The beloved John Constantine is known by fans for his sour demeanor and blunt nature, so when he directed his ire toward the world’s wealthiest people like Batman, he did not hold back. And recently, Nightwing has proven why his criticism was spot on. Constantine and Nightwing share few similarities, but their humble beginnings have given them a more complicated relationship with money than billionaires like Batman. So, when the two characters were faced with control of great wealth, they took a much more practical approach to helping those in need.
In Hellblazer: Rise and Fall #3, by Tom Taylor and Darick Robertson, John Constantine is granted a unique opportunity to help some of the neediest people across Great Britain. After taking down the wealth-hoarding demon Despondeo alongside his childhood friend Aisha Bukhari, Constantine spreads the ill-gotten wealth, sending £30,000 to 14 million Britons. “Imagine being able to do this and just… not doing it?” Aisha says. In response, Constantine remarks that “billionaires are the most worthless people on the planet.” This sentiment stands as a scathing takedown of some of comics’ best-known billionaires, including the original Batman, Bruce Wayne.
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Ironically, the man some consider Batman’s greatest success, Dick Grayson, is one billionaire who can match up with Constantine’s philanthropic ideals. In Nightwing #78, also by Tom Taylor, with art from Bruno Redondo, Dick discovers Alfred Pennyworth has willed him a massive fortune, and he’s immediately troubled by this sudden influx of wealth. But, after discussing Batman’s shortcomings as a philanthropic billionaire with Batgirl Barbara Gordon and spending some time with the large homeless community in Blüdhaven, Dick decides he wants to create a safety net for the community. This immediately puts a massive target on his back, with all of Blüdhaven’s organized crime coming for his head. Despite this, Dick has stuck to his promise, donating his wealth to the city and investing in programs to help the homeless and hungry.
In pursuing this method of saving his city, Nightwing has only proven Constantine’s point. Dick became a billionaire and gave away the money almost as fast as it was wired to his account. In stark contrast, Batman has held his fortune close to the vest, not only making relatively small charitable contributions but creating businesses to grow that wealth even more. While Batman has indeed saved Gotham more times than anyone could count, his method to help the city is flawed, to say the least. Bruce’s wealth has allowed him to develop advanced tech that makes Batman capable of taking down some of the baddest super-humans in the DC universe. While it has made Batman a one-man army defending Gotham from some of the world’s most dangerous criminals, the poor and hungry are still poor and hungry. Meanwhile, Dick is sticking to his roots as Nightwing, still sporting, as Barbara points out, “the tightest costume of all of us,” while turning himself into the face of change and hope for Blüdhaven’s neediest.
Constantine and Nightwing would likely approve of one another’s acts of philanthropy, despite their incredibly different outlooks on the world. While he may not call all billionaires “worthless,” Dick was willing to admit his mentor’s shortcomings as a man in power. Both characters’ upbringings molded them into people averse to wealth and desperate to help people in need. Oddly enough, John Constantine would probably be prouder of Nightwing than Batman.
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