Preview Night at Comic Con - The Flash and Constantine

The highlight of San Diego Comic Con Preview night is, well, the previews. Warner Brothers 

supplied the entertainment for the seventh year in a row. The lineup for the night was supposed to be 

screenings of The Flash, Constantine, iZombie, and Teen Titans Go! Unfortunately, iZombie has run into 

a casting problem. Publicists with the WB promise the stars scheduled for the panel on Friday (Rose 

McIver, Malcolm Goodwin, Rahul Kohli and Robert Buckley) will be in attendance and there will be an 

extended clip from the show – 15 minutes.

      Instead of iZombie, they screened The Flash twice – and it was well worth it. It’s virtually 

impossible not to like Grant Gustin as Barry Allen. The entire cast delivers strong performances. Candice 

Patton is Iris West and Jesse L Martin plays her father Detective Joe West.I’ve been a big fan of Martin since his Law & Order days. Rick Cosnett plays Eddie Thawne and Tom Cavanagh is Dr Harrison Wells. We’ve already met Danielle Panabaker as Dr Caitlin Snow and Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon in Arrow as we did Gustin as Allen. Rounding out the cast is John Wesley Shipp, who played the original Flash on television. Shipp’s appearance on screen was met with cheers from the audience. 

     In fact, the entire pilot received a very warm welcome from the crowd, with clapping accompanying every “commercial” break. The episode begins with a voice over, much like Arrow. Not surprisingly, the show feels a lot like Arrow, not only because it’s also based on a comic, but primarily because it comes from the same showrunning team of Andrew Kreisberg, Greg Berlanti, and Geoff Johns. There is the same attention to story telling, with careful flashbacks and reasonably seamless exposition to bring us up to speed with the characters and their backgrounds. There are lots of humorous moments, but there are also a few silly moments - like when Harrison tells Allen - "Run, Barry, run."

 

   

     There is the promised cameo from Stephen Amell as Arrow and it received perhaps the biggest cheer of the night. The scene between the two is a great one. I predict that in two years, if they decide to spin off another super hero from The Flash, Gustin will get a big cheer too. He infuses the character with both heart and humor - and what's most important, he believes. 

     Constantine may be a more difficult sell than The Flash. Even though both are based on a comic, I think there are more expectations attached to Constantine. Not having read the comic, I came to the show with a clean slate, and I really liked it. You could tell that the crowd was withholding its judgment, however, and it almost felt like people were holding their breath, waiting to see if the show would live up to their expectations. The audience definitely picked up on easter eggs from the comics - such as when one character picked up a particular object.

         Matt Ryan plays the title role. He's tortured, driven, and self-destructive - and yes, he wears the trench coat. Charles Halford plays Chas. Lucy Griffiths plays Liv Aberdine and Harold Perrineau plays the angel on Constantine's shoulder. Daniel Cerone and David S Goyer are the executive producers. The sets are terrific, there's great action, and plenty of decent scares too along with some lighter moments.

     It's easy to see that Supernatural relied on Constantine for a great deal of its source material, so fans of that show should appreciate this one - from the use of salt to the use of the Seal of Solomon and Enochian. Not to mention the less mainstream music - such as a discussion over whether the Ramones of the Sex Pistols were a better band.

     Overall I give The Flash an 8.5/10 and Constantine an 8/10. Both shows came out of the gate strong - good stories, acting, special effects, and action. Both had a couple of clunky moments, but only time will tell whether a show will find its stride and capture viewers' imaginations.

     I'll be bringing you more news from the floor at Comic Con in the coming days. Which show are you most looking forward to?