Source: ign.com

5. John Constantine

(Hellblazer, Vertigo)

Constantine was a classic magical trickster. Like Loki (the Norse one, not the Marvel Comics one), he bounced around, getting in and out of scrapes with a smirk on his face.

But he was also a dude (or bloke, if you’d prefer) who sold his soul to the devil three times over to get his lung cancer cured. And then, after having lung cancer and curing it, he continued smoking. I mean, that’s someone with so little care for his well-being that it comes right around to being badass. That’s called the “#Stabbed” theory, by the way. John was not your typical comic book protagonist.

He was a jerk, a smoker, a drinker, bi, and angry, but there’s one thing he has in common with your typical costume clad super: He’s very bad at keeping his friends alive. John suffers tragedy after tragedy, and hardship after hardship. In the end, that made him a deeply enduring protagonist.

Well, that, and Alan Moore and Garth Ennis both wrote him. That probably helped, too.