Does Constantine even make sense as a team leader?

[Oni Squirrel]

I'm Sorry it's not that i don't think John's A Skilled And Experienced person when it comes to the occult but you can't deny that the first storyline in JLD made everyone else seem like total idiots

I didn't really take that away. Zatanna and Deadman approached the story from the normal superhero perspective. Zatanna tried to take down the big bad. Deadman tried to protect the damsel in distress. Xanadu was thinking of how to use the current problem to find solutions for future one's. Shade was busy trying to hold himself together and assemble a team.

I think what Milligan was trying to show was that magical threats can't be handled by superheroes with strict moral rules. Constantine saved the day only because he did something that most superheroes wouldn't agree to do.

EDIT: I think that's also what will make him a good leader for the team. He'll focuses on the solution that keeps the Earth spinning and stay on task.

[carabas]

it just is gonna seem really weird for him to be against working as a team and then bam! he's now ordering everyone to do different tasks and objectives....

At at guess, it's not going to be a sudden, out of the blue thing. Character development and stuff will probably happen.

[squashmaster]

i know Lemire said he plans to make John Constantine Leader of justice league dark but the guy's not really a people person he constantly tells everyone to go to hell and threatens them everyday if they so much as look at him the wrong wayi only see him jerking around the team constantly just because he's the leader and they have to do as he says....it's gonna take awhile for them to accept a guy who wanted them to go die while he stayed within a protective circle

Sounds like it could be an interesting book, then.Why'd you want one with a boring, straightforward leader? It is JLD, after all, not Avengers.

[FanboyStranger]

I meant mainly in terms of magic. He basically is.

I'd say that the jury's still out on that. He knows some stuff, but he's also not going to let you know what he doesn't know. I know the Vertigo and DCnU JCs are essentially different characters, but I've seen nothing in the first arc of JL: D that suggests he knows more than Madame Xanadu, just that he's better at applying what he knows and getting people to do what he wants. The only real showy act of magic the DCnU John has done was the pocket sun in I, Vampire, which, to be quite frank, seemed a bit much for the JC I know and love. He's very much not in Zatanna's league, but Zatanna is so dependent on her natural magical abilities that she's never diversified her magical arsenal.

[golgi]

I'd say that the jury's still out on that. He knows some stuff, but he's also not going to let you know what he doesn't know. I know the Vertigo and DCnU JCs are essentially different characters, but I've seen nothing in the first arc of JL: D that suggests he knows more than Madame Xanadu, just that he's better at applying what he knows and getting people to do what he wants. The only real showy act of magic the DCnU John has done was the pocket sun in I, Vampire, which, to be quite frank, seemed a bit much for the JC I know and love. He's very much not in Zatanna's league, but Zatanna is so dependent on her natural magical abilities that she's never diversified her magical arsenal.

That's why I said if he's the same as Vertigo's John, then he basically is. Even if it's half of Vertigo's john, he'd be one of the best preppers in comics. He's one of the most craftiest characters in comics. Seeing as he made God do his bidding and defeated the FOF like 5 or 6 times. And he didn't need any futuristic tech or power amp to do it. :)

[FanboyStranger]

That's why I said if he's the same as Vertigo's John, then he basically is. Even if it's half of Vertigo's john, he'd be one of the best preppers in comics. He's one of the most craftiest characters in comics. Seeing as he made God do his bidding and defeated the FOF like 5 or 6 times. And he didn't need any futuristic tech or power amp to do it. :)

Or magic, really. He basically just conned them all, especially the First of the Fallen.

[Celestin]

That's why I said if he's the same as Vertigo's John, then he basically is. Even if it's half of Vertigo's john, he'd be one of the best preppers in comics. He's one of the most craftiest characters in comics. Seeing as he made God do his bidding and defeated the FOF like 5 or 6 times. And he didn't need any futuristic tech or power amp to do it. :)

I'm not very familiar with Vertigo's John, but I read few stories where he outwitted the evil side. But I'm curious when and how did he made God do his bidding?

[FanboyStranger]

I'm not very familiar with Vertigo's John, but I read few stories where he outwitted the evil side. But I'm curious when and how did he made God do his bidding?

During Paul Jenkin's run, after he had purged all the negative aspects of his soul and sent them to Hell as an effort to outwit the demon Buer, he drunkenly stumbles into a forest-- he lost his tolerance for alcohol when he purged his soul-- and encounters an old man who is a stand-in for Jesus. At the time, the Jesus stand-in tells John stories that relate to his life and his future, knowing damn well that John is going to get into trouble again. Later, using one of John's mechanations against him, the First of the Fallen traps John in a plot that will result in the death of his friends and destroy the spiritual fabric of Great Britain (long story, really). Anyway, the First promises to back off if he gets God to do his bidding, which essentially amounts to a big reset switch for Jenkins' run. John finds the old man/Jesus in the forest, convinces him to have his father do his bidding, and gives him a letter from the FotF to "his old man". John's friends are saved, and Britain is saved.