Paula Hammond - Features EditorDC Showcase: Constantine – The House of Mystery picks up the story where 2020’s Justice League Dark: Apokolips War ended, with half an hour of macabre adventure presented in the style of a portmanteau horror.
Matt Ryan (Constantine, Legends Of Tomorrow) is relatable and stylish as hell as the trench-coated Scouser, in a tale that takes its 15-rating seriously. Think Groundhog Day with a very liberal dash of death and torture.
There’s a mystery here too, of course, although once you get to the end, the question you’re really going to be asking is why on earth DC decided to make such a short-short? Let’s face it, Matt Ryan’s Constantine is gold-dust and a full-length feature dealing with the fall-out from Apokolips War would have been every fan’s dream. Still—we must make do with what we have—and that’s very, very good indeed.
In this all-new animation, John Constantine wakes up in the eerie House of Mystery with no recollection of how he got there. Fortunately, Zatanna and his friends are all there. Unfortunately, they have a bad habit of turning into demons and ripping him to shreds, over and over again! Camilla Luddington (Grey’s Anatomy) and Ray Chase (Licorice Pizza) reprise their roles from Apokolips War as Zatanna and Jason Blood/Etrigan, respectively, while Robin Atkin Downes (The Strain) and Damian O’Hare (Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl) reprise their roles from Constantine: City Of Demons as Negral and Chas, respectively.
Three additional DC Showcase Shorts are included in the release and fans of more obscure comic book character will have a ball getting to know Kamandi: The Last Boy On Earth, The Losers, and the Blue Beetle.
Kamandi: The Last Boy On Earth was initially released as a bonus feature on Justice Society: World War II in Spring 2021 and follows Jack Kirby’s beloved creation in a post-apocalyptic Earth ruled by talking animals. In The Losers, the legendary rag-tag team of World War II outcasts–Captain Storm, Johnny Cloud, “Mile-a-Minute” Jones, rookie Gunner and Sarge–find themselves marooned on an uncharted island in the South Pacific that is completely overrun with dinosaurs. But the gem of the three is the Blue Beetle, presented in the style of a 1960s Saturday-morning cartoon, complete with its own jazzy ear-worm of a theme song.
Produced by Warner Bros. Animation, DC and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, and inspired by characters and stories from the iconic DC universe, the all-new quartet are produced by Rick Morales (Mortal Kombat Legends franchise) and are a continuation of the series launched in 2010 to highlight classic, lesser-known characters. Sergeant Rock, The Phantom Stranger, Black Adam, Jonah Hex ,and Adam Strange have all previously featured.
