Will Doctor Fate Link Constantine TV Series And Comic Series?

Last night, a Constantine trailer revealed that the Helm of Nabu, which gives Doctor Fate his powers, will apparently appear in the series (along with the Ibistick of Ibis).

That's interesting enough, of course, but given the fact that Constantine has only a passing connection with Fate historically, it's perhaps more interesting that in September, just as the TV pilot is preparing to air, the cover below will appear on Futures End: Constantine #1 from DC Comics.

Here's the solicitation text, for reference (the comic is by writer Ray Fawkes and artist Juan Ferreyra): "After a desperate five-year quest, John Constantine has claimed the ultimate occult prize: the Helmet of Fate!"

Could DC Entertainment be trying to create synergy between the show and TV series with Doctor Fate's helmet factoring into both? Certainly Constantine isn't the hottest-selling book in their library, and can certainly benefit from the bump the TV show might provide.

And, yes -- the "Five Years Later" stories of Futures End month are not necessarily going to happen (in fact almost none of them will likely have any impact outside of the Futures End story and whatever Crisis-level event follows it), but what's interesting is that any "desperate, five-year quest" would have to begin...well, pretty much now. And since Fawkes is the monthly writer on Constantine, it seems likely that logic will pay off in some way.

We've seen this kind of thing at play across the way at Marvel, too, of course. While Mark Waid recently told us that "The Marvel films don't dictate how the stories go in the comics, they realize that the tail shouldn't wag the dog," that doesn't mean they won't manipulate events to better reflect the film side. After all, in the last few years we've been introduced to a new, Black Nick Fury and his buddy Phil Coulson, who never appeared in comics until just before he was killed in The Avengers (don't worry; he got better).

In the same vein, you get things like Captain America and Peter Parker coming back from the dead or resuming their old roles just in time for their movies to hit theaters, General Zod popping up for last year's Villains Month gimmick shortly after Man of Steel was in theaters, and on and on.

It's arguably more notable, or at least noticeable, with Constantine because he's such a recent transplant to the DCU. In the past, he's been Vertigo, which means that he rarely bumped into any of the superhero types. The idea of Ibis, Fate and maybe even other, related Egyptian-themed heroes like Blue Beetle or Isis popping up in his series is intriguing -- and more shocking than it would be for, say, Arrow or The Flash.

Of course, the current iteration of John Constantine -- the one whose title is called Constantine and not Hellblazer -- is pretty deeply engrained in the culture of the DC Universe. He's a key member of Justice League Dark and took part in major, line-wide events like Trinity War and...well...Futures End. More than just corporate synergy with the comics, the presence of DC heroes and villains in Constantine begs another question: what about Guillermo del Toro's Dark Universe?

Basically a Justice League Dark movie by another name, Dark Universe was reportedly to center largely around Constantine and Zatanna as human point-of-view characters in a story that featured cosmic, supernatural and otherworldly DC characters like Swamp Thing and Deadman. Because it was never officially announced, it's never been officially put on hold either, even though it seems del Toro is more preoccupied with other projects (like the upcoming Crimson Peak and his The Strain TV adaptation). But where Arrow and The Flash often feel like they won't fit into the cinematic universe and Gotham's timeline seemingly almost forbids it, Constantine seems like it could very well fit in with a Dark Universe film, should it ever come around.

Beyond all of this, of course, Fate has played a major role so far in Earth Two but, since the launch of the New 52, most of the supernatural characters have been fairly muted on the main Earth (except in the pages of JL Dark and other magic-specialty titles like Constantine and Sword of Sorcery). An increase in the character's role in the comics at the same time as he's appearing on Constantine, regardless of whether Constantine was directly involved or not, would likely have been chalked up as corporate synergy. This cover just makes it somewhat more overt.