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NOTE: This article is about the incarnation of the second Count Vertigo from the Arrowverse. The mainstream version can be found here: Count Vertigo.
“ | The Count may be dead, true, but his glorious narcotic lives on with a few enhancements that will reveal to you your greatest fear. I gaze you upon the truth itself. | „ |
~ Werner to the Arrow. |
Werner Zytle, also known as Vertigo, is a minor antagonist in the TV series Arrow.
He is a crime lord and former drug dealer who took on the name and mantle of the original Count Vertigo after his death. He quickly becomes an enemy of the Arrow.
He was portrayed by Peter Stormare, who also played Gaear Grimsrud in Fargo, Torsten in False Trail, Ghost in 22 Jump Street, Dino Velvet in 8mm, Dieter Stark in The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Sir Slicer in Adventure Time, Lucifer in Constantine, Shayes in Mercury Rising, Abram Tarasov in John Wick: Chapter 2, Dracula in The Batman vs. Dracula, The Nazi Officer in the music video for "Uprising" by Sabaton, and Ernst Rohm in Hitler: The Rise of Evil.
Biography[]
Working for the Church of Blood[]
Werner found his way into 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 an 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 by targeting 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 held 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 at 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. marshal guarding him, causing the marshal 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 and 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 were 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 surprised they were still alive and quickly fled the scene. He and his men quickly seized a laboratory 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 lose herself in an 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.
Over a year later, Werner escaped custody to try and fill the void left by Damien Darhk. However, the Green Arrow quickly incapacitated him.
Personality[]
Werner is highly violent and ruthless in achieving his goals. He blew up an entire restaurant just to kill The Arrow, and he wanted to kill thousands of people just to take out some rival crime lords. He was also highly sadistic, as he enjoyed seeing anyone dosed with his brand new Vertigo suffer from its effects. Werner also showed no remorse in regard to his victims or attempted victims.
Abilities[]
- As an expert chemist, he was able to design his own brand of Vertigo.
- Werner was able to create complex schemes to take out rivals, attempting to kill The Arrow.
- Werner is a expert in 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 that hit vital points.
Trivia[]
- In the comics, Werner Zytle is DC's New 52's iteration of Count Vertigo. Unlike the previous version, Werner Vertigo, he does use a drug of the same name to cause effects similar to those that his DC comic counterpart inflicts on his victims.
- Interestingly, the drug in the show shows similar symptoms to the drug used by fellow DC villain Scarecrow.
External Links[]
- Werner Zytle on the Pure Evil Wiki.
- Werner Zytle on the Arrowverse Wiki.