#overall Distorted Illusions misses who John is as a character and that's the main failing of the book and story

[dumbassalex]

So I wanna talk Constantine Distorted Illusions some more, not just about it's editorial language mistake. Specificaly about how Kami Garcia changing the magic system and Johns living situation changes how we look at John as a person.

Because Hellblazer John is kinda permanently in survival mode, as somebody who went through lotsa trauma since leaving the womb, he had to learn to build defence systems and survival skills. He was failed by his father and by the system as a mentaly ill queer kid from the 50s/60s that ended up homeless in his teens, so alot of his cynical and selfish behavior makes sense when looking at John as a survivor.

The way magic works in his story also supports looking at John as somebody who worked hard to get where he is.

Here comes Distorted Illusions....oh boy.

So firstly Johns mother is alive, his father is absent rather than abusive, and there's a supprtive and seemingly nice step-father. Secondly he lives in a middle-class (or even upper class) household. Has been born with some of the strongest natural talents for magic thanks to his dads blood, making magic something you have to be born a special way to be able to use rather than something you learn through hard work, his step-dad is another very powerful magician, and John is given support and oputurnities to train and learn more magic by his family and family friends, exept he doesn't take them and shoots them down. So already John comes from somebody who's an asshole as a defense mechanism to somebody who's an asshole basicly for the sake of it.

Next is my biggest problem with John in the story, and that's how vengeful he is, everytime somebody doesn't let him do whatever he wants or he experiences consequences for his actions, rather than learn he does something spiteful (like stealing a magic book from the lady that was supposed to teach him, or trying to curse the guy that blacklisted them from every club in the city for burning up his equipment).

So really John went from a lower class survivor that worked for everything and built a hard shell of cynicism and assholery to a middle to upper-class entitled asshole who needed an ego check. While John being a punk in his teens and young adulthood was a reflection of his mindset on life, world and the system that failed him and his mates, DI John is not much more than a poser who likes the aestethic and sound but holds none of the soul and values of punk.

It also changes how we look at the "well-off gentleman" look of John.

His blue suit (and originaly white gloves) is like a smart facade of a smart and elegant man when he's actualy a street rat, it helps the con-man part of John.

Meanwhile DIs Johns "classic" outfit is like a more mellowed out version of his classic outfit, where while both show off his middle-class status and money, his final outfit is more "normal" and "smarter" rather than the pretty obviously artoficialy raggety but still expensive clothes he wore before.