John Constantine

Template:DC Database:Character Template Template:DC Database:Character Template I'm the one who steps from the shadows, all trenchcoat and cigarette and arrogance, ready to deal with the madness. Oh, I've got it all sewn up. I can save you. If it takes the last drop of your blood, I'll drive your demons away. I'll kick them in the bollocks and spit on them when they're down and then I'll be gone back into darkness, leaving only a nod and a wink and a wisecrack. I walk my path alone... who would walk with me?

-John Constantine

John Constantine was born in Liverpool, England, on the 10th of May, 1953. His mother died giving birth to him and his stillborn brother. John's father, Thomas, blamed John for her death, and a deep dislike grew between them. Whilst in the womb, John strangled his twin brother with his own umbilical cord; in a parallel universe glimpsed in Hellblazer #40, the twin survives to become the well-loved and well-adjusted magician that John never was.

When children, John's older sister Cheryl and him lived briefly with their uncle and aunt in Northampton, to escape their fathers alcoholisim and he was currently imprisoned. When their father was released they returned to Liverpool. One of John's first acts of magic as a child was hide all of his childhood innoncence and vulnerability in a box to rid himself of it. Later, in the 1960s, a teenage John ran away from home, but not before a botched curse on his father caused him to become withered and frail. John eventually made his permanent home in London in 1969, rooming with Francis "Chas" Chandler, a young man who has now gone on and become John's closest and longest surviving friend. In the 1970's John starting becoming involved in the occult circles in London. He visited San Francisco where he had a relationship with the magician Zatanna.

John also fell in love with punk rock, after seeing the Sex Pistols at the Roxy Club in London in 1977. John cut his hair and formed his own band, the Muccous Membrane, which consisted of himself, Chas as a roadie, a man named Beano for a drummer, and Gary Lester, who was also from Liverpool. Once, on tour with the muccous membrane John attempted to get rid of a monster that was at the Casa Nova Club, in Newcastle. With typical recklessness, John convinced some members of the band, along with several occultist friends, to try destroying the creature by summoning a demon of their own. Unfortunately, this demon was not under their control and after it had destroyed the child's monster, it tormented Constantine's friends and took the child to Hell. John suffered a nervous breakdown after this incident, and was committed to a mental institution, which he drifted in and out of over the years.

He was severely abused by the staff there, as they believed he was the one who had molested and murdered the girl who had created the monster, Astra. John was never actually cured, as he was sprang from the asylum by London crimelord Harry Cooper, who wanted John to resurrect his son. (Since John couldn't do this he just summoned a demon to inhabit the body and just tried to forget about the whole thing.)

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