The Four Color Media Monitor

In the Hellblazer comics (certainly by the time the Vertigo line was launched), John Constantine was depicted as bisexual. But that won't be the case in NBC's upcoming project, interestingly enough, though he'll still be smoking:

Plenty of comic book fans have been left baffled after discovering that the character Constantine in NBC's upcoming adaptation of the same name will not be portrayed as bisexual, contrary to his graphic novel depiction. It has been simultaneously revealed, however, that the DC Comics character will be shown to be a smoker, true to the original stories.

At the TCA press tour on Sunday, the network attempted to play down the decision. "In those comic books, John Constantine aged in real time," executive producer Daniel Cerone said, via Variety. "Within this tome of three decades [of comics] there might have been one or two issues where he's seen getting out of bed with a man. So [maybe] 20 years from now? But there are no immediate plans," he added.

With regards to Constantine's smoking, executive producer David S. Goyer said "He is a smoker in the show, we're not shying away from it, but we're not glorifying it."

"It's like, look, he's a smoker," added Cerone. "We're on network television, so we're limited to what we can do and what we can show. But within that framework we're going to be very honest to the character. I believe Constantine has a very healthy sex life, we're not going to see that on TV either."

Well that suggests they got the message homosexuality doesn't sell, as the failed sitcoms that tried the themes should make clear. But network TV limits their options? Come on, it's pretty apparent by now the major networks have flung the doors open wide, even if nobody cares. Although, this does suggest they're going for a far more family-friendly level, even if the short-lived Flash series did feature a sex scene between Barry Allen (John Wesley Shipp) and Iris West.

In any case, I'm still not enthusiastic for a project with David Goyer attached to it. Not after the poor example he set a few months ago. It'll be interesting to see how the lefties react to this news, despite all the signs pointing to his being a leftist as well.

And why do they say Constantine's got a healthy sex life? If he practices homosexuality in the comics, that's hard to swallow. If the TV show did follow that setup, chances are they would glorify that, making it hard to understand why they think smoking, by contrast, isn't good.

Labels: dc comics, politics