Constantine Interview with Venditti (ongoing writer)

[new_onslaught]

Why not? He can hang out with Hawkman and Static

Static is underage. He can't hang out in bars .

[CagedLeo730]

I'm giving this a shot, but I hope they're not moving him to America just so he can team up with super heroes.

I highly doubt it. The Dark line has not been about super heroes at all (except JLD). This is still Constantine but in a different setting than Hellblazer. He's not a traditional hero who has traditional team-ups.

[Claude]

Within the confines of the fact that they picked an american writer I think it's a good thing, less to get wrong.

Speaking generally, no, I don't think it is a good thing, but that is who they chose to take the book on. I'm quite bummed they didn't raid 2000 AD instead of Valiant for their talent on this one.

An interesting distinction.

I think you're probably right, and it's a decent move for the current creative team. And if that means Constantine's Britishness continueing to be a "wacky gimmick", then I'll just have to hope that they're good stories for Constantine to "Gor Blimey, Mary Poppins - it's a bleedin' monster!" through.

[carabas]

This is what I'm referring to, of course. Constantine is inextricably tied to London as a character, and I suspect many purists will hate this particular development.

He's travelled extensively to America before. They should be okay with it.

[Mr. Holmes]

Yeah he's hanging out in NY in his first appearance in Swamp Thing, so that's the last thing i care about.

[Billy Batson]

He's travelled extensively to America before. They should be okay with it.

Even his first appearance was in America.

[Desaad]

An interesting distinction.

I think you're probably right, and it's a decent move for the current creative team. And if that means Constantine's Britishness continueing to be a "wacky gimmick", then I'll just have to hope that they're good stories for Constantine to "Gor Blimey, Mary Poppins - it's a bleedin' monster!" through.

It's quite difficult for american writers to really get a handle on the way that a brit might speak, even without considering all the various regional accents involved.

I've read all of Hellblazer run, but I'm not familiar enough with british accents to say; has Constantine had a consistent Liverpool accent?

I'm honestly hoping that "Constantine", like many of DC's properties, gets a creative change up after the first arc, unless it's amazingly good. Perhaps bring in even a marginal 2000 AD star like Rob Williams (whose work for Marvel and ComX was very unremarkable, I admit), or even my personal choice, John Smith.

[Desaad]

He's travelled extensively to America before. They should be okay with it.

Traveling and hanging, sure. Settling down? Eh.

[Desaad]

Yeah he's hanging out in NY in his first appearance in Swamp Thing, so that's the last thing i care about.

If we're going back to his first appearance in Swamp Thing, then most of what people are pissing and moaning about losing wouldn't be an issue; he was not the character then that he became in Hellblazer.

[doordoor123]

Traveling and hanging, sure. Settling down? Eh.

Just because he is in America at the moment doesn't mean he always will be.

[Mr. Holmes]

If we're going back to his first appearance in Swamp Thing, then most of what people are pissing and moaning about losing wouldn't be an issue; he was not the character then that he became in Hellblazer.

I honestly would like if they went for that kind of approach for this book, Constantine before Ennis's Hellblazer. It would be better than doing a watered down version of Hellblazer. But that doesn't seem to be how Lemire and Venditti are approaching this.

[Desaad]

I honestly would like if they went for that kind of approach for this book, Constantine before Ennis's Hellblazer. It would be better than doing a watered down version of Hellblazer. But that doesn't seem to be how Lemire and Venditti are approaching this.

Lemire has said specifically that there is pressure to make the characters very mainstream for JLD, because of the "JL" in the title. There is nothing particularly mainstream about the other dark books, certainly everything that Moore did with Constantine and Swamp Thing would be equally acceptable.

But the whinging has all been about the loss of age, or cursing, or sex, and none of that was part of Moore's Constantine, which remains my personal favorite.

[El Sombrero]

I'll try the first issue (I try virtually all the first issues of DC's New 52) but I really doubt I will stick with this. I'm not a huge fan of the character in a starring role (I get kind of burnt out on his cynical personality really quickly), and the creative team doesn't really appeal to me. Although I admittedly don't know much about Venditti...I'm just hoping he does an alright job with my beloved Demon Knights.

[NaturalLight]

I highly doubt it. The Dark line has not been about super heroes at all (except JLD). This is still Constantine but in a different setting than Hellblazer. He's not a traditional hero who has traditional team-ups.

Yeah, throw all that logic out the window. As we've seen in the New DC, John is not the traditional John. He's also a member of the JLD, which you yourself said is the exception to the Dark line not being about super heroes. While the traditional Hellblazer John would team-up (i.e. Crisis), it wouldn't be for long-term. Also, John has been teaming up with supes (i.e. Search for Swamp Thing when he was with Batman and Superman).

Again, I'll give this a chance. I don't mind a team-up or two. It's always fun to watch Constantine call Batman "squire" but I don't want it to be an every other story arc thing.

[Mr. Holmes]

I don't know, Animal Man and Swamp Thing are pretty superhero-y.