History ComicBook / Hellblazer

* BuryYourGays: John's friend Ray Monde, who gets beaten to death by fundamentalists early on.

** The Family Man/serial killer convention overlapped with ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989''; the vampires and The Ace of Winchesters overlapped with ''ComicBook/{{Hitman}}''.

%% * EvilSorcerer: Many. Most notable is Mako and Stanley Manor.

A long-running Creator/VertigoComics horror title that spun off from ''ComicBook/SwampThing'' in 1988, running for 25 years before concluding in 2013 with an impressive 300 issues. ''Hellblazer'' followed ConMan, OccultDetective, gambler and magician of ill repute, John Constantine (rhymes with "turpentine"), as he tangled with Hell, Heaven, the police and the criminal underworld. The comic typically combined horror and fantasy elements (demons, ghosts, vampires. etc.) with a gritty 'real world' setting and an occasional dash of political and social commentary. The majority of the series was set in modern urban Britain, particularly UsefulNotes/{{London}}. Virtually every British comic writer of repute has written for Constantine, such as Jamie Delano, Creator/GarthEnnis, Creator/WarrenEllis, Creator/NeilGaiman, Creator/BrianAzzarello, Denise Mina, Paul Jenkins, Andy Diggle, Ian Rankin and Peter Milligan among others.

A long-running Creator/VertigoComics horror title that spun off from ''Comicbook/SwampThing'' in 1988, running for 25 years before concluding in 2013 with an impressive 300 issues. ''Hellblazer'' followed ConMan, OccultDetective, gambler and magician of ill repute, John Constantine (rhymes with "turpentine"), as he tangled with Hell, Heaven, the police and the criminal underworld. The comic typically combined horror and fantasy elements (demons, ghosts, vampires. etc.) with a gritty 'real world' setting and an occasional dash of political and social commentary. The majority of the series was set in modern urban Britain, particularly UsefulNotes/{{London}}. Virtually every British comic writer of repute has written for Constantine, such as Jamie Delano, Creator/GarthEnnis, Creator/WarrenEllis, Creator/NeilGaiman, Creator/BrianAzzarello, Denise Mina, Paul Jenkins, Andy Diggle, Ian Rankin and Peter Milligan among others.

* {{Backstory}}: Hinted at in ''Comicbook/SwampThing'', explained in detail in ''Hellblazer''.

* TheCameo: [[ComicBook/TheSandman1989 Morpheus]] in #19; Comicbook/SwampThing, ComicBook/ThePhantomStranger and ComicBook/{{Zatanna}} in ''Forty'' (#63).

* CharacterOverlap: John has appeared in dozens of other comics. Other characters to appear in ''Hellblazer'' include Comicbook/SwampThing, ComicBook/{{Zatanna}}, ComicBook/ThePhantomStranger and Comicbook/{{Lucifer}}.

** The Family Man/serial killer convention overlapped with ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989''; the vampires and The Ace of Winchesters overlapped with ''Comicbook/{{Hitman}}''.

* {{Retcon}}: In ''Comicbook/SwampThing'' John said he was in a mental hospital for "a couple of weeks" after something terrible happened in Newcastle. In ''Hellblazer'', that was retconned to several years. Additionally, the comic adds old (but hitherto unseen) friends and enemies on a relatively regular basis.

--> '''Agent Frank Turro:''' So what's fake, that or the books?

[[quoteright:799:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hellblazer_vol_1_214_textless_7.png]]
[[caption-width-right:799:[-[[GoodIsNotNice I'm not the nicest bloke you've ever met]], but I do me best-].]]

[[quoteright:799:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hellblazer_vol_1_214_textless.png]]

[[quoteright:225:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hellblazer2.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:225:[-[[GoodIsNotNice I'm not the nicest bloke you've ever met]], but I do me best-].]]

* GreaterScopeVillain: The Devil. Many of John's other enemies who are BigBad bows down to this guy.

* TheCameo: [[ComicBook/TheSandman Morpheus]] in #19; Comicbook/SwampThing, ComicBook/ThePhantomStranger and ComicBook/{{Zatanna}} in ''Forty'' (#63).

** The Family Man/serial killer convention overlapped with ''ComicBook/TheSandman''; the vampires and The Ace of Winchesters overlapped with ''Comicbook/{{Hitman}}''.

* DistaffCounterpart: John's ancestor Lady Johanna Constantine (premiered in ''ComicBook/TheSandman''), who lived at the time of the American and French Revolutions. Her miniseries implies that the Constantine/the Laughing Magician is the same entity reincarnating along their bloodline (and killing his/her twin in the womb each time).

* TheGrimReaper: Two version appear in the series. Mictlantecuhtli the Aztec God of Death, and Death from ''ComicBook/TheSandman''.

** In the "Fear Machine" story arc, Constantine has to fight the Freemasons, who were trying to summon a Chthulthu monster that eats reality.

* AlternateContinuity: The John Constantine who's now showing up in the DCU in ''Justice League Dark'' is apparently the young thirty-something who first helped Swamp Thing come to terms with his identity, rather than the one in Vertigo's ''Hellblazer'' who's possibly pushing 60. The ComicBook/New52 book continuity also has a number of differences with the classic. In the traditonal Hellblazer, John cast roughly less than one spell per book, and those were typically low-level scrying or hypnotism. He used wits and deals instead of wands. New 52 Constantine has some of the same characteristics, but while he still doesn't blast toe to toe in wizard duels, there are a lot more glowing lines and magic tricks spurting around.

* KillEmAll:
** Garth Ennis' final story killed off most of the characters he introduced.
** This is becoming something of a tradition in the comics, with outgoing writers butchering most surviving cast members they introduced. By the end of Mike Carey's run, he killed off not only a surviving member of Ennis' cast [[spoiler: Mange]], but also [[spoiler: almost every surviving character of any significance in the series' run before even then. Only Chas and Gemma survive from Delano's days, but Constantine's thoroughly alienated the both of them.]]

** [[spoiler: Not only Ross, but his whole deranged platoon. After surviving Vietnam and each sent home, Ross and the boys were traumatized to a pulp. His family and the town attempt to pray for theirrecovery, but [[DownerEnding ends up]] with Ross and the others going AxCrazy from it all and killing everyone in town, even his own wife and kids.]]

A long-running Creator/VertigoComics horror title that spun off from ''Comicbook/SwampThing'' in 1988, ''Hellblazer'' followed ConMan, OccultDetective, gambler and magician of ill repute, John Constantine (rhymes with "turpentine"), as he tangled with Hell, Heaven, the police and the criminal underworld. The comic typically combined horror and fantasy elements (demons, ghosts, vampires. etc.) with a gritty 'real world' setting and an occasional dash of political and social commentary. The majority of the series was set in modern urban Britain, particularly UsefulNotes/{{London}}. Virtually every British comic writer of repute has written for Constantine, such as Jamie Delano, Creator/GarthEnnis, Creator/WarrenEllis, Creator/NeilGaiman, Creator/BrianAzzarello, Denise Mina, Paul Jenkins, Andy Diggle, Ian Rankin and Peter Milligan among others.

* BrokenAce: John's twin brother from an AlternateUniverse where he survived (instead of his younger brother). He's handsome, strong-willed, powerful in magic, and beloved by everyone who knows him. He's also so hell-bent on being right that he doesn't bother to see the crimes he commits against his little brother as ''crimes'', and his refusal to admit that he's just as capable of being wrong as everyone else winds up screwing up his people [[spoiler:and ultimately gets him banished to who-knows-where by John.]]

* CorruptedContingency: After Bruce fires her from being Robin, Stephanie Brown tries to prove herself to him by stealing and executing one of his plans to take down Gotham's underworld. Unfortunately, this plan relies on the presence of Matches Malone, who unbeknownst to Stephanie is an alias of Bruce Wayne. The plan quickly spins out of control and results in a citywide gang war.

* AdultFear:
** John and his sister Cheryl are always looking out for her daughter, Gemma. One story in particular has her being kidnapped by a psychotic religious fanatic who plans to sacrifice her. Of course, John came to the rescue.
** But Gemma herself is an AnnoyingYoungerSibling, who somehow gets to follow in her uncle's (and whole lineage's) footsteps. John does everything to make sure she don't follow the path of occultism. [[spoiler:But she does so anyways.]]
** [[spoiler:And then there's the time when John discovers Gemma having sex with his father-in-law. John's face was priceless.]]

''Hellblazer'' was notable for averting ComicBookTime, with John steadily growing older along with the rest of us. An ancestor of his, [[DistaffCounterpart Johanna Constantine]], appeared in some issues of ''ComicBook/TheSandman'' and was [[BadassFamily fairly badass]].

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Epiphany Greaves in the more recent books.

* IDrankWhat: Happens to the First of the Fallen when he and John are drinking from a spring with a working spell that turned the spring-water into pure stout. [[spoiler:John then reveals that the spring was blessed -- making it a holy water spring -- before [[HolyBurnsEvil cutting off the spell...]]]]