Hulu’s Helstrom struggles without MCU hooks to fall back on


Helstrom, Hulu’s second Marvel adaptation after Runaways, started life as an attempt to build a horror-themed branch of the Marvel Cinematic Universe called “Adventures Into Fear” that—unlike Daredevil and the other Marvel shows on Netflix—would actually establish tangible connections to the movies. Those plans fell apart when Marvel Television was absorbed into Marvel Studios, leading to the planned Ghost Rider series being canceled and all of Marvel’s TV plans shifting over to the “real” MCU tie-ins on Disney+.
That left Helstrom in an odd place: Its reason for being made was evidently gone, thereby giving it a chance to exist on its own terms outside of the shadow of the MCU, and losing that leash seems to have been a boon for the final product. With no direct ties to anything other than the comic book characters it’s based on, Helstrom doesn’t need to waste time addressing why Doctor Strange doesn’t show up to solve demonic problems or why Stark Tower isn’t in the New York skyline (Helstrom takes place primarily in Oregon, so there’s no need to show Stark Tower ever, but its absence was one of the more frustrating things about the supposedly MCU-connected Netflix shows.)
Helstrom, to its credit, is better off without the MCU weighing it down, but that still doesn’t mean it’s entirely successful. In fact, more than anything Marvel-related, the show is very reminiscent of something from the DC universe: NBC’s short-lived Constantine. They’re both about flawed people hunting demons, they’re both based on characters from comic books, and they both take place in a world of perpetual gloomy weather. Unlike that series, though, which was able to lean on the strength of John Constantine as a character (and star Matt Ryan’s performance, which was solid enough to convince Warner Bros. to bring him and his Constantine to the Arrowverse on The CW), Helstrom doesn’t have nearly as dynamic of a protagonist.