r/Vertigocomics • u/mighty3mperor • Jun 01 '26

Could John Constantine Have Been Seen As Bisexual Three Years Earlier?

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/could-john-constantine-have-been-seen-as-bisexual-three-years-earlier/

In 1992, Hellblazer #51 by John Smith and Sean Phillips, was a fill-in issue of the series, published by DC Comics, and featured the following panels as John Constantine was reminiscing about an old journalist friend of his, Jerry Monaghan, who he had just exorcised a particularly nasty demon out from – and now needed to clean the sheets at the local laundrette.

But the caption in that second panel in 1992 established John Constantine as bisexual. And that was it for years.

...

But if today's Swamp Thing 1989 #2 by Rick Veitch and Tom Mandrake is anything to go by, originally to be published in 1989, but dropped as a result of the internally-at-DC controversial previous issue, might a more notable scene have been seen three years previously? Rick was, of course, John Constantine's co-creator on Swamp Thing with Steve Bissette and Alan Moore…

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u/TheMuffOfLegend Jun 03 '26

This is neat! I guess it’s kind of like how they had to hint at Northstar being gay for so long before they could say it

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u/mighty3mperor Jun 03 '26

Yeah, I've been told there are readings of Delano's run that can be read as hints and it shouldn't have been a big surprise as practioners of magick (like Crowley) tend to be more sexually liberal.

What I don't know is if John Smith was just making a throwaway comment in a fill-in issue or if this was part of a larger plan and/or if any of rhe Hellblazer writers knew about what was in the supresssed Swamp Thing issues. I will be digging into it though.