Possible Plots: Black Widow

Time for another new segment. Well, not a new segment, just one I haven’t done in a while. Remember my Wolverine Legacy post from about a year ago? No? Then read it and come back. … Caught up? Great. For those who still haven’t read it, that post and this one are dedicated to creating a possible story for a future film to follow. I have a new name for this series of posts, Possible Plots. I’ll save these for whenever I need to really stretch my writing muscles. Or if I get a really crazy awesome idea. Like with today’s focus, Black Widow.

Scarlett Johansson has proven to be
an amazing Black Widow.

You know, I do find it pretty weird that Marvel and Disney seem so reluctant to make a superhero movie centered on a woman. We’re talking about Marvel, a company that has tried (especially in the last few years) to expand the cast of female superheroes (Captain Marvel, New Thor, Ms. Marvel, X-23 for a few examples) and Disney, a company that owes a huge amount of its success to the Princess movies targeted at females. Not to say men don’t enjoy Frozen, Cinderella, Tangled, and the rest, but yeah, the movies do seem to be geared towards the ladies. Sure, they do have Captain Marvel on the schedule, but that’s not until 2018 and as much as I enjoy Captain Carol Danvers, she’s not the one that so many fans are all but demanding to see. Natasha Romanov, the Black Widow, is the one that many a Marvel fan says needs a feature film of her own. Here’s my take on a possible plot for a Black Widow film. The same rules apply as for my “Doing it Better” segments, things like licensing, time, budget and so on don’t matter, it’s all about making an excellent flic. Let’s get to it.

Some background, I fit this film in sometime after Captain America 3. The Superhero Civil War has ended, and while stuff is getting back to normal, other things are still recovering. Particularly the friendship between Captain America and Iron-Man. Yes, I expect Captain America to survive the Civil War. Why? Because I love Cap, that’s why. While the main men of Marvel are still feuding, Black Widow is given an assignment by Nick Fury. Fury has been keeping an eye on things in the criminal underworld and has noticed a few disturbing trends. 1.) Several assassinations of important men and women in the global community, we’ll say an ambassador from Wakanda, a high ranking Stark Industries scientist, and a SHIELD agent. There can be more, but those would be the highlights. 2.) A mass brake out from the secret prison, the Vault. We’re talking HYDRA Agents, the surviving members of AIM from Iron-Man 3, the scientists on the Iron Monger project from the original Iron-Man, and Justin Hammer from Iron-Man 2. And 3.) An increase in HYDRA activity worldwide. If you’re asking why I’m assuming HYDRA is still a thing in the Marvel Movie Universe, that Nick Fury knows about it, and is letting them still be at thing, I do have a few reasons. HYDRA is a spy organization, which by definition is hard to permanently remove. They’ve had decades to set up facilities while SHIELD has been largely unware of their activities. And, think about the character of Nick Fury, would he be the sort to A.) Try to destroy HYDRA knowing full well they’ll just go underground and appear at a later date, or B.) Let them remain active while monitoring their activates? Yeah, I thought so.

The other Hawkeye. Both good with a bow
And both rock the Purple. What's not to like?

More disturbing, the aforementioned assassinations bear a striking resemblance to Black Widow’s style of killing back when she was an agent of the Red Room. Rather than assume Ms. Romanov is doing some killing on the side, Fury assumes another Widow might be active. For those who might not know, I’m talking about the second Black Widow, Yelena Belova. I’ll go into more detail in a later post, but basically she’s an evil Black Widow. Cue flashback to Natasha and Yelena being trained in the Red Room. I’m thinking something psychologically damaging, like watching failing students being poisoned so the other students can see the effects. Messed up, right? Back to the main plot, Black Widow’s mission, if she chooses to accept it, is to infiltrate the known HYDRA base and figure out what the heck is going on. She accepts, obviously, but she’s going to need a little back up. While braking into a facility is a cake walk for Black Widow by this point, Fury thinks that a little cover is necessary, given how dangerous a potential threat this whole thing could be. But, who? Captain America, Iron-Man, Hulk and Thor are all a little too flashy for undercover work. The only viable option from the original team is Hawkeye, but he’s either retired or on sabbatical after the events of Age of Ultron. There’s only one option, adding a new character. But who? For me, the clear choice is none other than Hawkeye… The other one.

Nick Fury introduces Black Widow to Kate Bishop, a new SHIELD Special Agent. Kate does a crazy impossible trick shot with a bow and arrows before Fury makes the comment that “She’s partial to the codename Hawkeye.” I imagine Widow smirking and making a crack like, “We’ll see if she’s up to it.” So, yeah, we’re going to avoid the “hate the new guy” cliché for this one. While I doubt that Black Widow would be 100% on board with a “new” Hawkeye, the character I’ve been presented with in previous films strikes me as someone who’d try something new before deciding she hates it. Which is exactly what she does. Black Widow and probation Hawkeye sneak in to the HYDRA base and use that magic face mesh from Winter Soldier (Not everyone forgot about that Deus Ex)  to pose as HYDRA new recruits. We get to see some of HYDRA’s “training” methods, and by that I mean things they do to ensure that their soldiers and scientists are loyal. It’s an evil pseudo-Nazi group, I can’t imagine every single person working for them is doing it willingly. Heck, I’d hazard a guess that more than half would need some brainwashing before they’d be willing to click their boots together and shout “Hail HYDRA.” I’m thinking things that border on insane torture like sleep deprivation, chemical treatments, and such to make them compliant. Another Flashback to Black Widow’s training in the Red Room, and maybe an offhand remark about “The more things change” before they continue.

Yelena Belova, the other Black Widow.
I seem to be seeing a lot of "others"
in this one.

They scope out the place over a few days, bonding and seeing the depravities of HYDRA, before slipping into the HYDRA Facility's computer database. We see our two superheroes disable…let’s say five guards and two techs before getting to work. While skimming through files, Black Widow learns that the various baddies of the Marvel Verse have created their own most wanted list of the various heroes. We could see guys like the Daredevil, Spider-Man, and Black Panther as “Possible Problems;” Black Widow, War Machine, and Hawkeye as “Known Problems;” and Hulk and Thor as “Major Problems.” She’d then note that Captain America and Iron-Man are both listed as “Removal Pending.” Also, if Captain America 3 doesn’t tie up the loose end, Black Widow should also note a file marked “Possible Winter Soldier locations” which she downloads with the other bad guy info. Just before Yelena arrives. The two Widows will duke it out while Probie Hawkeye is told to run with the Data. Some crazy fighting goes down, but both our super spies get captured and brought before HYDRA’s current leader, Arnim Zola.

Dr. Zola would then explain how he survived the bombing of his old computer body back in Winter Soldier. I’m thinking something like “Did you really think a man of my genius would remained locked in a bunker for decades? No, what you and the Captain destroyed was my original form, the first attempt at Arnim Zola’s immortality. This,” gestures at his purple and orange robot body with his face displayed on the torso, “is the new and improved Arnim Zola. The Immortal Master of HYDRA!” Or something similar. He gives one of the usual BS reasons why he didn’t kill the two spies, I’m split between “Wanting to watch them suffer” and “Wanting to use them in a creepy experiment.” Black Widow does her crazy interrogation powers (as seen in her discussion with Loki in The Avengers) to figure out Zola’s plan before she and Probie Hawkeye make their daring escape.

Now, you’re probably asking yourself what is the fiendish master plan here. What could HYDRA do to take out both Captain America and Iron-Man? I think you’re going to love this. Using the combined scientific insight of all the evil eggheads I mentioned earlier, HYDRA, AIM and Justin Hammer have devised their own stealthy ARC reactor and Repulsor. Their design barely gives off any light, and the Repulsor itself can flip up into the sleeve of who’s ever wearing it. Their plan, Yelena gets in close using HYDRA’s version of the face changing mesh to pose as Natasha. She disables Tony with some sort of powerful, mind bending toxin, just as her team starts tampering with the cameras. Its AIM and HYDRA, I’m sure together these two could even overcome Tony’s extensive security protocols. Yelena then takes on Tony’s appearance and invites Cap to the Avenger’s tower to talk. Once he arrives, Yelena would then attack, using the element of surprise and years of close quarters’ combat training to remove Cap’s shield and force him near a window, then use the stealth Repulsor to defenestrate him. You’ve seen Avengers Tower, right? Ridiculously high up, no close buildings, and no way to maneuver in the air. Yeah, Even Captain America would have trouble surviving the drop. It’s then a simple matter of quickly putting the stealth Repulsor on Tony, run off with the Shield, and the job is done. Cap dead, Iron-Man implicated in the murder, everyone is pretty bummed, and HYDRA now has their hands on Vibranium. Brilliantly crazy plan, eh?

Not sure if this is more or less creepy
than a green Toby Jones face
on a computer screen...

Of course, Black Widow and Probie Hawkeye arrive just in time to stop said Captain defenestrating, we see another crazy Black Widow vs. Black Widow kung fu fight, and our heroes ultimately save the day. Yelena is put into SHIELD custody, Kate Bishop is acknowledged as the new Hawkeye, Black Widow makes a crack about “always cleaning up after you boys” and all is well. And maybe one last flashback to Black Widow verses original Hawkeye back in the day, to when he convinces her to join SHIELD. Just to tie up that lose end.

So there you have it, my plot for a Black Widow film. Is it perfect? Hardly, but it’s a start. I included Kate Bishop to expand the overall pool of female superheroes in the Marvel Movie Universe, and as a way to set up a Young Avengers (the team Kate is affiliated with) movie somewhere down the line. Furthermore, it Clint Bartlet has hung up his quiver for good, it’s important to set up a replacement. There always needs to be a Hawkeye, much like there always needs to be a Captain America. It’s an important role. Yelena as the evil Black Widow and the final antagonist of the plot just feels right, as it gives us an excuse to see more of Natasha’s past as part of the Red Room, and also a glimpse into what she might have become had she not joined SHIELD. I included Arnim Zola as pretty much a place holder. He’s the only bigwig of HYDRA that I could think up that could technically still be alive despite his apparent death in Captain America 2. We could perhaps replace him for Viper, another bigwig of HYDRA, but that might be putting too many new characters in. Plus, Zola’s role in this story idea is pretty minor, so it might be best to leave him in and save Viper for another film.

Black Widow is an interesting character, one that I could totally see having a major motion picture of her own someday. This movie idea, I think, serves as a decent in medias res story of how Black Widow came to be the character she is today, and how that character is important to the overarching Marvel Universe. While guys like Iron-Man, Captain America, Thor, and the Hulk are perfectly capable of being in the spot light and saving the day, we will always need a character willing to hunt in the shadows. Which I think Black Widow is comfortable with. Next time, Doctor Strange: The Sorcerer Supreme, Marvel’s resident spellcaster’s first film appearance. 

 http://marvel-movies.wikia.com/wiki/File:BlackWidow_Avengers1.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawkeye_%28Kate_Bishop%29#/media/File:Katebishop.png

 http://marvel.wikia.com/Yelena_Belova_%28Earth-616%29

 http://marvel.wikia.com/File:Arnim_Zola_%28Earth-616%29.PNG

Review: Jurassic World

In case my clue at the end of the last post wasn’t clear enough, and if you haven’t read the title, this is my review of Jurassic World. I feel I need to start off by saying I went into this movie expecting it to be bad. I just went in to see dinosaurs causing a rampage and Chris Pratt being a bad ass. I got that, and a little more. Let’s get to it.

I came for this, everything else was gravy.
And I got more gravy than I was expecting.

We open up on two brothers, Zach and Gray Mitchell, going to Jurassic World. Jurassic World is a fully functional Dinosaur Theme park/zoo that was built atop the ashes of the old Jurassic Park on Isla Nublar. They are traveling there to visit their Aunt Claire who is the operations manager of the park. Claire, being a pretty generic workaholic, dumps the boys on her assistant before they even get more than ten feet off the boat. Nice Aunting. While they set up in their room, Claire flies out with the new good natured eccentric billionaire with more dreams than common sense, Simon Masrani. Think John Hammond from the original film, but Indian. Claire and Masrani visit the paddock for their latest attraction, a genetically modified super dinosaur, the Indominus Rex. While their fortifications to her paddock is impressive, Masrani insists that they get their resident velociraptor expert Owen Grady in to observer and offer feedback.

We then to Star-Lord- er I mean Owen training his group of raptors. He has them well under control, but it’s less a boy and his dogs, and more a boy and his tigers. As long as their fed, and there’s some distance, yeah the raptors follow orders, but the second food becomes an issue, well, it’s best to be far away. He explains this to the Kingpin—er I mean Vic Hoskins, head of InGen security, but Hoskins is still convinced they can turn the raptors into some sort of specialized bio-weapon. Back with the two Mitchells, the boys ditch their escort and start seeing some attractions, while Claire goes to Owen and asks him to inspect the enclosure. There’s a few pointless remarks about the two of them having a failed relationship, but they drop that almost as quickly as they picked it up. When they get to the I-Rex enclosure, we and Owen learn that the I-Rex was created using the baseline of a T-Rex genetic code spliced together with the DNA of other creatures. What creatures you may ask? That’s classified, until it becomes relevant. To their horror, the I-Rex has apparently escaped, she doesn’t appear on any of the heat sensitive cameras and there are claw marks on one of the side doors. Claire rushes back to the control room, while Owen and a few guys inspect the paddock. While on the phone with her team, Claire is again horrified to learn that the I-Rex is still in the paddock, it had hidden itself somehow. Owen barely escapes the beast after it breaks out of its paddock, killing the two guys with him. He doses himself in gas to kill his scent.

I kind of wanted someone to repeat "Clever Girl"
No such luck...

At mission control they mobilize their specialized containment team to capture the I-Rex. Unfortunately the I-Rex clawed out her tracking implant (why would you put that somewhere it could reach?), is capable of camouflaging herself, and the team is only equipped with non-lethal weapons. They last maybe thirty seconds. At the same time, the boys are taking a specialized gyro-sphere off-road, thirty seconds before the staff get the call to shut everything down and send the people into the main park. And reception at the park sucks, so Claire’s attempt to call them directly is a garbled mess. And the older brother Zach is in that rebellious phase where “return to the park immediately” message that the gyro-sphere plays translates to “Do whatever you want.” What are the odds? They get to check out some ankylosaurs before the I-Rex shows up and wrecks their pod. They escape the irate I-Rex by jumping into a lagoon. On the run, they find the old Jurassic Park Visitor Center, and somehow get 22 year old jeeps that had been sitting out in a jungle for that entire time running again. Owen and Claire team up and try to track the boys. While tracking, they come across a heard of Apatosaurus’s that were slaughtered by the I-Rex. The two arrive at the VC just after they left, and are attacked by the I-Rex. They escape, just barely. At the same time, Masrani learns that some of the DNA spliced into the I-Rex include a cuttlefish which somehow helped it grow faster, and a tree frog which was supposed to help it adapt to a tropical climate. One of the unforeseen complications of this creature was that the cuttlefish DNA helped her hid her body temperature from the cameras and the tree frog DNA gave it chameleon like camouflage. Yeah, not sure how that works either. Masrani and a team fly out on a helicopter to stop the I-Rex, but instead just force the beast into the Jurassic World Aviary where they keep the flying prehistoric beasts. The fleeing Pteranodons and derpy looking Dimorphodons cause the helicopter to crash, killing Masrani.

The Pteranodons cause some havoc among the terrified tourists, and the Dimorphodons (which look like some sort of disturbing offspring between a T-Rex and a Pteranodon) cause some discomfort. Also, Zach and Gray regroup with Owen and Claire just after the two adults make out. Real appropriate behavior. After the Pt’s get tranquilized, it’s revealed that Hoskins has been put in charge by InGen’s board of directors, and he plans on using the raptors to hunt down the I-Rex. Owen is furious to see his raptors used like this, but reluctantly agrees to help. They set out at night, and track the I-Rex down, but then they learn she has one more dino in her DNA. Can you guess? That’s right, Raptor! The I-Rex takes over the pack, somehow, and sets them on the InGen team. After this our heroes need to figure out how to stop the super I-Rex, save the tourists, and also learn more about this supersized chimera. Chimera refers to any organism that is a mix of two or more distinct cells, not just that lion/goat/snake thing you learned about in Greek Mythology. Just an FYI. I won’t ruin the finale for you, but it includes road flares and a pretty intense Dino fight.

Who could get tired of this?

As always, the good. The effects were pretty spectacular. I was expecting only CGI, but they did work in some old school practical effects as well.  Like with the aforementioned slaughtered Apatosaurus herd, Owen examines one closely as the animal dies and yeah, the head is actually there in front of him. There’s also a scene where the boys are nearly impaled by a down Pteranodon, and it’s also actually there. I miss practical effects, so seeing it again was real nice. The Indominous Rex, while stupidly named and made for even sillier reasons, is a formidable super beast. She is a logical next step to this whole mad scientist’s dream of amusement park dinosaurs. Her design is really cool, and while her abilities are a little farfetched and weird (why would tree frog DNA give her color changing camo like a chameleon?) they work for the most part. The acting is decent, although rather generic. Chris Pratt is a pretty generic bad ass with a little Star-Lord loveable jerkiness thrown in. He’s one of those characters that I probably wouldn’t have like had he been portrayed by any other actor. You’ve found your nitch Mr. Pratt. I did enjoy seeing B. D. Wong return as Dr. Henry Wu, the geneticist behind the first Jurassic Park, and also the only returning cast member. I do find it funny that this entire plot is possible only because of Wu’s survival, when in the novel Jurassic Park he dies horribly part way through. I also really like Irrfan Khan as Simon Masrani, or Hammond 2.0. He captures a lot of the whimsy Richard Arrenborough brought to John Hammond back in the original film. Like Hammond, he’s an irresponsible billionaire that just wanted to make something wonderful. Something that would bring joy to the world. And have it all blow up in his face.

The only returning cast member from the original film.
Be glad, ah ah, of that, or else.. or else we could have had
ah, more Goldblum.

There are a few bad things. Aside from Pratt, Wu, and Khan, most of the other characters are pretty generic. Bryce Dallas Howard’s Claire Dearing is your pretty generic workaholic that “Rediscovers the importance of family” as the plot roles on. Vincent D’Onofrio’s character is also a really generic “let’s make this a weapon” guy you see in pretty much every sci-fi movie has. I like D’Onofrio, but within seconds of his character appearing I thought, yep, he’s going to be a bad guy. Not a good start. The kids are your generic kids, the young one is a dino obsessed sort-o-dork, while the older one is the kid who is not thrilled to go on a free vacation to a very expensive resort/theme park. Also, the younger one’s name is stupid. Grey? Seriously? Never name your kid after a basic color. Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Black, White, Purple, Pink, and Grey are not people names. Pokémon trainers and eccentric Ice Wizards notwithstanding. … I watch a lot of Anime, alright? Also, while the classic Dinosaurs and the I-Rex’s designs are good, some other designs are not so good. I already mentioned the Dimorphodons, which I didn’t even know was a dinosaur until I looked up plot summaries to help refresh my memory. I just thought they were the first, failed attempt at splicing Dino DNA, a Pterannosaurus Rex, if you will. And most of the interpersonal stuff is pretty forced. Owen and Claire having a failed romance just felt shoehorned in there to make it seem less absurd that she ends up kissing him part way through that movie. Also, the kids’ parents are getting a divorce. It’s not really mentioned before this scene on a tram, or all that much after, but it’s a thing. That one just felt like a weird plot point to throw out to force the two bros to do some bonding. It was just weird.

Oh my, a practical effect.
I was shocked, words couldn't describe.

One last thing to address is the bad science in this movie. For the most part, I can’t fault it. This entire series is based on the bad science that we can recover Dino DNA from amber coated mosquitos. It’s way too complicated to go into,  either look into more detail yourself or just take my word on it, it doesn’t work like that. Most of the bad science is of the sort that it’s believable until you know better. Sun revolves around the Earth? Yeah, if I didn’t know otherwise, I could see myself believing that. So is the mosquito in amber thing. Believable until you know better. All that being said, there is one bit of bad science I can’t let go, and that’s the I-Rex communicating with the raptors. Yes, all animals communicate in some way, shape, or form. But, the type of communicating that has been presented for the raptors in all four movies is highly sophisticated, using specialized organs and ‘vocal chambers’ to make the right sounds. Even if the Indominus Rex got the right genes in the right order to have these specialized parts, there is still no way she could communicate with the raptors. Why? Because she was never taught how to speak raptor. Case in point, humans. Structurally speaking, I have the right parts and brain power to speak any human language. That doesn’t mean if you stick me in a room filled with French people that I’d start speaking French. For further proof, look up anything on feral children. You know, stories about kids raised by wolves or some other species. In every case, while the children did learn some basic communication skills after being discovered and recovered, they still had to learn everything from the ground up. Language is learned, not inherent. I know this sounds like a minor nitpick, it is, but it bugged me for the rest of the film.

Overall, I’m going to give this movie a B. There are some things about it that bugged me, but overall it is a decent fresh start to a film series that grew stale with Jurassic Park 2. The effects are impressive, Chris Pratt is awesome, and the story, while flawed, was still fun to see unfold. If this is the last Jurassic Park movie ever, it’s a better ending than Jurassic Park 3. And if it isn’t, well, another sequel will feel less forced than Pirates of the Caribbean 2. Next time, it’s another surprise! Don’t you just love those?

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurassic_World

 http://jurassicpark.wikia.com/wiki/Indominus_rex

 http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20150514214423/jurassicpark/images/0/00/Mosasaurusthe3rd.png

 http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20141204101759/jurassicpark/images/2/2a/Ingen_pic1.jpg

 http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/02/02/jurassic-worlds-superbowl-spot-rewind-theater

Villain Profile: Count Vertigo

           Speaking from personal experience, being nauseous sucks. Stomach hurts, feeling dizzy, and headaches make for a rough night. Don't believe me? Wait until your twenty-first birthday. Now, imagine a supervillain had the ability to make you feel sick. All he needs to do is think about it, and you'll feel like puking your guts out. And he also makes it hard to tell up from down, left from right, and so on. It'd suck. But then, Green Arrow has had to deal with a guy like that for a number of years. The villain's name is Count Vertigo. Let's get to it.

Werner Vertigo (later renamed Werner Zytle) began life as a royal in exile. His family was the royal family of fictional Eastern European country 23c, Vlatava. Sounds less like a country and more like a European guy’s last name, but we’ll roll with it. The Vertigo’s ruled Vlatava for ages, until the Cold War sprung up. Vlatava fell behind the Iron Curtain, and the surviving Vertigo’s fled to England to survive. Furthermore, young Werner was diagnosed with an inner ear defect, said defect gives him constant vertigo.  Oh, and it makes him partially deaf. Super. His various hearing and balance issues were fixed by giving him a specialized cochlear style implant. He tinkered with the device (Disclaimer, do not mess with medical devices in an attempt to get superpower) and discovered that he could induce the vertigo effect in others. He then threw together a costume and became a supervillain, as you do.  His first caper was an attempt to steal the family crown jewels back. His folks had sold said jewels as they made their escape to England. The jewels were being kept in Star City. So, yeah, he crossed paths with Green Arrow and Black Canary. Despite his powers giving him a distinct advantage over his foes, things didn’t end well for Werner. Prison is no picnic, especially for a dude with a serious superiority complex.

Props for including the hearing aid.

A short while later he was approached by Amanda Waller to join the Suicide Squad in exchange for a reduced sentence. Werner did well with the Suicide Squad, but it was discovered that Vertigo suffered from bipolar disorder. So yeah, he’s fallen royalty, partially deaf, suffers from constant dizziness and nausea, and also bipolar. Middle finger from the universe. Anyway, things fall apart after the Suicide Squad is disbanded. While in Europe, Vertigo was kidnapped by a group of Vlatavan rebels. Said rebels planned on using Vertigo’s powers to help them defeat the current Vlatavan government, and most likely planned to place him as a puppet king. What? Not all rebels are good guys. Said rebels used a combinations of drugs that exacerbated Vertigo’s mental health issues. They made him believe that he was an Angel of Vengeance, sent to destroy the current rulers. Vertigo believed himself to be in control, but his mood was controlled by his captors.

Things finally came to head when the new Suicide Squad stepped in. Poison Ivy used her ability to control pheromones to enthrall Vertigo and keep him as a slave while the rest of the Suicide Squad took out Vlatava’s ruler. Vertigo was Poison Ivy’s slave for a number of years. During his more lucid moments he threatened to kill her when he was finally free from her control. He was finally freed by Amanda Waller when she had need of his powers. He needed to stop a few missiles, and the psychos launching them, from hitting the Dome of the Rock in the Jerusalem. Vertigo succeeded and for his efforts was enrolled in a drug rehab center. To help him recover not only from the drugs the Vlatavan rebels filled him with, but also from Ivy’s toxins. Over the next few years Vertigo suffered from some pretty serious depression. He even tried to get Deadshot to kill him, but the assassin warned him to seriously consider the whole murder thing, as Deadshot would not miss nor hesitate. In the end, Vertigo decided to keep on living and eventually returned to Vlatava to reclaim his throne.

I'm feeling sick already. It might just be the stupid
costume design.

Vertigo gathered an army and tried to reclaim Vlatava from the Vlatava’s President and the current government. While the two armies fought, the Specter appeared. The Specter is an immensely powerful and nigh omnipotent spirit of vengeance. He uses his godlike powers to dole out justice/vengeance Now, Specter was unstable at this point in history. After watching Vlatava for centuries, seeing the nation constantly at war, performing ethnic cleansings and other morally questionable activities, he judge the entire nation as guilty. He destroyed the entire nation, killing every citizen, save Count Vertigo and the Vlatavan President. Count Vertigo was obviously heartbroken and more than slightly emotionally scarred by the whole incident, but unfortunately the death of all of his citizens didn’t convince Vertigo to mend his ways. He continued to work for the Suicide Squad and against his longtime nemesis Green Arrow. Cheetah’s don’t change their spots and all that.

Werner Vertigo/Zytle is a pretty traditional royal. He’s trained in boxing, fencing, and classic martial arts. He’s gained more specialized combat training as time went on. The Count is also able to use his “Vertigo Effect” to cause anyone within a certain distance of him to feel vertigo. The dizziness and nausea last for as long as Vertigo is concentrating. His Vertigo Effect can also disrupt the guidance systems on most forms of long range weaponry, as well as the detection systems of just about any security system. He originally relied on the specialized cortical implant to get this effect, but he doesn’t need it anymore. No, they haven’t explained why. He also uses magnetic boots to walk on metal walls or ceilings. He can now also fly now… because.

Count Vertigo has appeared in a number of series over the years, not always against his longtime nemesis Green Arrow.

A very creepy Count. Too bad he couldn't get his powers.

He appeared in Batman: The Animated Series. Known only as Vertigo, he used an enhanced eyepatch to give off his Vertigo Effect. He stole a sonic drill from Waynetech to use as a WMD. Despite getting the best of Batman in an earlier encounter, he’s later defeated by a team up of Batman and Talia al Ghul.

Young Justice’s Vertigo had a slightly different background. In the episode “Revelations” he led the Injustice League as the group of psychos attacked various parts of the world with mutated super plants. Vertigo and the Injustice League are defeated, but it’s later revealed their group is just the proxy of The Light, the actual evil Justice League. Vertigo got out of prison time because he has diplomatic immunity. Which is a plot that I never understood. If you knew one of your diplomats is a well-known supervillain, why the heck wouldn’t you wave said immunity? He returns in “Coldhearted.” In this episode, much to his dismay, Kid Flash is required to run a heart across country while the rest of the team battle giant floating fortresses spread ice and snow across the continental US. He’s opposed by Vandal Savage and later the Count and his forces. Vertigo reveals that Savage’s interference, and it’s kind of implied the Ice Fortresses are involved, were part of a ploy to stop the heart’s delivery. The heart was meant for his niece, Queen Perdita of Vlatava. If she dies, Vertigo was next in line for his kingdom’s throne. Kid Flash escapes, but just barely. The queen was reported to have died on the table during the operation, and Vertigo visits Kid Flash in his own hospital room (he’d been hurt in the fight again Savage and later Vertigo) to gloat. Just as the self-styled King Werner Vertigo gloats and specified that he’d committed Regicide, Kid Flash pulls the curtain to reveal none other than Queen Perdita. They faked the story to get a confession. I don’t know diplomacy that well, but I think a Queen can give and take Diplomatic Immunity as she likes, just saying. But anyway, Vertigo is overpowered by the Queen’s bodyguards and he’s sent to prison. Just goes to show, if you’re going to kill your relative to usurp a throne, don’t gloat about it until you see the body. Or just not do it, also an option.

So even after the Flash's particle accelerator explosion made
superpowers possible, we still don't have a powered Count?
Lame.

The CW’s hit Arrow takes a few more liberties with the Count and his background. In this series, a character known only as The Count is introduced. He’s the drug kingpin of the synthetic drug Vertigo, a drug that gives people a “floating” sensation. The Count got his name since that his preferred weapon is a dual syringe that he tends to inject into a victim’s neck. Get it, he’s like a Vampire. He earns the Arrow’s ire when Oliver’s sister Thea crashes her car while high on Vertigo. They battle, but the Count gets the upper hand when he injects Oliver with Vertigo. Oliver was ODing, but his team whip up a cure for Vertigo. They duke it out again, and Oliver gets some payback when Oliver gives the Count a taste of his own medicine. He briefly appears in “Unfinished Business” when Oliver believes the Count is behind a new string of Vertigo. It’s revealed he’s still high out of his mind, and that his doc is behind the new Vertigo. He recovers in “State v. Queen” and escaped during the season one finale. He’s officially going by Count Vertigo at this point. He teams with Sebastian Blood and poisons most of the citizens using a faux flu vaccine. He and Green Arrow fight again, and is ultimately shot via arrows and defenestrated.

A new Vertigo is introduce in the third season. This version is Werner Zytle, a minor drug dealer that initiates a hostile takeover of the drug underworld. He had improved Vertigo, so that the drug now makes people hallucinate and see their greatest fears. So, yeah, Vertigo is now Scarecrow. He’s defeated by Arrow and the Canary. A few months later he escapes prison after forcing a journalist to dose the guards with Vertigo. He incapacitates Green Arrow and Arsenal, and later battles Black Canary. He bests her at first using his Fear-tigo, but is beaten in their second encounter.

Count Werner Vertigo/Zytle is not a character I know very well, but I find him interesting just because of his powers. He can incapacitate untold numbers with vertigo in a matter of seconds. Granted, there are a lot of telepathic characters that can do something similar, but he’s the only supervillain that I can think of that has effectively weaponized nausea. For a character like Green Arrow, who needs a lot of concentration to use his weapon effectively, this makes Vertigo a particular dangerous villain. He’s the nauseating, dizzying, and all around discomfort causing Count Vertigo. Next time, it’s a surprise. Dun dun, dun dun, dun dun dun dun dun. 

 http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/youngjustice/images/3/35/Count_Vertigo.png/revision/latest?cb=20111030171655

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_Vertigo#/media/File:CountVertigo.jpg

 http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20131121065317/arrow/images/3/35/Count_Vertigo.png

 http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20141009053743/arrow/images/0/09/Werner_Zytle.png