Constantine is a character grounded in a tradition of British…
Constantine is a character grounded in a tradition of British horror and the weird and unabashedly post-code era of comics.
Most mainstream comic fans only know of John Constantine from his brief appearance in the first book of Gaiman’s Sandman (and perhaps from his recent adaption by the mainstream DC universe); but he’s an old character, his first appearance was in 1985. Though his modern media incarnations (notably the mostly terrible film) tend to focus on Christian mysticism, he dealt with cults, world dragons, and mysticism from all over the globe before angels ever become chic. Though it seems unlikely, I hope that the new TV show will look towards the more global tradition, instead of the relatively narrow path of traditional Christian ghost stories.
Hellblazer, Constantine’s print title before he was rebooted in DC’s The New 52, ran 300 issues of weird and wonderful horror. It went on to inspire Hellboy, Supernatural, The Dresden Files and a huge swath of Gothic, Pulp and urban fantasy. It would be nice to see the property come into its own for mainstream viewers.
