Hey youtubers it’s Charlie and since there have been a bunch of new comic book characters
joining the Flash and Arrow I wanted to do a video series for some of the bigger ones.
Today is going to be all about Captain Cold.
Why is he a big deal?
Because he’s one of the most famous Flash villains from the comics and he’s being
played by Wentworth Miller from Prison Break.
I can already hear the Iron Heights Prison break memes.
So I’ll start with his origin story and then talk about how they might use him on
the show.
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.
Real Quick too, if you’ve seen the first episode, please use spoiler tags in the comments.
Most people still haven’t seen it yet.
Captain Cold’s real name is Leonard Snart, when the tv show introduces him, that’s
who he’ll be.
Over time he’ll get his superpowers and become Captain Cold.
Probably in that first hour.
They did something similar with Weather Wizard so they’re not waiting forever to show superpowers.
I know you guys are really happy about that.
Less waiting means more smashing time.
They’ve changed his backstory a couple times in the comics but here’s his original origin
story.
His first appearance was in 1957 and he was created by Carmine Infantino, the same person
who created The Flash.
So no surprise that he created one of the Flash’s best villains.
Originally Captain Cold used a stolen Cold Gun to pull heists.
Usually to get hot women to like him.
Remember this was a long time ago.
At one point he learned about a big score, escaped from prison and teamed up with his
Sister Golden Glider the Trickster and Heatwave to steal the money.
But they were thwarted by Barry Allen who teamed up with Jay Garrick.
That was the beginnings of the Rogues.
A group of Flash villains that banded together.
They’re like the Bad News Bears of villain teams.
Think of the Crime Syndicate as the Yankees.
World Series Champs of Evil.
The Rogues are usually the guys that get their asses handed to them every week.
So most of the time they were used for comedy.
Later stories made his sister a much bigger part of his backstory.
Like he was a criminal because he needed money to take care of his sister.
Just to make the character more sympathetic.
He’s not a villain because he’s evil, he’s a villain of circumstance.
Which is probably how the tv show is going to treat him.
He did try to reform for a while and formed a company called Golden Snowball Recoveries
with his sister Golden Glider, but then later he ended up killing one of his former prison
inmates named Brad Brickley.
The case became an unsolved mystery that the Central City police department used to test
new cadets.
Eventually Bart Allen solved it.
The tv show isn’t doing Bart Allen, at least right now.
And the big unsolved mystery at the moment is Barry’s Mother’s murder.
Before Geoff Johns and DC Comics did their whole New 52 reboot Captain Cold and the Rogues
even killed Bart Allen and then later killed Inertia for double crossing them.
During the big Flashpoint storyline he wound up living as a person named Citizen Cold masquerading
as a hero of the city trying to hide his past crimes.
He even has this weird relationship with Iris West.
The other Rogues kidnap his sister and he ends up murdering them all but not before
they kill her.
Iris West finds out about all the horrible stuff he did and gets him with one of his
own cold weapons.
After the new 52 Reboot all of the Rogues including Captain Cold were given real life
superpowers as part of a freak accident with Star Labs Tech.
So now he doesn’t need his cold guns anymore to freeze stuff.
And in case you never read any old Flash comics or the new ones.
When DC did the big new 52 reboot they wiped all of the old stuff from continuity.
So when you meet the new fully superpowered Captain Cold, he’s a brand new character.
The show is probably going to do that version of him.
But Geoff Johns and the other writers are really good about including easter eggs from
the classic comics.
If you want to read some “Cool” Captain Cold Stories you should check out Geoff Johns
Flash Omnibus, there are three different volumes all of them are awesome.
He goes to comic book conventions all the time, so if you find him at one there’s
a pretty good chance he’ll sign it for you.
He’s really nice to his fans.
On the show Wentworth Miller is going to debut as Leonard Snart in Episode 4.
That’s also the same episode Felicity is guest starring in from Arrow.
The episode is named Oracle.
So as much as it’s going to be a Captain Cold episode, I think the real focus will
be Felicity.
I know comic book fans will go a little nuts at that title too.
Oracle is the name Barbara Gordon takes when she forms the Birds of Prey group.
Arrow did a birds of prey episode last year and they’re going to do it again this year.
Yes, Felicity will be the Oracle of the team with Huntress and Black Canary.
She’s back for 3 episodes, so if they do a birds of prey episode after Caity Lotz is
gone, they might substitute Katana for her in the group.
The Captain Cold episode isn’t going to be a Birds of Prey story or anything, but
it will explain everything about how the show is going to treat the character.
But because the Particle Accelerator explosion created a ton of new metahumans.
It’s likely that Wenworth Miller will be a normal person in a bad situation who figures
superpowers are the answer to all his problems.
I’m hoping he’s forced to commit some crime to save his sister and then “shazam”,
he gets powers and has a really bad run in with the Flash.
There has to be a reason for Captain Cold to hate the Flash, a reason for him to form
the Rogues.
On the show, nobody knows the Fash exits, so they’ll have to have that first run in
and Barry will have to do something to make Wentworth Miller hate him.
Think of it as the Batman problem.
Batman is a force of nature in Gotham, he is a force for justice, but because he’s
so agressive he causes a lot of collateral damage and forces criminals to up their game.
Thus super-weirdos start crawling out of the woodwork.
So he creates almost as many villains as he puts away in Arkham.
And the same will be true for Barry Allen.
For every rogue that he puts away in Iron Heights.
Two more rise up.
Oh wait wrong show, that’s Hydra.
You get the idea.
And just to clarify, Iron Heights Prison is like The Flash’s version of Arkham.
And think about this.
The Flash is doing a freak of the week model for the first half of the season.
So he’ll be arresting several supervillains.
Eventually they’ll all probably try to form a prison break, which takes us back to Wentworth
Miller.
It’s also possible that Captain Cold could start out in Prison when we first see him.
And the explosion gives him powers which he then uses to break out of prison.
Wentworth Miller has a really specific face though.
I feel like they cast him because they wanted a sympathetic villain.
Which points back to Captain Cold’s sister.
Either way it’s going to be awesome.
Because the Flash is starting Tuesday October 7th, that means that the Captain Cold episode,
which is also the Felicity crossover, will air October 28th.
Right around Halloween.
Because Captain Cold is such a big character in the comics and Wentworth Miller is such
a big actor it sounds like the show is going to use him as a brother blood level villain
this season.
Like the Darth Vader level villain.
There’s always the emperor waiting in the distance, which on the Flash is the Reverse
Flash.
But before he reveals himself we get a whole lotta Rogues.
Now to announce the winner of my comic con giveaway.
Congratulations to clockstomper, you win a Flash Funko pop figure.
I’ll be messaging you on your channel for details.
Since I’m doing a Flash Villains series next I’ll do Killer Frost, since that’s
the character Daniel Panabaker is playing on the show.
Be sure to subscribe to get it.
I’m also working on a new character series for Arrow Season 3.
I’ll try to post one of those tonight.
Click here for my review of the pilot episode and click here to learn all about Robbie Amell’s
Firestorm character.
Thanks for watching, see you guys tonight.
High Fives!