“Constantine” Fires Up TV's Comic Obsession

The new show about an occult detective adds fuel to the what's become television's blaze-of-glory season for comic book heroes.

In "Constantine," which debuts Friday on NBC, Matt Ryan plays the title character, an occult detective who wields hellfire to battle supernatural forces in a seemingly doomed effort to save his soul – and maybe even humankind.

But you don't have to be a detective, occult or otherwise, to see that the tormented, wisecracking character is part of a larger mission to change, if not outright save television. "Constantine" arrives to add fuel to what's become TV's blaze-of-glory season for comic book heroes.

The show, based on the Hellblazer comics, joins Fox's "Gotham" and CW's "The Flash" as the fall's new superhero-themed entries, adding to the ranks of ABC's "Agents of SHIELD" and CW's "Arrow." Meanwhile, Netflix is planning multiple shows based on second-tier Marvel characters, beginning with Daredevil, and TNT reportedly has ordered a pilot based on Titans, DC’s chronicle of young superheroes-in-waiting.

The box office success of superhero movies – four of the year’s top 10 flicks were based on comic book stars – explains much of the TV boom. But the proliferation of shows also speaks to the transforming tube, from efforts to grab younger audiences amid Internet competition to more adventurous storytelling in dramas like “Breaking Bad” and “Mad Men.” TV superheroes have flown from the 1950s squeaky clean fun of “Adventures of Superman” to the 1960s Pop Art camp of “Batman” to the latter-day revisionist takes of “Lois and Clark” and “Smallville” to the current mix of action and darkness, reflecting times and tastes.

Television might not offer the special effects of the movies, but it provides the opportunity for stories to unfold more slowly – even for The Flash. There’s a potential to mine quality from ambitious character-driven tales like the Batman backstory drama, “Gotham,” which, like “Constantine,” largely lurks in shadows.

The shows share some comic book lineage: Hellblazer co-creator Alan Moore helped reinvent Batman as the darkest of knights. He’s also the writing force behind the epic graphic novel “Watchmen,” whose great movie version went underappreciated. Some fans might say the same for “Constantine,” the 2005 flick starring Keanu Reeves.

“Constantine” the TV show arrives without the instant name recognition of Spider-man or Superman, even if DC/Vertigo’s Hellblazer enjoys a devoted following. Still, lack of name recognition didn’t hurt the year’s biggest movie so far, “Guardians of the Galaxy,” a very different kind of tale, based on a relatively obscure Marvel series.

In the end, the strength of the story will save the day, if not John Constantine's soul. 

Jere Hester is founding director of the award-winning, multimedia NYCity News Service at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. He is also the author of "Raising a Beatle Baby: How John, Paul, George and Ringo Helped us Come Together as a Family." Follow him on Twitter.

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