Well, I read the comics, and while I thought it was on one level… It was ok… Basic entertainment.
But its kind of a cheap knock off of the character and the series. On a par with Judge Dredd in “getting it wrong”.
So the original comic is called Hellblazer. I completely understand why they didn’t use this name, confusing it with another horror franchise. That I don’t have a problem with.
My problem is that they named it Constantine and then removed all traces of the comic character Constantine from it. Nothing. Zilch in there.
Constatine is a cynical sneaky selfish trickster. He seems to be able to do magic, but never does. He plays people. He’s from liverpool, a scouser (like the beatles) and lives in London.
However, what was in there was some self pitying american bloke who was trying to save people and save his soul because he had tried to commit suicide… Nothing like Constantine…
From wikipedia:
“Constantine is shown to be someone with a wide and international circle of friends & allies, and is supremely adept at making friends. He has had many girlfriends as well. At the same time, his close friends inevitably suffer or are outright killed simply by being in his life; this has left a severe mark on him. In #69, when the King of Vampires killed the man next to him and casually asked if he’d been a friend, John replied “Must be. He’s dead.””