- "I can't live like this."
- "Yes, you can. You can shoulder this burden, let it consume you from within. Or you can wield it as you have. A weapon against evil by my side. Whichever way you choose, mate, I'm with you every step of the way."
- —Chas Chandler and John Constantine[src]
Francis "Chas" Chandler[1] is John Constantine's partner and oldest friend. After an incident at a bar, Chas, along with 47 others were killed. Due to a protection spell however, Chas was resurrected, with 47 souls now bound to him, allowing him to die and rise again until all the souls are released.
Biography[]
Original multiverse[]
Early life[]
At some point, Chas became John Constantine's friend. He later married Renee and had a daughter with her, Geraldine.[1]
After a long night at a bar, John Constantine cast a protection spell on Chas Chandler so he could drive home safely. Unfortunately after John left, a fire broke out and Chas, along with 47 others, were trapped in the bar. Chas woke up in the hospital, shocked to find himself alive. Chas went to John and told him he was in the bar while the building burned down. Chas learned that John's protection spell worked and told that he now has 47 other lives to live before dying.[1]
Afterwad Chas began working with John. At some point between 2012 and 2014, Chas and John interrupted the Monkey King of eviscerate an entire family. John killed Monkey King with the help of Chas, who lost one of his souls as a result, as well as missing the birthday of his daughter, Geraldine. The latter eventually led to him divorcing with Renee.[1]
The Rising Darkness[]
When Constantine returned from Ravenscar Hospital, Chas helped him get to Liv Aberdine in the evening. Then, as instructed by his friend, he drew the Eye of Horus on her door, protecting her from Furcifer. The next morning the men met a girl who they tried to explain everything to. The conversation was interrupted, however, by a demon attack in the body of the dead Talia, after which Liv ran away. The men found her only later in front of her mother's house, where John showed the girl her abilities, thus persuading her to go with them in a taxi. While driving, Aberdine asked Chas about his father's death, to which Chas replied that he had died heroically. Suddenly, the three fell under the train, but left it without major injuries. As Chase tried to get Liv out of the car wreckage, John tried to get hold of a possessed high-voltage cable. Unfortunately, he managed to attack, killing Chandler. After the man recovered from losing one of his souls, he went to his friends at Jasper Winters's millhouse, where he helped them plan a Furcifer trap. After defeating him and Liv leaving for California, Chas met John at a bar, where he told him that the girl wanted him to continue his mission, leaving him with a bloody map.[2]
Chas returned to the mill to find John with cards in his hand. The man was impatient, but his friend replied that he had to do a double shift and it paid off by handing him an envelope with money. Constantine quipped that Capnomy was not magic, then said he was going to Heddwich to sort out a mysterious and mystical problem there. Chas, however, reminded his friend how his last journey on a freight train with a derailed Succubus had ended. With these words, John left, leaving Chandler in Atlanta.[3]
When Chas saw a suspicious car at the mill, he crept up to it with a shotgun. Inside, however, he found Zed that John had been telling him about. So he decided to show her around the location, knowing about her stubbornness. After a short time, the three of them looked at the bloody map and decided that their destination was Chicago, where Bernie Reed committed suicide. Chas stayed in Atlanta during that time, but when Zed called him some time later, he set off to help his friends. After reaching the destination, he gave the necessary things to John and informed him that thanks to his friend he had tried to learn more about the mysterious Martin, but that nothing is known about her. Immediately after that, they continued their investigation, following the victims of the "devil's vinyl". They got a chance to reflect the album only thanks to the vision of Martin, which saw a white tiger, thus pointing to the local radio station. When Constantine tried to get rid of the root cause of the problem, Chas destroyed the relay antenna. He then forced Anton the soul trader to eat the contract, allowing Jasmine Fell to live on. Soon after, all three returned safely to Atlanta.[4]
When John decided to use another day to train Zed, he asked Chas to finally fix the taxi damaged in an accident caused by Furcifer.[5]
Chas was preparing a meal, while Zed had been trying to restore her visions for more than two hours, lurking over the bloody map. Meanwhile, John was repairing one of the artifacts that had awakened the girl, who had grown up with a boy who was taught by his mother taught to shoot a pistol. Thus, Zed obtained a kind of connection with the map, which John was counting on, and they could go to the next place, which was New Orleans. After arriving, the three were the first to go to the mysterious alley where something paranormal happened last night. They found nothing suspicious, but did meet Detective Corrigan who was skeptical of "a bunch of occult freaks." But he knew what had happened in this place lately was not normal, and he took the business card from Constantine. When John and Zed went to register the hotel rooms, Chas chose the motel, disliking spaciousness. In the morning they went to the place from the last vision, where they found out about the death of the driver who had asked about Philip Carlberg's hitchhiker before his death. After a while, Corrigan himself arrived, arresting Constantine, suspecting him of being involved in the accident. While his friend was away, Chandler made sure that no one in the alley was hurt. Seeing the man walking there, he quickly warned him about the woman behind her. When she asked him a question, Chas replied that she was beautiful. It wasn't enough though, and the ghost pulled off the mask, then asked again. Hearing the same answer again, she attacked Chas and started fighting him. Despite trying to defend himself, the ghost turned out to be smarter and murdered the man. After a while, Chandler began to recover and returned to the living, interrupting the CPR performed on him by the paramedics. He returned to this place shortly after, and continued his efforts to prevent the woman from murdering others. For he knew he had to play for time because John was solving the case. Consequently, the next time the ghost appeared, he would not answer questions, but only ask her others, dissuading her. After a while, the ghost disappeared once and for all, which meant the end of the task.[6]
When John, after an intoxicating night with Nora, returned to the mill and had a meal, Chas, in Zed's absence, decided to help his friend in his next activities, despite his reluctance, and they went to Birmingham to investigate the strange murder of the whole family. They drove to the houses of the dead, where Constantine decided to check what had happened there, when Chandler was supposed to protect the rear. The exorcist discovered a lot, so he decided to meet his friend Becca Schultz, who, as a lawyer, consulted the sources and obtained the necessary documents for him about the last unexplained death of the whole family, except for the child. The man, however, could not come close to the victims of similar incidents, but he had the opportunity to contact the first of them, a certain Marcello Panneti, who was currently in a psychiatric hospital, where he also went. On the spot, one of the doctors described the Panneti case to him and briefly told him its story. Unable to do anything at the moment, the men decided to return to the mill, where they tried to find some clue. There, the exorcist saw that all similar killings were on one geomagnetic line, which allowed them to predict the next victim. Immediately afterwards, John was looking for something to capture the beast when, in the artifacts, Chas found the Sword of Night that forced the user to tell the truth. Thus, he accidentally revealed that John was too self-righteous and that his wife had departed from him. The exorcist quickly took the artifact from his friend and tried not to comment on the whole incident, finding the item he had been looking for. Soon after, they returned to Birmingham, where they set out to find another youth controlled by the spirit. During the day, Constantine watched Henry, but was thus arrested, from which he was later released by withdrawing Claire's testimony. The exorcist constructed a plan and later met with the woman and Chase at the designated location where they were to extract the evil spirit from the body of her child. It was the home of the first tragedy of its kind, to which John intended to bind the spirit. Unfortunately, the trial was unsuccessful. Chandler had the idea that Marcello was never possessed, he only killed his parents himself. So they decided to go home, but the boy started to run away, stunning Daryl. John chased him and caught him in the Fear Room, where he drove the Panneti spirit out of Henry's body, which he then gave to his parents. As it turned out, Marcello murdered his parents himself, but the act was so traumatic that the soul left the body and began to kill. During the exorcism, John sent the boy's soul into his body, which was under the care of doctors from the psychiatric hospital, thanks to which he could not harm anyone else.[7]
John and Chase went to the designated address in Mexico to help Anne Marie Flynn. When the men saw the girl, they were surprised that she became a nun. Then they go inside, where the woman briefly introduces the subject to her friends. They manage to establish that what the child took is clearly blurring its tracks. All the while John tried to improve his relationship with Anne, but she still held a grudge against the exorcist for what he had done in Newcastle. Soon after, they both decided to check the baby's fetus, which, according to the local family, should be buried underground. They found a serious trail there, but in their absence another child was kidnapped. To everyone's surprise, it was a descendant of Hugo, more precisely a child of his eldest son. This made Constantine understand that the monster they were confronting wanted the Lopez blood. Against her will, Anne Marie decides to summon evil to the monastery, using a fountain. Soon after, he returns wounded and announces that he has faced one of Eve's sisters, Lamashtu. Together, they decided to find out about the Lopezs' past by visiting Hugo's mother. Pia Lopez told a story about a family that has had a problem with Brujería for years. John could not believe what he was hearing, because the sisters had been dead for a long time and he would not have had the strength to reach Earth. It was then that he realized that everything was to blame for the Rising Darkness, which was getting harder to deal with. Soon John had a plan to get the kidnapped children back. He decided to fill the chicken with Hugo's blood and cast a special spell on him, thanks to which Lamasztu would see him as another child. These, however, had to be sacrificed by a woman, so Anne Marie agreed to this sacrifice. As soon as the witch took the bait, Hugo unexpectedly followed her in pursuit, trying to shoot her. At the last moment, the team stopped the man and the three of them went to the sewers to find the babies. They split up in the sewers to prevent Lamashtu from escaping. After a short search, John and Anne found the children and took them, but they were interrupted by a witch who had found out about the bait and was furious. Constantine used Pazuzu's likeness to send Lamashtu back to Hell, learning her connection to Brujería. After a while, they met with Chas, to whom John gave the child and left the catacombs.[8]
Anne Marie came out of the sewers right after him. Chas did not notice his friend, so he asked the nun where he was. She turned to him sadly and said that she was sorry, which prompted the man to re-enter the sewers. He soon found him and learned that Anne Marie had shot him to delay the Invunche from attacking. To save himself, Constantine was forced to invite the demon Pazuzu into his body, thus allowing himself to be possessed. The exorcist gave himself a few days before the demon completely took control of him, but admitted that if he failed to perform the planned self-exorcism, he would have to be killed. Suddenly, John began to deteriorate and he attacked Chandler and ran away. When Chas awoke, he contacted Zed and asked her to help him with his search. When the girl arrived, she had a plan. She was going to find a friend using Anne Marie and her astral projection.[9]
During the meeting with the nun, she had no intention of helping John. It was only when Zed revealed that the exorcist had a plan in this because she was talking to an angel that Anne Marie realized her mistake. Using astral projection, Flynn found Constantine in a local prison. Soon after, Zed and Chase appeared in front of the prison, who were planning to go to the prison. Chandler, also intending to go inside, decided to use the easiest way and hit the policeman, thanks to which his plan was successful. To the surprise of the weakening John, Anne Marie also appeared, who promised to help. After finding a suitable place, they began exorcising themselves. They were surprised by the fact that at this stage of possession, holy water did not affect existence. The process was interrupted by Nahash - the tempter serpent, whose aim was to finish the exorcist. But he saw that he was possessed, and was glad that they would soon be allies. Nevertheless, he attacked Chas, whose neck he broke, and in retaliation he was murdered by a nun with a mystical dagger. Soon after John awoke in the morgue next to Anne Marie, Chandler was also in the bag next to it. As the condition of the exorcist was not the best, they decided to move him to the mill. To this end, Julio, a prison trader, collected entire supplies of heroin from all prisoners, which they then injected intravenously into Constantine. This gave them a way to take him to a specific location, but to distract the guards, Anne Marie used astral projection to create a naked copy of herself. After reaching the mill, taking advantage of John's unconsciousness, the team began to prepare the necessary things by tying the possessed man to the bed. When he awoke, he realized that he could not use the dictaphone because the demon would not listen to his voice. So he asked Anne Marie to perform an exorcism as she had the appropriate powers. However, she had to do it in Catholic, which allowed her to know the existence of Heaven and Hell. She agreed to this, warning Zed and Chas that at some point the demon would try to use their weaknesses against them. Anne has not forgiven herself for what she has done in Newcastle, and Pazuzu has taken control of Constantine. He started mocking his friends, trying to break them down and pointing out their greatest failures. Zed explained to the nun that she had to forgive herself as well, not only John, which would allow her to successfully complete the ritual. When the demon left the exorcist's body, Constantine thanked his friends for their help and would stay with him in such a difficult moment.[9]
Chas headed to New York to meet his daughter, thinking about his future along the way. When he entered the ex-wife's house, the woman was angry with the man for being late. He was not going to listen to her and immediately went upstairs to greet his daughter. However, he noticed her unconscious lying on the floor and immediately took her to the hospital. Soon John and Zed appeared in the city, and they immediately went to the hospital. There, Chas told his friends what had happened and stated that this was not an ordinary coma as many patients suffered from the same. Constantine decided to check and found that Geralidne's soul was leaving the body. Horrified by the fact that some magician had managed to separate soul from body, he decided to contact an old friend who was a medium. Renee interrupted the conversation and returned to the room. She was furious that John had approached her daughter and expected an explanation from her ex-husband, but he heard only in response to help. Soon after, the three visited Fennel's store, which began to threaten Constantine with a shotgun. He wanted to help Zed and Chas, but he was not going to work with an eccentric exorcist who only thinks about himself. Desperate, Chandler, however, did not have time to negotiate with the man, so he tore his gun away and knocked him out, forcing him to help. Fennel performed a ritual which allowed Geraldine to speak through his mouth. Then this one was interrupted, and the mysterious magician was surprised that someone was taking advantage of one of his victims. He recognized John and said he wouldn't be so easily defeated this time by burning Fennel's body alive. Constantine, however, remembered the spell cast by him and wrote it to Zed. Thanks to this, she tracked the location of the potential kidnapper, where the team went right after that. Once there, John deactivated the camouflage spell, discovering the mage's hideout, who turned out to be Felix Faust - a powerful wizard who managed to separate the body from the soul and intends to use it to increase his own power. Angry Chas, wanting to get his daughter back, attacked the mage, and Constantine had to make a pact with him. He was to return Geraldine's soul in exchange for helping the exorcist get rid of the Karabasan demon, to which the exorcist agreed. After leaving the hideout, John, furious with Chandler for disobeying him, dismissed him from the case and decided to act alone with Zed.[1]
After defeating the demon, they returned to the hospital to return with Chas to meet Faust. Hearing this name, Renee intended to help the team, fearing for her daughter. Zed decided to stay with the woman to guard her daughter's body. Soon after, during the meeting with Felix, the mage broke the contract that John had defeated Karabasan by dissipating energy, rather than sending him to Hell as the contract mentioned at the beginning. Seeing no other way out, Constantine took his nervous friend outside, where he tried to calm him down. The latter, however, was not going to give up and stunned his friend, locking him in the car. He himself went to the magician with a proposal, offering him 32 souls in exchange for one - the soul of his daughter. Faust did not believe that one body could be such a "capacious vessel," so Chandler decided to show it to him by killing himself before his eyes. Soon Chas returned to life, surprising Faust, who was ready to accept the man's proposal. The latter, however, expected a handshake to "complete" the deal when John woke up and was about to save his friend. Chandler understood perfectly well that the magician could deceive him and tied him to himself with a tendon from his Achilles heel, then pulled a grenade from his pocket and pulled the pin, waiting for death. Then Renee appeared in the building, whom Chas ordered John to protect, shouting his last words before the explosion, which resulted in Faust being killed and the souls returned to their rightful owners. The next morning, Chas visited Renee who was happy to see him. The man took a certain album and went upstairs to his daughter, whom he introduced to his friends - people whose souls inhabit his body.[1]
Chas studied the bloody map and the radio, looking for information about supernatural events. After a moment, Constantine saw the thread he was following into the wide corridors. After a short time, the exorcist returned to Chas, where the body of his friend was taken over by Manny, who was furious with his ally for being idle. He thought the map was out of order and burned it, then told about a patient who was rushed to the hospital, who was suspected of having an overdose. On the angel's advice, the team drove to the local hospital, and to make appearances, John stuck a screwdriver in Chas's leg. Thanks to this, they came closer to the described patient with black veins. When Zed tried to inspect her with her visions, she saw a bright light, but the narrative interrupted the cardiac arrest of the test patient whom the doctors were trying to save. As if that were not enough, Martin had an unknown seizure and she had to go to a hospital bed. The occultists without a friend went to the hospital morgue, where they wanted to examine Taylor's body. It turned out that even after death, it was filled with powerful black magic, which worried John, who ordered his friend to look for clues in Jasper's archives. Due to his discoveries, Constantine soon decided to return to the mill, where he found a piece of Black diamond the operation of which he checked on Chas, which greatly helped to solve the mystery.[10]
Following the defeat of Papa Midnite and the revelation that Manny is the true instigator of the Rising Darkness, Chas's current whereabouts are unknown.
Anti-Monitor Crisis[]
During the Anti-Monitor Crisis, Chas as well as everyone in the multiverse except for the seven Paragons, was killed in an antimatter wave by the Anti-Monitor on December 10, 2019,[11] only to be restored a month later, after the Paragons and the Spectre created a new universe.[12]
New multiverse[]
In the new multiverse, Constantine's will mentions both Chas and Papa Midnite.[13] Chas was to be entrusted with a Black diamond[14]; however, Constantine burned the will.[13]
Powers and abilities[]
Powers[]
- Protection spell/Resurrection: Due to a protection spell, Chas has the ability to resurrect after being killed though only up to 47 times.[1]
- Accelerated healing factor: Chas is also capable of healing from injuries other than death, such as when he was brutally slashed by a ghost in an alleyway.[6]
Abilities[]
- Skilled hand-to-hand combatant: Chas was skilled in using his fists in close combat.[6]
- Cooking: Chas was a masterful cook, providing food for members of John Constantine's team.[6]
Weaknesses[]
- Limited souls: The protection spell placed on Chas can work only up to 47 times, due to the number of people who died around Chas when the spell was cast. With each death, Chas gets less and less chances to survive. At the time of confrontation with Felix Faust, he was up to 32 lives, then lost one to demonstrate his power to Felix, and another one to destroy the dark mage.[1]
Deaths[]
- Chas may have died from a train derailment in Pennsylvania courtesy of a succubus.[3]
- Chas died to save a family from a demon called the Monkey King.[1]
- Chas was impaled by a telephone wire that was possessed by Furcifer.[2]
- Chas was stabbed by Misaki Ross' ghost with scissors.[6]
- Nahash snapped Chas's neck in an attempt to prevent Anne Marie Flynn from performing an exorcism on John.[9]
- Chas slit his own throat to prove his powers to Felix Faust.[1]
- Chas tied a grenade to the sinew of Achilles while shaking hands with Felix Faust to kill both of them.[1]
- After killing Faust, Chas had 30 souls left, meaning he'd died a total of 17 times since the bar fire two years earlier.[1]
Appearances[]
Constantine[]
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John Con Noir[]
- "Trash" (non-canon)
DC's Legends of Tomorrow[]
Season 5[]
- "Mortal Khanbat" (name seen)
Gallery[]
Promotional images[]
Constantine[]
Behind the Scenes[]
- In the DC comics, Frank William "Chas" Chandler first appeared in Hellblazer #1 (January, 1988) as a London cabbie, a good friend, and ally of John Constantine.
- Cal Johnson and Scott Hunter were stunt doubles for Charles Halford in the role of Chas Chandler.
- Charles Halford also played Jemm on Supergirl.
References[]
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 "Quid Pro Quo"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Non Est Asylum"
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "The Darkness Beneath"
- ↑ "The Devil's Vinyl"
- ↑ "A Feast of Friends"
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 "Danse Vaudou"
- ↑ "Rage of Caliban"
- ↑ "The Saint of Last Resorts"
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 "The Saint of Last Resorts: Part 2"
- ↑ "Angels and Ministers of Grace"
- ↑ "Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part Three"
- ↑ "Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part Four"
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 "Mortal Khanbat"
- ↑ Twitter Caity Lotz: John Constantine’s will