9 Problems Nobody Wants To Admit About The Arrowverse
7. It Wastes Characters On Animation
The CW
When NBC made the decision to cancel Constantine in 2015, fans of the Hellblazer were understandably upset. While David Goyer's show undoubtedly had its shortcomings (the erasure of John's bisexuality and chain-smoking the two primary culprits), Matt Ryan was a formidable lead and fans of the original comic were all too aware of it.
Thankfully, through some TV magic, Ryan was able to pick up where he left off and move the character over to the Arrowverse. A crossover episode soon followed, and while the character is yet to make an appearance since, his arrival opened up an array of supernatural opportunities for the CW to explore in subsequent episodes.
The problem, so it would seem, is that all fans are now left with is an animated series. While there's nothing inherently wrong with that particular format, the decision to bring John across seemingly implied that the company had bigger plans for the character. The same goes for Vixen who, although still able to boast a live-action appearance or two, has been left to front an animated web series and nothing else.
The fact is that both John and Mari are more than capable of leading their own TV series. Having the rights to the pair, and doing little with them, is incredibly frustrating.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
