Which New Comic Book Characters Are Coming To TV This Fall?

The fall feels a lifetime away, but the new television season is almost upon us. With most comic [...]

The fall feels a lifetime away, but the new television season is almost upon us. With most comic book shows filming new episodes as we speak, we're starting to learn about some of the new characters who will arrive in all our favorite comic book adaptations. Surprisingly, there's a small universe's worth of new villains and heroes coming to interact with established cast's throughout the board. To help you know who to look for, and where to find them, here's a brief rundown of all the new comic book characters making their debut later this year.

Arrow

Arrow's "big bad" this season is Damien Darhk and his villainous HIVE organization. Arrow has hinted at HIVE since season two, with Deadshot revealing that the organization hired him to kill Diggle's brother. Although Darhk has yet to appear on the show, Ra's al Ghul mentioned last season that he was a former League of Assassins member and orchestrated several of the attacks and incidents seen on the show. Neal McDonough (Dum Dum Dugan from the Captain America movies) will play Darkh in the upcoming season. In the comics, HIVE is almost cult-like villainous organization that frequently comes into conflict with the Teen Titans.

Two other classic DC villains will fight Oliver and his team this fall. Alexander Calvert will appear as the 90s Batman villain Anarky, while British actor Jimmy Akingbola will play a reimagined version of Baron Blitzkrieg. Anarky is a young countercultural villain who, at the ripe age of 12, first faced the Batman. Baron Blitzkrieg is a Nazi villain and founder of the evil organization Shadowspire. Arrow producer Marc Guggenheim clarified this week that the show's version of Blitzkrieg wouldn't have any connections to the Nazis (especially as the actor portraying him is black) but would still have ties to the Shadowspire organization.

Mr. Terrific will also appear on the upcoming season of Arrow. In the comics, Mr. Terrific is one of the leaders of DC's superhero community and uses his advanced technology to fight crime. Some of his more distinctive tools include a nanite T-shaped mask that makes him invisible to all forms of technological detection and robotic T-spheres that allow him to fly and attack enemies from a distance. Arrow's version of the character will be a Palmer Technology employee working under Felicity Smoak. He'll be played by Echo Kellum.

Gotham

A slew of villains are slated to appear in Gotham this year. Tigress, played by Jessica Lucas, will join the cast as the enforcer for the new crime boss looking to usurp Penguin's reign as head of the underworld. You might remember Tigress as the character Artemis from the Young Justice cartoon, but Gotham's version of the character doesn't have any clear analog in the comics or TV. While Tigress is a little old for Gotham's Bruce Wayne, one of his longtime love interests in the comics, Silver St. Cloud, will be played by Natalie Alyn Lind. St. Cloud's relationship with Bruce Wayne marked the first time DC depicted Batman as having sexual relations with any character in the comics, but I think Lind and Bruce Wayne actor David Mazouz might be a little young to try any hanky panky on network television. Gotham producers also confirmed that classic characters such as Hugo Strange, Mister Freeze, Azrael and the Calendar Man will all appear on the show this season in some form.

The Flash

(Photo: DC Entertainment)

Three major supporting characters will appear on The Flash this season, led none other by Golden Age Flash Jay Garrick. Garrick was the first hero to use the Flash title and hails from the alternate universe Earth 2. Teddy Sears will don Garrick's iconic Mercury hat next season. Joining Garrick next season is Patty Spivot, a longtime ally and love interest of the Flash. In the comics, Spivot is a blood analyst who works alongside Barry in the Central City Crime Lab. The TV show will tweak Spivot's character, making her Joe West's new partner and the replacement for the deceased Eddie Thawne. Shantel VanSanten will play Spivot next season.

And on the other side of the law, at least three new villains will join Captain Cold against the Flash. Zoom, a speedster even faster than the Flash or the Reverse Flash, will be the major villain of Season 2. Zoom was a former ally of the Flash named Hunter Zolomon, who gained the ability to alter time (thus making him in effect as fast as the Flash) after he tampered with the Cosmic Treadmill. Other villains confirmed for next season include Atom Smasher, a size changing hero in the comics, and Double Down, a villain with the ability to change his skin into razor sharp tattoos. We'll probably see more additions to The Flash's cast in the months ahead.

Agents of SHIELD and Agent Carter

We don't know much bout the upcoming seasons of Agents of SHIELD and Agent Carter, but Marvel Television's showrunners revealed some of the new villains that will appear on both shows. The Inhuman Lash will square off against SHIELD and Skye/Daisy Johnson's team of Secret Warriors while searching for "worthy" Inhumans to join his forces. Agent Peggy Carter, meanwhile, will face off against the Secret Empire. The Secret Empire was a splinter group of Hydra who infiltrated the United States government and tried to discredit Captain America. It's not clear how the Secret Empire will tie into Agent Carter's new setting of Los Angeles, but producers hinted it could have something to do with the Darkforce dimension, a mysterious energy force from which several superheroes and villains derive their powers.

Legends of Tomorrow

Legends of Tomorrow is still several months away, but we know that the CW will bring at least three major DC characters into the Arrowverse in 2016. Rip Hunter (played by Arthur Darvill) and Hawkgirl (played by Ciara Renee) will join Firestorm, the Atom, White Canary, Captain Cold and Heat Wave to fight the immortal Vandal Savage. Rip Hunter is the DC Universe's lead time traveler, and protects the timestream from forces trying to alter the past and future. Renee will play the Golden Age version of Hawkgirl, a reincarnated Egyptian princess with the ability to fly thanks to an Nth metal belt and wings. Vandal Savage is an immortal foe of the Justice Society with immense strength and a brutal personality. Producers for Legends of Tomorrow also teased Hawkman's appearance on the show.

Supergirl

(Photo: CBS)

CBS's Supergirl will introduce an entire cast of classic comic book characters to television viewers, many of which will appear on television for the first time. Melissa Benoist will play a new version of Kara Zor-El, Superman's cousin who arrived on Earth in her late teens. Joining Benoist on the show is Mehcad Brooks as James Olsen, an older version of Superman's pal Jimmy Olsen, and Calista Flockhart as Clark Kent's former co-worker Cat Grant. Other comic characters set to appear include classic Superman villains the Toyman, Cyborg Superman, Livewire, Reactron and Maxwell Lord. Lucy Lane, the villainous sister of Lois Lane, will also appear on the show sometime during the first season.

Lucifer

Fox's Lucifer is a loose adaptation of the Vertigo series of the same name, which originally spun out of the popular Sandman series. Tom Ellis will play the title character of the series, the actual ruler of Hell who moves to LA to run a nightclub after growing bored of Hell. Other comic characters cast in the show is Maze, a demon confidante and ally to Lucifer, and Amenadiel, an angel who opposes Lucifer with deadly resolve. We'll see if any other characters from the Lucifer comics appear on the show next fall.

Which comic book characters are you most excited to see on the small screen? Let us know in the comments!

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