Class, Politics, and Occult Power in John Constantine: Hellblazer
Bob Cluness
Abstract
First published in 1988 by DC Comics, John Constantine: Hellblazer has been one of the most successful contemporary serial comics titles to have arisen out of the “British Invasion” of 1980s US comics. The titular character of the series, John Constantine, is a British working-class magician and occult detective who is depicted as one of the world’s most powerful occultists. A marked departure from previous depictions of occultism and magic in US comics, Hellblazer’s tales of occult wars, demons, non-human entities, and social realism are set in a gritty, realist world whose elements of gothic horror, noir, and nightmarish imagery provide a stark social and political commentary on class divisions in contemporary Britain, resulting from the fallout resulting from the neoliberal economic programmes of successive Conservative and “New Labour” governments.
In this article, I examine how esoteric ideas and occultism expressed in Hellblazer intersect with politics, class, and power from a UK perspective: from the political and class backgrounds of the character’s creator Alan Moore and writers such as Jamie Delano, and the series’ depictions of British class politics, to the ways occult practices of various practitioners in the series take on the dimensions of social class. I also examine the influence of Hellblazer and the magical persona and politics of Constantine on the contemporaneous UK occultural milieu, from its impact upon creator Alan Moore to its role as a magical inspiration for contemporary UK magicians.
Keywords
John Constantine; Hellblazer; magic; comics; Alan Moore