Anyone who knows anything about comics knows Constantine is one of the OG queers. But I think I assumed he was made canonically queer the same way many modernly-queer comic characters were: slowly over time by the dedicated work of multiple authors until one finally gets to put an undesputable label on it. So I'm surprised at just how texturally queer he is from the very start of his first run. Like this isn't a modern development, but intrinsically there from the start.
I'm only 7 issues in to Hellblazer (1988) and so far:
Issue #1: he's haunted by the ghost/memory of a friend he got killed, who is dressed in gay leather
Issue #3: he visits a friend, Ray, who he calls "this outrageous fag [...] That Ray- camp as Christmas. Good as gold though."
Issue #6: he sees a group of neo-nazis seemingly follow a gay man to attack him and he intervenes, narrating "I hate violence. But you can't pretend it isn't happening, can you? After all, it could be a mate getting the battering, like Ray."
Also issue #6: when a lover/friend is attacked by a Christian fundamentalist cult, he takes her to Ray as a safe place to rest and hide. He then learns Ray has aids and is suffering discrimination because of it
Issue #7: the lover/friend asks if Constantine and Ray had been a thing, and Ray casually says no
Just in general, Constantine uses very gender neutral language about sex and desire. It's always "lover" or "someone", never a specifically feminine word
Again, I am only 7 issues in to this 300 issue run, and Constantine is already so undeniably texturally involved in his queer community. It fascinates me since I was so not expecting it, and it's so different from how characters like this are written today
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