Roots Of The Swamp Thing: Swamp Thing, Hellblazer, The Un-Men And More

Swamp Thing: The Animated Series

NOTE: Since these "fictional" events are outside Alec's reality, they are not detailed here. This series has been released on DVD as Swamp Thing: Guardian of the Earth, part of DiC's "Animation Station" Halloween line-up.

January-February 1990 A.D.

Alexiev Gogol, a collector of human freaks, finds a man in Naples with a human baby growing out of his torso. He buys the man's services as part of his freak museum and gives him the name "Abel."

American Freak, A Tale of the Un-Men #2: Chapter Two-The Covenant of Freaks"

Upon returning to the year 1990, the time sphere of Rip Hunter and Jeff Smith retains the splattered remains of Alec's body on one side, the result of their collision in the time stream.

Time Masters #5: "Good Times... Bad Times"

Rip Hunter repairs the time sphere after the collision and lends it to Justice League's Animal Man. Travelling back in time, Animal Man encounters Alec's consciousness during his own time odyssey.

Animal Man #22: "Time in a Bottle"

Abby recovers from her depression but feels antsy and longs to work again, so Alec offers to watch Tefé. Photographer Howard Fleck sends a news clipping of the Swamp Thing to his cousin, Ichabod Snip, a scientist dabbling in plant intelligence. Fleck and Snip hire Mary Milner to guide them through the swamp. They search for hours until Fleck falls into a bog filled with Alec's husks. Abby visits the Houma Diner where she once worked. As she enjoys a burger and fries, patrons stare at "the woman who killed her husband." She ignores them and asks her old boss, Susan, for a job, but Susan coldly turns her down, saying Matt was her friend too. Other job calls meet similar reactions until she returns to the Spanish Acres Home For the Elderly. Miss Claiborne is reluctant to re-hire her after she left without any notice. A volunteer enters the office with her 13-year-old boyfriend, who has come to pick her up; it is Paul, the autistic from the Monkey King incident. Seeing Paul's gratitude for Abby's help in curing him, Claiborne gives her another chance. As Fleck and Snip explore Alec's home, Snip is overcome with beauty. Hoping to communicate with the Swamp God, he eats a tuber and rapturously experiences nature. From a distance, they watch as Abby returns to find Alec changing a diaper. She offers to throw it out but Alec makes use of its nutrients and places it within his body. Snip finds this example of the food chain amazing, but Fleck vomits in disgust. Alec notices them and they run off. The Daily Planet refuses to run the pictures, but Lifetimes prints them in a book called Weird Things We Have Pictures Of. Snip keeps one of Alec's former heads to show his boss, a druggist named Fallenarch, who promises to back any money he raises for his next expedition.

Swamp Thing (Series 2) #93: "Capturing the Moments of Your Life"

February 1990 A.D.

A stranger gives Chester Williams' friend Jimi, from Gotham, sheet music to Joseph John Davilla's 1919 tune "The Mysterious Axman's Jazz (Don't Scare Me, Papa)," and a blood-stained ax that plays different notes from each stain. It greatly increases Jimi's playing ability, but the stranger must tune it frequently. The stranger is a deranged killer, like his grandfather and great-grandfather before him, who cuts people to free the music in their hearts. Jimi and his friends (Andy, Mike and Michael) have a jazz band called Cocodrie and are staying at Chester's so they can play a Mardi Gras gig in Houma. As the stranger takes two more victims, an otherworldly creature watching over him delights in the taste of death mixed with jazz. In the swamp, Alec finds a dead body cut to pieces and is sad that he couldn't prevent the crime. Disturbed by the murders, Abby wonders if Najagarjuk's warning might be related. She wonders if the Parliament of Trees had an ulterior motive in creating the Sprout; with access to Alec's memories, they must have known he was in space. The next morning, as Chester and the rest have breakfast, Jimi goes for a walk to his car and takes out a cassette of the song he has opened every show with since receiving the muic and ax. He meets with the stranger, who needs to tune the ax before the show. Later, at Mardi Gras, the other members of the band urge Jimi not to open with "Axman's Jazz" because this crowd would hate it; he compromises with just the music, not the lyrics. However, Tefé senses the otherwordly presence and wails uncontrollably. The creature sends the stranger to kill Abby and Tefé, but Alec stops him, strangling him in a net of roots. Other creatures join the scene, accusing it of breaking its contract. Their job is to grow and nurture the spiritual bodies of material beings, but this one has grown corrupted. As the creatures depart with their tainted brother, Alec executes the killer by growing thick branches through his body.

Swamp Thing (Series 2) #94: "The Mysterious Axman's Jazz"

Early 1990 A.D.

Serial killers from around the country meet for the Cereal Convention held in Dodge County, Georgia. Among them is Philip Sitz, a copycat killer posing as the Bogeyman (a killer who mentally catalogued his 165 victims by eye color before being himself killed in 1985).

Sandman #14: "The Doll's House-Collectors"

Awakening from a nightmare of his father and Samuel "the Family Man" Morris, Constantine hears a door slam, grabs a knife and attacks the intruder in the dark. It's Chas, who beats the hell out of him until Constantine identifies himself. Chas has come down to see him because his wife doesn't want him around. Constantine agrees to leave but asks Chas to get him a gun. He then meets a friend of Chas's in a nearby men's room and buys the gun, though he hates having to use it. The Family Man meanwhile, visits local shops, showing a photo of Constantine from a paper called Today. Thanks to a tip from William Hill's employee, Morris tracks him to Eddie Morgan's and shows Chas the photo. When Chas lies that he doesn't know Constantine, the killer beats him senseless, ripping off part of his ear. Morris heads across the street to a barber shop, Gent's Hairdressing, to await Constantine's return. As he does so, the barber discusses the Family Man's latest crimes with a customer, unaware the newspaper headline of the day is in this very shop. Constantine returns to Morgan's to get his clothes and finds Chas bandaged up, half his ear missing. He gives Constantine a postcard saying "Greetings from Liverpool," which the killer left for him. In a panic, he calls his sister Cheryl, who tells him the bad news-their father, Thomas, is dead. Stunned, Constantine falls to the floor, crying. Chas helps him hatch a plan to trap the Family Man with the assistance of Chas's cousin Norma, a prostitute. Pretending to throw Constantine out on the street, Chas then sneaks out and follows Morris as he trails Constantine to Norma's flat. Constantine opens a window to be sure the Family Man can hear him, then says he's getting up at 6:00 for the 7:00 bus to Liverpool. Morris returns to his hotel and asks the manager for a 5:00 wake-up call, and Chas calls Constantine to let him know. Grateful, Constantine thanks him, then takes advantage of Norma's carnal services.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #29: "Sick at Heart"

NOTE: I have placed a gap of time between issues #28 and 29 in an attempt to work around the gaps of time left by the surrounding issues of Swamp Thing. The result is a bit clunky, and I might refine this placement in the future.

At 5:00 the next morning, the hotel gives Morris his wake-up call, but he's already up, exercising. Meanwhile, Constantine finishes up with Norma and slips out the bathroom window, telling her not to open the door for the next hour. He then takes position at a railroad stop overlooking her flat. The Family Man catches a cab and hides outside the flat, waiting for Constantine and unaware his prey has him in a gunsight. Constantine can't pull the trigger, though, wanting the kill to be more personal. Instead, he walks down the street, hoping Morris will follow. The old man sees him and pursues, wondering how best to kill him. Constantine ducks into an empty building, planning an ambush, but loses sight of him and panics. Scared, he catches the Peckham Rye subway to Victoria Underground Station. Boarding a National Express bus to Liverpool, he seeks safety among a trio of footballers, not realizing the Family Man has boarded the bus in disguise. On the bus, Constantine drinks with the hooligans, worried about what he'll do next. A flat tire brings the bus to a halt, but unable to make it to a bathroom, Constantine pees on a nearby truck. Morris takes the opportunity to attack, slicing open Constantine's forehead. In shock, the mage runs for cover, with he killer trailing close behind, excited at taking first blood. Constantine grabs his gun, but Morris taunts him that he can't pull the trigger. The first shot grazes Morris's forehead and the killer lunges again, so Constantine shoos him several more times. Lying in a pool of blood, the Family Man asks him to kill him and end his misery. The old man's life flashes before his eyes, making him relive his murder of his own parents. When Constantine fires the fatal shot, it's a mercy killing. Constantine runs outside and throws up, then drags the body into a field of cows, leaving the serial murderers' convention invitation as identification.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #30: "Fatality"

As Cheryl and Tony mourn Thomas Constantine's death, their daughter Gemma spends six sleepless nights, each night visited by the spectral form of her grandad. Her parents wonder if Thomas molested her when he was alive, but she rejects the idea, saying he was always kind to her. She hopes that after his cremation, the visits will cease. The next day at the funeral, however, she sees his sad, naked form hovering over the casket. John Constantine skips the funeral-churches bother him due to his demon blood-but watches through a window. It's been two years since the Damnation Army incident, and he can't believe how much Gemma has grown. He visits the crematorium and convinces a worker to let him watch the cremation, figuring he owes his father that much. As the flames take Thomas's body, Gemma (upstairs in the church) teels his pain and cries out. Back home, the ghostly visits continue, but now the body smells like burning flesh. Gemma finds her uncle in the kitchen with Cheryl and asks him to walk with her. She still sees her grandad with them, and Constantine says he always hated his father for blaming him for his mother's death. Suddenly, he realizes why his father has not yet moved on: in 1967, after he was kicked out of school for organizing an "Out Demons Out" chant during assembly, his father burned all his magic books. In retaliation, Constantine shot a cat with a slingshot his father had made for him, cursed the cat with slow death, tied his father's spirit to the animal's and buried it. This caused his father to grow old and weak, which first elated the teen, then scared him-he wanted Thomas to love him, not die. Therefore, he dug up the cat, preserved it in formaldehyde and buried it near his mother's grave. With the cat's decomposition halted, his father spent the rest of his life a feeble, slowly dying man. To make ammends, Constantine now returns to his mother's grave, digs up the cat, drains the formaldehyde and apologizes to his father's spirit, allowing Thomas Constantine, at last, to rest in peace.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #31: "Mourning of the Magician"

Thomas Constantine's hatred for his own son condemns his soul to Hell.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #42: "Dangerous Habits, Part Two—A Drop of the Hard Stuff"

Earth Products, Inc., dumps toxic wastes into the waters of unpopulated areas in Terrebonne Parish, which travels south to Louisiana and collects in the bog. Nearby, Tefé takes her first steps. She has begun manifesting powers, growing a room full of flowers and mirroring Alec's ability to form walls of vegetation. Abby worries that Tefé might hurt herself but refuses to seek the Parliament's advice since she doesn't trust them. Meanwhile, Chester's ecogroup discusses toxic dumping, a Greenpeace march at Sunderland's Marine Shale plant in Morgan City and a protest at the Riverbend Nuclear Plant. One member, Evangeline, supports the Greenpeace march; another says Sunderland's plant has been using toxic waste to create road-bed material. Wallace Monroe favors tackling the latter, hoping to atone for his sins. In the bayou, Tefé re-shapes her playpen bars and escapes. Alec and Abby find her playing with another baby, grown from toxic waste and one of Alec's ex-bodies. Others grow nearby. Chester's group stages their protest. Liz is nervous but those who tried to kill her are dead and she is a part of the group now. They stop a truck driver from entering the plant. Jeff, an eco-fighter, has called local news teams but none have arrived. The driver accelerates his truck to scare them, but Wallace stands his ground, sacrificing his life for the cause and knowing his wife Treasure awaits in the Afterlife. Chester tries to save him and is badly hurt, but the police arrest the ecogroup, letting the driver go. Ted, the brother of a protestor, brings Liz to see Alec and Abby, who are furious to learn Sunderlrand has again damaged their lives. The plant-baby is dying from toxins in its system. Leaving Abby to care for it, Alec enters the Green and destroys the Sunderland plant. He absorbs the toxins in the soil but it's too late to save the babies from dying; he considers leveling every toxic waste plant everywhere, but knowing mankind would learn nothing if he did, he takes no actions.

Swamp Thing (Series 2) #95: "Toxic Wonderland"

Alec relaxes with his family in the bayou as a Munson's Cypress Bayou Tours bus passes, listening sadly to the sound of bulldozers. A new factory is being built in New Terrebonne, one that manufactures medical supplies. Alec is displeased, but Abby says Chester's ecogroup compromised by accepting this factory to stop three others from being built. Alec's harsh condemnation of human irresponsibility makes her angry, and as she storms off, Alec takes root to test the poison levels of the swamp. Horribly burned by spewing chemicals, he falls unconscious and hallucinates being a human at an advertising firm, with a secretary named Miss Tremayne and a boss named Mr. Green. In this illusory life, everything has gone wrong: his office equipment doesn't work; Mr. Green is always angry at him; he and Abby constantly fight about money and other difficulties; a law firm called Calkins and Calkins harrasses him about alimony for his ex-wife Linda; and his efforts to sell an ad to a sleeping pill company called Sleepease fail miserably when he misses a message that the company has been re-named Shuteye 4000. Throughout, he has a nagging headache and keeps hearing a strange buzzing sound. Eventually, his pain and unhappiness become too much and he nearly shoots himself. Back in the swamp, the real Abby finds him in a trance. John Constantine pops in and Abby begs him for help. Constantine says he's "tripping" from chemicals in the swamp and should be okay. He sends her to fetch Labo, who provides medicine to heal Alec's condition. The cure snaps Alec back to consciousness, and he and Abby gratefully apologize for their earlier disagreement.

DC Heroes Role-Playing Game-Swamp Thing Solitaire Adventure: "Racing With the Rats"

Months after junkyard owner Charlie Clutterbuck's disappearance, his developmentally disabled assistant Dougie continues to kill people as food for his new master, a bulldog possessed by the soul of W.S. Drummond. The ex-policeman had used magic to attain immortality in the pooch's body, quickly becoming "top dog" in the neighborhood. Police find a body on Lime Crescent, its brains eaten, and John Constantine calls a reporter friend, Tony Baxter, for more information on this and other East End murders. Baxter says the case remains open, and that most victims have been from the Simon House Night Shelter, a refuge for the homeless. Constantine knows a Simon House employee, Mike, who says the police have dropped the ball. Suspecting demon involvement, Constantine visits a cafe called Sid's and learns of Clutterbuck's disappearance. Meanwhile, Dougie lures a teen named Mark to the junkyard with the promise of being in a Napalm Death music video. Too late, Mark realizes his mistake as the pooch corners him. Constantine also visits the junkyard and finds a notebook containing incoherent scrawls. Dougie comes in, sees Constantine and panics, proclaiming his innocence. Drummond scares the boy off, and Constantine realizes Dougie wrote the notes for the cop-turned-bulldog. Drummond's goal: to build a dog-empire and replace humanity with his Dog Elite. Drummond tells Constantine to throw a can, giving him the time it takes to hit ground before attacking. Pursued by the hounds, the mage makes it to a junked car for safety, but the dog is able to open and close the door and chases him atop a nearby junk heap. The bulldog follows him to Dougie's shack, where he douses his coat with turpentine and turns up a radio to keep the pack from smelling or hearing him. He then assumes a submissive position on the ground, tosses black pepper in the dog's eyes when Drummond approaches and beats the dog to death with a pipe. The other dogs, seeing him as their leader now, step aside in respect, allowing him to leave the junkyard.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #32: "New Tricks"

The next month passes for Constantine without incident, letting him relax for a while. Unusually content with life, he stops one Sunday for apples at a local store, foregoing his usual silk cut. Strolling through Easytown, he ponders the happy families and considers putting magic behind him to raise one of his own. He meets an old mate, Patrick McDonell, who once engaged in shady business ventures under the name "Martin Peters" and also played in the Hopeless Heroins as "Destructo Vermin Gobsmack." McDonell had promised to promote one of Muccus Membrane's music videos, but took their money without giving them a share. The last time the two had seen each other was in 1982, at the start of the Falklands War, when McDonell was selling "Nuke Buenos Aires" sweatshirts on the street. Since then, he has chosen a cleaner life thanks to his girlfriend Elise. The couple invites Constantine to join them for lunch at the Secret Garden, and though he enjoys their company, their idealism clashes with his lifestyle and 1960s' values. Elise spots her business partner at another table-they run a botique-and heads over to talk to her while Constantine and his friend catch up on old times. McDonell apologizes for the past, saying he tried to find Constantine and only made a few thousand on the video. Though Constantine long held a grudge, he now forgives him. The two take a drive, discussing how the masses have begun leaving the cities thanks to computers and the communications revolution. McDonell and Elise have invested in a cooperative in Ireland, a "total living environment" aimed at writers and artists, and he offers Constantine a chance to live in the show-home for a while as they wind up their business here. Constantine considers the offer, knowing time away from the city would do him some good, but a sudden gastric attick sends him to the nearest bathroom, where he experiences a vision of the world facing a total communications breakdown, leaving him scared and out of his element. He wanders to a bar and orders a gin and tonic, abandoning McDonell and his idealistic plans for the future.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #33: "Sundays Are Different"

NOTE: Destructo Vermin Gobsmack first appeared in the Hellblazer annual. His middle name is misspelled in this issue as "Vermi."

Late March 1990 A.D.

After reading a Torture Club booklet about Satanism, fetal sacrifice and using teenage girls as brood-mares, John Constantine visits Amsterdam to track down a new designer drug called Death. A contact directs him to a sex shop in the Red Light District, where a Eurasian woman dances in the window. Seeing his own reflection as he leers at her, he feels disgusted with himself and leaves without buying the drug. Over the next week, he falls into a fit of depression, increasingly overwhelmed by all the evils of the world. This causes long-dead memories of his stillborn brother, the "Golden Boy," to resurface, and he tries to bury his loneliness and despair in excessive drinking.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #34: "The Bogeyman"

March 31, 1990 A.D.

John Constantine is caught in the midst of the Poll-Tax Riots at Trafalgar Square. Errol, his old friend from the Fredom Mob, pulls him out of the wave of violence, gives him a bottle of scotch stolen during the rioting and tells him where to find Marj and Mercury. Moments later, the police charge in, forcing the rioters to move on.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #34: "The Bogeyman"

April 1-2, 1990 A.D.

John Constantine spends the next two days trying to locate Marj and Mercury.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #34: "The Bogeyman"

April 3, 1990 A.D.

Mercury lies awake one night while her mother Marj sleeps in their bus, the Heart of Gold. John Constantine arrives, drunk and stinking, and Mercury is furious that he has lost control of himself once more. Able to sense his murder of the serial killer known as the Family Man, she urges Marj not to let him in. When Marj ignores her warning, Merc storms out. Constantine tell Marj how he found her and drunkenly laments his loss of purpose and faith. She gives him a shower, and he drifts off in childhood memories of losing his balance while climbing rocks at the beach. His ranting about a dark secret he's long hidden scares her. Outside, Merc considers her frustration with Constantine and wishes she and Marj had stayed with the Freedom Mob in Scotland. Constantine tells Marj he's spiraling out of control, unable to handle the evils of the world and the secrets he has long tried to hide. He warns her not to let him taint her, offering to tell her about "the dead boy's heart." Though freaked out, she stays with him as he cries in fear. Eventually, they make love, and to Merc's dismay, she can feel it. Pulled into their passion play, she senses another mind—the mind of a young boy—tugging at her own.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #34: "The Bogeyman"

April 4, 1990 A.D.

In the morning, Mercury confronts Constantine about the pain he's caused and how paralyzed he's become by the fear of death and Hell's revenge. Her powers give her insight into his being, granting knowledge of his stillborn brother—the "Golden Boy"—whose existence he's long denied even to himself, and it scares him. She offers to help him conquer his terror, as she did with the paranoiacs in the Fear Machine, and despite his reluctance, she enters his mind and takes him on a tour of his unconscious mind. Traveling a fantasy scape with architecture out of an Escher painting, she reveals one possible future by entering a room based on Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot deck. In this future, he is a decrepit old man of 80, living in a sanitized world of 2033 run by the Council of the Rising Generation. Carnivorism and smoking have become criminal acts, and devolution and depopulation have come to pass. In this future, he refuses to embrace such an existence and is remanded to an institution, then evicted after 20 years for being unrepentantly self-destructive and forced to jump from a bridge by a pack of hellish hounds. Inadvertently, Mercury nearly kills him in the process, and she screams for Marj's help. Marj breaks the spell and gives him mouth-to-mout resuscitation until he attacks her out of feral instinct. Merc breaks his trance, explainswhat happened and begs his forgiveness. Ever the cheeky one, Constantine brushes it off with a witty remark.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #36: "Undiscover'd Country"

NOTE: Hellblazer #35 is a flashback story set in 1961. Thus, Issue #36 takes place directly after #34.

Spring to October 1990 A.D.

Arch-Duke Nergal approaches Beelzebub with five initiates for demonhood: souls so unrepentent they have continued to sin even in Hell. Among them is Anton Arcane. Though Hell's Triumverate has decreed a punishment for Nergal's failures, Beelzebub has stayed the order to gain his allegiance. Also present: Agony and Ecstasy, the Twin Inquisitors of Hell; Strand-Ambassador Fhomtapl on behalf of the Fate-Mother of the Spider-Guild; and Beelzebub's newest advisors on torture, the aliens behind Earth's recent invasion. The latter have no names, so he has deemed them Putrid-Smelly-Alien-One and Putrid-Smelly-Alien-Two. Nergal brings forth the initiates, their heads filled with maggots about to hatch; to become demons, they must control the pain and build new bodies. Only Arcane passes the test, making a new body by fusing the maggots. Back in the swamp, Abby builds a memorial to her father Gregori, which Alec decorates with flowers. After a game of "Peek-a-boo" with Tefé, Alec leaves to check the coastal erosion of the Barrier Islands. Watching her father vanish, Tefé does the same, leaving behind a terrified Abby and a pile of gore. Learning what has happened, Alec tries to bury Tefé's remains but Abby refuses to let her go. As Alec searches the Green, Beelzebub asks Arcane his demon name, given by the maggots. Arcane refuses to tell, passing the test. Given Arcane's medical background and penchant for pain, Nergal makes him a minor torturer in the ring of Hell called Mashkan-Shapir. Fhomtapl returns, saying the Spider Guild has captured an innocent soul. Tasting a piece, Beelzebub recognizes Nergal and Constantine's bloodlines and offers the initiates in exchange. The Guild agree, delivering Tefé and feasting on the initiates. Entering the Afterlife, Alec sees an alien he helped years before; the alien's wife, whom Abby helped during the invasion; and the strangely-talking alien alligator, Bartle. The latter happily joins him on his quest.

Swamp Thing (Series 2) #96: "Hell to Pay"

NOTE: The alien couple is from two past issues. Alec helped the male in issue #9 of the first series, while Abby encountered the female in Series 2, issue #81. Bartle was last seen in issue #32.

Alec and Bartle find a sprawling city of skyscrapers in the Afterlife. Kel Gand, the sole Daxamite casualty of the alien invasion, joins their quest and says the buildings represent the afterline of the shape-shifting Durlans, thousands of whom died in the war. Meanwhile, Beelzebub confers with Nergal about how to handle Tefé. Beelzebub hopes to develop her demonic abilities and conquer both Hell and Earth. Arcane reveals his relationship to the child and offers to care for her, but when his true goal to escape Hell and destroy Abby slips out, the demons toss him off a cliff to fend for himself among the Spider Guild. Gand brings Alec and Bartle to Abin Sur, a Korugarian who once served the Green Lantern Corps in this sector of space. A confused human wanders by and Abin directs her to Heaven, as he has several humans in recent times. He admits he directed Tefé's soul the other way because of an evil look in her eyes. Regretful, he joins the quest to save her. Nergal visits the Fate-Mother of the Spider-Guild, interrupting a meeting with Ambassador Kular Thal, from one of the darker Thanagrian Aeries; the Thanagrians supply goods from outside of Hell in return for human skins peeled from the damned, which they use to create leather outfits. The Fate-Mother calls her strand-priestesses to bring forth Tefé's spirit, enraging Nergal when she reveals that Beelzebub's rival Azazel plans to bid for the soul as well. Outside the gates of Hell, Alec's meets the rhyming demons Etrigan and Lisquinelle, alive once more since death in Hell is meaningless. Etrigan revels in Alec's horror as he reveals Tefé's demon bloodline.

Swamp Thing (Series 2) #97: "Scattered Houses"

Abby drifts off to sleep cradling Tefé's form. She dreams of her father Gregori losing his head and borrowing Tefé's. When he turns into Anton, she awakens to find maggots feasting on her baby's remains. In Mashkan-Shapir, Arcane tries to amuse Tefé with a rattle and cradle made from the damned's body parts. He tries to open a viewing window to Earth to spy on Abby, but Tefé's power elevates the spell, nearly opening a chymic portal that would have endangered the entire Hellish city. Annoyed, Nergal sends Arcane to tend to his garden of tortured souls. Still, Arcane's mistake inspires him to connect Tefé to Hell's irrigation system, letting her elemental blood give him power over the entire region. Etrigan, fearing what would happen should his rival harnass Tefé's powers, tells Lisquinelle to lead Alec past the Gate of Tears to his daughter. Kel Gand fears the vengeance of those he betrayed during the invasion and bids farewell, returning to his own sphere. Liequinelle guides them deeper into Hell, refusing to travel beyond Mashkan-Shapir. Inside Nergal's realm, Arcane is overwhelmed as Tefé's power coarses through Hell's ducts. When Alec arrives with Bartle and Abin, Nergal slays Abin and summons his human garden to ensnare the rest. Unnoticed, Arcane prods Tefé to open a window so he can escape. Too late to stop her, Beelzebub watches as Mashkan-Shapir, tied to Tefé's power, entirely vanishes. This restores Abin and Bartle to their usual Afterlives and sends Alec home with Tefé's spirit locked safely inside his own.

Swamp Thing (Series 2) #98: "Family Reunion"

In the fall of Mashkan-Shapir, a creature with a man's body and a tree for a head is propelled to Earth after 4,000 years of hanging in Nergal's garden. The Hell denizen recalls his life in ancient Mesopotamia; a revered priest, he gave himself over to Nergal and was sucked into Hell to feed the vineyards of Mashkan-Shapir. Feeling lonely and devoid of purpose, the Hell Priest pledges himself to the Grey, calling forth an army of the damned to serve its leader, Matango. Meanwhile, Alec and Abby enjoy a bath while deciding how to grow Tefé a new body. Alec cannot do it himself, nor does he know how to teach her. Also puzzling is a leaf he finds on the ground that is not part of the Green. Though they realize not its significance, it portends an impending war between the Green and the Grey. As Alec and Abby consider their options, he realizes he has no option but to seek Constantine's help. He finds the Brit studying East Anglican Middle Age churches containing images depicting Alec's time-traveling odyssey. Constantine offers to arrange a visit with his diving friend Brenda, who works at the Metropolis coroner's office. Alec returns to Abby to find Najagarjuk waiting for him. The Shaman says he was visiting Paradise when a nest in Sarga's branches bled, foretelling Tefé's condition. He bids them to find a fountain that grants the drinker understanding of the speech of all living creatures and Nature itself; if Alec procures its waters, he says, they can teach Tefé to build a new body. He then tells of a recurring dream and warns Alec to protect Tefé from Matango.

Swamp Thing (Series 2) #99: "Leaves in a Tempest"

A few weeks before Tefé's first birthday, Alec leaves her in Najagarjuk's protection while he visits the Parliament of Trees to inquire about the fountain. Alex Olsen relays his inquiry to the Inner House, and Bifa―a giant quadraped serving as messenger between Houses―leads him to Founder's Grove. There, the Founders ask him to take root now that the first seed of human elementals has been sown, but he declines, saying Tefé is not ready. Yggdrasil reveals that much of what transpired this past year was not quite as he believed. Never was nature in danger due to the co-existence of two elementals―the presence of thousands of members within the Parliament proves this. The Inner House only perpetuated that myth to Alec and the Outer House to insure Tefé's creation. In Tefé, the Parliament sees a chance to bring man into harmony with the Green. By giving her the final seed of Rheelai, Alec set into motion man's return to Eden; unfortunately, this has disturbed Matango's long sleep. Bifa takes Alec to the Garden of Bereavement, containing the receptacles of hundreds of Erl-Kings missing from the Green. Most were lost during the Battle of Eden. Hidden in what is now Antartica, Eden was the Parliament's first home; located in the tropics, it drifted south and was lost beneath the ice. The battle ended a conflict predating the coming of man, which began when a meteor fell from space, brining with it the first molds and fungi on Earth―the foundation of the Grey. Its leader, Matango, sought to weaken the Parliament, forcing them to abandon Eden and disperse around the globe. Eyam was struck down in battle, severed from the Green entirely, while half of Yggdrasil's body succumbed to the Grey. Now that the Grey is planning a new attack, the Parliament sends Alec to Antarctica to find the long-buried fountain and save Tefé. He finds the lost spirit of Eyam and helps him escape his age-old prison. "Angels" of the Grey attack at that moment, expelling them from the Garden. As they depart, Eyam grabs a frozen chunk of water from the fountain.

Swamp Thing (Series 2) #100: "Tales of Eden"

Martin Acland wakes up on his 18th birthday, dreading his crude father Archie's usual abuse. Archie, a tough-as-nails butcher in East Anglia, England, has no use for his frail, efeminite son and routinely beats both the boy and his mother, Elsie. This morning, he forces Elsie to cook a steak for Martin, determined to purge him of his vegetarianism. Elsie gives Martin binoculars; Archie gives him a black eye. Meanwhile, Mercury has a vision that something needs her, and urges Constantine and Marj to drive to East Anglia. They travel all night until the Heart of Gold breaks down. Constantine tries to help fix the bus but lacks any mechanical skills. Merc sneaks off to a nearby wildlife preserve to be alone. There, she encounters Martin, who has come to watch the wildlife, and invites him back to the bus for tea, infatuated with him. However, Archie shows up, demanding Martin come with him, and threatens to unleash his Rottweiler, Churchill, if anyone steps in to help the boy. He takes Martin to his slaughterhouse to show him how to be a man. There, Archie's employees, including a bespectacled chap named Mick and a one-eyed old man named Charlie, tease Martin about his "girly" sensitivity. Archie orders Martin to help Charlie bring three dozen sows to the pen. The teen can sense their terror and wishes he were with Merc instead. However, he accidentally lets the pigs loose. Churchill rounds them up, but Archie is furious and throws his son in with the pigs, where he cowers in terror as each sow is slaughtered. And Merc, able to sense his terror, rushes to help him. Meanwhile, Marj and Constantine hitch a ride into town to get parts for the bus.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #37: "Man's Work"

Worked up into a killing frenzy, the butchers hang him upside down, cattle-prod him and douse him with blood, while Mercury watches from a hiding spot. Unable to take any more, she yells for them to stop. Archie sics Churchill on her, but she lowers herself to the ground and kisses the dog's nose, dazzling it into submission. Charlie lets Martin down, assuring Merc they had no real intention of hurting him. Merc leads Martin back to her bus, where he sits quietly, still in shock. Archie pits Churchill against Charlie's dog to re-spark the Rottweiler's instinct, but its fight is gone and the pitbull rips out its throat. Furious, Archie drives his meat wagon to the Heart of Gold, where he crashes into the bus, dumping two-and-a-half tons of heads and innards onto it. Snapping, Martin grabs a leg bone and beats his father senseless. Merc calms him down, then uses her mental powers to look deep into Archie's mind and manipulate his fears. Shaken, he gets drunk and drives home to rape and beat his wife. Elsie hears him coming, however, and hides in Martin's room, hoping he'll pass out. Staggering around the house searching for her, he enters a meat locker and stops short at the site of a pig in a negligé. Horrified, he succumbs to the delusion of the sexy sow engulfing him in its bloody ribs. The next morning, Constantine and Marj return to find the bus battered and bloody, Merc and Martin clothed only in blankets. Fixing the bus, they see Elsie waiting at a bus stop and pick her up. She found Archie half-naked and insane, she explains, his genitals stuck inside the pig carcass, and had him committed to an asylum. Finally free, she is leaving to stay with her sister Ethel in Norwich.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #38: "Boy's Games"

Martin remains with Mercury, and the group eventually reunites with Zed and Errol. For their new camp, Zed chooses a spot in the countryside, near an old graveyard and a dilapited church.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #39: "Twins—The Hanged Man"

NOTE: "Twins," the title of this two-part storyline, does not appear on the title page, which simply contains the subtitle "The Hanged Man." The title "Twins" is stated in this issue's letters column.

In Houma, a mentally handicapped boy named Danny vanishes as his mother Harriet shops at the Peyer Market Grocery. Harriet runs for help, but her boyfriend Jack is uncaring toward her "little zombie boy," whom he feels should be hospitalized. Terrified, she searches the town until finding him outside Houma Toys 'N' Sundries. Unable to talk, he stares transfixed at a Pinocchio doll in the window. Relieved, she buys it for him. Back in the swamp, Abby waits sadly for Alec to return, fearful that the months Tefé has spent disembodied have left her unable to recall her flesh existsnce. Najagarjuk says he must leave for a few days, casting a spell to make Abby rest. She awakens as a fierce wind whisks Tefé away; she tries to follow but is blown into a tree and knocked unconscious. Shattered, she hugs the baby's remains and waits for her to return. The next day, Chester visits to take her shopping. Hobbling on crutches and nearly recovered, he is stunned at her condition, urging her to see a doctor. Tefé wanders to a nearby park, where she sees Danny and his doll among other children. To their joy, she enters the doll and brings it to life. Meanwhile, Harriet breaks up with Jack, having gotten a job at her friend Emmie's beauty shop to support herself and Danny. The mother of a boy named Gerald sees the living doll and screams, alerting other mothers, who take their children and run. As Harriet runs to save her son, Jack grabs a rifle and shoots the doll to protect the boy. Abby arrives as the doll regenerates and recognizes it as Tefé, who leaves the doll and becomes a spirit once more. Abby tries to keep the doll, but ultimately hands it over to Jack, who gives it to Danny and apologizes, finally able to see the boy's special nature. As Jack and Harriet mend their ways, Chester and Abby return home. Reeled in by one of Najagarjuk's spells, Tefé's spirit heads there as well. Chester, however, does not trust the Shaman.

Swamp Thing (Series 2) #101: "Keepsakes"

Alec returns Eyam to the Parliament in Brazil. Entering the soil, Eyam wills the nearby plants not to drink the water he holds so he can bring it to Houma. There, Hurricane Jenny threatens to destroy the town as thousands evacuate the area, clogging the highways. A pro-abortion activist walks from car to car, pushing her agenda, and when she burns a flag, an anti-abortion youth named George hits her with a baseball bat. Such hatred fuels the Grey, giving it strength. Alex returns to the swamp, joining Abby, Najagarjuk and Brenda near a campfire. Najagarjuk shows Alec a leaf he found that is not part of the Green. Sensing an evil taint, Alec realizes it fell from Hell in the destruction of Mashkan-Shapir. Before the Shaman can stop him, Alec tosses it in the fire, alerting Matango's army of Grey to their whereabouts. The damage done, the Shaman begins the ceremony, combining Tefé's remains with meteor ash, soil from the spot she died, the Eden water and a staff of larch connected to Sarga. Linking minds, they will Tefé to communicate. Meanwhile, the Hell Priest wanders Houma, unaffected by the raging hurricane. He seeks Tefé, and an army of Hell's damned encircle Alec's home to prevent her restoration. Alec leaves the fire to reinforce the house against the storm and is attacked by the undead. Leaving his Grey-tainted body, he re-animates several old husks from the swamp to defend his friends and family. Tefé begins to grow a new form, but the Grey taints the body. Severing her connection to the body, Alec saves her from damnation. Moments later, the hurricane destroys the undead and levels his home.

Swamp Thing (Series 2) #102: "And All the King's Horses"

Post-hurricane, the swamp is awash with the shattered bodies of the undead. A giant pod opens, created by Alec. Inside are Tefé, Brenda, Abby and Najagarjuk. The Shaman is dead, having been crushed when the storm hit. With no time for ceremony, Alec forms a coffin around the Shaman's body and lets the swamp claim him, then takes Tefé to the Parliament for protection. Matango communes with the Hell Priest to form a duplicate of Alec from Grey matter and abduct her. The Priest attacks Abby and Brenda as Alec's duplicate pulls him and Tefé into the Grey. Within the Grey, Alec meets Alan Hallman, who claims to have been his direct predecessor as Erl King. Alec is skeptical, knowing of no hosts between Albert Höllerer and himself, but with Matango calling them to an eternity in his Chamber of Dreams, the validity of Hallman's words is not his primary concern. Abby and Brenda run to an abandoned oil platform, hoping to find a radio, but to no avail. The Priest follows, able to track them through fungus in the platform's rust. Alec tries to escape his Grey prison, succeeding only with Tefé's help. As the Hell Priest heads for Abby, Brenda uses magic her grandfather taught her to reduce the creature to dust.

Swamp Thing (Series 2) #103: "Exodus"

The day before Tefé's first birthday finds Abby traveling to Brazil with Alec hidden inside her wedding ring. With mankind levelling the Brazillian rain forests, roads extend only a few miles from the once-isolated Parliament, and when they arrive, the tribe guarding the Parliament stop her from entering the sacred grove. Tefé floats into her arms as Bifa leads her and Alec inside, explaining that when Alec created the Parliament, he passed along all of his memories to the Founders. Thus, they knew of his eventual time-traveling adventures and had to make sure history would unfold as usual in order to protect their own existence. He learns of the existence of the Inner and Outer Houses, and Bifa's role in passing communications between them. Now that Alec's time-journey has passed, that barrier is irrelevant―all have become one mind once again, and all know his true nature as the first Founder. Inside Founders Grove, Alec sees the rooted forms of the first thirteen members: Yggdrasil, Tuuru, Eyam, an algae-based creature named Misk, a shark, a lobster, a snail, a jellyfish, an eel, two fish species, a plant called Canan Kax and the serpentine husk that was once Matango. The Founders reveal that Alec's immediate predecessor was not Alex Olsen but rather Alan Hallman, who was taken captive by the Grey before he could take root. The Parliament teach Tefé to grow a new body, nourishing her with fruit from Tuuru's branches. Once inside the Parliament's mind, Abby learns about the Grey's origins and how Matango came to be its leader. The Grey, she learns, have remained mollified by the damage mankind has caused, but Tefé's existsnce has re-invigorated the older race of man, bringing with them a new Holocaust. The Parliament, fearful of another war, forbids Alec from taking further action, though Eyam disagrees, having suffered an eternity in Matango's grasp. With Eyam's help, Alec sets out to rescue the missing elementals of the Garden of Bereavement.

Swamp Thing (Series 2) #104: "The Quest for the Elementals I-Matango"

Alec visits the Yucatán forests of Mexico to find the missing eighth founder, Canan Kax, held for millennia inside an ancient Mayan tomb where he was ambushed by the Grey. Back in Brazil, Tefé plays with the plane hanging from Albert Höllerer's branches. Abby hears gunfire outside the grove as ranchers slaughter the local natives to take their land for cattle grazing. A lone survivor wonders why the Earth spirits did nothing to help. Unaware, Alec examines the fungus crystal layer holding Kax, amplifying its energy to free the Founder. Kax inquires about Abby and Tefé, having retained Alec's memories and desires. After Eden's fall, Kax recalls, he led others from the uprooted Parliament to scout out a new home. The Grey ambushed them on this spot, absorbing most of them. Kax encased its body in sap for protection, but Matango's slaves planted poison Grey thorns in the sap, preventing him from breaking free. The ranchers bring Abby, Tefé and the surviving native to an open pit filled with dead natives and a deceased anthropologist. Pushing the native into the pit, the lead rancher orders an underling named Jesus to kill Abby, then takes Tefé to sell on the White slavery market. As Alec updates Kax on the war with Matango, several Chacs approach. The Grey's ambassadors to mankind, they fail to woo Alec to submit to its will. Tefé sees her mother lying dead and reacts in fury, killing every human and animal in the area before forming Abby a new body. Höllerer uproots to retrieve them, returning to the Parliament before Alec. The Parliament is disturbed by Tefé's actions, as is Abby, who is overwhelmed and fearful of her daughter.

Swamp Thing (Series 2) #105: "The Quest for the Elementals II-Living Sacrifices"

Over the next six weeks, Matango makes his move, reviving dead animals in the Kenyatta Game Preserve to attack hunters; animating mushrooms at a McHappy Clown to attack a burger-flipper named Sancho; and urging people in East Jersalem and a thousand other cities to climb high buildings so their bodies can explode and spread the Grey's seeds of corruption. Alec finds Abby in the Garden of Bereavement, mourning those Tefé killed. She fears the child, un-nerved by what has happened. Höllerer, she says, said nothing when he found them, merely giving Tefé his plane and carrying them silently for miles―all the while passing one dead creature after another. The tally is devastating: all animal life within 22 miles is dead, including two townships and 68 species now extinct. All told, over 6,000 pople have died, and Abby fears what will happen as Tefé grows older. Still the Grey grows stronger, infecting a field of rye in the U.S. Midwest and killing all who eat it within 48 hours; overflowing pantries in Surrey, England, with fungus; luring mankind and animals in Rio de Janiero to fornicate with those absorbed by the Grey; overgrowing Paris lavatories with mildew; and contaminating innoculated children in Metropolis with fungus spores. Moved to act, the Parliament sends Alec to the Himilayas to free more trapped elementals. There, he meets Ohtehrah, whose elemental reign ended when mankind killed the Neanderthals. Severing his roots to the Parliament, Ohtehrah led the few survivors across the mountains to a secret cave, where he stayed with them until the last died, around 210 B.C. Rarely seen, they became the basis of the Yeti Snowman and the demon Raksa of modern legend. Before dying, the tribe created paintings prophesizing that Tefé would usher in their rebirth. Ever since, Ohtehrah has communed with spirits, maintaining neutrality in the struggle between the Green and the Grey. He shows Alec the Chang-Arhkaw, a construct of globes within globes in which three elemental souls lie trapped. In so doing, he betrays his vow of neutrality. Furious, Matango sends creatures from its Chamber of Dreams―elementals made from those Matango has defeated―to absord them. Because of Yggdrasil's tainted half, his thoughts are known to Matango, who knows Alec is here. Before Alec can free his ancestors, Alan Hallman and two other Grey elementals arrive to overpower them.

Swamp Thing (Series 2) #106: "The Quest for the Elementals III-

Dead Tribes and Forgotten Souls"

NOTE: The Yeti do, in fact, exist in the DC/Vertigo universe, as shown in varies series over the years, most recently in Hawkman. As such, the Neanderthals would more accurately be said to have perpetuated the Yeti legend rather than inspiring it. In fact, Yeti also appear or are mentioned in the pages of Swamp Thing itself: in issues #82 and 159 of Series 2, and in issue 7 of Series 4.

As Matango's minions absorb Ohtehrah, Abby watches elementals come and go in the Parliament, ignoring her pleas for someone to explain what's going on. Eating a seed from the grove, merges minds with Yggdrasil, who says Alec is outside the Green. With so many falling to the Grey, however, they have not the energy to rescue him. Alec awakens beneath the Pacific Ocean, trapped with over a thousand others within a fragment of the asteroid that brought the Grey to Earth. Among those trapped are a deer-based elemental named Hart-in-the-Trees, a sabertooth tiger called Fields-That-Stalk and others based on the forms of an ape, a boar and an alligator. Fields-That-Stalk says their bodies are made of kelp―were they to escape, they'd be eaten by fish, left vulnerable to Matango. These spirits have been here since the Great Migration from Eden. Great Phoenix, an eagle-based elemental who reigned in the early days of the Egyptian Empire, spots a piece of red kelp descending from above. Poisonous to fish, it is the key to their salvation. The current, however, carries it too far for the elementals to reach. With a quarter of the Parliament fallen to the Grey, Alec risks death by swimming out to the red kelp and drawing the attention of the hungry fish. Back in the Parliament, mushrooms and fungi infect the empty receptacles in the Garden of Bereavement. Eyam and an algae-based elemental, Misk, try to communicate with Abby and Tefé but their minds are still with Yggdrasil. What's more, the seed Abby ate was infected with fungus, connecting her with his Grey half. Even now, that half of Yggdrasil tries to trick Abby into falling further into the Grey.

Swamp Thing (Series 2) #107: "The Quest for the Elementals IV-

Stabs of Life Echoing in a Void"

Hordes of fish nip at Alec as he makes his way to the falling kelp. Great Phoenix fears he won't make it, for without enough Green in the trench to rebuild himnself, he'll fall to the Grey. Therefore, several of those trapped sacrifice themselves by withdrawing their presence from the limited Green around them. Alec builds himself a body of red kelp, but hundreds of elementals are absorbed into the Grey before he can free them. Those few who survive build kelp bodies for themselves and follow him back to Brazil. There, realizing what has happened to Abby and Tefé, the Parliament attempt to break them free of Yggdrasil's control. Meanwhile, Ohtehrah taunts Matango, who has swallowed too many souls at once, weakening the Grey. Ohtehrah, though his captive, has found his spirit center and knows Matango cannot absorb him. Matango is unconcerned, confident that the Neanderthal will fall in time, along with all of the Green. Members of the Grey attack the Parliament in force, intent on capturing Alec's family. Eyam, Misk and others rise to protect them. Misk begins to fall, but before his algae can poison the entire grove, Alec and the freed elementals arrive to fend off the Grey attack. Yggdrasil, fearful that Matango will use him to hurt the Green, withdraws from the Parliament, leaving Tuuru in control. To save Abby and Tefé's spirits from Matango, Alec enters Matango's discarded receptacle of knowledge, hoping for a way to defeat the Grey leader. There, he sees Matango's origins and learns a lesson about his own potential for corruptibility.

Swamp Thing (Series 2) #108: "The Quest for the Elementals V-Siege"

All-out war ensues between the Green and the Grey. Alec returns to the Parliament, where Canan Kax says the Green is being damaged by the uprooting of so many elementals. During the previous Green/Grey war, their exodus from the Garden of Eden triggered the last Ice Age. No more than a dozen, he says, should be uprooted at any one time, as they are needed to feed energy to the Green. Alec and several others climb the dead side of Yggdrasil, hoping to enter Matango's Shadow realms. Within the Grey, Matango orders Abby to consume a challice of mushrooms and be herself consumed, but Tefé uses her power to jump them both back to Founder's Grove. This distraction gives Ohtehrah time to enter Matango's roots and commune with the spirits of the first Grey spirits to land on Earth, who are not happy with Matango's actions. Alec's team descends into the Vault of Discarded Selves, containing the shed bodies of fallen Parliament members. Alec re-animates those bodies as a reminder of what Matango has left behind, forcing Matango to consume a piece of his own receptacle. This contact with his formerly Green self sends him into shock, a perpetual prisoner of his Chamber of Dreams. Ohtehrah assumes his role as leader of the Grey and ends the war in the name of the original Grey inhabitants, who simply wanted to renew their race on this planet. Matango had promised them such in return for the power to build his own Parliament, and Ohtehrah vows that if ever the Green should ever falter and collapse, he will assert the Grey's right to replace it. Those absorbed by the Grey are released, and though most return to the Parliament, several remain with the Grey to keep its spirits at peace. With Tuuru guiding the Green, Yggdrasil serves as ambassador to the Grey. After the war, time-traveller Justin Arthur (the Shining Knight of All-Star Squadron) returns to tell Abby he hasn't found her husbnad after two years of searching. At that moment, he notices Alec. Introducing himself, Alec gives him the Grey's Challice and asks him to hide it from mankind. Though exhausted, the Knight accepts the quest, taking to the skies on his winged steed.

Swamp Thing (Series 2) #109: "The Quest for the Elementals VI-A Descent of Shadows"

NOTE: Though Justin Arthur says he has been searching for Alec for two years, he left to find him in 1989, in issue #87, at most a year-and-a-half earlier. It should be noted that Kax's statement that no more than a dozen elementals can be uprooted at once makes no sense within established lore, for this same storyline shows that over a thousand have been uprooted since the Battle of Eden millennia ago, with seemngly no ill effect.

Summer 1990 A.D.

Joe Hollis, a low-life from Camden, England, gets drunk and urinates off a bridge, unaware he's standing over a train track, not a river. When his urine hits the live rail, an electric jolt travels up the stream, frying off his genitals and leaving him a sullen man with a death wish. His humanity destroyed along with his manhood, he grows sadistic and takes several gruesome jobs for local gangster Mike Adams, cutting off a man's fingers for getting mouthy during a collection.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #47: "The Pub Where I Was Born"

Autumn 1990 A.D.

The Freedom Mob reforms as John Constantine, Marj, Mercury and Martin meet up with Zed and Errol. Skilled with animals, Martin helps Mercury deliver twin lambs to a pregnant sheep. Meanwhile, Marj wonders if Constantine will abandone them again. Sure enough, he is having second thoughts—not because he doesn't want to be with her, but because he feels unable to follow through. Suddenly, the image of a child shimmering in light appears—it's the Golden Boy, who appeared to him several times whenever he felt sad as a child. The sight is beautiful, and it brings him to tears as he explains: The Golden Boy first appeared when he was four or five, while he and his father were visiting his mother's grave. A sickly child, often in trouble and aware his father blamed him for Mary Anne's death, he decided his dad might love him if he could absord the boy's strength. As he grew older, the Golden Boy's appearances reminded him of his own inadequacy. He asks Zed's help in sorting it out. Using a tarot deck, she has him choose three cards: the Hanged Man (representing who he is), the Tower (in between) and the Magus (who he'd like to be). Magic takes him back to the moment of birth, when his mother and twin brother died during childbirth. Stunned to find that he had a twin and caused his death, and that the other would have been a great magus had he lived, Constantine is devastated. Downing a bag of Errol's psychedelic mushrooms, Constantine hallucinates returning to the moment of birth and crawling back into the womb so he can stop himself form killing the other child. In his mind, the Golden Boy lives, while he dies at birth. Shortly thereafter, Errol follows his footprints into a cave, which end abruptly at a lake with no clue to his whereabouts.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #39: "Twins—The Hanged Man"

NOTE: "Twins," the title of this two-part storyline, does not appear on the title page, which simply contains the subtitle "The Hanged Man." The title "Twins" is stated in this issue's letters column. The next issue, #40, takes place in the future, when Constantine is an old man.

Unable to find Constantine, Errol awakens Zed and tells her what has happened. Meanwhile, Mercury dreams of an alternate reality where Constantine died during childbirth and his stillborn twin, the Golden Boy, survives instead. Known as the Magus, this version of Constantine is beloved by all but never quite feels whole until age 77, when he and his dead twin finally merge as one being. In her dream, as in that reality, Mercury and Errol eventually wed and have a son, also called Errol, a granddaughter named Mary and twin great-grandchildren. Hearing of Constantine's disappearance, the Freedom Mob searches their entire compound for him but to no avail. Returning to the cave, they find that its entrance is no longer there, and in its place lies a gravestone for Constantine. Frustrated, Errol and Zed realize he has left them once again.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #40: "Twins—The Magus"

NOTE: "Twins," the title of this two-part storyline, does not appear on the title page, which simply contains the subtitle "The Magus." The title "Twins" is stated in the letters column to issue #39.

Constantine's decision to leave the Freedom Mob is, in part, a reaction to Marj's desire to settle down—for which he's not yet ready—as well as his fear of being a father and his realization that they're too different: she is a "back-to-nature" type who believes in organic gardening, whereas he's more comfortable microwaving his dinner.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #47: "The Pub Where I Was Born"

Between Autumn 1990 and March 1991 A.D.

As John Constantine eats his breakfast one morning, Jerry Monaghan—an old friend, now a reporter for The Naked Truth—climbs through his living room window, claiming to be possessed by demons. A masochist pain junkie drawn to the occult, Monaghan has allowed sixty or seventy demons to enter his body. Constantine performs an exorcism on the first demon, causing Monaghan to soil himself. Leaving this friend to die by himself, tired of being drawn into others' problems, Constantine brings the soiled clothes to a launderette in Peckham. As he reads a tabloid called The Sport, two old women, Joan and Phyllis, discuss his resemblance to Peter Falk's Columbo—it's the coat—while a young girl watches him from the floor. Joan worked here a few years back, when it was a fruit and vegetable store. Now, they come here each night before 10:00. One of their friends, Florrie, recently committed suicide, but still they await her arrival. As time passes, he feels inexplicably nervous, particularly upon seeing a woman doing a crossword puzzle filled with words connoting death and the Devil. A young man tells Constantine there's a phone call for him, and the voice on the other end spouts bizarre nursery rhymes, asking if he's hiding from Jerry. Hanging up, Constantine ponders the question, as the launderette and its inhabitants seem increasingly more bizarre to him. A crash in the butcher shop next door startles him, but the ladies say not to worry—it's Florrie, putting herself back together after falling 12 floors. Realizing he's among the dead, Constantine leaves the launderette for a pub across the street. After he leaves, Florrie joins her dead friends at the launderette, who pull out a needle and thread to sew her broken body back together.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #51: "Counting to Ten"

NOTE: An editor's note places this issue between issues #40 and 41, "before Constantine met Kit [Ryan]" in #41. Since Constantine knew Kit Ryan for years before issue #40, it's safe to say this should be interpreted as "before Constantine met up with Kit."

October 15, 1990 A.D.

A child molester called "the Bad Man" abducts a boy named Tommy from an Indiana playground.

Swamp Thing (Series 2) Annual #6: "Les Perdu"

The Bad Man lures Tommy into his truck by offering to take him to a circus.

Swamp Thing (Series 2) #118: "A Child's Garden"

After abducting Tommy, the Bad Man heads for Houma, Louisiana.

Swamp Thing (Series 2) Annual #6: "Les Perdu"

October 30, 1990 A.D.

Reunited, the Holland family relaxes in their swampy home, happy to be away from the Parliament of Trees, John Constantine and other distractions. Though she knows they'll never be "normal," Abby is glad at least to be happy. Alec grows a new home to replace the one destroyed by the hurricane; unlike the first, this one resembles a Southern plantation. At Bayou Perdu Bridge, the child molester known as the Bad Man throws his latest victim, a bound young boy named Tommy, into the bayou as punishment for trying to runaway. Nearby, three drunk Cajuns (Jean Theriot, Theo and Louis) beat and kill a gay man named Bill Ingersol to teach him a lesson for being gay (and to cover Jean's self-hatred for having picked him up at a gay bar). He, too, is thrown into the bayou. That night, Abby awakens from a nightmare involving Tefé, a herd of sheep being led to the slaughter and a Stonehenge-like place of evil. As Alec calms her nerves, the Bayou Perdu takes its third victim, a Cajun woman named Carmen who has just had a backroom abortion; her boyfriend, gator hunter Merle Layton, has grown tired of her and kills her so he can pursue other women.

Swamp Thing (Series 2) Annual #6: "Les Perdu"

Before November 22, 1990 A.D.

Nigel Engels Archer, a psychic and self-fashioned radical journalist, tries to perform voodoo on British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, but her alliance with the First of the Fallen protects her.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #63: "Forty"

NOTE: No specific date is provided, but this most likely occurred before her resignation.

November 30, 1990 A.D.

After the Hollands settle into their new home, Labo takes Abby and Tefé to Houma to visit Chester. Liz is visitng her friend Barb, whom she met while working at a rape crisis hotline; what he doesn't know is that she and Barb are lovers and planning to move to Portland, Oregon. While at a supermarket, Abby meets Carl Vinter, a young gay man searching for his own lover, Bill Ingersol, who disappeared a month earlier while on company business. Later, at a bar called Poochie's on Highway 57, two delinquents named Chuck and Rene beat to death their cocaine-dealing employer, Tiger LaRue, as revenge for years of abuse and disrespect. Tiger becomes the Bayou Perdu's fourth victim, and as he falls to the bottom, his body makes contact with those of Tommy, Carmen and Bill. Their combined anger produces a vortex of energy that engulfs their bodies and those of nearby animals to create Les Perdu, the living embodiment of revenge.

Swamp Thing (Series 2) Annual #6: "Les Perdu"

December 1990 A.D.

Les Perdu stalks the swamp, searching for those who killed its four former selves. As Labo returns home after helping the Gerard family give birth, Les Perdu spots him but lets him live, un-interested in the innocent. Its first victims are Chuck and Rene, killed while searching Tiger's trailer for drugs. Tiger's elderly neighbors, Vic and Nat'ly, call the cops, thinking it the work of the "swamp critter" they saw on A Current Affair. Meanwhile, in Houma, Chester brings Abby to Jo-Jo's Bar, owned by a biker named Joseph "Jo-Jo" Jones, a friend of Chester's since high school. Tonight's entertainment: a game of Chicken Drop. To Abby's astonishment, the patrons feed a chicken called Elmyra a laxative and then bet on where he'll defecate. Carl Vinter enters the bar, asking about Bill. Defensive about his own closet homosexuality, Jean Theriot roughs him up, prompting Jo-Jo to throw Jean out at rifle-point. During the scuffle, Merle Layton leaves with his latest conquest and is attacked by Les Perdu. As others in the bar run outside, the creature beheads Jean on sight. Seeing Carl, the Bill aspect of Les Perdu is saddened, and the creature wanders back to the swamp. Alec's arrival causes the locals to recoil, remembering what happened years before in Gotham City, but Abby and Chester reassure them not to fear him. Merle is loaded onto an ambulance minus one hand, and as the crowd returns to its business, only Carl and Alec understand what has happened.

Swamp Thing (Series 2) Annual #6: "Les Perdu"

Winter 1990 A.D.

Still reeling from his experience with the Golden Boy, John Constantine lays low for the while winter. Aside from the occasional pint with Chas, or Christmas with Cheryl's family, Constantine's life remains uneventful for the first time in a long time.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #41: "Dangerous Habits, Part One—The Beginning of the End"

NOTE: The letters page to this issue indicates six months have passed since #40, which jibes well since that issue is set in the autumn and this one in the spring.

1990s A.D.

Alternate Timeline: The Earth (or perhaps God) strikes humanity for its sins. A great flood washes over the planet, but the Golden Boy—John Constantine's stillborn twin in the "real" world, given a chance at life and the same name, now revered as the Magus—saves his followers (Benjamin Cox, Gary Lester, Zed, Errol, Marj, Mercury, Martin, Ritchie Simpson, Astra Logue and others) from certain death by creating for them a safe community in East Anglia, England, on a countryside surrounding a church tower.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #40: "Twins—The Magus"

1991 A.D.

The Sunderland Corp. and the military invest in an armored suit called the Marauder, allowing the wearer to become a one-person army. Viewing a promotional tape of its capabilities, Sunderland CEO Alan Windsor announces that the military has cut its funding. Therefore, Windsor pays the suit's pilot, Hastings, to become a supervillain and destroy several Manhattan buildings owned by a company competing with Sunderland in a hostile takeover. As a failsafe, Windsor tells Dr. Moon, his chief scientist, to rig a destruct device in the suit. With Dr. Molitor monitoring his progress, Marauder levels a skyscraper on Fifth and 44th. Realizing her father, Senator Walter Reilly, and his fiancée Eleanor were in the building, Lorraine Reilly (Firehawk) battles the Marauder. Katar Hol (Hawkman) joins the fight, and together they stop the armored killing machine. To avoid being linked to the Marauder, Sunderland self-destructs the suit and sets out to obtain Hawkwman's antigravity metal to make the next suit they build more maneuverable.

Hawkworld #13: "Wall Street Raider"

Blackhawk Express CEO Weng Chan calls in a favor from Sunderland Corp.'s Alan Windsor, asking him to design new backpacks for Hawkman and Hawkgirl. Windsor agrees, hoping this will give his company an opportunity to steal their antigravity metal for his Captains of Industry project. However, their mandate never to share Thanagarian technology keeps the metal out of his firm's hands. Despite his dealings with Windsor, Chan warns the Hawks that Sunderland was once corrupt and is rumored to be corrupt again. Meanwhile, Sunderland furthers its Metamorphosis Project, subjecting small-time smash-and-grab thief Richard Shay to a meta-gene splicing experiment that transforms him into the villain known as Ricochet.

Hawkworld Annual #2: "Racing Against Time"

NOTE: An Armageddon 2001 crossover.

In year three of Sunderland Corp's Project Cornucopia, the company's treachery is revealed as the rich soil that served many generations of a certain Central American country turns to sand. When livestock and children began malforming, the local villagers form a delegation of elders, all of whom are killed by the corrupt government.

Swamp Thing (Series 2) #124: "Husks"

In Mud Creek, Texas, 58-year-old preacher Father Esau Tocsin warns his followers, the Caravan of Faith, of the folly of sin. A snake named Lazarus coils around his shoulders, watching the crowd as Tocsin poisons them all to death. Authorities attribute the Mud Creek deaths to ritual cult suicide. Back in Louisiana, Chester drives Abby and Tefé back to the bayou. She senses something wrong, and he later tells Alec his relationship with Liz has gone sour. Later that week, Father Tocsin arrives in Terrebonne Parish, hoping this time his Caravan of Faith will have better results and that people here will be more deserving of God's Grace. There, in a section of town the Cajuns call Paratownerre ("Lightning Rod"), Labo and Ada visit a shopkeeper named Alceē. Tocsin visits the shop, spreading posters of his upcoming revival. This makes Labo nervous, though Ada accuses him of being jealous of another man of the cloth. As Tocsin prepares wine laced with strychnine, he recalls how an angel appeared to him after he molested and killed a young boy, assuring him he was doing the Lord's work by smiting all sinners. The night of the revival, Ada attends without her husband. Though a good man, Labo has no use for organized religion. When Tocsin poisons the masses, Labo rushes Ada to Alec, who removes the poison and then saves the others, frightening Tocsin out of the church. There, Labo waits, knife in hand; beheading Lazarus, he forces Tocsin to drink the tainted wine. Alec chooses not to intervene, letting the deranged preacher die by his own poison.

Swamp Thing (Series 2) #110: "Any Deadly Thing"

To thank Alec for stopping Father Tocsin, the Cajuns buy the Hollands a stove and refrigerator.

Swamp Thing (Series 2) #112: "All the Swamp King's Men"

The Bad Man returns home to kill his abusive parents, keeping their bodies so he can torture them for the crimes they committed in his childhood.

Swamp Thing (Series 2) #119: "The Bad Man"

Picking berries in the woods, Abby and Alec consider the trials of parenthood. Realizing that Tefé has wandered off, they search the woods and find her listening to an elderly Black Cajun man playing an accordian. He tells them he has lived in the swamp since the days of Alex Olsen; the swamp is full of ghosts, ghouls and other creatures, he says, and many rumors and tales have their basis in fact. Among them, the loupagarous (werewolves), letiche (spirits of unbaptized babies that haunt living children and take away their breath) and singing bones (spirits of children slain by their mothers to feed the family). He tells them of pirate Jean LaFitte and his sworn enemy, Dark Conrad, who sailed the Caribbean in the 1820s, and he relates his own history as a young musician in 1931. As Ya-Ya prepares to leave, he bids Abby to pass on the stories to others. He has returned from the dead, he says, to warn that a storm is coming-only the spirit of Jean Lafitte can save them. Giving them a coin from LaFitte's hidden treasure to summon the dead pirate, Ya-Ya disappears with a hearty laugh.

Swamp Thing (Series 2) #111: "Zydeco Ya-Ya"

Beaten and molested since childhood, a 17-year-old runs away from home. On his own for three years, he begins molesting boys as his father did to him, resenting his parents for making him into a monster. His crimes earn him the press-coined moniker of the Bad Man, as he commits a rash of kidnappings and molestations across the country.

Swamp Thing (Series 2) #119: "The Bad Man"

Freddie Collins, manager of the Northampton Arms pub in Camden, England, dies. Most of the community shows up for his funeral, as Freddie was a popular man. To their surprise, his loving wife Laura refrains from breaking down. Instead, she quietly weeps, recalling his promise throughout their 30-year marriage that he'd always be around to take care of her and the bar. To keep that promise, his spirit remains in the bar, comforting her in times of need. After Freddie's death, the owner, a man named Carson, makes Laura the manager.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #47: "The Pub Where I Was Born"

A private corporation buys a research center in Stokesley, a small farming town north of Yorkshire, where the British government had been conducting chemical tests, food-safety checks, water purification experiments and other research since the 1950s. Once privatized, the lab stops hiring local workers and becomes a very secretive setup, its purpose unknown outside its doors.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #57: "Mortal Clay"

Some time before March 1991 A.D.

Former World War II soldier Matt Higgins is admitted to Saint Ann's Hospital with heart disease, early-stage lung cancer and cirrhosis of the liver. Terminally ill, he is assigned to the cancer wing in Ward 7. Unable to move his bowels, he tells a doctor, who orders laxatives. However, a nurse, Sister Morgan, suggests further testing, and a colonoscopy reveals he also has bowel cancer.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #44: "Dangerous Habits, Part Four—My Way"

Late March 1991 A.D.

Feeling sick and haggard, John Constantine ends up coughing up blood and pieces of flesh. Scared, he visits a physician, Dr. Ellis, who says he's dying of advanced lung cancer. Sobered by the news, he leaves to purchase more cigarettes, then goes home and tries to sleep. However, the ghosts of Astra Logue, Frank North, Sister Ann-Marie, Benjamin Cox, Gary Lester, Emma and Thomas Constantine haunt him in a dream, telling him he's dead. Awakening in terror, he reaches for a cigarette, then vomits up more lung. Constantine calls in a favor from Mark, a doctor at Saint Ann's Hospital. Lying that his Aunt Dolly has cancer, he gets Mark to provide a tour of the cancer ward. When Mark is called away to handle an emergency, Constantine is left among the dying and befriends a cancer patient in Ward 7 named Matt Higgins. A former soldier, a "Desert Rat," he fought at Alamein in World War II, then returned home to find peacetime not as exciting as war. Turning to smoking and drinking to pass the time, Matt began a downward spiral culminating in lung and bowel cancer. Promising to visit again, Constantine heads home and receives a call from Ellis, who has discovered unusual elements in his blood and asks him to return for more testing. Realizing the doctor wants to study his demon blood, he hangs up and goes for a walk, then visits Frank's Cafe to ponder the future.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #41: "Dangerous Habits, Part One—The Beginning of the End"

NOTE: The letters page to this issue indicates six months have passed since #40, which jibes well since that issue is set in the autumn and this one is in the spring. In addition, Constantine says it's been three years since the demon-blood infusion of 1988, and two years since his last run-in with Nergal, which occurred in 1989. This evidence firmly sets "Dangerous Habits" in spring 1991. What's more, issue #43 is said to occur on May 1, more than a month since Constantine's diagnosis of cancer. Thus, #41 and #42 must take place in late March.

Constantine travels to Ireland and takes the Hollyhead to Dun Laoghaire ferry. He orders a pint, vomiting when a traveling truck driver, noticing his seasickness, sets an eggs-and-bacon breakfast before him. The ferry docks at Dun Laoghaire, and after using magic to flatten the driver's wheels, he hops a cab to the old Enniskerry Road, near Killiney, to find his friend Brendan Finn, a fellow mage he hasn't seen since 1983. Getting drunk, the two reminisce about old times. Constantine informs him about the deaths of Emma, Gary Lester and Ritchie Simpson, and Finn tells him Kit Ryan—his ex-wife, whom Constantine also secretly loved—grew tired of his alcoholism and left him in 1987. Finn shows Constantine his wine cellar, which has replaced magic and Kit as his first love. The cellar is built in an underground cave blessed by Saint Patrick, Ireland's patron saint, some 1,500 years earlier. At its center is a pool of water, transformed into holy water by the saint, which Finn has magically changed into stout ale. Getting plastered, Constantine tells him about the cancer and asks his help in curing it, but Finn laughs, saying he was going to ask for help curing liver disease. Unable to save each other, they continue to drink until Finn passes out. Constantine climbs out of the cellar, halting at the terrible smell of a dark-suited man in the doorway. Stunned, he realizes this is the devil, also called the First of the Fallen. The First mocks him, saying he already has Constantine's father in Hell. Finn had sold his soul in return for the expertise and power to amass a collection of the finest drink ever tasted-with the stipulation that he must claim Finn's soul by midnight of the day he dies, or else Finn can go to Heaven. At five minutes to midnight, Constantine offers the First a glass of stout, saying he's always wanted to drink with the devil. The First accepts and downs the pint. As he gags on the blessed beverage, Constantine smashes a wine bottle across his face, knocking him into the holy pool, which dissolves his body. Midnight passes as the First returns to Hell, and though he's saved his friend's soul, Constantine knows he's in a lot of trouble when it's his turn to die.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #42: "Dangerous Habits, Part Two—A Drop of the Hard Stuff"

NOTE: The First of the Fallen (known only as "the Devil" in this issue) and his fellow devils, the Second and Third of the Fallen, are all separate entities than Lucifer Morningstar, who appears in Hellblazer #12 with fellow devils Beelzebub and Belial as the triumvirate rulers of Hell. (Belial is identified as Azazel in Neil Gaiman's Sandman.) Lucifer also features in Weird Mystery Tales #4, and more prominently in both Sandman and Lucifer, while Beelzebub shows up in Swamp Thing #96 and elsewhere. The First is also separate from the various Satans featured in DC's Teen Titans #25 and other titles. In each series, and in other DC/Vertigo titles, rulership of Hell seems to vary widely, as do many other aspects of the afterlife. This discrepancy can be explained by noting that the DC universe's Hell and Heaven are both shaped by perception and, thus, prone to change. The film Constantine, based loosely on "Dangerous Habits," combines Lucifer and the First as one character, Lucifer (hardly a surprise, as it gets so many other facets wrong as well).

April 1991 A.D.

John Constantine spends two weeks trying to find the succubus Chantinelle ("Ellie" for short), who owes him a favor. His hope: that she can help him find a way out of the dilemma he's gotten himself into by speaking to the First of the Fallen on his behalf. Finally, he makes contact with her and arranges a meeting at a beach.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #43: "Dangerous Habits, Part Three—Friends in High Places"

Before May 1991 A.D.

On the advice of John Constantine, Chas Chandler sells his cab and invests his money, only to lose it all. He tries to borrow money from a broker in Halifax, but is unable to secure a loan. With no other choice, he takes a high-interest loan from a dangerous loanshark named Mike Adams—a man known for killing those who miss their payments—then buys a minicar and resumes his taxicab job.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #44: "Dangerous Habits, Part Four—My Way"

May 1, 1991 A.D.

Sitting on a park bench at the beach, Constantine nods off and has a nightmare involving Matthew's cancer phobia from the Fear Machine, then awakens as the demoness Ellie approaches. She is sympathetic to his cause but unable to help, and he resigns himself to damnation. She suggests several options: repenting for his sins and going to Heaven, which he knows is not an option; finding a cure to delay the inevitable; asking Swamp Thing's help, which won't work since they're not on good terms; and consulting the Snob (Gabriel, an angel living on Earth). Despite his reservations, he knows Gabriel is his only option. After a visit with Matt Higgins at Saint Ann's, Constantine goes to the Cambridge Club, a gentlemen's club for Cambridge alumni. Using magic to convince the doorman he has an invitation to see a member named Lord Hailsham, Constantine enters to find Gabriel standing near a fireplace—his usual location since the club was established in 1803—talking to a friend, Charlie Patterson. As Patterson leaves, Constantine sits down to talk business, but Gabriel dismisses him as an evildoer, refusing to help. Furious, Constantine accuses the angels of being the real problem, setting rules for mankind without truly understanding the species. When Gabriel maintains his stance, Constantine reveals that Patterson, a member of the National Front, likes to burn down Pakistani grocers, adding that God would not be happy if he found out the sort of people with whom Gabriel consorts. Leaving Gabriel to mull over that revelation, he heads to a pub to consider his next actions and realizes he has to rely on himself, not beg others for help. The solution he comes up with, however, is almost as dangerous as the disease he's trying to cure.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #43: "Dangerous Habits, Part Three—Friends in High Places"

May 2-15, 1991 A.D.

John Constantine spends the next fortnight planning, checking and double-checking this solution. Eventually, he comes to realize it's the only chance he has for survival.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #44: "Dangerous Habits, Part Four—My Way"

NOTE: A fortnight equals 14 days, so two weeks pass between issues #43 and the beginning of #44. During this period (on May 10, to be exact), Constantine turns 38.

July 1991 A.D.

Ravaged by cancer, so sick he can barely open a cigarette pack, Constantine knows he has only days left to live. He visits his parents' grave, guilt-ridden over the First's claim that his father is in Hell, then travels to Liverpool to see his sister Cheryl's family. She asks him to talk to Gemma, who's been having problems lately, but he hugs her and says a tearful goodbye, omitting any mention of the disease. Heading for London, he meets Chas, who picks him up in the minicar he now uses as a cab. Since Constantine's advice lost Chas his other cab, Chas loses his temper, causing Constantine to get out and walk. After he leaves, Chas finds a note apologizing for past wrongs, reimbursing him for past favors and thanking him for his friendship. Touched, Chas breaks down and cries. Heading home, Constantine consults Ben Cox's copy of Grimorium Verum, studies several spells and heads to the hospital to say goodbye to Matt Higgins. Engaging in gallows humor, he bids his dying friend farewell, then takes a train to Westminster Abbey for one last defiant glare at Big Ben, the symbol of all he detests in the government. Finally, he returns to the Paddington flat where he once lived. Boarded up and abandoned followed the deaths of Mrs. McGuire and Mighty Mouse, the building still emenates with evil, making it ideal for a demonic summoning. Separately calling up the Second and Third of the Fallen—the First's demon brethren and co-rulers of Hell—Constantine makes private deals with each of them, then slits his wrists with a razor blade and waits for the First of the Fallen to arrive. As his blood pools on the floor, the First appears before him as though Jesus Christ bathed in blood, reveling in the chance to watch Constantine die before his eternal torture begins.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #44: "Dangerous Habits, Part Four—My Way"

NOTE: Issue #47 takes place in late summer, four months after Constantine couged up bits of his lung in #41, and one month after Matt Higgins' death in #46. Issue #43 takes place on May 1, while #44-46 all take place over the course of a few days. As such, I have placed #44-46 in July.

As Constantine bleeds to death, the First of the Fallen promises an exquisitely painful damnation. However, the First's mood grows darker when the Second and Third arrive to claim Constantine's soul by virtue of contract. Neither will give ground, determined to have him for their own. The Second takes the form of a shadow, while the Third frequently changes shape, becoming Thomas Constantine, Astra Logue, a serpent, Emma, a hanged man, Elvis Presley and more. The Second and Third are surprised to hear that a mortal insulted the First. Their brother changes the subject in anger, but Constantine humiliates him by relating the holy-water incident. The others mock the First until Constantine reveals he's conned them as well, banking on their duty to claim his sould once he dies, forcing them to cure him to prevent a civil war from ripping Hell apart. The brothers know they've been bested—the first time a mortal has beaten the Devil in a thousand millennia—and that Hell's destruction will result if they go to war for his soul. To force their hand, Constantine cuts open his arm so he'll die in seconds. At the moment of death, he hears a woman's voice, recognizing her as his mother. Knowing they must save him, the Second and Third urge the First to put aside his pride and prevent Hell's destruction. Joining forces, they form an energy grid around him so the First can heal his wrist and cure his cancer, restoring him to perfect health—making the process as painful as possible—then burn him to a crisp and regrow him a brand new body, just to prolong the pain. Constantine is ecstatic, having beaten both cancer and the Devil. With a flourish, he gloats that they'll always need to keep him alive to save themselves. The demons are furious, especially when Constantine flips them the middle finger on his way out the door, with a grinning "Up yours."

John Constantine, Hellblazer #45: "Dangerous Habits, Part Five—The Sting"

NOTE: The subtitle of this issue is a double entendre, referring both to the classic conman film The Sting, and to the fact that Swamp Thing artists Stephen R. Bissette and John Totelben, co-creators of John Constantine with author Alan Moore (and fans of the Police), drew him to resemble Sting.

For months thereafter, the First of the Fallen sits on his throne in Hell, one word on his lips: "Constantine." As he considers the suffering he will one day inflict on John Constantine for his insults, not even the screams of the damned can lift his brooding spirit.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #50: "Remarkable Lives"

The giddiness wears off as Constantine leaves the Paddington flat, realizing he nearly destroyed Hell and all of existence to save his own skin. Rather than congratulating himself for his own cleverness, he is overwhelmed by the knowledge that he is just a lucky amateur, and that the Fallen will do whatever they can to find a way to end his hold on them and make him pay for his insolence. He goes on a two-day personal bender back at his flat, drinking and smoking until he's too smashed senseless to care about anything. This allows him to clear his head so that, once sober again, he can think clearly about what to do next. Eventually, he begins to realize how stupid it was to flip off the Devil, and that he'll always be on the knife edge herein. Getting dressed, he heads out for a walk in the rain, accidentally slamming into a passerby. To his amazement, it's Kit Ryan. The old friends go for tea to reminisce and toast the memory of Brendan Finn. Despite the breakup of their marriage, Constantine can tell she still loves the man. He invites her to a pub, the Red Rover, for a proper toast, but before they leave, Chas Chandler enters, overjoyed to see him but angry at being kept in the dark as always. Still, Chas forgives him, agreeing to meet him at the Northhampton for a pint. As Constantine and Kit head for the Red Rover, he realizes he should let Cheryl and Gemma know he's alive, then remembers Matt Higgins, all alone at Saint Ann's Hospital. With Chas driving, Constantine and Kit rush to the hospital. Matt is still alive, and happy to see him. Kit goes to get tea, and Matt tells him to hold onto her, as it's clear she knows him like few do. Suddenly, Matt doubles over and vomits blood, and Constantine watches helplessly as the medical staff tries to save him despite his kidneys failing. Moments later, he is pronounced dead, and Constantine runs out into the rain, guilt-ridden over being cured of cancer while a good friend died from the same. Returning with the tea, Kit sees the bloody scene and runs out to find Constantine kneeling in the rain. He tells her to get away before he hurts her like he hurts all his friends, but she stays and holds him comfortingly in her arms.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #46: "Dangerous Habits, Epilogue—Falling Into Hell"

Chas Chandler pays off Mike Adams for the cab, then considers investing his money in a one-man delivery service for cafes.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #47: "The Pub Where I Was Born"

July to August 1991 A.D.

John Constantine spends a month mourning the death of his friend Matt Higgins, consumed with guilt that he survived cancer while Matt did not. Kit Ryan attends the funeral, then leaves him alone to mourn in solitude, knowing he's not the type to seek out non-stop comfort.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #47: "The Pub Where I Was Born"

Late Summer 1991 A.D.

As autumn approaches, Constantine and Kit spend time rekindling their friendship. One night, she stops by to see him, agreeing to meet up at the Northampton Arms after his poker game with Chas. As she leaves, he hopes their friendship might become something more. He goes for a walk in the park, contemplating a normal, quiet life, then tosses a mouthy teen in the pond for sassing him. He arrives at the pub, where manager Laura Collins is happy to see him again. Heading round back, he plays a game of poker with Chas and his mates, Martin and Dave, winning hand after hand wth magic. The pub's owner, Carson, is selling the bar, and has hired Joe Hollis—a low-life who got drunk and urinated on a live train rail the summer before, frying off his genitals and giving him a death wish—to force her to leave. Winking to Chas to fold, Constantine cleans out the others, then joins Kit. They catch up on four years' worth of lost time, including Emma's death, his relationships with Zed and Marj, and her own romantic failures since leaving Brendan. As they both get drunk, he realizes how attracted he is to her, wondering if she could be the one for him. Meanwhile, Carson meets with a man named Marcus Quincy, who is buying the pub to build a health club on the land. He has paid Hollis to burn it down for the insurance money, while also clearing the land for the club, but Quincy is worried about being caught, and about Laura getting hurt. As Kit and Constantine leave the pub, the ghost of Laura's recently deceased husband Freddie arrives, as he does each night. She tells him what Carson is planning, scared about what will happen to Freddie when the pub is gone. Hollis arrives with a trio of thugs, named Steve Norris, Del Carter and Tony McKay. Furious that she hasn't left, he punches her unconscious—shattering her jawbone and knocking out her teeth—and tells his lackeys to drag her out back and ignite the place. Awakening in an alley, she runs inside as the pub explodes, incinerating her and reuniting her spirit with Freddie's.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #47: "The Pub Where I Was Born"

The spirits of Freddie and Laura Collins are horrified to see the source of their life and love in flames. The next morning, Constantine awakens at Kit's flat. Sheepishly, he showers, then joins her for a breakfast of eggs and soda bread. Her sister Ann sent her the bread, which she can't get locally. Kit leaves for work, and he wanders the town, stopping for fish and chips at lunchtime. Chas tracks him down to tell him about the Northampton. They visit the charred remains, realizing it was insurance job. With no faith in the police, and sensing hate in the air, Constantine decides to look into it. He poses as a Sun reporter and questions a police officer about the fire, then searches for those responsible. Meanwhile, Carson tells Marcus Quincy about Laura's death. Quincy is horrified, but Carson threatens to sic Hollis on him if he backs out. Elsewhere, Lenny Fisher, known for his ability to find and sell information, enters a cab to find Constantine waiting. Constantine pressures him to name Hollis's gang. He travels to Del Carter's address, where Carter and Tony McKay are laying low. As he arrives, Carter picks up a shotgun and blows off Mckay's head, then sticks a piece of glass through his own throat. Disgusted, Constantine returns to Kit's flat, realizing the presence he felt must have possessed them. Fisher tells Steve Norris about his meeting with Constantine, and Norris bursts into Kit's place, thinking Constantine killed his friends. As he knocks Constantine around, Kit arrives and grabs his testicles in her fist, forcing him to reveal where to find Hollis—in Quincy's office, with Carson. Possessed by the dead couple, Hollis suddenly rips out Carson's entrails and eats them. Constantine arrives in time to stop the ghosts from killing Quincy, warning them not to let their love become hate. Instead, he forces Qunicy to rebuild the Northampton so its tradition (and their love) can live on.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #48: "Love Kills"

NOTE: The end of the issue indicates Laura and Freddie see Quincy as the last person they need to kill to get revenge. Apparently, they've forgotten about Hollis's third cohort, Steve Norris.

Summer or Fall 1991 A.D.

Kit Ryan gives John Constantine a key to her flat, inviting him to crash there whenever he'd like.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #49: "Lord of the Dance"

Fall 1991 A.D.

It's election time, and Channel 4's Eyeball Witness News anchor team, Harlan Eaglette and Angelica Hummock, cover the race between two-term Democrat incumbent Governor Edwin "Eddie" Rome and Republican opponent Ben Barron, Louisiana's State Representative. Rome's reputation is hampered by poor state economics, while Barron has been a member of the White People's Dignity Front, the Nazi Party, the Ku Klux Klan, the Covenant and the White Brotherhood. Unhappy with both choices, the Bon Temps Rulers Political Discussion Group and Marching Society meet at the Tulane University Student Center, in New Orleans, to discuss alternatives. The party heads, political science professor Clark Johnson and a student named Michelle, unveil a campaign to elect Swamp Thing as the Green Candidate. Labo gives Tefé a kitten to thank Alec for saving Ada's life, while Liz ends her relationship with Chester, thanking him for his help but admitting her love for Barb. Eyeball Witness News reports that 20% of those polled would vote for Swamp Thing. Political expert Chauncey Dubois admits that though unusual, the candidacy violates no laws. That night, Chester wanders the swamp and collapses drunk at Alec's home. The election race heats up elsewhere in the state, worrying both Rome and Barron. Barron consults the Klan's Imperial Wizard, while Rome orders an advisor named Griscombe to fix the situation. On a train outside Amarillo, Texas, Alec appears to Liz as a flower, wishing her luck and reminiscing about their shared past. Other than Abby, he says, she is the last surviving person to know him from when he thought he was a man. In the morning, Chester awakens embarrassed by his breakdown. Meanwhile, reporter John Snell visits Gotham City, asking Commissioner Jim Gordon for Batman's opinion of Swamp Thing. Manipulating Gordon's noncomittal answer, the Pelican-Tribune reports "Batman Endorses Swamp Thing." Eaglette and Hummock visit Jo-Jo's Bar in Houma, seeing an interview. Merle Layton, convinced it was Alec who took his hand, offers to be their guide. They book a room at the Sand-Man Motor Court, while Merle visits Bubba's Gun Depot and Bait Shop to have his stump fitted with a shotgun prosthetic. Like Evil Dead's Ash, he admires his new arm and mutters, "Groovy."

Swamp Thing (Series 2) #112: "All the Swamp King's Men"

NOTE: Alec's claim that Liz is the only living person who knew him when he thought he was a man implies the deaths of Jefferson Bolt, Edward Holland, Ruth Monroe and John Zero, all of whom knew him at the time, and whose fates have not been revealed. But what about Batman, John Constantine and the Challengers of the Unknown, all of whom also knew Alec back then? Most likely, Alec is simply employing hyperbole. It should also be noted that Ben Barron is a parody of former Ku Klux Klan member David Duke, who ran for political office in Louisiana in 1991.

Fill-in anchorwoman Taurine Neville from Eyeball Witness News reports poll results showing Rome and Barron losing voters to Swamp Thing. She interviews Professor Claek Johnson, who is delighted at the outcome. At the Sand-Man, Merle Layton arrives three hours late to guide the reporters through the swamps. The cameraman, Marty, wishes they'd hired Gator Gertie instead; Merle's shotgun proethetic doesn't help ease the tension. Merle stops at the Bayou Perdu Bridge, leading the prissy news team through muddy swampland. Leaving Tefé with Alec, Abby accompanies Chester back to Houma, where she sees TV reports of Alec's campaign and Barron's attacks on her character. Merle takes the group deeper into the swamp, bragging that he comes from a long line of gaiter hunters. Seeing Carmen's face on Les Perdu, however, he runs screaming through the bayou and into the jaws of an alligator. Alec comes onto the scene, confused at Hummock's barrage of questions about a campaign he knows nothing about. Back at Chester's house, reporters from Newsbreak , U.S. News & World Reportage, Saturday Evening Whirl, Ladies Home Gazette, World Weekly Bazaar and Agriculturalist's Journal swarm Abby with questions about Alec, Anton Arcane, Batman and other topics. Abby and Chester drive back to the swamp, where Alec dispatches the news team with an unsubtle threat. He visits the Bon Ton Rulers, the student group who nominated him, asking Clark's help in ending this charade. Embarrassed at having caused him trouble, the group admits they didn't think he really existed. They call a press conference at the capitol, where Alec announces that though flattered, if elected he will not serve. Before leaving, he gives Barron a warning: if the man ever trashes Abby in public again, he'll find a rosebush growing where the sun don't shine.

Swamp Thing (Series 2) #113: "Fear and Loathing on the Bayou Trail"

Dave, a friend of Chas Chandler, is laid off from his job. Unable to find a job, he eventually sees an ad for a sperm bank and decides to make his money as a donor.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #57: "Mortal Clay"

November 5, 1991 A.D.

Following such public humiliation, Ben Barron loses the election. He does not take the defeat lightly, vowing to avenge himself on Alec and Abby Holland, whom he blames for his downfall.

Swamp Thing (Series 2) #132: "Home Body"

November to December, 1991 A.D.

When crawdad fisherman Avrel Glapion is killed by a strange creature in the Louisiana swamp, John Constantine leaves his London flat to investigate. In Terrebonne Parish, Labo gives Abby a necklace his friend Jean-Claude made from Ya-Ya's LaFitte dubloon. In a nearby slum, a poor Cajun couple named Lucius and Jenna Broussard argue over his abuse of their four children. She feels he's already "ruined" the oldest, Jeremy and Tony, and won't let him hit young Ethan. Lucius, a fourth-grade dropout, is angry at Ethan's interest in reading books such as Treasure Island, whereas Jenna wants him to be the first Broussard to graduate high school. Their argument is halted by the arrival of the demon pirate Dark Conrad Constantine and his Hellish minions, who slaughter Lucius, Jeremy and Tony, taking Jenna and two youngest hostage. Conrad beheads a boy who wanders near his docked ship, the Jolly Rancher. The boy's friend friend Jean runs screaming into town. John Constantine visits Alec to tell of a vision that brought him here, warning of a coming storm. Alec senses something different in him, regretting his treatment of the Brit when he learns of Constantine's recent loss of his father and bout with lung cancer. Suddenly, the spirit of Augustine "Ya-Ya" Dupin appears, reiterating his earlier warning. Conrad's pirates capture Alec's family and Labo, then steal a boat from Gator Gertie, the elderly proprietor of Gator Gertie's Swamp Tours, while she is off visiting her friend Boudreaux in Paratonnere.

Swamp Thing (Series 2) #114: "Pirate's Alley"

Reforming himself as a boat, Alec carries Constantine through the swamp in search of his family. As Constantine's ancestor, Conrad is also kin to Tefé. On board Conrad's stolen boat, Tefé wields her powers against the warlock but his abilities far outweigh hers. Alec multiplies himself to produce an army of elementals and confronts Conrad at a swampy fortress. Conrad prepares to kill Tefé and use her blood to open a door to the Old Ones' dimension, but Constantine grabs the coin from Abby's neck and throws it to Alec, who summons the dead army of Conrad's old enemy, Jean LaFitte. Crying vengeance for his wife Marie's death, LaFitte launches himself at Conrad, causing the demonic wizard to lose his tentacled grip on Tefé. With Alec occupid by Conrad's minions, Constantine jumps to catch her falling body, and she somehow recognizes him as her "real" father. Alec tells his friends to lead the Cajun captives to freedom so he can devote his attention to Conrad. The pirate destroys LaFitte and prepares to free the Old Ones, but Alec rises up to mountainous proportions and rids the swamp of Conrad and his Hellish band. Alec finally returns to his family, handing Constantine a ragged piece of Conrad's pirate flag for his family album. The magician is un-amused.

Swamp Thing (Series 2) #115: "Rum, Necromancy & the Lash"

Before December 1991 A.D.

John Constantine works on a student-union haunting with Nigel Engels Archer, a psychic and self-fashioned radical journalist.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #53: "Royal Blood, Part Two—Revelations"

NOTE: Nigel is identified here as Nigel Archer but as both Nigel Engels and Nigel Archer in issue #63. I have combined the names as Nigel Engels Archer, assuming Engels to be a middle name.

The ghost—the spirit of a sociology student who died jumping out of a window—turns out to be very unmenacing. Instead of performing an exorcism, Constantine merely tells it to "piss off," and it does.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #63: "Forty"

After the haunting, Archer decides never to work with Constantine again, as the two do not get along.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #53: "Royal Blood, Part Two—Revelations"

The feeling is mutual for Constantine, who does not think highly of Archer, particularly after Archer wins a "Poem of the Week" contest and brags that there are only 52 winners each year.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #63: "Forty"

December 24, 1991 A.D.

Determined to find Kit Ryan a Christmas gift that will make it clear how he feels about her, John Constantine spends Christmas Eve searching the Camden Market, Covent Garden and other areas for something suitable. At 4:00 in the afternoon, he checks Doyle's Antiques, but to no avail. Along the way, he senses a depressed ghost following him. Realizing he's been spotted, the being says he hates Christmas and asks Constantine to sit and talk. The ghost reveals that the song "Lord of the Dance," written by Sydney Carter in 1963 to describe the Nazarene, had been written long ago. Carter, he says, adopted and changed the original tune, which he then destroyed. The song is about him, the ghost says—he is the Lord of the Dance. Before the advent of Christmas, pagans would celebrate Saturnalia each winter by engaging in endless sex, feasting and dancing, and he would join in their revelry. In the Middle Ages, however, Christian monks ended the tradition, forcing the pagans to convert and rewriting history to eliminate his role in the holiday. Ever since, he has roamed the planet a ghost with no past and no meaning. Constantine takes him to a pub, the Stag and Hound, to have a few pints with Chas Chandler and enjoy the Christmas spirit. The Lord of the Dance realizes despair has kept him from seeing that revelry still lives, and parties all night with Constantine's mates.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #49: "Lord of the Dance"

NOTE: This story takes place on Christmas Eve 1991, squarely placing it simultaneous to the backup story in Swamp Thing #115. The song "Lord of the Dance" exists and was written in 1963; the myth of its pagan origin has fooled people for years into believing it older than it really is. Sydney Carter is not mentioned by name in this story. It's interesting to note that this story is tied into the origin of Christmas…a holiday created in 336 A.D. by Emperor Constantine.

On Christmas Eve, Labo and family travel the swamp to the Cajuns' festive bonfires. En route, Labo tells his sons Raoul and Eugene of Papa Noël, the Cajun Santa. Long ago, he says, their Acadian ancestors left Nova Scotia, Canada, when the British demanded they speak English and swear allegiance to the King. Afraid Papa Noël wouldn't find them, they began building bonfires to light the way. Sure enough, with a hearty "Heaux! Heaux! Heaux!" Papa Noël arrives to leave toys for all the boys and girls of the swamp. To the astonishment of Alec and Abby, they find Tefé's stocking filled with toys as well. Hearing a clatter on the roof, they rush outside to see Papa Noël riding an alligator-driven sleigh and wishing those in the swamp, "Joyeux Noël et la bonne année!" ("Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!")

Swamp Thing (Series 2) #115: "Papa Noël"

December 25, 1991 A.D.

At 3:00 a.m. on Christmas morning, John Constantine and the Lord of the Dance drag a passed-out Chas Chandler home to his angry wife. Grateful, the ghost bids Constantine farewell, promising not to forget his help in reinvigorating his spirit. Constantine visits Kit's flat, furious with himself for leaving her alone on Christmas Eve and not even remembering to get her a present. Instead of being angry, she admits she forgot, too, then kisses him passionately. As they begin a night of lovemaking, two drunken friends wander the streets outside, singing the original lyrics of Sydney Carter's song—the Lord of the Dance has not been forgotten.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #49: "Lord of the Dance"

December 25-27, 1991 A.D.

John Constantine and Kit Ryan spend the next three days in bed, making up for lost lovemaking time.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #50: "Remarkable Lives"

December 27, 1991 A.D.

Waking to urinate, John Constantine finds dead birds in the bathroom sink, with the words "Hampster Heath" scrawled on the mirror in blood. Cleaning up the mess before Kit sees it, he heads out for the heath to find out who's responsible. Deep in the woods, he encounters a wolf and several undead creatures, who lead him to a handsome man sitting on a tree root—the King of the Vampires. With him is a band of undead creatures from his court in Hades. Looking to increase his numbers, the King of the Vampires has come to London to recruit society's castaways, such as Constantine and other magicians. Constantine spurns the offer and says he has no interest in magic users who get lost in the part, such as the Phantom Stranger, Baron Winter, Doctor Strange or Jason Blood; even Swamp Thing has disappointed him by not cleaning up the planet. Several vampires arrive with a passing human who'd heard voices and stopped to investigate. The King of the Vampires rips his head open to dine on the man's cranial fluids, and Constantine realizes he's in trouble. Still, the vampire does not threaten him—rather, he asks Constantine to work for him, spying on the occult world in case they try to move against him, and to eventually join him as a vampire. Revolted and scared, Constantine lights up and tells him to piss off, then lists several reasons why his life is better than a vampire's. The King of the Vampires lets him leave, warning that he and the First of the Fallen will some day get him.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #50: "Remarkable Lives"

NOTE: It has been 14 years since the death of Astra Logue, in early 1978 (Hellblazer issue #11).

Late December 1991 A.D.

Sir Peter Marston—a member of the British House of Lords and a "fixer" for government and big-business interests—offers Charles, Prince of Wales, a quick way to ascend to the throne, to which the prince agrees. Using the Grimorium Verum, a 17th-century book of dark arts, Marston plans to help Charles summon the demon Calibraxis (Lord of the Blades, butcher to the Devil's Court and once known as the serial killer Jack the Ripper) and bind it to Charles' body.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #54: "Royal Blood, Part Three—The Good Old Days"

NOTE: Hellblazer #51 is set between issues #40 and #41, placing the "Royal Blood" storyline of issues #52-55 directly after #50. It should be noted that in this story, none of the royals are actually mentioned by name, but it's clear—from mentions of Charles' ears and Andrew's "fat-arsed wife"—to whom the author is referring.

Marston's goal is to restore the British monarchy to its former glory, with a king willing to rule absolutely—and Charles agrees. Backed by the military and advised by Marston, with no Parliament, opposition, radicals, liberals, thinkers or immigrants in the way, Charles would have complete control.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #55: "Royal Blood, Part Four—Dog Eat Dog"

December 31, 1991 A.D.

On New Year's Eve, Prince Charles and a friend bring a woman to the Caligula Club, a site where the rich and powerful can privately satiate their perverse desires for sex, taboo activities and even murder. Charles holds a séance, enabling Calibraxis to possess him. The demon immediately takes control of the prince's body and kills the other two. With England as his feeding ground, Calibraxis begins searching for victims to slay. Marston finds the corpses and realizes only John Constantine (who once blackmailed him with photos of a dominatrix) can clean up the mess he's created.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #52: "Royal Blood, Part One—The Players"

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