Arrow: Comic to TV Character Guide Part 2

Posted on the 25 May 2013 by House Of Geekery @houseofgeekery

Same rules apply as Part 1. SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

Deadshot

I hated Deadshot when they first showed him. He has his trademark red lens eyepiece, but it looked comically big. And he tattooed his victims names on his body like a guy asking to be caught. He is supposed to be a master assassin. He was also pretty quiet, and I remember Lawton in the comics being quite a talker, with an ego to boot. Most of these things were corrected in his next appearance. Smaller eye piece, more bravado, more of a costume.

China White

China White is the leader of the Triads in Starling City. She is played by Kelly Hu in a pretty awful looking white wig (they find a better one later, in the same episode where they make Deadshot look better too).  She doesn’t have that big of a part in the comics. She was the leader of a heroin cartel invented for the miniseries, Green Arrow: Year One, which retold Ollie’s story on the island, which was the base of White’s opium fields and drug refinery.

The Count/Count Vertigo

The Count is a very eccentric drug dealer with a special drug called “vertigo,” which is incredibly disorienting as the name would imply. He is absolutely nothing like Count Vertigo from the comics. For one, Count Vertigo is an ACTUAL count from a fictional European country.He was born with a hearing defect so he got an electronic implant to compensate. Tinkering with it, he found he could disrupt other people’s balance and used it to aid in his life as a charming globetrotting Eurotrash bandit.

Lyla Michaels/Harbinger

Lyla Michaels is an old aquaintance of Diggle’s who works for a government agency. She helps Diggle (Queen family bodyguard and closest thing Ollie has to a traditional sidekick) try to take down Deadshot, and while in the field, she went by the codename, Harbinger. Harbinger is the name Lyla uses in the comics as assistant to the Monitor documenting every heroic event in the universe. After the Monitor’s death, she joined the Amazons as their official historian and befriended Supergirl.

Royal Flush Gang

The Royal Flush Gang is actually the Reston family. They fell on hard times when Queen Industries closed one of their factories putting Mr. Reston out of work. They turned to robbing banks wearing hockey masks with playing card symbols on them. In the comics, they tend to be more sci-fi. They are still a gang of bandits, usually with 5 members and named after playing cards, but they aren’t just regular folks. For instance, one of them is a super strong android.

Kate Spencer

Kate Spencer is the lawyer who prosecutes Ollie when Detective Lance arrests him under suspicion that he is the masked vigilante. She was later attacked by the Huntress and put in rehab. In the comic, she is still a lawyer, but she is also the eighth DC hero playing the Manhunter, a tech heavy superhero.

Firefly

Firefly was a firefighter thought to have died in a big fire. Instead, he was just heavily scarred and became a serial arsonist. The Firefly of the comics is much MUCH more tech savey. He doesn’t just plant bombs, he actually carries a flame thrower, dresses in a suit of armor, and flies around with a jet pack. 

Ted Gaynor

Ted Gaynor is a former friend of Diggle who offers him a job with his private security firm, Blackhawk. It turns out he has been leading his staff in a number of armored truck heists. In the comics, the Blackhawks are actually a group of heroes dating back to WWII. Ted Gaynor was a member, but he was a member who betrayed them and became a bad guy.

Dodger

Dodger is a theif who attaches bombs to people and forces them to carry out the heists for him. He is very dapper and charming. In the comics, he is much younger and a tad more snarky. He kind of reminds me of Gambit from Marvel Comics, except he was British instead of Cajun. 

Constantine Drakon

Drakon was brought in right in the first episode as a bodyguard for Adam Hunt, a corrupt businessman on Ollie’s hit list. Ollie and Drakon get into a cool fight, but he got his ass handed to him. Drakon is a much better fighter in the comics usually giving Ollie more of a run for his money than he did in the show.

Guillermo Barrera/Brutale

Barrera was an assassin hired by China White to take out Malcolm Merlyn. Barrera got his ass handed to him by Ollie and eventually killed, which is too bad. His design in the comics is really creepy: like a rag doll scarecrow covered in throwing knives. Then again, he’s only really good for a cool visual.