“Heroes of our time”: John Konstantin, baptized by hell

"Heroes of our time": John Konstantin, baptized by hell

Leave hope all here. And those who have not yet turned eighteen, better turn back.

John Konstantin is not a superhero. Oh no.

John Konstantin – an egoist, a crook, a womanizer, a drug addict, a blasphemer – anyone, but not a hero. Many times he saved the world, stopping the invasion of the Earth of the Forces either paradise or hell, but he did it exclusively for the sake of personal purposes. Well, or by chance. This happened too.

“Konstantin, you do not care about the salvation of everyone except yourself,” Superman told him when he met him. – I see you through without x -ray vision. ". But if the famous superhero was more interested in London's life, he would know that everything was not quite. With all his egoism and thirst, the laughing wizard is made, as Constantine was more than once, – far from a sociopath. There is something more important than money, Ginnesa circles and packs of Silk Kat cigarettes in his life.

John Konstantin and all his friends

1988, London. At the helm-a conservative party with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher at the head. “Iron Lady” does everything to bring the country as much money as possible: carries out mass privatization, increases taxes, cold -bloodedly strangles trade unions and ceases to support many social and educational programs. Shakhtar rebellious, unemployment and, as a result, crime grow with a rapid pace. London plunges into darkness, and darkness, as you know, gives rise to monsters.

Together with the monsters, John Konstantin, “laughing wizard”, the most charismatic anti -hero of comics of the late twentieth century, also comes out to drive the evil spirits generated by Tatcher’s policy, back to hell. Well, or not drive. This is how it will work.

► Hellblazer – this is also an acute social and political satire. The Conservative Party of Britain here, for example, literally rotten (a party of revived corpses, yes). And the royal family prefers various sexual perversions to the scream.

Alan Moore, creator John Konstantin, wanted to make a wizard who could survive on the streets in this dark time for the working class. There is magic in the DC Comics universe, so there are a lot of wizards there. But John – he is so alone.

“Then we were young. Not innocent, but free, ”John said about himself and his friends of youth,“ are full of enthusiasm and strength – the world was ours, and we could do what we wanted. But it was then. To Thatcher. Before the Falkland War. Before the country, starving, devoured itself ".

Then, in Newcastle, the life of the young punk of the "New Wave" John Constantine has changed dramatically.

► Punk culture of the fraternal is best revealed here. In one of the issues, the elderly punk creates a doll of Sid Vishes and puts it on the altar, accidentally awakening the spirit of the very British punk rock in it, which all informal British are frantically proud.

Astra girl was raped by father and his friends every day. At one fine moment, all the accumulated horror spilled out of the girl and gave rise to the hellish monster – the Norfalting dog turned inside out (with a huge member between the paws), who immediately rushed to the rapists, paid them for the girl and then gut. “The stench of the massacre is unforgettable. Caustic, raw – as if creaking on his teeth, ”John looked at what was left after this hellish“ party ”.

Konstantin decided to call another demon to destroy Norfalting and save Astra, but seriously talked. As a result, the innocent girl was sent to hell, and John's friends began to die one after another.

► Newcasl forever changed the life of the magician. The stench of the massacre is unforgettable.

Since then it has happened-if someone is friends with John Constantine, then then he necessarily dies a terrible death through the fault of John himself. The same applies to all his girls. And no matter how John wants an ordinary life, no matter how hard he tried to do good for friends, nothing comes out: in the end, he still remains alone. Outgoing with blood on hand. Faithing heaven, damned by hell "laughing wizard" with the blood of demons in the veins.

So John Konstantin made an previously almost unknown British screenwriter Jamie Delaino.

From hell to paradise

Most of the DC Comics superheroes can be called sufferers (even a cheerful flash), but the heroes of Vertigo, an independent division of the publishing house, are still worse. " Swamp creature ", Animal man , The Sandman , Preacher And even Fables , by which TELLTALS released the game The Wolf Among Us , – All these comics are primarily about the pain and only in the second about everything else. Hellblazer About John Constantine stands out against the general background of increased cruelty and acute political and religious subtext, but the main thing is still something else. Depression that a modern pampered reader is unlikely to be able to transfer.

► Tatcher's reign was widely distributed by HIV. Of course, persecution of homosexuals began, and this also reflected in the comic book. Four fascists pursuing the elderly gay, ran into the demon, and it turned out, hmm, Hydra.

Different people with different worldviews were engaged in a comic book, but one thing remained unchanged-despite all skepticism and natural passion to joke in black, John always remained a damn tragic hero. “Cars are barely crawling, the smell of vomiting from last night is still felt in the back seat of a taxi. I decide to walk on foot. Lousy Sunday, rain drizzles on dull streets. Ignoring the nausea twisting the stomach, I raise the collar, hiding behind the bites of the November wind, and merge with a faceless city ” – this is how John Konstantin first turns to the reader.

► local hell is picturesque, and hellish creatures are unusual. Someone may even like it there.

After Jamie Delaino John Konstantin, Gart Ennis, who will subsequently work on the Preacher comic book, took up. Ennis is a radical atheist, and, probably, therefore, under his leadership of religion in Hellblazer It becomes so much. John Konstantin had never worked for paradise before (occupied strict neutrality and acted solely for the sake of profit), but now the heavenly kingdom suddenly becomes his enemy worse than hell.

For all his sins, Konstantin after death is doomed to eternal torment in the underworld – and angels, this is Snobyo, as the governors of God on earth John calls him, only mock him in response to requests to atone for sins. If Hellblazer Cart Annisa went out in our time – a terrible religious scandal would probably have erupted.

Still! John Konstantin sets on Gabriel, the first cherub, succubus under the guise of an innocent girl. She pulls the angel heart right during sex. “Your daddy wants you a few words,” Sukkub Gabriel maliciously throws you, and he immediately loses the recognition of God, and lush wings turn into bloodied stumps. Then John Constantine will cut them out with a chainsaw, discovering the fallen angel in a puddle of his own shit, bewildered and broken.

► The first cherub, who passed a lot of wars in the name of his father, came across very easily. Even angels cannot resist a beautiful woman, especially if they begin to doubt God.

Hell, however, also gets pretty. With deceit, Konstantin sows the first of the fallen, Lucifer, holy water, from which it spreads to shreds. Since then, the soul of a magician has a welcome treat for each demon of the underworld.

Subsequent events are devoted to the film " Konstantin: Lord of Darkness ", The frankly unsuccessful adaptation of the cult plot arch" Dangerous Habits ", but at the same time quite a good mystical action movie with Keanu Reeves. John, an avid smoker, dies of … lung cancer. The absurd death for someone who has already emerged from the clutches of demons beaten, but alive.

► The creators of the film managed something better than the authors of the comic book. For example, this scene.

But, unlike the film, the plot of “dangerous habits” is as depressed as possible. Trying to recover, the wizard finds himself a new friend, also a patient with cancer, and he makes him reconsider his eyes on life, and then dies in hellish torment right in front of John. And his death does not look at all as they usually show us in the cinema. She is ridiculous, stupid and meaningless. However, Konstantin's death again bypasses – deceiving hell, John takes … No, not at all chewing gum, as in the film, but a cigarette. And lit a cigarette.

Konstantin does not teach anything.

► The plot arch of “recognition”, telling about the priest – the killer and pedophile, who is once confessed by Satan, becomes the apogee of the radical atheism of Gart Ennis. From this story, anyone will stand on end.

“He is a magical addict,” Ennis said about his hero. – I was always amused by the fact that Konstantin is supposedly all the left socialist, but in fact – an ordinary drug addict, merciless, ready to sacrifice anyone to get what he needs ". One by one, Konstantin's friends die through his own fault, John suffers, dropping to the very bottom, but invariably rises again, shakes off and goes to the casino, deceive him to make money for beer and cigarettes. And then it all starts first.

Life after death

For three issues Hellblazer (And this is the longest series of Vertigo) John Konstantin managed a lot and did not have time. He lost all his friends, except for the faithful drinking companion of Chesa, buried almost all his women, sent a bunch of demons back to hell who tried to get to humanity in a variety of ways (including giving birth to his own “Jesus”, which would promote the ideas of demons to the masses) , and a bunch of once prevented the invasion of the land of paradise, which in general is not better than hell, because all people are sinful.

But whether he became happy? Whether he achieved something? Whether he defeated all his enemies? No.

Meet John Konstantin. Alcoholic, womanizer, drug addict, blasphemer, Briton. In the teeth – a cigarette, in the hand – a beer mug. Lonely, old and crushed. So the story of a “laughing wizard” ends ..

► New John Konstantin. The younger generation and fans "Sherlock" will like.

… and the story begins. The story of the newly young Constantine, but already under the cover of the comic book of the publishing house of the DC Comics Publishing House. If earlier a magician with a difficult fate met with other DC characters and exclusively in the case (with Zhattana, for example, for the sake of sex), and the superman and the rest spoke mainly at an obscene, now everything has changed. Yes, and John Constantine himself has changed.

The authors are trying to organically fit it into the common superhero universe, and in this world, the Demions-Sodomites and pedophile priests obviously have no place. And Konstantin himself acquired clear moral principles. He stands exclusively to the side of the good, does not blackmail and does not rob for his own prosperity. On the other hand, in the first issue, he easily leaves a friend to die and does not worry at all later, although friends for John were always the most important in life. In a word, Konstantin is not the same. He has no place in the same world with Superman.

From the tragic antihero of the seventies, who knows something about magic, John turned into an ordinary cynical wizard from the DC Comics universe. On the streets of the dark and stinking London, such Konstantin would not have survived.

However, now on the NBC channel the first season of the series "Constantine", a much more accurate film adaptation Hellblazer , how " Konstantin: Lord of Darkness ". And Matt Ryan is much more suitable for the role of Constantine than a dull Keanu Reeves. But there is some kind of curse: for example, due to the policy of the TV channel John Constantine, it is forbidden to smoke in the frame. Who John Konstantin without a cigarette?

The action, of course, was transferred to America. John had already been to her in the source comic book (then he made a blowjob, but we will not), and he did not like it there. For some reason, the girl of Astra became black, and instead of stories about the enmity of hell, paradise and bloodthirsty politicians, there is something in the spirit of the "supernatural". It’s too early to https://fitzdares-casino.co.uk/ criticize, but what turns out, not a single fan will approve.

So the most charismatic antihero of the comics, as we know him, remains forever in the past. In the modern world, full of superheroes in Triko, tolerance and fear of someone accidentally offended, he has no place. This is the fate of the "laughing wizard". Sad forgotten.