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Fantasy TV (Sep 2022)

Read more Television and Fantasy TV.

Read More The Sandman The next big title to be given the Netflix treatment will be Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman… it’s currently in development. Everyone is excited about the adaption, and hopefully it will bring the story to a bigger audience. … Constantine The new episode of Constantine is probably the best show so far! The best ones are the ones that is based on the comic book, and this new episode, the whole setup is quite similar to Mike Carey's Hellblazer: All His Engines. .…

The Sandman
netflix.com

It breaks my heart, but I don’t love the Netflix adaption of The Sandman.

I realized that the television show wasn’t meant for me, but for a wider audience that is not all that familiar with the original comic books. You see, I own all the original comics, starting with #1 when it first launched in 1989, when Vertigo Comics was in its infancy. I own all the spinoffs titles (including Death: The High Cost of Living, and various Specials). I am a superfan, when it comes to the Sandman.

So, that’s the problem. I’m just too close to the source material, it is hard for me to accept the new changes… especially, when I think it brought absolutely nothing to the story.

They followed most of the story correctly, making some minor changes to give the Corinthian a bigger role, and overall, the story still follows the books.

What I had a problem with is all the gender and race swaps. I know, I know, most people aren’t bothered by this… but when you are used to a character to look a certain way, you just expect them to look the same on screen.

The biggest changes were Death is played by Kirby Howell-Baptiste, a black actress, and John Constantine is played by Jenna Coleman, a woman, Rose Walker is played by Kyo Ra, a black actress, and Lucien, an old male elf librarian is played by Vivienne Acheampong, a black woman.

I know a lot of people argued that it doesn’t matter, but to me, it just didn’t feel like the Sandman from the comic books. I just wondered why they made these changes? For example, if they changed Cyborg, a black character, into a white character, wouldn’t it upset you? Another example, when they decided to make Snake Eyes from G.I. Joe to Asian, I wasn’t happy about that either. I would be upset if they changed Storm Shadow, who is Asian, to another race or gender. Another example, I was really upset that they wouldn’t show Constantine smoking in the Constantine television show... and yes, I was upset that Constantine was not blonde and English in the Keanu Reeves movie. To me, I just don’t like it when they make changes to the characters.

What The Sandman got right, such as The Corinthian, or Desire (maybe they could have gotten both a male and female to play the part!), or all the serial killers… they got it right! I’ve no complaints if they get things right.... Cain and Abel, they look like they’re from the bible. Even Fiddler’s Green looked the part, complete with his costume and glasses. When the show gets a character right, I’m going to praise it.

I guess, when it comes down to it, for someone not familiar with The Sandman, you are going to have a good time. You’re going to love the story of the Sandman, which combines the first two Sandman arcs, Preludes and Nocturnes and The Doll’s House, into 10 episodes. I think the story still holds up.

Also, don’t miss the bonus episode, a two-parter Dream of a Thousand Cats and Calliope, which are both excellent adaptions. No complaints here, the cats looks like cats, the muse looks like a muse.

Read More Game Of Thrones The Seven Kingdoms come to life in a way like no other as the Game of Thrones Live Concert Experience kicked off its all-arena twenty-four city North American tour at the Xcel Energy Center in St . Paul. .…

House of the Dragon
hbo.com

With bitterness of the last two seasons of Game of Thrones still fresh in my mind, I wasn’t looking forward to the prequel House of the Dragons… or as the kids are calling it, “Hot D”. Going into House of the Dragons, I realized how much I love the original Game of Thrones (Seasons 1 to 5). That’s because the story and writing is strong, as it’s based on George R.R. Martin’s Blood and Fire book.

The good news is that the book has a definitive ending, so if they are adapting this book, they won’t run out of material, unlike Game of Thrones, where the showrunners were just making it up as they go along (and it shows how poorly they understood the characters).

In many ways, House of the Dragons is making me fall back in love with the Westeros world. Since the story takes place over 150 years before Game of Thrones, there are no familiar characters.

We are introduced to the ruling House Targaryen. The king Viserys Targaryen is facing a problem of not having an heir to his kingdom. He chose to named his daughter, Rhaenyra, as sole heir to spurn his brother, Daemon. This sets up conflict within the Targaryen family.

I think the best part of the show is Matt Smith, who is straight up an evil man. To call him evil might be wrong, he’s more like a big jerk. Smith does such a wonderful job in portraying Daemon, that every time he’s on screen, he dominate. All the other characters are boring compared to Daemon.

I’m only three episodes in, and knowing that HBO has already green-lit a second season, I have a good feeling about this series. I haven’t read the book, so I’m very much looking forward to how the story unfolds, and who will live and who will die, playing the Game of Thrones?

PS, I don’t like how House of the Dragons re-used the theme song to Game of Thrones. I wish it was a different theme song, so that it stands on its own, rather than being related to GoT.

Read More Lord of the Rings The Banner Saga, a game by Stoic, released on Tuesday, January 14th, is one of the best games I've ever played. The graphics is hand drawn and reminds me of Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings and pre-CGI Disney animation. .…

Rings of Power
amazon.com

Yes, I do have Amazon Prime, and no, I haven’t wanted to watch The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power show from Amazon. The show is based on the The Lord of the Rings and its appendices by J. R. R. Tolkien.

One of the main reasons I am avoiding this show is that the diehard fans are ridiculing the show for its terrible writing and that the show is changing race and gender from the books. As someone who was not happy that they gender or race-swapped characters on The Sandman, I fully understand why these fans are upset that the Rings of Power show is getting their characters wrong.

I don’t know the whole story, but I think part of the problem is that Amazon only has rights to some books, so they can’t touch anything that appears in the Peter Jackson movies. They might have to make up characters or introduce a new race that was not mentioned in the books. For example, since the Hobbits didn’t exist in the time that Rings of Power takes place, the showrunners used a race called the Harfoots.

I haven’t read the books, so those kind of things probably wouldn’t bother me, but seeing as so many fans hate all the changes to the books, I am avoiding the fantasy series for now.

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Vertigo Comics TV: The Sandman, Y the Last Man, and Doom Patrol

Read more Television.

Read More Neil Gaiman I didn't see Neil Gaiman on his last-ever book tour, but my sister did. She got my Sandman: Absolute book signed. Gaiman was last seen recording music with his wife Amanda Palmer, you can read my review of An Evening With Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer here. …

THE SANDMAN
netflix.com

As you know I used to collect a lot of comic books, particularly DC Comics and Vertigo Comics (an imprint of DC). So I’m glad to see that Vertigo Comics-based shows are on the rise.

We’ve already got Constantine (based on Alan Moore’s Hellblazer), Swamp Thing (mostly based on Alan Moore’s reinvention of the character), V For Vendetta (based on the comic that started in the UK, but finished under the Vertigo banner), iZombie (based on the comic by Chris Roberson), Lucifer (based on Neil Gaiman’s character from The Sandman), The Losers (film based on Andy Diggle’s Vertigo comic), The Kitchen (film based on Ollie Masters and Ming Doyle’s Vertigo title), Sweet Tooth (based on Jeff Lemire’s comic ), and, of course, who could forget the extremely violent and over-the-top Preacher (based on Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s work).

So why are Vertigo titles so popular ? There’s a lot of reasons, comic book properties are hot, as Hollywood are looking for the next big thing. Also, since most titles on the Vertigo line were creator-owned, it’s much easier to sign a deal with the creators and take a chance to option for their works to be adapted for the silver screen.

The next big title to be given the Netflix treatment will be Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman… it’s currently in development. Everyone is excited about the adaption, and hopefully it will bring the story to a bigger audience.

They haven’t announce a date that the show will air, but based on the “First Look” at the Sandman via YouTube … I feel that the production may be in its final stages. The video looks great, and seemed really faithful to the original comic book.

Read More Constantine The Constantine finale is partly an adaptation of Hellblazer #4. It's not a great finale, especially because it doesn't wrap up all the setup from the pilot. This is probably because of two things: they lost the lead actress …

Y: THE LAST MAN
fxnetworks.com

My sister collected Y: The Last Man, when it originally printed in 2002, so I read the whole series from start to finish.

The story is about a mysterious event that killed everything on earth with a Y chromosome, leaving only Yorick and his pet monkey, Ampersand, the only male survivors on the planet. I’ve always thought it would make a good television show, so I was ecstatic to find out it was adapted in 2007, with Shia LaBeouf attached. It was around this time that DC started to collect Y: The Last Man in a slightly oversized Deluxe Collection, which I bought, to support the comic creators, Brian K Vaughan and Pia Guerra.

Y: The Last Man resurfaced again 2013 with director Dan Trachtenberg attached. That went nowhere, and eventually, it was up to FX to finally make the adaption happen in 2018. The original show runners, Michael Green and Aida Mashaka Croal, both left the show due to “creative differences”.

Filming and production for FX’s Y: The Last Man was further delayed, due to the COVID-19 pandemic… so, let’s just say it’s been a rather long road to get the show to finally air.

From the five episodes I’ve seen of Y: The Last Man, I’ll have to say that it’s pretty faithful to the comic book. There are some new changes and additions (particularly with the trans men), but I feel they were necessary for the television audiences.

A lot of critics, who never read the comic book, complains that the least interesting thing is Yorick, who is not a likeable character. While they aren’t wrong, I’m glad they made Yorick, closely based on the loser in the comic book. I would probably be more upset if they changed the character in the TV show.

His sister, Hero, gets more development in the show, which I also like… however, they should stick to the comic book and make her aggressive and anti-men.

Read More Doom Patrol I bought Doom Patrol on Bluray when I saw it was on sale for $10. It’s a great show, and I am a fan of the original source material (owning a complete run of Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol). …

DOOM PATROL
hbomax.com

Now in its third season, Doom Patrol is now exclusively on HBO Max (after it originally debut on the failed DC Universe). The TV show, from the start, is based on Grant Morrison and Richard Case’s Doom Patrol … starting with “Crawling from the Wreckage” storyline. You have to understand that prior to #19, Doom Patrol was the standard DC Super group. When Morrison took over, he brought such an imagination and strangeness to the group that it really didn’t fit in the regular DC Universe. After a few years, the title was moved under the Vertigo Comics banner.

The third season starts off by wrapping up all that Candlestick Maker story from last season… quite quickly! In fact, it all just ended with the pilot of Season 3… which made me think that perhaps the pilot should have actually been the final episode of Season 2. When I see something like this, it just makes me think that the showrunners and creators just have no idea what they are doing.

So far, Season 3, isn’t as crazy as previous seasons. Pacing is really slow on the “vacation” episode, but it does introduce the new threat of the series: The Brotherhood of Evil.

In case you were a punk music fan, Robot Man can be seen with a Toadies and Rancid T-Shirt in Episode 2.

Doom Patrol Season 3, Episode 2 (23 Sep 2021)

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Constantine: City of Demons - The Movie (UHD/Blu-Ray)

Constantine: City of Demons - The Movie Read More Constantine The new episode of Constantine is probably the best show so far! The best ones are the ones that is based on the comic book, and this new episode, the whole setup is quite similar to Mike Carey's Hellblazer: All His Engines. .…

I’m a big fan of John Constantine, so I was disappointed (but anticipated) that NBC cancelled the series. Of course, I also knew that the show producers and DC Comics (now DC Entertainment) wanted to bring the series to another outlet, possibly The CW, since they already had a string of successful DC shows like Arrow, The Flash, and Supergirl.

Constantine did live on The CW, but as a streaming-only format animated show as Constantine: City of Demons in April 2018, but we didn’t like the advertisements every five minutes.

Thankfully, all those segments are collected into one long 90-min ad-free Bluray/UHD release, re-titled Constantine: City of Demons - The Movie with a Rated R rating. To make it a full movie, 20 minutes have been added to the movie.

As for special features, there’s also a documentary “The Sorcerer’s Occultist - Understanding John Constantine” and the WonderCon Constantine Panel.

Unless you’re a massive Constantine fan, I wouldn’t recommend paying full retail price for the disc(s), but on sale for $7.99 (which is the current Black Friday sale price) - it’s almost an impulse item. All physical disc copies comes with a digital code (expires Dec 2019).

As for a live-action Constantine show, it would seem that Matt Ryan, starring as John Constantine, has been added to the regular cast of The CW’s Legends of Tomorrow. Although the series is somewhat silly at times, it’s kind of nice to see Constantine back on the small screen.

I did give up on the Legends of Tomorrow show after season one, but have started watching the show again this year, thanks to the addition of Constantine to the roster.

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Constantine: City of Demons

Constantine: City of Demons Read More Constantine The new episode of Constantine is probably the best show so far! The best ones are the ones that is based on the comic book, and this new episode, the whole setup is quite similar to Mike Carey's Hellblazer: All His Engines. .…

It’s been three years since NBC cancelled Constantine... but it would seem that the show is back as an animated Constantine: City of Demons on CW’s The Seed. The first five episodes have been released on the streaming network, with a pending seven more episodes to follow.

Since each episode is only five minutes, they should have just combined everything as one full length hour-long feature - like all of those WB’s DC Animated direct-to-DVD/Bluray releases. Speaking of which, Constantine is actually the main star of 2017’s Justice League Dark… which actor Matt Ryan reprised his role as voice actor.

Ryan later resurfaced as Constantine on a semi-recent episode of CW’s Legends of Tomorrow, but in typical CW fashion, it was overdramatic and forgettable. Please, I don’t think Constantine would hooked up with Black Canary, he’s normally based in England and the two should never have met. Besides, everybody knows Black Canary is Green Arrow’s girlfriend.

Anyway, Constantine: City of Demons is actually not based on the 2010-2011 five-issue miniseries by Si Spencer and Sean Murphy, but, in fact, is based Mike Carey and Leonardo Manco’s Hellblazer: All His Engines. If that sounds familiar, that’s because Constantine already did this as episode 10 “Quid Pro Quo”, which finds Chas Chandler seeking help from John Constantine for his daughter’s supernatural coma. However, Constantine: City of Demons, staying true to the source material, shows the demon Beroul as responsible (and not Felix Faust in “Quid Pro Quo”).

The other plot that Constantine: City of Demons borrows from, is Jamie Delano’s “Newcastle” storyline (starting in Hellblazer #11, November 1988). Newcastle defines who Constantine is, so there are many references to “Newcastle” throughout Constantine’s show (mentioned in Episode 4 and Episode 8, but never explained).

In Constantine: City of Demons, “Newcastle” is told as a flashback, but in this new version, Chas’ is the drummer of Constantine’s band Mucous Membrane. Chas was never part of the “Newcastle Crew”, but I understand why the writers decided to tie him in the storyline. It didn’t make sense to me, as most of the Newcastle Crew were killed by the demon and those characters haunts Constantine as ghosts.

One major difference is the gruesome reveal of Constantine trying to save the child Astra Logue (running and holding her arm), but the animated show tastefully took a different approach. Still, the result is the same, as what happened in Newcastle still haunts Constantine to this day.

So far, I’m really loving this new direction of Constantine: City of Demons, I can’t wait to see how they adapted the rest of Hellblazer: All His Engines. You can watch Constantine for free on cwseed.com.

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Constantine: Waiting for the Man

Hellblazer #4 (April 1988) art by Dave McKean Read More Constantine In the latest Constantine episode, it's all about Manny the Angel and Zed. This was a pretty standard monster of the week episode. If you've seen the episode, click below .…

The Constantine finale is partly an adaptation of Hellblazer #4. It's not a great finale, especially because it doesn't wrap up all the setup from the pilot. This is probably because of two things: they lost the lead actress from the pilot, and also in the middle of production, the series was unexpectedly cut short for only 13 episodes. I think by that point, pre-production and stories were already written that they couldn't re-write the finale to everybody's expectations.

I got the feeling that the producers knew the show was cancelled in 2014 when the producers were calling for the #saveconstantine hashtags. We have not heard of a renewal for a second season, and the showrunners probably said, f*** it and steadily defying NBC's stance on "no smoking" for Constantine. I noted this when I started seeing more cigarettes on screen - starting with Episode 11 - but it may be too little too late.

There is hope however, people are saying that the show may be picked up on the SyFy network as Hellblazer (* Thanks to Hatori Sohma for dispelling this rumor) and will allow on screen smoking and drinking... but until they officially announce it - I do not think Constantine television show will survive. Which is really a shame because, despite my complaints about the super villains, I still looked forward to seeing John Constantine on TV every week.

Despite the passionate (and sometime vocal) fanbase for Constantine, I have a sinking feeling that this is the final episode we will ever see. What we did get from NBC was actually pretty good, all things considering. I'll be the first in line to buy the Bluray when they release it.

If you've seen the episode, click below to read the recap and how the television show compares to the original Vertigo Hellblazer comic books.

Warning: Contains spoilers.

Constantine Episode 13: Waiting for the Man (13 Feb 2015)

Constantine: Angels and Ministers of Grace

Read More Constantine NBC's Constantine is based on the DC/Vertigo comics Hellblazer. The show regularly airs on NBC on Fridays at 8pm. The comic was also the basis of the Warner Brothers movie Constantine .…

In the latest Constantine episode, it's all about Manny the Angel and Zed. This was a pretty standard monster of the week episode.

If you've seen the episode, click below to read the recap and how the television show compares to the original Vertigo Hellblazer comic books.

Warning: Contains spoilers.

Constantine Episode 12: Angels and Ministers of Grace (06 Feb 2015)

Constantine trapped Manny into a human body ... which we've seen in the comics when he stole Gabriel's grace and caused him to fall to earth. In the show, it's only a temporary binding spell.

The most obvious nod to the DC Universe is, of course, Eclipso, the god of vengeance. Anyone who holds the black diamond will get processed by Eclipso, and the only way to get rid of him was to trap his spirit back into the Black Diamond.* Constantine is seen holding the diamond, in a glass case, so it can't process him. Again, I'm not fond of Constantine battling these super villains, but the Eclipso thing almost made sense since they tied it to the "Rising Darkness" theme. In the old Vertigo comics, Constantine would never have gone head-to-head with Eclipso, but in the New 52 ... that's a different story, as Constantine is seen on the cover with Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld.

The other takeaway from this episode is that Zed's power comes from a tumor in her head. Reminds me of the show Medium, when we found out a tumor was the cause of Allison DuBois' precognition powers. As Zed puts it, "Magic comes at a cost."

* I know it's supposed to be black, but the color represented in the comic book was always a glowing purple.

PS, I've said it before, but it bears repeating. I hate the new 52, I'm glad to see that DC Comics will be getting rid of it next year.

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Constantine: A Whole World Out There

Hellblazer #7 (July 1988) art by Dave McKean Read More Constantine After a rather long winter break, Constantine is back on air. If you recall, the show ended on cliffhanger, with Constantine shot and left for dead. .…

NBC's Constantine is based on the DC/Vertigo comics Hellblazer. The show regularly airs on NBC on Fridays at 8pm. The comic was also the basis of the Warner Brothers movie Constantine, starring Keanu Reeves as the chain smoker.

While they got some things right (making the character back to a Blond Englishman), they are also restricted by NBC's television policies - one of which is the character cannot be shown smoking on screen... However, for the first time I can remember, at the 22-minute mark, John Constantine is seen with a cigarette in his mouth (with smoke). We've seen Constantine holding cigarettes, and technically he's not "smoking" ... but it so blatant! It is as if the show runners are saying, they don't care about the non-smoking ban that NBC opposes.

Warning: Contains spoilers.

Constantine Episode 11: A Whole World Out There (30 Jan 2015)

Ritchie Simpson art by John Ridgeway

Computer hacker Ritchie Simpson is back on Constantine. John Constantine came to Simpson to report that their friend Gary Lester was dead (the show that was based on Hellblazer #1). Somehow, John found himself investigating some students who used an out of body ritual.

In the other world, you find out that Jacob Shaw was murdering all the students that crossed over. When you die in that world, you die in the real world. He's already killed a few kids, so it's up to John and Ritchie to go to that other world and rescue Lily. The show's conclusion was the typical mind/willpower to triumphant over the psychopath Shaw...

In the comic books, Simpson was actually a sort of hippy who practiced "Quantum Magic" (in the show they refer to this as "Data Mining") and went into the computer dimension, with Constantine watching over his body. Unfortunately, Simpson's real body was destroyed and Simpson was actually trapped in the computer world. As you can see from the Dave McKean cover, it sort of illustrated what happened. His story could have suffered a similar fate - should he have chosen to stay in that dream-like world - but obviously that did not happen. I'd actually would like to see more of Simpson in future shows, after all he's one of the rare so-called Newcastle crew member.

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Constantine: Quid Pro Quo

Read More Constantine After a rather long winter break, Constantine is back on air. If you recall, the show ended on cliffhanger, with Constantine shot and left for dead. .…

The new episode of Constantine is probably the best show so far! The best ones are the ones that is based on the comic book, and this new episode, the whole setup is quite similar to Mike Carey's Hellblazer: All His Engines. What we've been seeing with Constantine is the whole children in danger, harkening back to Newcastle... which, of course, was brought up again in this latest episode.

If you've seen the episode, click below to read the recap and how the television show compares to the original Vertigo Hellblazer comic books.

Warning: Contains spoilers.

Constantine Episode 10: Quid Pro Quo (23 Jan 2015)

Fennel art by Leonardo Manco

Although the episode changed the ending and swapped out characters, it is basically All His Engines. In the comic book, a demon called Beroul took a bunch of souls, including Chas Chandler's granddaughter Tricia Chandler. John and Chas traveled to Los Angeles to find the origin of these mysterious comas. They sought out Fennel (a powerful psychic), who quickly dies. All this is exactly the setup to this episode.

What's different: Chas Chandler's secret origin is told in a flashback. Apparently he's not immortal, but was as a result of a Constantine drunken spell. He had 47 souls inside him. Every time he dies, he gets closer to permanent death. It is actually cooler than anything in the comic books... and it really gives us a reason why Chas is important to Constantine. The ending was also satisfying and it made sense, given Chas' resurrection ability. I'm quite happy with the ending.

Hellblazer vs Constantine, Part 4

photo courtesy of @mattryanreal Read More Comic Books In the comic book, Sister Anne-Marie Flynn is one of the ghosts that haunts John Constantine. We later find out that she wasn't always a nun/sister, but was part of Constantine's crew that went into Newcastle. After the horror that she experienced there, she decided to turn to god. .…

After a rather long winter break, Constantine is back on air. If you recall, the show ended on cliffhanger, with Constantine shot and left for dead.

By the end of the episode, I wonder what the direction this show will take. What I would like is for the finale episode to explain Newcastle and perhaps introduce the Newcastle demon as the big baddie in Season 2.

However, the way the show is going, I felt perhaps the Zed's cult family may be a constant reoccurring threat. Manny the Angel story feels like it's going nowhere.

If you've seen the episode, click below to read the recap and how the television show compares to the original Vertigo Hellblazer comic books.

Warning: Contains spoilers.

John Con Noir Webisode 1: Trash (16 Jan 2015)

John Con Noir

Along with the regular show, DC Comics is also uploading quick webisodes of John Con Noir. Unlike some webisodes that expands the universe, this John Constantine animation seems to poke fun at itself. You can watch the episode on YouTube.

In the first episode of John Con Noir, Constantine is on a search to look for the television show creators (Daniel Cerone and David S. Goyer). It's just fun Claymation, and I noticed that they show Constantine smoking! It's also worth noting that Matt Ryan also voice the animation.

Hellblazer vs Constantine, Part 3

Read More Constantine Of all the comic book-related television shows that I follow, I'm most excited about Constantine. I know the source material very well, having own nearly all the 300 issues run of Hellblazer .…

I was actually waiting for Episode 9 to air before I publish this, but I just found out that the show is actually on winter break and won't be back until January 16th, 2015. The show will also move to an earlier time slot - at 8pm, instead of 10pm. Since it would seem that the show is in danger, as the show creators have urged fans to "Save Constantine" on their active petition, moving the show to an earlier time may produce more viewers (for those who sleep before 10pm). From my understanding, shows on Fridays are usually marked for death, as traditionally no one is home to watch the programs...

If the show gets cancelled, I hope they move the show to a less-restrictive network (for example, NBC refused to allow Constantine to smoke on screen). I also wish the show was more faithful to the comic book, perhaps adapting the good storylines. The only episode that was adapted from the comic book was "A Feast of Friends" (Episode 4), which was basically HELLBLAZER #1. In my opinion, it was also the best episode.

Read more Hellblazer on Constantine and Constantine: Hellblazer Comparison part 2.

The television show is telling its own story - however, they are using some rules and references from the comic books. Here are the latest Constantine Easter Eggs.

Warning: Contains spoilers.

Episode 7: Blessed Are the Damned (5 Dec 2014)

Gabriel's Heart art by Steve Dillon

Psycho Pirate art by Eduardo Barreto

The fallen angel Imogen does not appear in the comic book - but it does set up some rules about them. If you pluck a feather, you can bring them down to earth (that doesn't make any sense...) The other thing is you can destroy angels through their hearts. In the Garth Ennis storyline, the succubus Chantinelle was able to steal Gabriel's heart (or his grace) for John Constantine.

At the end of the episode, Constantine put the angel heart next to what I think is the Medusa Mask - which was worn by the villain Psycho Pirate. I fail to see the connection in the 'mystical' side of DC Comics for Psycho Pirate's mask... unlike Dr Fate's helmet or Pandora's Box (the three-eyed skull), as seen in the pilot episode. The Psycho Pirate just didn't belong in the Constantine universe, as far as I'm concerned.

Episode 8: The Saint of Last Resorts (12 Dec 2014)

Sister Anne Marie art by John Ridgeway

Elder Martin art by John Ridgeway

In the comic book, Sister Anne-Marie Flynn is one of the ghosts that haunts John Constantine. We later find out that she wasn't always a nun/sister, but was part of Constantine's crew that went into Newcastle. After the horror that she experienced there, she decided to turn to god. In the television show, Anne-Marie (played by Australian actress Claire van der Boom) is very much still alive... but knowing her storyline, I wouldn't be surprised to see her dead by next episode. "Friends" of Constantine tend to die quite easily.

I believe this is supposed to be Elder Martin, Zed's father. And if that's not Martin, you know that the real Elder Martin will eventually make his appearance by the next episode. Those who follow the comic book will know that Martin is part of some extremist Christian group (in issue #4, they were referred as "God's Warriors"). Also, you find out that Zed's real name is Mary Martin in this episode.

Snake Creatures art by Marcelo Frusin

La Brujería art by Stan Woch

The snake demon in this episode reminded me of a story in Hellblazer about the royal family being from a line of snake creatures who fed on small children. I do not believe the royal snake creatures are related to the television series, however, according to the show, they point their fingers at the ancient Chile from a warlock tribe called La Brujería. According to Swamp Thing #46, the Brujería were a secret society of male witches whose origins date back several centuries to the forest of Patagonia at the southern tip of South America.

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