Tag Archives: john constantine

Warner Brothers Animation Presents: “Justice League Dark” (Official Trailer)

logo-justice-league-dark

I’ve been enjoying the DC Animated features for a few years now and quite honestly I think I like them a lot more than the actual big screen live-action films for the most part. For me they are better extensions of the comic book page and with that please allow me to share the latest film being offered up “Justice League Dark”. I’ve got some additional thoughts at the close as well so dig in.

About The Film: Justice League Dark is an upcoming 2017 American animated superhero film produced by Warner Bros. Animation and distributed by Warner Home Video. Featuring the DC Comics team of the same name created by Peter Milligan and Mikel Janin, the film will be the twenty-seventh film in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies series. It is set to be released digitally on January 24, 2017 and on DVD and Blu-ray on February 7, 2017. The film is directed by Jay Oliva, and stars the voices of Matt Ryan, Jason O’Mara, Camilla Luddington, Nicholas Turturro, and Ray Chase. It will be the first Justice League film and the second DC Universe animated film to receive an R rating from the MPAA.
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Airing Tonight: “Constantine” (10/24/2014)

Fans of DC Comics’ own “Hellblazer” and the relatively new “Constantine” title will be excited to learn that the NBC series “Constantine” will debut this evening. I snagged the logo and show poster for you to dig into and then we can discuss this in a little more detail.

Logo - Constantine - TV Show

Synopsis:
The series will focus on John Constantine, a dark magician who is struggling with his past sins as he tries to protect humanity from a gathering supernatural threat. c/o Wikipedia.

Wow that was probably the briefest premise for a television show that I have ever shared with you readers. So yeah, Constantine is a dark mage and pretty much a bit of a knob with the occasional feeling bad about his actions as readers of the titles he has appeared in can attest to. I’ve been reading his often wayward adventures since he first appeared in “Swamp Thing” so many years ago and while “Hellblazer” was often a bit edgy of a read. That title ended with #300 and he resurfaced in both “Justice League Dark” and his own titled “Constantine” book. Fans of the mythos also saw Keanu Reeves portray a non-British, black haired “Constantine” in a feature film which was pretty not good. Let’s see how this new show pans out. I admit he does look more like the character in the poster below.
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DC Entertainment To Fill DVR’s This Fall: Flash & Constantine Are A Go!

The other day Fox announced that “Gotham” was green lit to go to series and this show will feature the pre-history time of the city, its villains and a young, recently orphaned Bruce Wayne. It really looks interesting and earlier today it was reported that the CW Network has given the go ahead to the “Arrow” spinoff of “The Flash” along with a Vertigo Comics tale “iZombie”. I’ve little background on iZombie personally but know that Grant Gustin’s Barry Allen made an appearance on “Arrow” about a month ago during a two-part episode that left you with a cliffhanger that will surely be the perfect setup for a pilot episode. Check out the proposed costume that Grant is sporting below. I like it actually.

Photo - The Flash - 2014
Grant Gustin as The Flash

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Out Today: “Hellblazer” #300 – Goodnight John Constantine…..

I’m not 100% certain it comes out today itself or within the coming days but the end result is the same as after just about twenty five years, DC Comics Vertigo imprint is ending it’s critically acclaimed “Hellblazer” title. It’s been running consistently since 1988 and became an at the time new Vertigo imprint title in 1993.

Comic - Hellblazer - 300
Hellblazer #300 – The Final Issue

PiercingMetal Thoughts: For those who might have been under a rock all these years or never actually read the title for some reason, “Hellblazer” featured John Constantine who we first met in “Swamp Thing” and was an original character creation of Alan Moore and Steve Bissette. He was a bit of a scoundrel and confidence man even then who worked alongside the powers of good with usually self-motivated means. When he received his own title it pushed the boundaries in a sense and featured stories about addiction, vice, religious themes and how the underworld is probably a lot closer than we would like to think. I was a consistent reader of the title up until about issue #100 when I began to taper off my collecting and was finding interest in other characters happenings a little bit more. Despite that I am still sad to see the long running title go away but can tell the readers of our comic postings that they can count on John Constantine being integrated more into the conventional DC Universe is his own new title “Constantine”. John has been a member of the “Justice League Dark” for a couple of years now and this remains one of my favorites of the New 52 initiative from late 2011. In my humble opinion the character has done well in that title but I guess they want to entrench him into the happenings of many of their other characters and hence the transition. Will it work? Only time will tell.

I’ll not spoil the final issue for you at all since that would make me as much the cur as Constantine himself was but you can leave comments about what you thought about it below and what the title might have meant to you as a fan for these last years.

Official Hellblazer Wiki Entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellblazer
Official Website: http://www.dccomics.com

DC Comics “The New 52” First Issues: “The Dark” Titles

As previously blogged about in the PiercingMetal Musings; DC Comics recently re-launched a number of titles and started them off from issue #1 under the branding of “The New 52”. The initiative’s prime objective being to up the number of titles available each month and to offer new readers an easier chance to jump on board with their characters. New costumes and beginnings are par for the course with the reboot but a number of the company’s most historic moments shall remain unaffected. The New 52 appears to have segmented the titles into a number of different groups based on the relation of the character – for instance there is a Superman and Batman grouping to enjoy and each title relates directly to the character. From these segments I have opted to share my thoughts on the first issues for your reading pleasure. “The Dark” appears to deal with those heroes and villains and others that go bump in the night and that made me think immediately to the nineties and Marvel’s oddly received “Rise Of The Midnight Sons” line of books. There were some winners there and of course losers as well. The Dark line did strike a chord of intrigue for me and those titles are Justice League Dark, Swamp Thing, Frankenstein Agent of S.H.A.D.E., Animal Man, I Vampire, Resurrection Man and Demon Knights. I did NOT manage to get copies of every title so those are only presented in their cover art. I do apologize to my readers and should I obtain them going forward the views will be added in post-mortem.

comic book covers, dc comics, dc entertainment
“Justice League Dark” #1

Justice League Dark #1: The existence of a Justice League Dark piqued my interest quickly and it was a reminder of the whole Legion Of Monsters and the aforementioned Midnight Sons angle that Marvel Comics once did. You might recall those stories where the more questionable powers for good had free reign on the world’s villainy and dispatched them with little worry or mercy. As you know the DC Universe has a lot of mysterious powers of their own and this title rounds a bunch of them up and finds them working together for the sake of the world. That being said we find Madame Xanadu being put to a proper use along with Shade The Changing Man, Zatanna, Deadman and John Constantine (Hellblazer) who have joined together against the madness of The Enchantress in the debut of the new team. What intrigued me was how a number of Vertigo characters were now firmly ensconced in regular continuity and I will say that I was fine with that as periodically the Vertigo line was too “out there” for me. Several members of the Justice League make an appearance to show just how helpless they are against the forces of magic as a whole (with the exception of Zatanna) and while this took more pages than I felt were necessary to establish, it leaves us plenty of room for this team to build into something very interesting. I was happy to find Madame Xanadu in this title because she has a lot of potential as a character and never seems to be used as good as she can be. I also felt that it might be more interesting to see a return to original form for Shade than what his Vertigo title was doing. I am on the fence about Constantine though but remain open minded to see what the Brit brings to the table in this kind of scenario. Deadman barely makes an appearance but Zatanna comes off as a strong and independent character and before you ask, no, there are no fishnets and top hat in this one. Sorry to disappoint you but perhaps she will change over time as well. I am interested in the second issue for sure and hope that we find The Phantom Stranger, Mr. E. or perhaps even Doctor 13 paying a visit. The story is penned by Peter Milligan with art by Mikel Janin. Nice stuff from Mikel for sure and a solid read from Milligan.
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