People would expect me to say Batman, but for those who've known me here for a long time know that there was another before him.
The Conman of magic and mystery; John Constantine. Possibly the most influential character not only to me, but to much of DC comics in terms of magic. This character has stood the test of time (literally, he'd be in his 70's right now) and has aged with us while dealing with all the ancient evil that's been around us this whole time. Luckily John was there to make sure they stay their asses in line.
Why I truly love this character is the fact that he's flawed, he's an anti-hero, and he's a mage in working class.
John is in all sense of the word, a bastard. He's screws over his friends, cheats, lies, steals, and hurts people's feelings both intentionally and unintentionally.
He's a total man-whore whose up for anything; Men, Women, BDSM, torture porn, you name it.
He's a heavy drug user with not only cigarettes but also marijuana, PCP, hallucinogenics, speed, etc. But that's from his punk days as a punk rocker.
He messes with demons and magic on the daily. He knows he shouldn't and he KNOWS that messing with that will have consequences in the long run from dead friends to other terrible situations, but he just doesn't learn. He dips his foot in the crazy again and again to fulfill his own desires, or just to do it.
So with all those flaws, why do I like him so much?
Easy; he KNOWS he's flawed.
He knows all the terrible stuff he does is bad and knows the consequences. Whenever a friend dies, he feels bad for doing it and blames himself entirely for the occurrences. However he knows that he'll do it again without a second thought and hates himself for it. I relate to this a lot considering I've done pretty bad things in the past and know I'll just do it again at some point. It just feels nice to know that I'm not the only one.
I like that despite doing all the bad he's done, he still tries his hardest to find a silver lining and do some good every once in a while. John may be a mess up, but he's a mess up who knows he messes up, and at least has the audacity to apologize and try to make it a tiny bit better. NOT completely better, but a little bit better.
He get's scared of the things he faces and has even almost ****ed his pants in fear over what he sees on a daily basis, however he still faces it all with a snarky grin, a cigarette, and a wisecrack straight from the UK. Constantine does runaway from a fight and even ends up looking like a fool in running away, but I actually like that in a anti-hero; bravery isn't always the right choice. Sometimes you gotta bow out and John does plenty of that when he knows he's facing someone too much for him.
From John Constantine, I've learned that it's okay to have flaws, and it's okay to be fearful of yourself. These are normal traits of a human being and shouldn't be looked down upon. Flaws are just the small cracks of who you are that make you unique, and sometimes it's best to just leave those cracks be.
So, yeah, John Constantine has obviously been an influential character not only in my own writing, but to my own perspective of life.
Just don't expect to live long when he comes asking for a favor.
