Editing DC Comics (section)

===John Constantine===
The Wizard-as-[[Cegorach|Con-Man]] poster boy, and base model for any high-CHA Arcana character/NPC. John rarely actually does magic, and instead tricks his enemies into doing what he wants, such as promising his soul to the leaders of Hell's [[Tanar'ri|different]]  [[Baatezu|factions]], risking a new [[Blood War]] for the soul of one measly mortal if they don't cure him of his [[cancer]]. A big part of his characterization is that he doesn't really believe in magic, but the demons and ancient spirits he's dealing with do, so when he does need to do magic, he banks on his high CHA, plus Arcana and Deception checks to bullshit [[Kingdoms of Ind|Indian]] demons into destroying themselves. So long as the caster doesn't break character and throws enough magic spell components together, the universe just lets it happen, much like a GM letting you cast spells so long as you've got "some gold" and "a component pouch."

He actually is magical, though, being the current incarnation ("Constant"ine, get it?) of the "[[Cegorach|Laughing Magician]]," all of whom are just as shitty as he is; it's also actually implied that he was never supposed to ''be'' the Constantine, and that was supposed to be his [[Vilitch the Curseling|twin brother]], who he killed in the womb and has been tampering with his life ever since, orchestrating events so that one day [[Nurgle|John will give up to despair and give his soul over to him]]. Another running theme through all of his incarnations is that he'll sacrifice his friends and use them as pawns to get ahead of whatever's trying to kill him. Of course, because this is Black Magic, his friends don't suffer clean deaths, but [[GRIMDARK|have their souls taken by demons to be made  their playthings for all eternity]]. 

Was for a long time kept in a sort of limbo: he was the posterboy of the Vertigo imprint ("mature" horror/fantasy with [[SJW|social commentary]], that was initially DC adjacent, but then very rarely interacted or referenced what went on with the rest of DC) until DC folded everything with a reboot in 2011. Since then, he's been more or less a part of the DCU even though his solo-run comics aren't, because DC's done a lot more rebooting since then (including a reality reset by Dr. Fucking Manhattan, which made Constantine and Watchmen's creator [[Elminster|Alan Moore]] [[Butthurt|very mad)]]. Speaking of Alan Moore, he and quite a few writers of Hellblazer swear that they've met him in real-life, which is only mildly more weird [[Rick Priestley|than talking Ultramarine models]].