“ | I'm Count Vertigo and I approve this high! | „ |
~ Count Vertigo. |
Cecil Adams, also known as Count Vertigo and formerly as the Count, is a supporting antagonist in the TV series Arrow, serving as a major antagonist in Season 1, a minor antagonist in Season 2 and a posthumous antagonist in Season 3.
He is a notorious drug lord who earned his nicknamed after leaving a mark on his victims' necks with his double-syringe injection needle. Count Vertigo is also known for developing his drug Vertigo. Its effects left users in disorientation and affects their thalamus, the part of the brain where all information from the pain receptors are collected. It makes the users think they are in excruciating pain which lasts for days until the heart stops beating, killing them.
He was portrayed by Seth Gabel.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- Kidnapped over 56 prostitutes and vagrants, using them as guinea pigs to develop Vertigo before leaving their bodies on street with vampiric puncture marks in their necks. The Count viewed this as a measure of its value, showing no remorse for their deaths.
- Distributed Vertigo to people in Starling City, which killed countless users, making him responsible for Thea Queen nearly getting imprisoned for driving under the drug’s influence. This also gives him personal villainy to Oliver.
- He injected pure Vertigo into a dealer for telling the Hood about his name, subjecting him to extremely high levels of pain, then giving him the choice of either killing himself to end his misery or kill him out of revenge. The dealer ultimately is unable to bear the pain and commits suicide. He does this to other criminals to use them as examples in displaying fear.
- After a deal with Oliver Queen goes South, he injects Oliver with pure Vertigo in the hopes that he would die of an overdose, just because Oliver was a witness to his crimes.
- While him getting injected with Vertigo by Queen was horrible, it was richly deserved as he was subjected to the same torture he inflicted on his victims.
- He showed no remorse when Oliver Queen informed him that a woman died from Vertigo, saying people die for “lots of reasons”.
- He’s indirectly responsible for Dr. Webb using the Vertigo in his kidneys to create his own version and sell it out on the streets, which wouldn’t have been possible if it Weren’t for Count Vertigo.
- As he escaped from Iron Heights during the Undertaking, he released a serial killer known as the Dollmaker, a fellow Pure Evil villain, while leaving all the other inmates to die, just because he was a "fan" of the Dollmaker's work.
- Because of this act, the Dollmaker began killing two more women and attempted to kill Laurel Lance, which led to her PTSD and being addicted to alcoholism and drugs.
- Used flu vaccination vans to poison the entire city with a newly modified Vertigo that would cause the victims to suffer from withdrawals months later. He would go on to use this plot in blackmailing the city to take Vertigo and "end the pain", all the while profiting from it. He used ADA Adam Donner, who was poisoned, as an example to the city. He even killed one of his associates after he requested extra money to keep quiet, though The Count likely would’ve killed him anyway.
- He tries to goad the Arrow into killing him to get him to break his code, since killing is “one of life’s greatest pleasures”, at least, according to him.
- Kidnapping Felicity Smoak after catching her finding Vertigo in one of the vans, using her to lure Oliver Queen so he could kill him.
- After being backed into a corner by Oliver Queen, He threatened to inject Felicity with vertigo to coerce Oliver into dropping his bow. Even after Oliver complied with his demand, The Count still tried to inject her regardless just to spite him, forcing Oliver to kill him to save her.
- Despite his death, his drug would go on to continue causing pain and death through various other dealers, including his successor Werner Zytle, Derek Sampson (who used it to manufacture "Stardust") and Ricardo Diaz.
- Though he claims he provides Vertigo as a service to everyone in Starling City, this is merely an excuse for him to make money through terror. He showed no remorse for the many people his drug has killed and hesitate to torture anyone to use them as examples.
- Though he is clearly deranged, Count Vertigo clearly has moral agency over his actions due to being intelligent enough to figure out Oliver’s dual identity and the massive amount of sadism he takes in killing and torturing people. He even admits that “killing is one of life’s greatest pleasures”, showing he knows his actions are wrong, but simply doesn’t care.
- Despite the high heinous standards of the Arrowverse, Count Vertigo stands out for his cruelty and being the first villain in the series to pass the standards. His actions have continued to have a lasting effect on innocent people even after his death. He also has way less resources than more heinous villains such as Zoom or Diaz.
Trivia[]
- He is first Pure Evil villain in the TV series and in fact the entire Arrowverse.
- He is the only version of Count Veritgo to be Pure evil.
External links[]
- The Count on the Villains Wiki
- Count Vertigo on the Arrowverse Wiki
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Pure Evils | ||
Arrow |