May 10th, 2004. Mary-Anne Constantine, struggling with a strenuous labour compounded by complications from a previous abortion, passes away while giving birth to John Constantine and his stillborn twin brother. Thomas Constantine, father and suddenly widower, would not forgive the mewling infant for the death of his wife, or the stillbirth of his other son. John would not come to understand this animosity from his only remaining guardian for twelve years; but his older sister, Cheryl Constantine, would pick up on it the same night that Thomas returned home with John. She would spend her days from that point forwards protecting John from the father that had spurned him, pouring into him the love he was otherwise denied.

By the time of his teen years, the bond between Cheryl and John had created an impenetrable barrier against Thomas' drunkenly-hurled abuse and persecution, and was only stronger for the addition of Gary Lester and Francis Kramer to their cabal of found-family. The four of them formed a strong union of friendship, each guarded and guided by the others. They would pursue their interests both independently and as a unit, exploring the new and old of the world around them. The darker aspects of art would become the glue that cemented them together, a deep interest in Punk and Emo, as well as Horror and the Occult, binding them with a common pursuit. Cheryl, oldest of the group, would often guide the four in practice rituals and pretend spells, filling the younger boys' minds with fantasies of weaved magic and sorcery that would fix their fragmented lives and grant them all their teenaged minds could dare to imagine.

When John was seventeen, he would participate in another such ritual lead by Cheryl, one she treated with hitherto unknown gravitas. This one was different, they could all feel it; Cheryl radiated a solemnity that was undeniable, bringing promises of magical power and great fortune that the four boys were compelled to believe in.

The ritual was no fantasy - no pig-english nonsense garbled for cheap thrills, words catching in throats from schoolboy fright - no pound-shop tealights, extinguished accidentally when you waved your arm too enthusiastically. This was the real deal: components scavenged and crafted, specific chants and intonations to be uttered at specific intervals. Words and runes were drawn carefully, positions selected with forethought, and when the hour finally came, all was conjured as it was meant to be - but what the ritual achieved was not what Cheryl had been lead to believe.

Unbeknownst to Cheryl, John, Thomas, or even the departed Mary-Anne, the Constantine's bloodline was one of powerful magic and a specific title passed down through ancestry from one Constantine to the next: the Laughing Magician, a wizard unlike any other, who bent the world to their will through the secret power of synchronicity. It was John's stillborn twin, Jacob, that had been the next to inherit this power - but with Jacob's death, powerful wheels had been set it motion to re-right this broken prophecy. Cheryl's previous rituals had been no mere games - they were in fact practice runs, as Cheryl had secretly uncovered her own witchcraft, granted through her bloodline. The ancestral ghosts of Constantine mages had felt this, and spun lies around Cheryl, tricking her into casting a very special spell.

The ritual, rather than granting power and fortune, instead opened a terrible gateway to the Astral Plane, through which flooded the warped spirits of long-dead Laughing Magicians. They tormented the attendees, lashing them with psychological scars, and abducted Cheryl wholly into their ethereal, limbo-like plane. When the tear closed, Cheryl was gone, and John was left only with the memory of her screaming, pleading face, surrounded by hundred of hideous spectres.

Each in attendance left traumatised, and each experienced their own fallout. Gary turned to drink and drugs, pushing his mind into oblivion rather than live with the memories. Francis fled to London, reinventing himself as 'Chas', a man who'd never experienced such terror. John, for his part, found his psyche fracturing completely, reeling from the loss of Cheryl, and ended up committed and incarcerated at Ravenscar Asylum.

Now, two years later and only nineteen years old, John has been remanded from Ravenscar to a temporary residency in a halfway-house for recent releases. Cheryl is still gone, and John remains haunted by her absence; his father refuses to reveal his whereabouts to his only remaining family; and his only friends have scattered to the winds in the intervening years. When fresh hauntings from John's past begin tormenting him anew will he lose what little fragile mind he has left? Or strive to finally put old ghosts to rest?

With this John, I'm looking to revise and tighten up a previous origin-story rewrite that paints John a little younger, a little less knowledgeable, but ultimately just as traumatised and, more importantly, cunning. The well-known initial incident with Nergal and Astra - John's defining failue in canon - has been replaced with a more personal catastrophe, tearing apart John's mind as well as the only family he had. With Cheryl abducted to the aether and his friends cast to the wind, John is left to pick up the pieces of his life and find his way back to a sense of normalcy - though of course, Constantine's 'normal' is far removed from your average, everyday 'normal'.

With this John and his story, I want to retell how the 'Laughing Magician' won his noteriety in a way that makes this interpretation of the character identifiably 'mine', and from there, build on that foundation to expand his adventures and establish my John in a wider alternative DC 'canon'.

Kitrina is the illegitimate daughter of Alberto Falcone and his illicit lover, Anna de Luca. With her father already the un-favourite of the Falcone children, Alberto being discovered as the Holiday Killer in the year of the Long Halloween did Kitrina no favours, and Carmine's murder - the severing of the last piece of goodwill toward her - sealed her fate. From then on, with her father incarcerated and her grandfather dead, Kitrina was left in the 'care' of Mario Falcone, her uncle, who partially blamed Alberto for Carmine's death, and was more than happy to unload this blame onto Kitrina by proxy.

When, in the aftermath, the efforts of Batman and Jim Gordan finally dealt a mortal blow to the Falcone Crime Empire, and Mario and Kitrina were reduced to living in the Narrows - trying desperately to claw back Falcone assets that were being steadily liquidated - the situation only got worse; until eventually, Kitrina has become embittered, numb, and angry enough to try something stupid in a last-ditch effort to earn back some respect and some much-needed cash and maybe, just maybe, something daring enough to start bringing the Falcone name back into notoriety in Gotham.

That "something stupid and/or daring" is a heist on Wayne Industries. Bruce Wayne, magnanimous philanthropist playboy as he was, was well-known for Wayne Industry's outreach programme, that guaranteed stable employment and life coaching for less-fortunate Gotham residents. Kitrina is by no means unintelligent, and applied under the pseudonym 'Holly Robinson', getting a position rather quickly and using her time within the company plotting and scoping.

Hoping to find something within the belly of Wayne Industries that she can use as blackmail for the board, Kitrina/Holly has everything planned out to propel her out of Mario's vengeful clutches, and secure the Falcone name once again as a force of nature within Gotham, reclaiming her birth-right and landing her back in the luxurious life she deserves.

With Kitrina I want to meld the characters of Kitrina Falcone, the spurned mafia heiress, and Holly Robinson, the street-urchin morality-chain to Selina Kyle, as well as explore the idea of the legacy character and the inheriting of titles. With an older Bruce, a retired Selina, and all kinds of Bat-babies running around Gotham, I'm looking forward to establishing a new Catwoman, taking influence from Selina's character as Kitrina/Holly's mentor, but also spinning a well-known anti-villain in a new direction.

Kitty Gets Her Claws
The research has been done, the plan has been made, and the time has come for Kitrina's heist on Waynetech to finally happen. What she seeks and what she finds are completely different things, but Kitrina will find her hard-won quarry will push her in a career direction she never could have imagined, and rubbing shoulders with persons she otherwise would have never met.

...But Satisfaction Brought Her Back
Under the tutelage of ex-Catwoman Selina Kyle, Kitrina Falcone has become quite the successful thief; however, when Sofia Falcone, surviving daughter of The Roman, catches wind of Kitrina's new money, she sees it as an opportunity to start rebuilding the Falcone Empire. Which Kitrina would have no issue with, provided her dear auntie knows how to show respect to the new generation of mafia in Gotham.

A Nice Big Ball of Yarn
Kick-starting a mafia empire is no easy task, especially in Gotham, where fierce competition hounds you at every corner. One specific player in the Gotham underworld has welcomed a return to a more traditional mob format, but he's set his beady eyes on Kitrina's budding empire, working backstage for the perfect moment to steal the limelight from the new Falcone boss. In time however, it will be revealed who's really pulling who's strings...

A Canada Native, Lucille hails from Houston BC, a small mining and forestry town which sees an influx of ecotourism throughout the year. Growing up the youngest child to a single mother of 3, she had few prospects afforded to her; she didn't fare well in school, her brothers were ambivalent to her social failings, and her mother, though meaning well, was simply too overworked and exhausted to properly parent her only daughter. It looked like, unless fate graced her with some great serendipitous incident, she would grow, live, and die in Houston BC. It would seem, then, that fate is in possession of a cruel sense of humour.

Fate did indeed visit upon Lucille, but it brought with it calamity, not providence. On a family camping trip - the cheapest way their mother could provide a 'vacation' for the kids - a particularly stormy night brought disaster upon them. Weakened trees from small wildfires finally gave way beneath the force of the storm, and came crashing down directly on their tents.

Lucille's brothers were both killed immediately, crushed and speared. Her mother was trapped, both legs broken and pinned beneath a tree. Only Luce was free, but she by no means emerged unscathed; she had escaped being utterly pulverized by the tree-trunk, but errant branches had gored her through, puncturing a lung, her stomach, and unknown to Lucille, her heart; yet she felt no pain, her movement was barely hindered, and she continued to breath and pump blood and walk without severe issue all the way back into town and to the fire station. Her journey allowed emergency workers to mobilize and save her mother - but in the aftermath, it also revealed to Luce and the town that she was far from the normal, unassuming girl she had resigned herself to being. She was a hype, and such a designation came with its own connotations and assumptions.

Lucile struggled with survivor's guilt and agoraphobia following her incident, and her mother struggled with losing her sons and receiving only a controversial discovery about her daughter in return. Eventually, it was agreed that the resources she needed were not available to her in Houston; the only place for her was P.R.C.U., and she found herself quickly enrolled and awaiting the ferry in St. Rupert.

Hemlocke, even before the incident that would come to define his life, was something of an unusual child by the circumstances of his birth; first child to a notorious and long-lived Hexenbrut couple, he was born decidedly non-magical, despite the arcane blood coursing through his veins; this would have fine to both parents, had either had the proper opportunity to discover this as he grew. However, the warring factions of the magical underworld were catching up with them, and after only a single year of life, hard-won domestic peace was shattered for Hemlocke's family.

A Jäger had hunted them down, coming to the end of a long-fought chase after Hemlocke's parents for some bygone and forgotten sin; the family was ill-prepared for such a foe, and all three were struck down swiftly by the Jäger's Spirit Sword, cast from the mortal plane and banished back to Limbo, the spirit world threaded beneath ours. Hemlocke's parents, Hexenbrut true and thoroughly, were scattered across Limbo utterly, never to return; but Hemlocke, young and lively and of Hexenbrut blood but not Hexenbrut nature, was simply a baby on the ashen floors of Limbo, an unwanted beacon of warmth and life that Limbo rejected by its very essence. And so, Limbo began to do what it did to all living mortal things that found their unfortunate way into its bosom - it began to eat.

Time and space have an unusual relationship with Limbo, and while the infant Hemlocke spent days in Limbo, his life essence siphoned off a little more every hour, it was mere minutes on the mortal plane before the reverberations of the Jäger's wrath were felt across the fabric of magic, Magni everywhere feeling the ripples of the banishment. Across the country, Draoi and Hellions alike were drawn to the tear between planes, dipping their hands into the fray and gorging on the magic that held it open; it was only a handful of hours before a particularly brazen Draoi reached into the heart of the rip and found Hemlocke on the other side, pulling him out - a baby boy, now quite literally half-dead.

The Draoi, one of a clan, took well to his newfound charge. Not only was Hemlocke a unique child, full of potential and an unwitting keeper of many secrets - secrets Draoi are drawn to by nature - but he was intelligent, quick-witted, a fast learner and in possession of unique qualities. His parents never identified, the clan adopted him as their own, and raised the child with curiosity and a welcoming arm. As Hemlocke grew, he learned to wield his abilities, and began to dip back into Limbo in early expeditions for his parents, or clues about the Jäger that had banished them.

Eventually, these expeditions grew perilous, for both Hemlocke and his Draoi family; not only did Limbo continue to reject the living half of Hemlocke, seeking to claim him completely on every new journey into its depths, but his voyages left behind shredded threads of the veil between Earth and Limbo, and these holes began to attract Hellions and Magni of all variety and disposition, and soon enough his family grew tired of the constant need for movement, relocation, and fending off of foes who felt bold enough to assault a full clan of Draoi. Adolescent but wise beyond his years, and well-versed with the world and its rivers, Hemlocke did the only thing he could do; he bid heavy farewells to his found-family, and continued his odyssey alone.

Over a century later, Hemlocke - 'Locke', to those who ask - has witnessed every aspect of the human condition and trekked across the entirety of the western continent, through cities and wildland, across war-torn trenches and country borders, forging his way through life, putting to rest those loudest of the restless dead, and ever-seeking his parents and the near-mythical Jäger that rent them from the life they had worked so hard to put together. Still yearning for closure on his lost-life in any regard, he makes a living drifting through the lives of others, selling their secrets back to them, and moving on before the world - catching up and ever-changing - has a chance to label him as something he either is or isn't, and do him harm accordingly.

Callahan is the eldest of 4; 2 brothers in the middle and his sister, the youngest, all of whom he has watched over carefully, effectively since his first brother could walk. His father meant well, but worked hard - too hard - and while he wasn't abusive when he drank, he was neglectful. His mother was loving and doted on all of them, but there were no funds to spoil them with and no free time to raise them by herself. Callahan stepped in, a silent pact to do the job his father either couldn't or wouldn't, and his mother felt equally guilty and grateful.

And then Callahan's mother got sick, and then she got worse, and then his father - already working himself to death to provide what little finances they had - buckled under the pressure and fled entirely. The brothers and sister did what they could, and to their credit, they rallied valiantly beneath Callahan's soft guidance. The brothers old enough to work - Callahan himself and his first brother - did so, bringing money into the household; his second brother studied, hard, as did his sister, and between the two of them they also maintained the household. Callahan rose to the occasion nobly, and kept the family together while caring for their steadily declining mother, and trying to locate their absent father. Somewhere along the way, Callahan realised he'd lost any sense of individual, his own needs buried beneath those of his family.

Six years later, their mother finally passed. The siblings were devastated, but also prepared. Callahan's abilities had awakened in the interim period, and while he'd thought little of them amidst the unravelling tragedy of their lives, his siblings saw in Callahan someone truly capable of great and beautiful things, and someone who surely deserved the chance to achieve those things.

They were aware of P.R.C.U., aware of H.E.L.P. and H.I.T., aware of the academy and all the potential it held for Callahan. The night after the evening of the wake, his brothers and sister, weeping and smiling in equal measure, presented Callahan with the brochures, the leaflets, the course guides. They also presented him with a letter of invitation, and tickets for the journey.

They held each other close and cried until they could produce no more tears, and then cried some more. A week later, Callahan set off for Dundas Island.