Werner Zytle (Arrowverse)

"The Count may be dead, but his glorious narcotic lives on!"

- Werner to Oliver Queen

Werner Zytle is an antagonist in Season 3 in the TV show Arrow. He is a crime boss and former drug dealer who took on the name of Count Vertigo and his mantle, after his death. He is portrayed by Peter Stormare, who played John Abruzzi in Prison Break.

Working for the Church of Blood
Werner found his way in to St. Walker's Church, finding himself among a group of Church of Blood followers who were swarming The Arrow. During this kerfuffle, Zytle injected some of his own concoction of Vertigo, so when he got away he began to hallucinate. After this, he approached the second-in-command, Abel, claiming to be worth the man's time.

Entering the public
After the fall of The Count, Werner took over his organization, declaring himself leader (and also killing a thug that opposed him) after Vincent Steelgrave was sent off to prison. When The Arrow and John Diggle foiled one of his weapons shipments, Werner placed a tracker on him, and he and his men tracked Oliver to a Italian restaurant where he and Felicity Smoak were having dinner. He fired a rocket at it, but Oliver and Felicity survived and Oliver, as the Arrow, tracked Werner down. However, Werner injected The Arrow with his upgraded dose of Vertigo, which showed Oliver his greatest fear: himself. The two began to fight. When Oliver began to get distracted by his fear Werner used precision strikes targetting the eyes, throat and various pressure points to quickly incapacitate the more skilled Oliver. He then prepared to inject him with a lethal injection of Vertigo. Before he could kill The Arrow, however, Quentin Lance came to his aid, and distracted Zytle long enough for the Arrow to shoot him in the back, causing him to retreat. Later, that evening, in an attempt to kill his rival crime lords, Werner attempted to blow up Rockets Arena. However, he was confronted by The Arrow and his partner Roy. Werner threw a dart into Oliver to inject him again with Vertigo. Oliver and Zytle fought a second time, but this time, Oliver overcame the Vertigo induced fear and hold his own against Werner. Oliver avoided the stunning precision strikes of Werner and managed to knock him down. As Sara Lance showed up Werner attempted to throw a second lethal dart to Oliver, however Oliver tied him to the pole with a trick arrow. After his capture, Zytle warned Oliver that there would always be another to pick up the mantle of Count Vertigo.

Escape and fight against Black Canary
When brought to court Werner had blackmailed a reporter to inject the U.S marshall guarding him, causing the marshall to hallucinate and fire wildly at the crowd before getting knocked out by Laurel. During the chaos Werner managed to escape the scene. He quickly went into business again and threatened the same reporter his family to lure the Arrow and Arsenal towards him and blow himself up with a bomb vest to kill them. Werner watched from a car while the reporter blew himself up when confronted by them.

At the docks he and his crew got confronted by Black Canary who knocked out a guard. Werner approached her and threw a Vertigo filled throwing dart in her neck. As she started to hallucinate Werner easily beat her up. He prepared to strike her with her own baton when Arsenal and The Arrow showed up and took out his men. Werner was suprised they were still alive and quickly fled the scene. He and his men quickly seized a labratory and forced the scientists to work for them. The Arrow and Black Canary broke in and defeated his men. Werner tossed a chemical to the floor which caused a huge fire, forcing The Arrow to save the scientists. Werner got chased by Black Canary and he again injected her with his Vertigo. Fighting her Werner easily disarmed her and ended up pinning her against a fence while he watched her losing herself in a inner struggle with her greatest fears. However Laurel managed to recover, caught him off guard and threw him to the floor after which she brutally knocked him out.

Personality
Werner is highly violent and ruthless in achieving his goals. He blew up an entire restaurant to kill The Arrow and wanted to kill thousands of people just to take out some rival crime lords.

Abilities

 * A expert chemist he was able to design his own brand of Vertigo.
 * Werner was able to create complex schemes to take out rivals and attempting to kill The Arrow.
 * Werner is a expert at martial arts and a master of pressure points. His style of fighting allowed him to beat The Arrow in single combat. Wearing him down by using precision strikes to vital points.