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.

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic