable marksman. His preferred gun is a Scott Webley revolver that was later retconned into being a .357 Magnum pistol. John’s gun can create a fairly sizable dent in walls and can obliterate a person’s knee.
• Grimorium: John Constantine owns a copy of the Grimorium, a book that contains knowledge on demonology and the supernatural. However, his copy also contains special notes about demons.
• Skeleton Key: John Constantine also keeps a skeleton key in the band of his watch to unlock any lock.
• Magic Wishing Matches: Lastly, John Constantine carries a box of matches that grants him any wish he wants. To make a wish, John needs to strike a match and blow it out. He once used these matches to turn Swamp Thing into a human.

Feats

Strength

• Ripped Nergal’s spine out of his body
• With the Blackmare Curse, was able to bring Blight to his knees. Blight was able to defeat Zauriel easily and had cracked creation wide with his power.
• Blasted away members of the JLD
• Created a miniature sun
• Claimed to have a sigil that could “kill a god”
• Can draw upon magic from the Other Place, a realm cosmologically on par with the Sphere of the Gods (which exists above the Bleed).
• Doctor Fate claimed their powers could wipe out Darkseid’s armies
  • Doctor Fate was unable to escape his spells
  • Base form Doctor Fate makes up one fifth of the Cinque of Cosmic Power, and he has just as much power as the other members, including the likes of Darkseid and Orion
  • Nabu considers Constantine a worthy host
  • Fate survived the Spectre throwing him through infinite dimensions and the end of time.
• John’s connection with the House of Mystery is so strong that it nearly killed Zatanna to get back to him.
  • Zatanna (possessed by Nightmare Nurse) can burn Swamp Thing with her magic.
  • She does this.
  • Zatanna can use magic to ascend to higher planes of reality.

Speed

• Dodged bullets
  • Has also reacted to gunfire via teleportation
• Caught up to a car
• Teleported a blade into a pocket dimension before it hit him
• Outpaced Zauriel long enough to get to the House of Mystery
• Out-reacted the First of the Fallen
• Scales to Zatanna, who has kept up with Simon Baz on multiple occasions. Baseline feats for Green Lanterns like him include crossing the universe in about 10 hours (87.6 Quadrillion Times Faster Than Light)

Durability

• Survived a fall from space
• Survived repeated firings of Project Thathum, a giant energy weapon designed to kill the Anti-Monitor.
• Took a blast from a full powered Nightmare Nurse-possessed Zatanna. Zatanna is one of the most powerful members of the Justice League.
• Resisted the will of the Spectre
• Protection Magic is strong enough to tank attacks from Swamp Thing in one of his strongest forms
• Tanked a shockwave from the Spectre’s fist
• The only person in all of DC to have ever resisted Spellbinder’s powers
• Created a magic circle that protects him and others from Enchantress' magic. For reference, that same magic wrecked Superman, Cyborg and Wonder Woman.

Skill

• Founding member of the Justice League Dark
• Once snorted Santa Claus’ bone dust
• Was once a Yellow Lantern
• Worked with Dream of the Endless (Sandman is 100% canon with John’s story)
• Captured the Trinity of Sin over the course of 12 hours
• Killed Sea King - an evil version of Aquaman
• Killed Mr. E - an extremely powerful sorcerer who can manipulate time
• Proclaimed by the First of the Fallen (DC Satan) to be his most dangerous adversary
• Cut off Swamp Thing’s connection to The Green (He later gave it back)
• Outsmarted countless demons, Darkseid, the Spectre and the Presence
• Tricks the three most powerful Hell Lords of Triumvirate into curing his cancer and granting him a form of immortality, costing him nothing.
• When drunk, tricked the First of the Fallen into drinking Holy Water
• Stole the powers of Shazam
• Abducted and trapped the Phantom Stranger (who exists outside of the physical laws of the universe)
  • Phantom Stranger was able to counter a blast from Impulse when he was amped to the point that he could beat Mxyzptlk
  • He also countered death
• Skeletor thinks of Constantine in awe

Weaknesses

• As powerful as Constantine is, he’s far from perfect. A fair few of his spells require preparation time to set up, and though he can do so mid-battle, it’s still something he has to go out his way to do.
• Additionally, most of John’s most impressive durability feats lie on the magical side of things. While he can still take a punch pretty damn well, he’s not throwing hands with characters like Superman without magical defenses in place first.
• The demon blood in John sustains a lot of his abilities including longevity. While he can use and perform magic without it, removing said demon blood could cause his body to break down due to his overuse of cigarettes during his life.
• Owes his soul to a lot of demons
• Doesn’t know how to ride a bicycle,
• Despises the word “moist” to the point where he’ll jump through verbal hoops to avoid saying it.
• Plus, he’s a heavy smoker who ended up contracting lung cancer, though he did get the Hell Lords of Triumvirate to remove it. Long story short; don’t smoke, kids. It’s bad for you.