In Arrow, Barrowman Might be Villian or Savior, Original Character or Not, But He’ll Definitely Be Well Dressed

This picture of John Barrowman smiling at a scorpion brought to you by my love of odd celebrity pictures.

We’ve found out that the CW’s heretofore unimpressive Green Arrow-based series Arrow will also be featuring DC superheroine the Huntress in some first season episodes, and we’ve found out that the show’s creators have plans (however tentative) to include a female version of Speedy, Green Arrow’s sidekick. But it was the announcement of John Barrowman joining the cast of the show that first renewed our interest in the adaptation. Unlike Jessica De Gouw and Huntress, however, we still have no idea who Barrowman is going to be, and he’s not helping.

All we know about the character so far is that he’s very wealthy, very mysterious, “an acquaintance of the Queen [Green Arrow’s] family and a prominent figure in Starling City.” I’d initially assumed that he was probably going to be playing a villain role. I mean, what else are mysterious businessmen for, really, other than to stand in the shadows and eventually reveal that they were pulling all the other smaller villains strings all along. But Barrowman’s statements have not confirmed his character’s alignment one way or the other.

He was questioned on it last weekend at Fan Expo, and, according to SpinOff, he had this to say:

“More is going to be revealed about him, but he’ll be pivotal to the program,” he said. His character is called “The Well-Dressed Man,” although his role in the story is unknown. “I’m glad I’m going into another kind of realm of sci-fi and fantasy. It’s time to create another cool character.”

There’s been lots of speculation on whether Barrowman is playing another known DC character. It seems to me, however, that if they were introducing another major DC character (for example, oh, Bruce Wayne or Lex Luthor, the two prominent mysterious wealthy characters in DC canon) they’d be up front about it if only for the press they’d get. Unless, of course, the identity of that character is a major giveaway to the plot, another reason, I think, to presume that Barrowman is playing a villain. Let the speculations fly.

(via MTV Splash Page.)

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Susana Polo

Susana Polo thought she'd get her Creative Writing degree from Oberlin, work a crap job, and fake it until she made it into comics. Instead she stumbled into a great job: founding and running this very website (she's Editor at Large now, very fancy). She's spoken at events like Geek Girl Con, New York Comic Con, and Comic Book City Con, wants to get a Batwoman tattoo and write a graphic novel, and one of her canine teeth is in backwards.

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