A new trailer for the upcoming Constantine TV show was released over the weekend, and along with the assorted cheeky comments, damsels in demonic distress and trenchcoated action, there’s a shot of Dr. Fate’s helmet. This image gave rise to excitement and positive feelings among many observers.
In fact, I liked this trailer, and Matt Ryan seems okay from the brief footage, although seeing Constantine labeled as being from “The DC Comics Universe” kind of made my heart sink. It’S VERTIGO DAMMIT. But anyway, looks like DC’s cosmic line-up will be getting some play. Is it too much to ask for Prez?
Technically speaking Constantine was created around 8 years before Vertigo was founded. So I can see why he’d be labelled as coming from DCU.
The embed doesn’t seem to be working (FireFox/Windows 7).
You can see it here.
Yes. Johnny was created while Saga of the Swamp Thing was still fully a DC branded comic.
Further, Hellblazer had the DC Bullet on it’s cover for issues 1-62. Then “DC Comics Vertigo” for issues 63-129, and “Vertigo DC Comics” for issues 130-173.
It wasn’t until issue 174 that the words “DC” or “DC Comics” disappeared from the cover of Hellblazer entirely.
Add in his interaction in the Crisis on Infinite Earths event, his appearance in the original Books of Magic miniseries, the Zatanna oneshot, as well as Alan Moore’s own Twilight of the Superheroes proposal, and one should realize that while one may wax poetic about how Constantine is a Vertigo character, he was fully born and raised in the DCU.
Um, Constantine is a completely DC Universe title – New 52 in fact. If the show were called Hellblazer I’d be right on your side despite the objections to folks above because it was Vertigo before there was a Vertigo. But I also would HIGHLY doubt that a truly Vertigo Hellblazer show would be on the air on NBC even in 2014. So I’ll be much less disappointed in it if I think of it as a TV version of Constantine than as a TV version of Hellblazer I think.
Whether Constantine was created as a DCU character or not (he was) the current issue is how he’s being treated by Warner/DC presently. All indicators are that “Vertigo” as a brand is for things that don’t tie into superheroics at all, like iZombie, and that they see Constantine as very much tying into the superhero characters–for example, by including a shoutout to Dr Fate in the trailer.
“Your” Constantine may be Vertigo (and mine is as well, though I mostly read the book before it picked up the Vertigo branding) but this Constantine–and the Constantine we can expect to see from DC/Warners going forward–is DCU COnstantine all the way.
As long as we’re just being pedantic here:
I’d describe the Hellblazer/Fate wing of the DCU as “mystical” rather than “cosmic”.
Despite what was on the cover of the majority of Hellblazer issues, the actual title Hellblazer was not set in the DCU. It is clear from the very first issue that the character did not share a planet with Superman and Green Lantern.
Sure, the Constantine character shared a tiny handful of pages with superheroes in Swamp Thing and COIE, and there were a few (really very few) pages of interaction with existing DCU characters in Hellblazer, like Zatanna (though it seemed like it was a more “real world” version of her, and they didn’t reminisce about ever being on a Justice League satellite together).
So I would say thinking of him as a Vertigo character- while not correct in terms of publishing history- is true if you round up. The vast majority of Hellblazer was Vertigo. And even those 60-odd pre-Vertigo issues were not set in the DCU.
That said, all those Hellblazer facts are from the thousands of pages of material before this current Brightest Day/Search for Swamp Thing/ New 52 version of the character.
And, as others have said above, the current Constantine brand is probably what we will see in the TV show. I am guessing it will be more “Mystical Superhero” of the New 52 than “streetwise, working class magician” that we got in Hellblazer.
So I would say that the promo’s use of “From the DC Comics Universe” is fair warning to a Hellblazer fan like me to not get my hopes up.
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