Spoilers for DCeased: Dead Planet #7 ahead!
John Constantine just got the heroic death he always deserved. An amoral and complex conman, Constantine may not seem like the type of person who would sacrifice himself to save humanity but that is exactly what happens in DCeased: Dead Planet #7, written by Tom Taylor with art by Trevor Hairsine, inks by Gigi Baldassini and Stefano Gaudino and colors by Rain Beredo, is in stores now.
First appearing during Alan Moore’s legendary run on Swamp Thing in the early 1980s, John Constantine is a working-class magician from Britain who uses his wits to get by as much as he uses magic. He was spun off into his own book, called Hellblazer, that ran for an astounding 300 issues. The character was a fixture of DC’s Vertigo imprint before being reincorporated back into the DC Universe during the New 52 era. Since then, he has become one of DC’s preeminent magic users, and in DCeased: Dead Planet #7, he makes the ultimate sacrifice to save humanity—a far cry from what we know of the character.
Trigon, an extra-dimensional demon, is running amok on Earth and Constantine is the only one who can stop him. Knowing he is seriously outranked, Constantine gathers powers from other magical users, such as Shazam, Ragman, Doctor Fate, and Deadman. Now supercharged beyond anything he has ever experienced, Constantine slugs Trigon, knocking him down. It is still not enough to get the advantage, however, and Trigon seemingly kills him. Then, John’s spirit, now free from his body, uses Deadman’s powers to possess Trigon and compel him to stab himself with a spear. In the end, Constantine goes off to whatever his final reward will be - he is not going to heaven, for sure, but he saved the planet, so he will not be going to Hell either.
Contrast this with Constantine’s death in Hellblazer: he was shot and killed by his niece Gemma, a magic-user like him. In that instance, Constantine simply went to his death with no fight or anything. It fit with the darker, pessimistic tone of Hellblazer, where he was depicted as self-destructive and willing to manipulate anyone into sacrificing themselves to advance his agenda. However, since his return to the mainstream, he has become a team player, leading Justice League Dark and interacting more often with the likes of Superman and Wonder Woman, all of which may have influenced Constantine. Perhaps being around Zatanna more often led to this as well. This Constantine is still a master manipulator - demonstrated by gathering all the magical artifacts, but here he is using it to better ends. His final fate is somewhat ambiguous, but he notes that by not going to Hell, he is pissing off a lot of demons - something he would be OK with.
John Constantine is one of the most fascinating comic book characters ever created. He has layers upon layers to his personality, which allows various creative teams to take him in different directions. Here, we see perhaps the most heroic side of him yet, despite what he would tell you.