A DC Fan-Favorite Sacrifices His Life to Save the World

A DC Comics fan-favorite character has just sacrificed his own life, in order to save the world. That noble death came with the released of DCeased: Dead Planet #7, in which writer Tom Taylor finally brings his zombie-apocalypse vision of the DC Universe to a rousing close. (Warning: MAJOR SPOILERS Follow) The climatic chapter of DCeased: Dead Planet saw the heroes of Earth in an all-out race to save humanity from the Anti-Life Equation virus, before a robot army and the demon lord Trigon lay waste to whatever life is left. It comes down to John Constantine to save the world, through a plan that requires him to die, in order to win.

During the final arc of DCeased: Dead Planet, Constantine went on a twisted scavenger hunt for mystical artifacts – robbing, maiming, or outright killing some major DC mystical heroes along the way (Ragman, Doctor Fate, Madame Xanadu, Shazam, etc.). Constantine combines the weapons to become the world’s ultimate mystic sorcerer, for a head-on battle with Trigon. Unfortunately, Trigon is still more powerful than all the magic firepower John has amassed, and kills Constantine on the battlefield, gleefully reveling in getting to finally see John banished to hell, where he’ll suffer for eternity.

Yet, as always, it’s John Constantine that has the upper-hand, by coming up with a plan no sane man ever would. Constantine knew he would lose (and lose his life) to Trigon, and so he soaked up all those magical powers in one key extra one: the power of Deadman. Death simply transforms Constantine into a ghost haunting the mortal plane; and with his suped-up magical connections, ‘Deadman Constantine’ is able to possess Trigon’s body, and make the Demon Lord kill himself with the Spear of Destiny.

Constantine secures the win against Trigon, as the surviving DC heroes deliver a virus to the death squad of Amazo androids annihilating the undead, and simultaneously deliver a cure to the Anti-Life Equation to the remaining two billion people on Earth. As a small measure of final reward, John Constantine manages to side-step his dark fate in hell. Since Deadman is an untethered soul not claimed by heaven or hell, Constantine “dying” a second time via the Spear of Destiny simply makes him fade from existence. He doesn’t get heaven, but he doesn’t suffer hell either. That’s about as right of an ending as you could expect for John Constantine.

DCeased: Dead Planet is on sale from DC Comics.