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Hellblazer: Fandom Overview
Hellblazer is an ongoing DC/Vertigo comic that generally revolves around the life of John Constantine, a snarky, cynical British mage of somewhat questionable background and morals. It began in 1988, though the character had his beginnings in Swamp Thing in 1986. Unlike many comics, it has been running in real time ever since, meaning that John is now 56 years old.
As a Vertigo comic, Hellblazer is somewhat set apart from the DCU, and official crossovers between them tend to be discouraged - though John has on rare occasion met DCU characters such as Batman, Zatanna Zatara, The Phantom Stranger, and others, as well as having made appearances in books set in the DCU proper.
In this overview, I'm going to try to do my best to avoid spoiling any of the relatively more recent plot.
Story
Hellblazer, having been running for more than 20 years, is definitely less confusing about its canon than the larger comic titles, but it's still a story with many stories - and, more pointedly, many writers. Each writer tends to bring his or her own lean to the characters and to the themes of the storyline, and while there isn't too much retconning (especially compared to comics in general), there is quite a bit of abrupt change in the cast of characters and the themes of the story arcs.
In the beginning, John Constantine was created as a recurring character in Swamp Thing, meant as a sort of guide to the supernatural for that comic's title character. Even after John had gotten his own comic, Swamp Thing crossovers between the series weren't unheard of; Constantine is actually the father of Swamp Thing and his wife's child, in a sort of roundabout fashion that involved the Swamp Thing taking over his body against his will. (Later on, for John's birthday, Swamp Thing appeared again to grow him a giant pot plant...
Early Hellblazer stories tended towards occult and New Age themes, often accompanied by political subtext about life in '80s Britain. There were psychic girls who leaned a bit to the Mary Sue, world dragons, ley lines --
And then John got terminal lung cancer and everything changed. For quite a while afterwards, John's conflicts were mostly either personal or Judeo-Christian in nature; old characters who didn't fit in with the new themes (like the psychic girl and her mother) were dropped without fanfare and new ones took their place, though others, like John's family and his friend Chas, remained.
From here, the Hellblazer storyline is, in grand comic tradition, more than a bit squiggly and all over the place.
Recurring Characters
John Constantine
You might recognize John's name and habit of chainsmoking from the movie Constantine; you might recognize his dress-shirt-and-trenchcoat combo from Supernatural's Castiel. That's about all the similarities he has with either character.
John's mother died during birth, along with his twin brother, leaving him to be raised by his father, Thomas, who he never got along with (and whose death he feels responsible for), and his older sister, Cheryl, who hates John's magic and the destructive things she sees it does to him.
Since then, John's gone through some rough times, from the Newcastle incident to terminal cancer diagnosis to homelessness; no matter how down he gets, though, he always stands up again.
John is a character of... generally flexible morals; he does what he needs to in order to survive, for good or ill, but is by no means immune to guilt or repercussions from his darker choices. Due to the situations he faces up against and the shadier parts of his life, his friends and family tend to have unfortunately short life expectancies, and his relationships often don't fare much better. Though most of his on-panel relationships have been with women, he is canonically bisexual.
While John's magic can be showy - he's raised demons, the undead, golems, made soul sigils, bound powers, cursed people, and more - he usually relies far more on knowledge, cons, and travelling the "Synchronicity Highway," an innate ability that leads him to be in the right place at the right time more often than not.
Chas Chandler
Chas was a roadie for John's punk band, Mucous Membrane, in the 60s/70s; John moved in with him in London. When John found that Chas's mother was a witch - and that she, and her familiar, a monkey called Slag, were controlling and ruining Chas's life, he killed the monkey (and in doing so, killed Chas's mother), freeing him from their influence.
They've been close friends ever since; Chas is, in fact, John's oldest (and longest-surviving) friend. Their relationship has had some harsh strains in the past, but seems to always hold up.
Currently, Chas is married to Renee, who strongly dislikes John and the dangers he gets Chas and her family into. They have a daughter and granddaughter.
Also,
.
Kit Ryan
Kit Ryan was one of John's serious girlfriends - a relationship that she ended when he failed to keep magic and its dangers out of her life. After she left him, he went into a serious depression and ended up living on the street for quite some time.
Chantinelle, aka "Ellie"
Chantinelle is a succubus, though perhaps not a typical one; John first met her when she and her angelic lover came to him for help in hiding themselves, their relationship, and their unborn child. Unfortunately, John only thought to hide them from Hellish forces...
Later, John places a magical mark on her soul that keeps Hell and its denizens from locating her. She has in turn helped him on more than one occasion.
The First of the Fallen
The politics of Vertigo's Hell are more than slightly complicated, due to both initial conflicts between ideas in Sandman and Hellblazer and the popularity in Hellblazer of Constantine's adversary The First of the Fallen.
Basically, The First is not Lucifer, but a being which was cast out of heaven before him, who rules in Hell (while Lucifer is not in power) as part of a demonic triumverate.
Constantine has crossed the First several times and generally come out on top, though on a few occasions the First has gotten in some painful blows as well.
Astra
Astra was the unfortunate victim of John's first major magical working and the center of the Newcastle incident, which haunted John for years afterwards. A young, abused girl, she conjured a demon to defend herself against her abusers, which quickly got out of control. John, cocky and overconfident, gathered his friends, including many of his bandmates; they summoned a demon of their own (Nergal) to get rid of Astra's. It did; it also dragged Astra to hell, leaving John holding her ripped-off arm. The experience ruined many of his friend's lives and left him accused of murder, then institutionalized for years.
Johanna Constantine
Johanna Constantine is one of John's ancestors - magic tends to run in the family bloodline. Originally from Sandman, she has a miniseries of her own (Hellblazer Special: Lady Constantine), but has never appeared in Hellblazer proper.
Gemma Masters
Gemma is the daughter of Cheryl (nee Constantine) and Tony Masters. Unfortunately for Cheryl, Gemma seems to be more Constantine than Masters - she shares her uncle's affinity for magic and for getting into trouble. John has tried to convince her to leave magic alone because of what it's done to his life and that of his friends and family.
Fandom
Hellblazer fandom tends to revolve more around the comic itself and less around fan derivatives; for the most part, fanfiction specifically about John Constantine is about his Hollywood counterpart and not about thereal original character, though there are quite a few exceptional exceptions. (It also has a little bit of a Yuletide presence.)
Some good sites to go to to read up more on the comic and the characters are:
Straight to Hell
Everything2
Roots of the Swamp Thing
The Unofficial John Constantine Chronology
The Ultimate Hellblazer Index
Wikipedia
As a Vertigo comic, Hellblazer is somewhat set apart from the DCU, and official crossovers between them tend to be discouraged - though John has on rare occasion met DCU characters such as Batman, Zatanna Zatara, The Phantom Stranger, and others, as well as having made appearances in books set in the DCU proper.
In this overview, I'm going to try to do my best to avoid spoiling any of the relatively more recent plot.
Story
Hellblazer, having been running for more than 20 years, is definitely less confusing about its canon than the larger comic titles, but it's still a story with many stories - and, more pointedly, many writers. Each writer tends to bring his or her own lean to the characters and to the themes of the storyline, and while there isn't too much retconning (especially compared to comics in general), there is quite a bit of abrupt change in the cast of characters and the themes of the story arcs.
In the beginning, John Constantine was created as a recurring character in Swamp Thing, meant as a sort of guide to the supernatural for that comic's title character. Even after John had gotten his own comic, Swamp Thing crossovers between the series weren't unheard of; Constantine is actually the father of Swamp Thing and his wife's child, in a sort of roundabout fashion that involved the Swamp Thing taking over his body against his will. (Later on, for John's birthday, Swamp Thing appeared again to grow him a giant pot plant...
Early Hellblazer stories tended towards occult and New Age themes, often accompanied by political subtext about life in '80s Britain. There were psychic girls who leaned a bit to the Mary Sue, world dragons, ley lines --
And then John got terminal lung cancer and everything changed. For quite a while afterwards, John's conflicts were mostly either personal or Judeo-Christian in nature; old characters who didn't fit in with the new themes (like the psychic girl and her mother) were dropped without fanfare and new ones took their place, though others, like John's family and his friend Chas, remained.
From here, the Hellblazer storyline is, in grand comic tradition, more than a bit squiggly and all over the place.
Recurring Characters
John Constantine
You might recognize John's name and habit of chainsmoking from the movie Constantine; you might recognize his dress-shirt-and-trenchcoat combo from Supernatural's Castiel. That's about all the similarities he has with either character.
John's mother died during birth, along with his twin brother, leaving him to be raised by his father, Thomas, who he never got along with (and whose death he feels responsible for), and his older sister, Cheryl, who hates John's magic and the destructive things she sees it does to him.
Since then, John's gone through some rough times, from the Newcastle incident to terminal cancer diagnosis to homelessness; no matter how down he gets, though, he always stands up again.
John is a character of... generally flexible morals; he does what he needs to in order to survive, for good or ill, but is by no means immune to guilt or repercussions from his darker choices. Due to the situations he faces up against and the shadier parts of his life, his friends and family tend to have unfortunately short life expectancies, and his relationships often don't fare much better. Though most of his on-panel relationships have been with women, he is canonically bisexual.
While John's magic can be showy - he's raised demons, the undead, golems, made soul sigils, bound powers, cursed people, and more - he usually relies far more on knowledge, cons, and travelling the "Synchronicity Highway," an innate ability that leads him to be in the right place at the right time more often than not.
Chas Chandler
Chas was a roadie for John's punk band, Mucous Membrane, in the 60s/70s; John moved in with him in London. When John found that Chas's mother was a witch - and that she, and her familiar, a monkey called Slag, were controlling and ruining Chas's life, he killed the monkey (and in doing so, killed Chas's mother), freeing him from their influence.
They've been close friends ever since; Chas is, in fact, John's oldest (and longest-surviving) friend. Their relationship has had some harsh strains in the past, but seems to always hold up.
Currently, Chas is married to Renee, who strongly dislikes John and the dangers he gets Chas and her family into. They have a daughter and granddaughter.
Also,
.Kit Ryan
Kit Ryan was one of John's serious girlfriends - a relationship that she ended when he failed to keep magic and its dangers out of her life. After she left him, he went into a serious depression and ended up living on the street for quite some time.
Chantinelle, aka "Ellie"
Chantinelle is a succubus, though perhaps not a typical one; John first met her when she and her angelic lover came to him for help in hiding themselves, their relationship, and their unborn child. Unfortunately, John only thought to hide them from Hellish forces...
Later, John places a magical mark on her soul that keeps Hell and its denizens from locating her. She has in turn helped him on more than one occasion.
The First of the Fallen
The politics of Vertigo's Hell are more than slightly complicated, due to both initial conflicts between ideas in Sandman and Hellblazer and the popularity in Hellblazer of Constantine's adversary The First of the Fallen.
Basically, The First is not Lucifer, but a being which was cast out of heaven before him, who rules in Hell (while Lucifer is not in power) as part of a demonic triumverate.
Constantine has crossed the First several times and generally come out on top, though on a few occasions the First has gotten in some painful blows as well.
Astra
Astra was the unfortunate victim of John's first major magical working and the center of the Newcastle incident, which haunted John for years afterwards. A young, abused girl, she conjured a demon to defend herself against her abusers, which quickly got out of control. John, cocky and overconfident, gathered his friends, including many of his bandmates; they summoned a demon of their own (Nergal) to get rid of Astra's. It did; it also dragged Astra to hell, leaving John holding her ripped-off arm. The experience ruined many of his friend's lives and left him accused of murder, then institutionalized for years.
Johanna Constantine
Johanna Constantine is one of John's ancestors - magic tends to run in the family bloodline. Originally from Sandman, she has a miniseries of her own (Hellblazer Special: Lady Constantine), but has never appeared in Hellblazer proper.
Gemma Masters
Gemma is the daughter of Cheryl (nee Constantine) and Tony Masters. Unfortunately for Cheryl, Gemma seems to be more Constantine than Masters - she shares her uncle's affinity for magic and for getting into trouble. John has tried to convince her to leave magic alone because of what it's done to his life and that of his friends and family.
Fandom
Hellblazer fandom tends to revolve more around the comic itself and less around fan derivatives; for the most part, fanfiction specifically about John Constantine is about his Hollywood counterpart and not about the
Some good sites to go to to read up more on the comic and the characters are:
Straight to Hell
Everything2
Roots of the Swamp Thing
The Unofficial John Constantine Chronology
The Ultimate Hellblazer Index
Wikipedia
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...yeah, anticipation, this. Sorry. *cough*
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