Tuesday night’s episode of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow is taking on one of Hellblazer’s most iconic storylines. The episode “A Head of Her Time” ended on a shocking and grim note when John Constantine (Matt Ryan) collapsed after Astra Logue (Olivia Swann) did some tinkering in Hell causing his death date to be fast forwarded. Rather than having the decade left before lung cancer ends his life, all that gets moved up with the beloved character appearing to succumb horribly. It’s a story that feels a little dark for Legends, but for Constantine fans, it’s very familiar as it draws on the “Dangerous Habits” arc, bringing that story to life in a unique way.
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“Dangerous Habits” was a six-issue arc in Hellblazer written by Garth Ennis with art by Will Simpson from 1991 that saw Constantine — a notorious smoker — discover that he had developed terminal lung cancer. He ends up trying to cure himself and essentially cons the Lords of Hell into healing him. Constantine lives to fight another day. In Tuesday’s Legends, it’s not certain if Constantine actually dies (though fans can probably safely assume he survives,) but he does end up having a vicious coughing fit before his collapse, something that lines up with how the character discovered his predicament in “Dangerous Habits”.
“For Matt Ryan’s character, Constantine, we wanted to give him one of the iconic storylines from the comic where he gets lung cancer, and he’s going to try to do everything he can, in the most John Constantine way, to get out of it,” series executive producer Grainne Godfree recently told reporters.
It’s also something that Legends will, as Legends does, put its own spin on so fans of “Dangerous Habits” won’t necessarily be spoiled because they’ve read the arc. According to executive producer Phil Klemmer, the show uses “Dangerous Habits” as a jumping off point, not a script.
“It’s a balance, because we want to honor it, at the same time we want to break new grounds,” Klemmer said. “Hopefully we found the right balance with that. There’s no predicting where we’re headed based on the books. But it was a great launching point.”
It’s certainly something that will bring a new dimension to Astra’s story this season.
“I think it just gives her a lot of drive,” Swann said. “Which is one of her wonderful things, is that she’s this incredibly tortured and angry soul, but she’s got a purpose. She knows exactly what she wants. And that is something quite sadistic, but it’s great that she has this energy of wanting to get revenge on this guy that [sent her to Hell]. I think we can all relate to that in some way.”
“Literally hell. Literal hell. You can’t kind of get away from that,” Swann continued. “Which is, I mean it’s fun. It’s great finding the nuances within that. Because it’s more than just, “Oh I hate the guy, I want him to suffer or whatever.” It’s where do you find the kind of broken human within that, to get her to do which she does. Which, I think, it will be fun to try and find, for sure.”
Legends of Tomorrow airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on The CW.
