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Title Character
John Constantine
See John Constantine
Supporting Characters
Chas Chandler
A London taxi driver, and John Constantine's closest friend and confidant, albeit not without the occasional bit of strife between them.
- Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: Though no arm was broken, Chas did tried to punch the demon Beroul, and he got teleported to somewhere in Los Angeles for doing it.
- Butt-Monkey: The amount of crap the universe slings at Chas is unbelievable.
- Continuity Drift: Since the series has been written by different British writers from the past, it has its own share of the trope. One particular instance is Chas Chandler and Gary Lester's relationship. During Jamie Delano's arc, Chas says he doesn't know who Gary Lester is (which John Constantine described as an "old" acquaintance in his band years), but in Azzarello's run, both Chas and Gary is shown to have been best mates together with John Constantine in early years.
- Hidden Badass: Chas Chandler. Expanded more in The Knowledge when Chas defeated a demon without John's help.
- No One Could Survive That!: The guy survived from almost being raped by a demon, to having a long nose fuel truck dropped unto his head... before exploding. And he even had no scratches.
- Sidekick: The best mate and occasional foil to John Constantine.
- Took a Level in Badass: He's grown to be able to take down a powerful demon by himself.
- Unfazed Everyman: Chas. He survived what his best mate John's adventures for years...
Rick "the Vic" Nielsen
An eccentric but compassionate preacher, and one of John's vast network of allied mystics.
- Revenge by Proxy: The First of the Fallen murders him and a number of other supporting characters in Garth Ennis' final arc to hurt John.
- The Vicar: Rick the Vic, a vicar who cheerfully takes drugs and has sex with prostitutes, not to mention helping John acquire rare books from higher-ups in the church.
Chantinelle
A compassionate succubus who falls in love with John. He doesn't reciprocate but finds her a useful ally and occasional pawn all the same. It's "Ellie" to friends.
- Woman Scorned: Ellie, like every woman that falls for John, is hurt in many ways over the course of his adventures.
Antagonists
Papa Midnite
A New York-based Voodoo houngan and crime boss.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Papa Midnite's description of his building's defenses.
- Voodoo Zombie: Papa Midnite employs Zombies as a labor force, since he is a Voodoo magician they fit this trope.
Richie Simpson
A technopath and magician who is part of Constantine's circle of advisors. Richie conceals his own agenda beneath his assistance to John.
- Posthuman Nudism: In "The Devil You Know," Constantine and Ritchie Simpson are able to bait Nergal into a deadly trap on the astral plane, allowing the latter to seize the demon's vacant body as a replacement for his now-deceased physical form. After reshaping it into a format more to his liking, Ritchie manifests of a neon-skinned humanoid figure crackling with electricity, completely naked and lacking genitals - and makes it clear that with his power, he might just be able to take over the world. However, before he makes up his mind what to do with said power, Agony and Ecstasy drag him off to Hell so he can learn the ropes of being a demon.
Nergal
Demonic Archduke of Mendacity. Nergal is the force behind the Newcastle Incident, where a mistake by Constantine led to innocent child Astra Logue being unjustly damned.
- Arch-Enemy: Of John Constantine, as the being responsible for his failure to save Astra Logue.
- Body Horror: The demon Nergal is an artist concerning this trope. By sewing and combining the dead bodies of four soccer hooligans, the demon created Ironfist the Avenger; a grotesque creature with four heads, six arms, and eight legs. Constantine defeats it when he points out that two of its component humans have tattoos from rival soccer teams. It tears itself to shreds in a rage.
- Demon of Human Origin: Nergal lived in ancient Babylon before he was burned as a witch for sexually abusing children. He was then tortured in hell for thousands of years before he was initiated into demonhood. He would later oversee Anton Arcane's transformation into a demon.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: When Nergal visits John in the hospital to get him to help in bringing down the Resurrection Crusaders, he brags about being the demon that screwed John over in Newcastle, thus letting slip what that demon's real name was. John catches the slip-up and files the information away for later use when he's in a better position to take advantage of it.
- The Magic Versus Technology War: John once defeated Nergal by trapping him inside a computer, before the computer opened a gateway to Heaven where angels ripped Nergal apart.
- Mesopotamian Monstrosity: The demon Nergal has the name of a deity from Mesopotamian Mythology. It’s implied that he passed himself off as the god, back in the day.
- No One Could Survive That!: Nergal has a tendency to come back from implausible situations. Years of fighting with Constantine, the demon survived the end of John's wit. This included being ripped apart when John bait him to the gates of Heaven (but not before trapping him in a computer!), to being completely destroyed by the First of the Fallen.
First of the Fallen
A top-ranked Hell-Lord known for his claims to be the original Fallen Angel, older than even Lucifer. He leads a triumvirate composed of himself and the Second and Third of the Fallen, and swears a blood oath against John Constantine after the mage expertly swindles him twice.
- Always Second Best: To Lucifer, whom he claims defeated him, the Second, and the Third put together in the first battle over lordship of Hell. He holds a grudge, but the two never actually meet again.
- Ambiguous Situation: The question of just how much of his grandiose boasts about being older than Lucifer and discovering that God is a raving lunatic are true. John acts as though he believes them in Garth Ennis' final arc, but later on tells Ellie he was playing to his ego to get him to lower his guard.
- Bad Boss: In the leadup to the climax of Garth Ennis' run, the First's subordinates Triskele, Agony and Ecstasy, and finally the Second and Third themselves advise him to give up his vendetta against Constantine, which has caused nothing but grief to demonkind. He kills them all.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: "Sequel" is a bit of a misnomer, but the First was originally created because Garth Ennis was not allowed to use DC's true Lucifer, as seen in The Sandman (1989). Despite this, the First quickly developed into a very different character: Lucifer is always calm and calculating, prefers to manipulate his foes into doing themselves in, rarely targets individuals unless provoked, and strongly promotes free will in humans. The First is a scaled-up bully with demonic powers who loves tormenting people on a personal level and hates free will. This is even reflected in their favored humanoid forms: Lucifer appears as a slightly-built blond man, the First as a redhead with a bodybuilder's physique.
- The Devil Is a Loser: The First of the Fallen is supposed to be the most powerful demon in Hell and one of the most powerful magical beings around. However, he is repeatedly tricked by everyone, for decades fails to accomplish much against Constantine compared to other demons, barely knows the rules he is forced to work within, and for years his greatest victory was sitting on his butt and entire story and flipping John off at the end. All in all, a lazy, guileless, petty being who cannot accomplish anything outside of brute strength.
- Evil Is Petty: For all of his power and status as the ruler of Hell, the First of the Fallen is primarily a vulgar, petty being prone to taunting Constantine from a distance leaving it up to other demons to battle him, flying into rages at any perceived slight, being an Ungrateful Bastard, and for years his greatest "victory" over Constantine was one time flipping him and walking away.
- The Evils of Free Will: According to the First of the Fallen this was the reason he turned against Heaven; he didn't believe the human race could be trusted with it. Even Constantine thinks he might have a point.
- For the Evulz: One of the trope that introduces the First of the Fallen. Being the sole personification of evil himself, John is surprised to discover the Devil and his friend Brendan had made a deal to give the latter the biggest wine collection, even though John knew Brendan was just a simple pathetic drunkard. The First, of course, responds by saying he made the deal because he found Brendan to be amusing, and wanted to see him fail as he tried to cheat the Devil. This of course triggers John to try and save his friend. The rest was history.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Many of John's Arc Villains are simply his servants.
- Made of Evil: The First of the Fallen, being the Devil and Satan, is the embodiment of sin and evil.
- Not So Invincible After All: Done to the First of the Fallen twice in Ennis' run. Constantine tricks him into drinking stout transmuted from holy water, then transmutes it back. At the end of Ennis' run, Ellie kills the First outright, making him wonder where the Devil goes when he dies. Paul Jenkins' run reveals he reincarnated as a normal human in Greece, and his henchman Buer goes on a crusade to restore him.
- Revenge by Proxy: He can never get a clean victory over Constantine, but he always manages to take a few of the crafty wizard's loved ones down with him.
- Satan: The First of the Fallen, the leader of Hell, is John's arch-enemy.
- Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: At the climax of the Ennis run, the First meets Agony and Ecstasy, two demonic State Sec agents from the earlier Delano run, who remind him that as Constantine has now deceived him thrice, he is obligated by demonic law to drop his vendetta. He tears them both to shreds for annoying him so.
- Villain Decay: The First of the Fallen was intended to serve as a powerful, terrifying enemy for Constantine, but a string of defeats and being outwitted by John made him such a joke that John once claimed that if he (John) were to be sent to hell he could easily run circles around the First and Hell, and would eventually take control from him.
