Last week saw the Season 6 premiere of Arrow introduce a new costume for Wild Dog, which has seen the co-creator of the comic book character, Terry Beatty, take to Facebook to offer his thoughts against it.
Terry Beatty does give kudos to the actor playing Wild Dog, Rick Gonzalez, so it’s not like he has an issue as much with the other changes, though Beatty does mention “this is now literally Wild Dog in name only.”
In the comics, Wild Dog is Jack Wheeler, but in Arrow they changed it to Rene Ramirez as well as changed up the origin.
Here is what Terry Beatty has to say:
Home and taking a break from boring you with my “vacation slide show” until tomorrow some time — but I suppose I have to address this.
THIS, ladies and gentlemen is what the powers that be at the ARROW TV show have decided is Wild Dog’s new “improved” look. Yup — THIS is Wild Dog. Since the costume and name were all that survived from the comic book to begin with, this is now literally Wild Dog in name only. This change erases any trace of the original Collins/Beatty concept for the character. I would not be surprised if his name gets changed before too long, as well.
Whatever was unique about his “street level” costume has been replaced with the current standard issue dark armored uniform — a generic “third Imperial Guard from the left/Death-Blood-Stroke-Stryke/Image big gun” look. Sigh….
Oh well, I got a year’s worth of seeing how cool my costume design looked on screen — a validation of my work in a lot of ways. I suppose it was too much to expect it would last.
I will tip my hat to Rick Gonzalez, who I feel has done a fine job in the role and has a strong screen presence. I wish him luck in going forward with this and whatever else he does down the line.
