Hey youtubers it’s Charlie and my Arrow Wildcat video. In case you didn’t see, they
just cast JR Ramirez as Ted Grant. That’s Wildcat’s real life name. So I’ll explain
his comic book origin story and how the show might change things a little. He hasn’t
been in the comics recently but he was a huge part of Justice Society.
There’s lots of other stuff that just happened too. They also just cast Manhunter, not martian
manhunter, the Mark Shaw Manhunter, they just announced 9 new DC Movies with no titles and
I’ve got a winner to announce for the comic con giveaway, so I’ll do all that stuff
after Wildcat at the end of the video.
If you’re just finding me for the first time I do Arrow and Flash videos every week,
be sure to subscribe to get everything!
Traveling back in time, Ted Grant origin story. He debuted in 1942 as a professional boxer.
He grew up super poor but his father taught him to be an animal of sorts in the ring.
To earn extra money to survive he got a job on the loading docks.
One night he sees a couple thugs ambushing someone, he beats the shit out of said thugs
and the person he saved turns out to be a washed up prize fighter. That person then
backs Ted in an official capacity as a boxing heavyweight contender. Thus begins his pro
boxing career.
That’s where he got his name Wildcat, for being so vicious in the ring. He was really
big, really tough and really fast.
Eventually a local mobster fixed one of his matches and then framed Ted for it. After
he cleared his name he took up the name Wildcat as a superhero alias and started fighting
crime.
He had been inspired by the original green lantern, Alan Scott. As a DC Character he
spent most of his time jumping around titles but his longest runs were in Justice Society.
He does have some strange mystical powers. The Dark Lord Mordu said that Wildcat has
9 lives, like he can die and come back 9 times. And as long as all those deaths don’t happen
too close together, the lives will refresh and he’ll always have nine lives.
On the show it’s more likely that Arrow will just show him as being crazy resilient,
like Mirakuru levels of toughness.
Geoff Johns made him one of the central Justice Society characters when he started writing
that book back in the early 2000s. That was actually one of his first big comic runs,
it was before he brought back Barry Allen in Flash Rebirth. So you could also think
of JSA as being a Geoff Johns origin story, at least at DC Comics.
By that time in the comics they changed Ted Grant’s backstory and just made him a retired
heavyweight champ turned superhero who trained all the big Justice Society an Justice League
characters how to fight.
He did have a son that he never knew about until he was a teenager. His name was Tommy
Bronson, and in a twist on the Wildcat legacy, the son is a werecat who can transform. So
son of Wildcat is a real life cat. That was a big Vandal Savage arc in case you guys ever
want to read it. Just read Geoff Johns run on JSA, it was really cool.
JR Ramirez, the actor they cast looks about old enough to be a retired pro boxer, so they
might just go with a modified origin story on the tv show. They posted pictures from
the set of Oliver in a boxing ring, so either Oliver will meet Ted Grant during his final
fight or he’ll already be retired and just be a boxing trainer.
Either way, I think the most exciting thing to look forward to is Wildcat teaching Oliver
how to be a better fighter. That’s Wildcat’s biggest thing, being the guy who taught all
the major A-List superheroes how to fight. Or at least the ones who weren’t aliens.
Superman doesn’t need to be a nimble fighter. He’s indestructible and he has super speed.
Batman vs Wildcat was another really fun comic book arc though.
I do think Arrow will age him down a little, in the comics he comes off a little like an
Old Man, or at least he thinks of himself as being way past his prime. His JSA team
was Alan Scott, Jay Garrick, a lot of the classic golden age heroes. When Geoff Johns
took over the comic, part of the plot was them re-forming the team.
Like they had been retired as superheroes for a while.
If you remember, Hawkman was another one of the bigger Justice Society characters. Michael
Shanks from Stargate played him on Smallville. But there were a bunch of other characters
that Arrow could tease this season and then bring on in the future.
Doctor Fate was a big team member of Wildcats too, they teased him in the Constantine Pilot.
You just see the helmet of Fate. Smallville also did Doctor Fate too during their Justice
Society Arc.
I think Arrow will do more of a Justice Society of Arrow as in JS Arrow. I don’t think they
take focus off Team Arrow by setting up a whole different group of superheroes yet.
But most supers that come on arrow, don’t stick around forever. I know Black Canary
is back for 3 episodes, but after that she’s gone again to make room for the Ray Palmer
Atom and Katana.
JR Ramirez is mostly known for his other new tv series Power. That’s about a Drug Lord
trying to go legit. I guess that has some loose ties to the original origins of Wildcat.
The producers did say that the Ted Grant character would be spending most of his time with Laurel.
Since she’s still working with the DAs office it’s probably going to have something to
do with organized crime. So he might end up helping her and then run into Oliver during
the course of that and then they’ll help each other.
It sounds like he’s not going to be as close with Team Arrow as Ray Palmer will be.
If you remember the season 2 finale, there were a lot of different groups of people fighting
Slade’s army. Like Quentin and Laurel with the Police, Caity Lotz jumped from area to
area with the League of Assassins. And Roy was with Thea till she split.
So we could go most of the season without Wildcat officially joining team Arrow.
They haven’t said which episode he’s going to debut in either. But it will definitely
be the first half of the season.
The arrow cave is pretty small and Oliver had that line where he talked about just getting
the focus back to the core team. Even though Roy is a big part of that now.
Oh and other new bit of big info. Stephen Amell said that Oliver would be upgrading
his costume. he said things would be added to it. So he’ll still have the leather pants
and the jacket. He’ll probably just get more tech. maybe from Ray Palmer?
So moving on to Manhunter. If you’re not familiar with the Character it’s the Mark
Shaw Manhunter. Mark Shaw is coming on the show. He was part of the suicide squad on
the show and that’s how Arrow is going to use him. He’s going to be part of the Diggle,
Lyla, Amanda Waller Suicide Squad stuff happening this year. He’ll just be featured in those
episodes.
As for those big dc movies they announced today. What happened was Warner Brothers announced
dates for 9 additional superhero movies after Batman vs Superman. No names, just dates.
So I’m going to do a separate video for what those might be. Be sure to subscribe
to get it.
Really it’s going to start with the easy stuff like Man of Steel 2, a new solo Batfleck
movie, Justice League a sequel to the Batman vs Superman movie, maybe a wonder woman movie
if Justice League does okay. You get the idea. It’s the other 4 or 5 movies that are the
big question.
Now to crown a winner in the comic con giveaway. Congratulations to T Real, you win an Oliver
Queen funko pop figure. I’ll be messaging you on your channel for details!
Just some big reminders for when all these shows are starting. The Flash starts Tuesday
October 7th and Arrow is the next day October 8th. If you’re international, just check
your local listings, they’ll be on the same channel. So wherever you watch Arrow, that
will be the same place you watch the Flash.
For people who only stream stuff, last year they started selling season passes for Arrow
Season 2 on September 13th. So they’ll probably do the same thing for Arrow and the Flash
this year. So you can watch it that way too. They also stream the episodes on the cw website
a week after they air. So if you absolutely have to, you can watch them for free a week
behind everyone else.
I’ll always be posting my videos as things happen, but you can always watch them later
if you don’t watch the episodes right away.
Since I told you guys I’d post reviews for Constantine and Gotham if my last arrow video
got 2000 likes and you totally stepped up. I’ll be posting those videos in the next
week. I’ll post Constantine First and then Gotham. Don’t worry, there will be spoiler
warnings.
Right now click here to learn all about Ra’s Al Ghul coming to Arrow and click here to
learn all about Captain Cold on The Flash.
Thanks for watching, see you guys tomorrow. High Fives!