In 2014, Matt Ryan suited up as nasty piece of work John Constantine for a a lot more comics-accurate take on the character for NBC. The series ran for a great 13 episodes, but alas it was not indicated for the long-haul. Yet, in the fourth season of Arrow, Ryan reprised his role as the dodgy warlock, thus making his NBC series (at least) Arrowverse-adjacent. The greatest surprise, however, came when in the third season of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, the Hellblazer teamed up with the greatest idiots in the multiverse. four seasons later, John Constantine met his death at the hands of a clone in a man-bun. This may seem like an ignominious end for such a storied character. However, given the divergence Legends of Tomorrow have taken with the character of John Constantine, his path to death felt very true to the character.
Despite his lots of appearances and iterations, lots of folks see the 300-issue run of Hellblazer as the definitive story of John Constantine. Throughout the series his character goes through lots of changes, including regressions. Equally, on Legends of Tomorrow, the character of Constantine manifested differently than in than in the comics (or even the animated version of Constantine in the DC animated continuity that ended with Justice league Dark: Apokolips War). Still, the Legends version of Constantine also stayed true to the character’s core, including his greatest failure: Astra Logue.
Another thing that John Constantine does pretty often is die. In fact, this isn’t even the first time Legends of Tomorrow showed us the death of John Constantine. However, this one is going to stick because of real-world concerns. So, let’s look at how the final fate of Matt Ryan’s Hellblazer is pretty damn perfect.
Spoilers to follow.
The death of John Constantine on Legends of Tomorrow seems like It will Stick
We know from Comic-Con at home that while Matt Ryan isn’t leaving the series, John Constantine is. The character will show up, played a lot of likely by an actor of color, in HBO Max’s Justice league Dark series. and DC is notoriously nervous about having two versions of their characters running around at the same time, though less so lately. Still, according to Ryan, he also thought it might be time to put the character aside for a time. It’s the issue faced by any long-running version of a character. Either end the story or keep it going so long it tarnishes what’s been done thus far. As much as we’d all like to see Hugh Jackman as Wolverine or Robert Downey Jr. as Iron man again, it would undercut their dramatic, “final” moments.
The season 6 premiere of Legends of Tomorrow was a little “off,” to me. However, as the season went on the storytellers found their footing. There’s been some crazy episodes (like the future reality competition show episode or the bowling alley one). There’s been some heavy episodes, a lot of of them tied to the downfall of Constantine. even though I believe he will redeem himself in the season finale, the death of John Constantine is not a hero’s sendoff. He dies after betraying the other Legends in a quest to get his power back. Ryan says he’s pleased with how the story ends, but his perspective is a bit different than ours.
image by means of Warner Bros. Television
As he told EW.com:
“Taking him where we’ve taken him was, I feel, completely the ideal thing for us to do. All the writers were so conscious about trying to give him a good send-off as well. They really wanted to say, ‘We love John and let’s give him this to go.’ So, the way it materialized, it just felt ideal and organic.
“When the original show was canceled, I was gutted. I was like, ‘I haven’t even gotten started.’”
For Ryan, the chance to play the character from his (unfairly) failed network TV series was an utter gift to both him and the fans. He and the storytellers also took what is ostensibly a dark, cynical character and put him on the silliest and a lot of hopeful of DC live-action projects. We got to see lots of versions of John Constantine on Legends of Tomorrow, and the death of this version of the character does not reduce that.
Even if he goes out as a betraying bastard and doesn’t get a finale redemption, it’s all still very true to Constantine. In the comics especially, he’s betrayed and hurt nearly everyone he’s crossed paths with. I suspect that Legends will give Constantine a moment to be the hero again from beyond the veil. Yet, even if they don’t, it’s like Constantine went back to default settings before being injected back into the multiverse. Thus, the only question that’s left really is how well they pulled off this death for John Constantine, at least compared to his others.
Legends of Tomorrow told Some extraordinary John Constantine Stories
image by means of CW
Perhaps the best thing Legends of Tomorrow did for John Constantine was help him fix his greatest failure. All faLegends Of Tomorrow Nailed The death Of John Constantine, As Played By Matt Ryan (###) In 2014, Matt Ryan suited up as nasty piece of work John Constantine for a a lot more comics-accurate take on the character for NBC. The series ran for a great 13 episodes, but alas it was not indicated for the long-haul. Yet, in the fourth season of Arrow, Ryan reprised his role as the dodgy warlock, thus making his NBC series (at least) Arrowverse-adjacent. The greatest surprise, however, came when in the third season of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, the Hellblazer teamed up with the greatest idiots in the multiverse. four seasons later, John Constantine met his death at the hands of a clone in a man-bun. This may seem like an ignominious end for such a storied character. However, given the divergence Legends of Tomorrow have taken with the character of John Constantine, his path to death felt very true to the character.
Despite his lots of appearances and iterations, lots of folks see the 300-issue run of Hellblazer as the definitive story of John Constantine. Throughout the series his character goes through lots of changes, including regressions. Equally, on Legends of Tomorrow, the character of Constantine manifested differently than in than in the comics (or even the animated version of Constantine in the DC animated continuity that ended with Justice league Dark: Apokolips War). Still, the Legends version of Constantine also stayed true to the character’s core, including his greatest failure: Astra Logue.
Another thing that John Constantine does pretty often is die. In fact, this isn’t even the first time Legends of Tomorrow showed us the death of John Constantine. However, this one is going to stick because of real-world concerns. So, let’s look at how the final fate of Matt Ryan’s Hellblazer is pretty damn perfect.
Spoilers to follow.
The death of John Constantine on Legends of Tomorrow seems like It will Stick
We know from Comic-Con at home that while Matt Ryan isn’t leaving the series, John Constantine is. The character will show up, played a lot of likely by an actor of color, in HBO Max’s Justice league Dark series. and DC is notoriously nervous about having two versions of their characters running around at the same time, though less so lately. Still, according to Ryan, he also thought it might be time to put the character aside for a time. It’s the issue faced by any long-running version of a character. Either end the story or keep it going so long it tarnishes what’s been done thus far. As much as we’d all like to see Hugh Jackman as Wolverine or Robert Downey Jr. as Iron man again, it would undercut their dramatic, “final” moments.
The season 6 premiere of Legends of Tomorrow was a little “off,” to me. However, as the season went on the storytellers found their footing. There’s been some crazy episodes (like the future reality competition show episode or the bowling alley one). There’s been some heavy episodes, a lot of of them tied to the downfall of Constantine. even though I believe he will redeem himself in the season finale, the death of John Constantine is not a hero’s sendoff. He dies after betraying the other Legends in a quest to get his power back. Ryan says he’s pleased with how the story ends, but his perspective is a bit different than ours.
image by means of Warner Bros. Television
As he told EW.com:
“Taking him where we’ve taken him was, I feel, completely the ideal thing for us to do. All the writers were so conscious about trying to give him a good send-off as well. They really wanted to say, ‘We love John and let’s give him this to go.’ So, the way it materialized, it just felt ideal and organic.
“When the original show was canceled, I was gutted. I was like, ‘I haven’t even gotten started.’”
For Ryan, the chance to play the character from his (unfairly) failed network TV series was an utter gift to both him and the fans. He and the storytellers also took what is ostensibly a dark, cynical character and put him on the silliest and a lot of hopeful of DC live-action projects. We got to see lots of versions of John Constantine on Legends of Tomorrow, and the death of this version of the character does not reduce that.
Even if he goes out as a betraying bastard and doesn’t get a finale redemption, it’s all still very true to Constantine. In the comics especially, he’s betrayed and hurt nearly everyone he’s crossed paths with. I suspect that Legends will give Constantine a moment to be the hero again from beyond the veil. Yet, even if they don’t, it’s like Constantine went back to default settings before being injected back into the multiverse. Thus, the only question that’s left really is how well they pulled off this death for John Constantine, at least compared to his others.
Legends of Tomorrow told Some extraordinary John Constantine Stories
image by means of CW
Perhaps the best thing Legends of Tomorrow did for John Constantine was help him fix his greatest failure. All fa
