12 DC Characters Who Were Wasted In The Arrowverse

In the comics, Count Vertigo usually ranks as one of Oliver Queen's most persistent and well-known foes. A deposed former ruler of the fictional European nation of Vlatava, he was born with an inner ear condition that affected his balance. This was rectified with a special implant he discovered could be used to affect another person's balance and alter their perception, which he then used to embark on a life of crime.

So to say that his drug-dealing Arrowverse counterparts have little in common with their source material would be an understatement. To be fair though, back when Arrow was first devised, it was envisioned as a grounded and mostly realistic show, so the changes make sense. Plus, you've got to give them credit for finding a creative way to keep the character's name.

Now, there's no denying that Seth Gabel was brilliant in his campy-yet-terrifying portrayal of the character, but he was gone all too soon. His Peter Stormare-played successor was much less memorable though, and seemed to be gone just as quickly as he arrived. In the end, the Count just never seemed to reach the heights of his comic book inspiration, a victim of those attempts at grounded realism.

You'd think that at some point in the five seasons that followed, after opening up the Arrowverse to metahumans and aliens and Flashpoints and Crises, that they would have been able to give us a Count Vertigo that could do his comic book counterpart proud.