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Anything Marvel can do, DC can fall on their face trying to replicate. so... comics on TV. DC has two great ideas! *cough*
1) Young Commissioner Gordon! Or, Gotham before there was a Batman. Or just another police procedural where we know that the city's wealthiest family is destined for tragedy and maybe they get to name check some Batman villains before they put on their costumes and rise to their fate.
I seriously don't get this one -- they have Gotham Central, which was a brilliant police procedural that took place during the Batman era and never showed Batman. So, basically, it was doing to the Batverse what Agents of SHIELD is doing: referencing the big guns, but never focusing on them. Gotham Central was wonderful because it showed how the traditional forces of justice are hampered and aided (mostly hampered) by having Bats and Co around, being regular cops with regular human problems up against far more than the average mooks. It had a large, diverse cast of interesting characters and that was just in the police station. And you could still have Jim Gordon be all that.
2) Hellblazer. On broadcast television. No, wait, stop laughing. You saw how well it worked when Keanu made Constantine and had Shia LeBoeuf as Chas, right? Totally doable. It'll be like Elementary meets The Dresden Files but in Williamsburg (because there's no way it's set in London if it's a US show). It'll be a hit.
I know they rebooted John to be hipper and prettier and younger and turned his unrepentant assholishness into a heroic yet driven quest for knowledge... but they also made him boring as heck when they did that. Because there was a reason John Constantine, Hellblazer was a Vertigo title, one that rarely crossed over into the DCU. There wasn't a single thing he did from waking up in the morning (lighting up a Silk Cut en route to the toilet to piss) to passing out at night drunk that you could show on American broadcast television or in an all-ages DCU book. Forget all of the sex, drugs, demons, and callous disregard for anyone else's life that he got up to on an average day.
I could be convinced that Hellblazer would make a good cable show because on cable, you can have truly monstrous protagonists. But you can't do anything too vile on broadcast TV and where does that leave our John?
1) Young Commissioner Gordon! Or, Gotham before there was a Batman. Or just another police procedural where we know that the city's wealthiest family is destined for tragedy and maybe they get to name check some Batman villains before they put on their costumes and rise to their fate.
I seriously don't get this one -- they have Gotham Central, which was a brilliant police procedural that took place during the Batman era and never showed Batman. So, basically, it was doing to the Batverse what Agents of SHIELD is doing: referencing the big guns, but never focusing on them. Gotham Central was wonderful because it showed how the traditional forces of justice are hampered and aided (mostly hampered) by having Bats and Co around, being regular cops with regular human problems up against far more than the average mooks. It had a large, diverse cast of interesting characters and that was just in the police station. And you could still have Jim Gordon be all that.
2) Hellblazer. On broadcast television. No, wait, stop laughing. You saw how well it worked when Keanu made Constantine and had Shia LeBoeuf as Chas, right? Totally doable. It'll be like Elementary meets The Dresden Files but in Williamsburg (because there's no way it's set in London if it's a US show). It'll be a hit.
I know they rebooted John to be hipper and prettier and younger and turned his unrepentant assholishness into a heroic yet driven quest for knowledge... but they also made him boring as heck when they did that. Because there was a reason John Constantine, Hellblazer was a Vertigo title, one that rarely crossed over into the DCU. There wasn't a single thing he did from waking up in the morning (lighting up a Silk Cut en route to the toilet to piss) to passing out at night drunk that you could show on American broadcast television or in an all-ages DCU book. Forget all of the sex, drugs, demons, and callous disregard for anyone else's life that he got up to on an average day.
I could be convinced that Hellblazer would make a good cable show because on cable, you can have truly monstrous protagonists. But you can't do anything too vile on broadcast TV and where does that leave our John?
