History: (Hellblazer #14, 15) - Mercury and her mother Marj were disaffected former city-dwellers that left to travel in a bus for the countryside with Marj‘s friend Eddy. They were members of the Peace Convoy until the police busted them up. They met a number of other countestablishment lot, and named themselves the Freedom Mob. Merc had a talent for reading auras, and always knew a person’s character on meeting them. She had a history of taking in strays and wounded animals, so it was no surprise to Marj when she showed up at their bus with magician John Constantine. John had been falsely accused of ritual slayings, even though he fought the demons responsible for conflict on Earth. They wound up on private property that supported the Freedom Mob. Marj and Merc taught him to live off nature, and helped him build a wooden hut. John was amazed that he found an outlet to get back in touch with humanity, but found the outdoors lifestyle to be challenging to his city sensibilities. News spread that John was accused of being a satanic slayer by the city papers. Some feared he’d try to take out Eddy, who was viewed as a shaman and leader, but Merc knew he was innocent. Merc tried to cheer up John, and they followed ley-lines, and found them blocked by a power company. Merc couldn’t stand it, and hopped the company’s fence to complain, before executives sent them both packing. John had a bad trip, and after a walkabout he found Marj watching over him, telling him he needed mothering. They slept together, and John woke to Merc hinting that he should be her new dad.

(Hellblazer #16) - Police in riot gear attacked the Freedom Mob, and disabled all their motors before telling them to clear out. They put Marj and Mercury into custody, and when John tried to fight for them he was knocked unconscious. The police doped up Marj, and dropped her on the side of the road, telling her Mercury was going on vacation. When John woke he decided to venture into town to see if his friends were in custody. He found Marj, sedated out of her mind, at the police station, and the locals denied any involvement in the raid, or knowledge about Mercury’s whereabouts. John and Marj returned to the Mob, who decided to flee to Scotland. Marj recovered, and angrily asked if they remembered that her daughter was still missing. John loved being part of a tribe, and decided to find her. Marj drove him to the city, and he started his case. The men that abducted Mercury, members of the corrupt corporation Geotroniks, had big plans for her, but wanted to see her powers in action. She had visions of a crying man, and when Fulton, the man assigned to watcher her, pushed her, she showed him a vision of his death by hanging.

(Hellblazer #17, 18) - The Geotroniks corporation wanted to put Mercury to work, they used psychics to activate the fear machine, a Stonehenge that used ley-lines to induce mental torment in the corporation’s enemies. Fulton, who was becoming obsessed with Mercury, told them she wasn’t ready, so they employed Corporal Morgan. After seeing the suffering he unleashed he committed suicide, and Mercury realized he was the crying man in her vision. Dr. Fulton showed her the second henge, where she would remove terror from disturbed people, and send it into the first henge. They assured her she was helping mentally ill people, and she had no clue about what the gathered fear was really used for. Her subject of the days was Mrs. Corbett, who feared the bombed-out London of her youth, and a man named Bombsite Bill who sold corpses on the black market for food, and stole the deads' possessions. Merc removed Bill from her mind, transferring him to the henge. She knew Corbett would sleep for two days and see her again, but she was happy to help her at all. Merc started a journal, missing having people to talk to.

(Hellblazer #19, 20) - Mercury removed Matthew Reilley’s fear of the cancer growing in his body, and she noticed how easy her job was becoming, that the terrors almost wanted to go to their prison. She decided to investigate the terror-trap, imagining it as something like a spooky Halloween party. She found Siskin, a former operative burnt out by the fear machine, melded to the multitude of terrors she’d trapped there. Siskin let her know how nefarious Fulton and Geotroniks was, and how they were using her for evil. She confronted Fulton, told him she hated him, and she was going on strike. She accessed her henge and started meditating, warning that she’d release the terrors if anyone tried to touch her. Fulton panicked, knowing his bosses were making promises to the higher ups based on Mercury’s former stunning success. Merc learned from Siskin that the fear machine was using Geotroniks, not the other way around, and gave her a dire warning. She stopped meditating, and used her powers to influence Fulton, making him agree to take them for a car ride so she could get fresh air. Fulton was bizarrely in love with her power and innocence, and after time at a fair and a diner she managed to get out of his presence, and turn him over to the police before running off. Fulton was seen as a traitor by Geotroniks, and they had their enforcer Webster take him from jail, and hang him from a bridge, exactly like Merc’s vision. Geotroniks actually worked for Webster and the Freemasons, who wanted a regime change in Britain, and were using the fear machine to summon Jallakuntilliokan, the god of all gods. The fear machine let him enter the earthly plane, sending fear shockwaves throughout the U.K. Merc, as a sensitive, realized the very moment he arrived on Earth

(Hellblazer #21, 22) - Merc was on the run, and the presence of Jallakuntilliokan caused her to have disturbing hallucinations. John and his friend Chas drove to Scotland to be with Marj, since the god’s arrival signaled the end of days. John was still determined to find Merc, and as often happened for him, synchronicity was with John. At a pitstop they came across Merc, and John and Merc had a joyous reunion They found Marj and her new friends the Pagan Nation, and saw that their camp had been ravaged by the fear magic. John used the ley-lines to understand the horror, and saw a vision of the Freemason Webster sacrificing his captured friends, starting with Hughes, to fully birth Jallakuntilliokan. The connection to such a primal force called up the Terror-Thing, which Merc had accidentally created by powering the fear machine, but fortunately John was rescued from the mystic realm my Merc. The Terror-Thing followed, but Merc put her creation in its place. She used her astral form to prevent the birthing of Jallakuntilliokan, believing that even though she was a child she now had the weight of the world on her shoulders. While the Freedom Mob disabled the ley-lines that were its power source. Zed convinced John and Marj to use tantric magic to raise the female counterpart of the fear god, which lived in the dragon lines, or Feng Shui. Their love-making created an egg, and it hatched to summon the female anima. With the ley and dragon lines in balance Jallakuntilliokan’s influence was eradicated.

(Hellblazer #34) - Mercury and Marj staid on the run, and Mercury realized her mother was weak and couldn t see the patterns of the world, so when she was strong enough she d have to leave her behind. John Constantine, blind drunk and ravaged with guilt, found them, and Merc was disgusted, but Marj was enthralled. Merc refused to have anything to do with him, telling her mother he was looking to sporead around his hurt, and Marj claimed she was jealous that someone wanted to spend time with her, and not her all-knowing messiah daughter. Marj sent Merc on her way, saying she d do what she wanted for company, and took John into their trailer. Mercury had hoped that Zed s dance would have forever crushed the old, oppressive regime, but people she had faith in to find their way, John and Marj among others, had backslid. Merc felt John win her mother over, talking about his haunted past, and the discovery of a dead-boy s heart. She suddenly had a vision of young Constantine tugging at her skirts.

(Hellblazer #36) - Merc was furious with Constantine after he spent the night with his mother, and after probing his aura she confronted him, telling him he felt responsible for the death of his mother, his friends, the boogeyman of his childhood, and his brother. John was confused about the last bit, as he didn t recall having a brother, and told Merc she was out of line peeking into his head. He did admit his fear of death and the inevitable hellfire and revenge that awaited, but told her she was blaming him for all the evil in the world, which she also had a clear view of. Merc knew she could save humanity if they allowed her to, even though she had no fault in the state of the world the adults created. He was ready to bail, but Merc said they needed him, and she told him death was a painless moment between lives, and said she could prove it. Without his permission they traveled into his subconscious, and she showed him a number of tarot death cards, and said he had to choose one. John found himself 80 years old, a survivor of apocalyptic events taken in by the Rising Generation that offered sanctuary because he represented a cautionary tale to the new generation. He broke their rules repeatedly, and was cast out, nearly devoured by dogs before falling from a bridge and drowning. John s body strangled himself to simulate drowning, and Merc had to call Marj, who resuscitated him. John thought it odd that Merc tried to kill him, but laughed it off and suggested breakfast.

(Hellblazer #37. 38) - John agreed to stay with Merc and Marj, and the adults trusted Merc when she assured them they needed to take their bus to the backroads of East Anglia. The bus broke down, and John and marj tried to fix it, but realized they had no idea what they were doing. Merc ran off to explore a nearby nature reserve, and found a young man name Martin, a budding naturalist with a black eye he admitted his father gave him. Merc took Martin back to the adults, and they gave him some tea and sympathy. His father Archibald Acland came by in a truck, and demanded he come with him. Marj and John had to hitch a ride to find a mechanic, but Merc said she was staying local because she couldn't stand to see people not being free, and John shrugged and figured she knew what she was doing. Merc didn t know why she was infatuated, but knew she had to free Martin. Archibald was a butcher, and Merc found the slaughterhouse he ran with his friends. After Martin refused to take part in the slaughter his father tossed him in the pen with the doomed pigs, and then strung him up, threatening to skin him. Merc made her presence known, and was unphased by the men s threat s. Archibald loosed his dog on her, but she used her powers to soothe it, and make friends. She took Martin back to the bus, but Archibald was in a rage, and he followed, dumping offal from the pigs on the bus. Martin finally snapped, grabbed a bone, and started beating his father. Merc stopped him, saying he was acting like  The Man,  and that his father would only respect him for his actions. She used her psychic powers to unleash Archibald s greatest fear, and sent him on his way. He returned home, entered cold storage, and had hallucinations of an anthropomorphic pig-woman dominatrix controlling him, and saying she was his mother. John and Marj returned, and Merc offered no explanation for the state of the bus. The adults fixed the bus, and drove off, soon coming across Martin s mom, who was overjoyed that her husband had been taken to a mental institution where he could never hurt anyone again.

(Hellblazer #39, 40) - Autumn set in, and John, Merc, Marj and their new friends met up with Zed and Errol who directed them to a beachfront property near a church. Merc and Martin birthed sheep together, and Merc was astounded at how good Martin was with animals. The memory of John s twin being stillborn flooded back, and he realized the Golden Boy embodied all the good things about his nature that died when he killed his brother. He resolved to explore the tarot tower, the nearby church, and had Errol load him up with psychadelics. He wandered into a nearby cave, had a vision in which he didn t kill his twin, allowing his goodness to shine, and disappeared. In the end the Golden Boy fared differently, but not better than his brother, and they resolved to merge together. Merc and Zed witnessed all this in their dreams, and in Merc s story she lived with Errol into old age and they had a granddaughter about to give birth to twins. Errol told her she was an odd one. Merc and Zed could not find John, or the cave entrance he disappeared into. They only found a ,memorial stone and his clothes

Comments: Created by Jamie Delano & Richard Piers Rayner.

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