John Constantine often gets himself into all kinds of trouble, but thankfully, for whatever reason, he appears to have his own guardian angel in Dr. Fate. There have been many times across several universes where Constantine finds himself in a life or death situation and despite the situation seeming helpless, Dr. Fate arrives and bails him out again and again.
Dr. Fate and Constantine never interacted that much in the original run of Hellblazer, even outside of it their interactions have been extremely limited. A British conman doesn’t have much reason to interact with a Lord of Order such as Dr.Fate. They’ve rarely interacted at all, save for a few moments in Books of Magic or in John’s New 52 run, Constantine. The few times they have interacted though provide a very curious little habit that Dr. Fate seems to have formed, that of saving John Constantine from certain death, regardless of the universe.
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In the pages of DCeased: A Good Day to Die by Tom Taylor, Laura Braga, and Darick Robertson, in order to try and stop the zombie apocalypse, John Constantine and a group of heroes goes through the effort of trying to steal a time machine, so that Booster Gold can go back in time and prevent the virus outbreak before it ever happened. This doesn’t really work out, and the zombies overrun the heroes, with all of them dying save for John. While he’s willing to sacrifice himself, Dr. Fate appears and tells him that “It is not your time, another fate awaits you” before whisking him through a portal. Strangely enough, a near exact situation happens in DC vs Vampires: All Out War #2 by Matthew Rosenberg, Alex Paknadel, Guillaume Singelin, and Alan Quah. John Constantine is willing to sacrifice himself to hold off a vampiric Wonder Woman and ends up, once again, being saved by Dr. Fate, who says a near identical line, “You will not die here today, John Constantine, not here and not now.”
John Constantine is a very capable hero, he’s saved the universe many times in his own series Hellblazer, the methods he uses may not always be the most virtuous, but they do save the world. In a world where the apocalypse has taken hold, be it through vampires or zombies, having someone who can do what needs to be done, regardless of the cost it may have, can be an extremely useful tool. This is likely why Dr. Fate continually, out of all the heroes he could save, chooses John Constantine over and over. In DCeased: A Good Day to Die he could’ve saved Scott Free, Big Barda, Blue Beetle, Mr. Terrific, all of them extremely skilled in their own ways, but instead, he chose John.
While John may not be the best hero or even then best person, he has saved the world from all kinds of threats, be it from The Beast or from Darkseid, he’s got it handled. Dr. Fate knows this and despite their dislike of one another, Dr. Fate knows that John Constantine will do whatever it takes to save the world.
