- "The black diamond caused this."
"You know the legend, then?"
"It's not a legend, John; I was there. A sorcerer amassed infernal power. Claimed to be a god. Plagues fell, crops withered, children perished. Finally, the people cried out to the Almighty Father, and a shaft of heavenly light was released. The sorcerer was destroyed and his dark power hardened into a pure mass; a black diamond of radiant evil. An angel's fiery sword shattered the diamond so that no one man could ever wield it again."
"All this around the time your boss decided to turn on the tap."
"The Great Flood spread the diamond fragments all around the world. Every time one was found..."
"Death followed." - —Manny and John Constantine discuss the diamond.[src]
The black diamond is a calcified form of pure evil, made up of dark matter whose existence predates the Great Flood.
History[]
Original multiverse[]
Ancient times[]
Long ago, a sorcerer amassed great dark power, causing immense devastation to the people of Earth, who then cried out to God for help. A light then came from heaven, destroying the sorcerer and causing the sorcerer's power to accumulate into the form of the black diamond. An angel then smashed the stone to keep any human from having that power ever again. A short time later, the pieces of the diamond were scattered all across the Earth in the Great Flood.[1]
Modern age[]
When Thomas Galen was serving as a corpsman in Baghdad, bits of the diamond in the ground became lodged in his chest in an explosion caused by an IED. This left the shards half an inch from his heart; too close to safely remove, though he believed them to be shrapnel from the blast.[1]
John finds evidence that the black diamond is responsible for a man's death.
In early 2015, a woman named Taylor was murdered by a mysterious being (later revealed to be a mutated Thomas Galen; acting uncontrollably due to the fragments of the black diamond left in his body) injecting some type of drug the former had just bought directly into Taylor's heart; leaving prominent black veins all over her body, with her dying as a consequence a short time later. Upon performing a spell on her corpse in an attempt to learn what had happened to her, John Constantine concluded that dark matter had been responsible for her death; leading him to investigate the cause of the dark matter. A short time later, the transformed Thomas Galen attacked an employee at the hospital where Taylor had been brought shortly before she died; where Thomas was also a doctor. After John and Manny found the body and took a closer look, Manny stated that the black diamond had caused the man's death.[1]
Chas Chandler reacts to handling the black diamond.
At some point, a piece of the black diamond found its way into the possession of Jasper Winters; ending up stashed in a special box in his mill house. John was fully aware that humans weren't supposed to touch the diamond; what he didn't know, was why. For that reason, he enlisted the help of his good friend Francis "Chas" Chandler, due to the fact that Chas could be resurrected a finite number of times due to a protection spell John had previously cast upon him. That way, if something happened when Chas held the diamond fragment and John had to resort to killing him, Francis would recover and be perfectly fine afterwards. A few moments after Chas took Winters' fragment of the stone out of the smaller box it had been stored in inside the larger, more securely sealed container (handling the gem directly), he began to groan and shake violently, and black veins began manifesting throughout his body. John told him to drop the stone, but when Chas didn't, Constantine ended up giving him an electric shock; prompting Francis to let go of the rock, reverting to his normal self.[1]
John Constantine holds a shard of the black diamond out in front of Thomas Galen.
A short time later, after John deduced that Dr. Galen was the killer, he confronted the man, holding the piece of the diamond from the mill house (contained within the smaller box that had been used to store it) in front of the doctor; causing great pain in the latter's chest as the pieces fought to come together. This caused the creature created by the diamond to emerge; lashing out at Manny and John, and proceeding to attempt to escape. They then tracked him, using the shard in their possession, which still called to the pieces inside the doctor; like a magnet. When they found him, John ended up lifting a spell he'd used upon Manny which trapped the latter within a human body, also cutting off the angel's connection to heaven; keeping him from using his angelic powers. Manny then took Dr. Galen to heaven. After the pair of them vanished, the pieces of the stone that were inside the doctor's body fell to the ground, before merging with the piece in the open box on the floor; which had been knocked away from John in the struggle against Thomas.[1]
New multiverse[]
| "The multiverse has a way of aligning fates...It's written in the stars and in this book, or I wouldn't know that on this Earth, Clark Kent is Superman. Where I come from, that would be ridiculous. He can't see past his glasses." This article is about the object set in the Stargirl universe. This article only contains information relevant to the Arrowverse. For information regarding that universe, please see The Black Diamond. |
Following the destruction of the multiverse in the Anti-Monitor Crisis, when John was dying of lung cancer that had been intensified by Astra messing with his soul token in hell, John shared his will with Ray Palmer and Gary Green.[2] He had named Gary as the primary beneficiary to his estate. While he wished for Gary to have his house and almost everything in it, one of the things that was not to be left to Gary was the shards of the diamond, which he wanted to be entrusted to Chas Chandler.[3] However, upon the improvement of John's health when Astra reconsidered and used the coin to give him more time, Constantine burned his will.[2]
Appearances[]
Constantine[]
- "Angels and Ministers of Grace" (shards)
DC's Legends of Tomorrow[]
Season 5[]
- "Mortal Khanbat" (mentioned in John Constantine's will)
Behind the scenes[]
- In the DC comics, the Heart of Darkness is a small, black diamond first mined on the desolate world of Apokolips. Millennia ago, it was cut and shaped and used as a tool to crush those who opposed Apokolips' ruler Darkseid. The diamond was later mystically tethered to the demonic agent of vengeance known as Eclipso. At some point, the black diamond was brought to Earth where it eventually came into the possession of scientist Bruce Gordon. Eclipso's essence, trapped within the diamond, surged outward and used Gordon as a host for his corruptive influence. Gordon fought for years to free himself from Eclipso's control, but invariably, the Heart of Darkness always returned to his person. At one point, the Heart of Darkness appeared to an insane Jean Loring and convinced her to become the new human host for Eclipso's power. That led to the event known as the Day of Vengeance, involving the Spectre. As a willing recipient of Eclipso's power, Loring wore the Heart of Darkness as a broach upon her cowl. She lost it during Countdown, and Bruce Gordon came back into possession of it during Countdown to Mystery.