Here we are; one week after we last saw John Constantine and company take down the Man and we learn of Manny's true intentions. For some time the programme's been in the "on the bubble" watch in light of the ratings being not as what fans and NBC had wanted. Another upheaval the show's faced is some long-time fans of the character upset over our favourite magus not smoking as much due to the bizarre standards and practice of major TV networks (and moreso the FCC and our ever wayward Surgeon General) and those who cry over "bi-erasure" when the show was following the Hellblazer series to the letter rather than treat the character in the manner of circa Russell T. Davies' Torchwood and other non-Who related television shows (no offence, to the man himself but I digress...). The following you're about to read is a final plea to those who still remain disenfranchised with the programme as much as they are with the New 52 comic (which is as offensive and garish as the 2005 Keanu Reeves film).
"Hello, kids! I'm the worst thing to happen to your favorite character since Shaq as John Henry Irons/Steel circa 1997. Screw the deep stuff, you should enjoy my holy shotgun and my plagurist sidekick cum utter looney Shia LeBeuf as directed by the man behind your beloved Hunger Games! Be on the look out for my appearance as Nick Necro in DC's allegedly defunct New 52 comics.
- With discontent, the Keanu Reeves version of John Constantine from Earth 40 where I hang
out with the George Clooney's Batman, Cathy Lee Crosby's Wonder Woman, and Rick Springfield's Human Target (if you can remember him)"
The day of November 8th 2012 was every John Constantine fan's worst nightmare: Hellblazer was announced as cancelled after nearly 25 years and 300 issues (with the 1/3 of the 300 were the worst period for the character and the comic to date under the pen ship of Peter Milligan). I, like the rest of you, was deeply gutted by the horrible news and was/still am too angry and disgusted to give the New 52 comic a try; especially after learning from very good friends over at the Voices From Beyond message boards (I've long been associated with for a decade come this). It was like I lost a very good friend (Bastard though he was to others). Then came the news of a TV show about our man in the works on that one September in 2013.
As noted in a paragraph in my review for Non Est Asylum, I had my own misconceptions and fears about the programme assuming it'd be either in line with the awful and soulless New 52 (much like Arrow and The Flash are in their own right) or giving the 2005 film version a comeback despite the disdain for that particular version of the character and those around him. Fast forward to early 2014 and we learn of notes and tidbits from the pilot and the scepticism still remains until this time last February we learned of the casting of Matt Ryan along w/ the casting appointments of Charles Halford, Harold Perrineau and the original leading lady Lucy Griffiths. The first thing that came to mind is "Thank the gods they're going with the true Constantine and not Reeves!" Of course we all wondered about getting the details visually right and lo & behold in March, we saw the first promotional picture of Ryan as Constantine. It was a damn good sight to see that day. Plus wanted to know how the rest play into the then developing series. All was need it next is how the pilot looked...
Then came the Summer of Leaked Pilots. Like many, I couldn't resist the peak and got to saw the whole pilot presentation. I enjoyed the majority of it! It pleased me dearly the TV!John would be the John Constantine we knew from his first appearance in Swamp Thing to Hellblazer #300 and not the New 52 imposter Dan DiDio, Geoff Johns, Jim Lee and Bob Harras (w/ Peter Milligan, Jeff Lemire and later Ray Fawke) passed off as the real deal. The pilot presented us Ravenscar, Roger "Piggy" Huntoon, references to Newcastle, Astra, Nergal...even John's one armed estranged father and his deceased mother. And yes, he's still a smoker; the no smoking rule was always the ever overreacting FCC's doing to major networks like the original 3 and Fox. I was even impressed with a Chas who was at last was not Shia leBeuf but one with a twist (which can be look back to the opening of Hellblazer #203 to some extent), an jerk off angel in Manny who might as well be a Time Lord from Doctor Who (classic series, naturally) though the odd one out was Liv Aberdine. Granted she was intended to be the viewers eyes into the twisted world of John Constantine but proved to be an all too flawed concept in execution to where late Summer Liv was written out in favour of a familiar canon character Zed in the form of Angelica Celaya. Another part of why I gladly support the show 100 percent is how faithful to the source material just like 8 out of the 24 James Bond films that were despite minor changes (namely Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, The Living Daylights and Casino Royale '06) when others just stitch things together out of joint to see if its accepted or not; I'm looking at you, Arrow and Flash plus the recent Preacher developments when I say this.... It was also pleasing to see the writing staff as well as the cast reading all of the Hellblazer back issues and trades which proved they've done their homework and not thrown the baby out of the bathwater the way the film screenwriters for the 2005 film did. Seeing Ryan's performance in the leaked and later aired pilot made me realize that he was our John just as he was under Moore, Veitch, Delano, Gaiman, Ennis, Jenkins, Ellis, Carey, Mina, Diggle and even Rebus creator Ian Rankin (yes, I left out certain folks. You know who you are and why I'll gladly personally tell it to you via Twit Messages) as well as John Shirley (who wrote 2 novel treatments of our man). As I would watch for all 13 fridays, I saw the John Constantine we knew as if he never left us. Nevermind the Vietnam War veteran (from Hellblazer #5); John Constantine, came home! He came home just as we last saw him via Andy Diggle rather than in the hell Peter Milligan put him in concluding the series.
With the pre-premiere hype increased we enter into Friday October 24th of 2014 where things wouldn't be the same again.... (TO BE CONTINUED)
