I was excited for a hot minute (because we thought we were getting a comic book faithful rendition of our hero) and was heading to bed when I read that Arrow Season 4 had cast the role of Mister Terrific who all black geeks know is one of the smartest men in comics. Echo Kellum got the part and we were excited….then we read this:
Entertainment Weekly reports that Ben and Kate star Echo Kellum has been cast as Curtis Holt, A.K.A. Mr. Terrific in the upcoming season of CW’s Arrow. At Comic-Con International: San Diego, it was revealed the character would be joining the show but the casting wasn’t announced at that time.
In comic books, Mr. Terrific is Michael Holt, a brilliant olympic athlete who becomes a hero after the death of his wife and child. In Arrow, EW describes Holt as an inventor who works for Palmer Technologies under Felicity Smoak. It was also revealed at SDCC that this version of Mr. Terrific will be gay.
~DIG DEEPER INTO MR. TERRIFIC HERE~
In the comics, Mr. Terrific is Michael Holt, an Olympic-level athlete with a gifted intellect who joins the Justice Society of America after the death of pregnant wife. I’m gonna try and reserve judgement until I see how this plays out on screen. Furthermore race swaps have worked for Kingpin, Heimdall and Fox so let’s see if this “sexuality” swap pans out. Arrow Season 4 premieres on The CW on Oct. 7.
What do you think ?
Are you excited about the debut of Mr. Terrific on Arrow?
Sound off below
More as it breaks!
[Source: Newsarama]
Why the hell do they have to gay everything up? Too many strong black men in one TV series?
Mixed feelings on this one. Arrow has a number of gay characters (great!) they have very few black heroes. Being African American is hard but being a gay African American man is harder.
I hope the show touches on how hard it truly is since they are taking such creative license.
Kudos to Arrow! Let’s get it right though.
I wrote about this on Facebook. Very mixed feelings. First they’ve “depowered” Mr. Terrific’s intellect.
Secondly, why is it so hard to have a black male superhero who is straight and like black women?
Find me two black heroes who are straight and not into white women/men…
Not saying I agree with the change, but a gay guy can’t be strong?
Arrow only had one bisexual couple: Sara and Nessa.
I guess their budget wouldn’t allow them to introduce both a new gay character and a new black character.
That being said I’m glad my favorite DC character is getting some much deserved exposure, and I’ll certainly be watching the episodes he appears in. Upon reflection I realize that a lot of people that don’t watch the show (like me) will be tuning in because the character will now represent two oppressed minorities. Genius move CW.
GTFOH!!!Why not just make a gay Arrow?and don’t forget boys and girls the REMAKE of that classic star studded T.V. Mini series is coming soon…..ROOTS!…This time with special effectsfectsfectsfects….
Well,…
I don’t like them taking his company from him, dumbing him down, taking away the plotline of his having sex with powergirl,….
But I will give this a chance.
Stop trying to make everything gay black actors still get treated bad in Hollywood in 2015 blacks usually die first in movies just keep him the way he is stop shoving homosexuality in our faces so much and does the black character has to be changed to a gay man leave him straight stop thinking this a strong move by the producers of this show male actors are being ask to dress like women as well as get disrespected by wives and kids on sitcoms just look at how father’s are made to be a joke in the household just check it out when watching even a Disney show on their channel every one should not feel there has to be a gay person in every thing in Hollywood. And don’t try and compare being black to a choice. Just saying.
I’ve been saying this on here for a mintue!! We can never have a Black Character without some kind of “Catch” to them. Every stigma, sterotype, political/social issue, or fade of the moment, is always use on a Black Character! Also I don’t want to hear “Oh times are changing” crap! just so you can make them gay or date outside their race. By no means do i hate other races or gays, just I’m sick of the okey doke!
I don’t watch “Arrow”, but I’m a fan of the Mister Terrific character. He’s a genius, he’s strong, he’s outspoken, he owns his own company, and he has an interesting backstory. I have no problem with introducing a strong gay Black male superhero character, but it should be a new character. I resent the fact that this version of Mister Terrific is being made more palatable and less threatening to white audiences who are uncomfortable with strong, genius-level, straight Black men. Odds are he will be shown to be attracted to white guys. As G. Bee said, there seems to be a concerted effort NOT to show Black-on-Black love in mainstream media. (No surprise there.)
They already got a gay black character in Teen Wolf who likes white guys, so I guess they’re keeping the ball rolling SMDH!
My sentiments Xactly! SMDH @ the Fukkery!
All apart of the agenda to emasculate the Nubian GOD-King! SMDH @ The Bullshiggidy!
Ok. So Mister Terrific is one of my favorite superheroes. I fucking love this character!! There are many elements about him that resonate with me, & the fact that he’s black (so that I could have a character I liked & could see myself in) only strengthened that connection. So when I heard that he was going to featured in Arrow (a really disappointing show to be honest) I was FUCKING ELATED!!. Knowing the show’s history with how it treats characters from the comics I knew their would be changes. I knew I would probably not like every change too. The thing that has really upset & disappointed me though has been how my fellow black geeks have responded.
Being gay means he can’t be strong? Being gay means he’s more palatable to white audiences? The actual fuck is wrong with some of you people? I’m not part of that community so I’m not going to try & speak for non-straight people & how they would feel seeing the words you have for them, but I will say this: You can be black & queer. In fact millions of people are. They’re in every part of our communities & you probably know & love far more of them than you’ll ever know.
Every time you talk shit about queer people, you are talking shit about black queer people. Every time you’re talking shit about about queer people, you’re attacking people in our community. If you’re being anti-gay, anti-LGBTQIA, anti-queer, you’re being anti-black! Every single time those words come from you & are put into this world (in person or over the internet) you’re telling every queer black person that they’re not part of our struggles & aren’t welcome in our community.
Just because you don’t suffer through their oppression, doesn’t mean you should contribute ts that oppression.
That’s not even going into how much of the arguments I’ve seen are built on white ideals of masculinity that demonize us as we hold them up as things to aspire to. But that’s another post on another day.
Thank you!
I have the same question. Is it the new Bruce Jenner syndrome?
if Jimmy Olsen or John Storm can be black then Mr Terrific can be gay
I don’t have a problem with gay or lesbians, it’s just that i’m tired f the BS!! We can never have a Black Character without some kind of “Catch” to them. Here we have a character to be proud of and they dumb him down.
Also The rants that people are posting aren’t about gay bashing, but more about how they fucked over a great character. (Hey here’s a great black character..But he’s this….But he’s that…) Always something!
Co-sign!!!
Probably one of the few who’ve never watched Arrow. Don’t see any reason to start now.
Straight, functional, Black-on-Black love, is a rare thing in Hollywood. The only character with any social redeeming qualities in the wildly successful Empire series is a Black Gay male. Scandal features a Black woman with brains and talent who settles for being ‘first jump-off’. Television is largely about escapism; about programming too, but we wont get into that … just would be nice to see a Black Superhero of that caliber; what, I thinks he’s number three in the DC universe in terms of intellect, shown as a hetero-Black man. Most Black people on the planet are hetero. You wouldn’t know that by what’s shown in the movies and on cable though.
A true-to-comic portrayal of Mr. Terrific would have been an awesome spectacle.
That’s why we gotta do it ourselves.
Oh …no-homo bashing.
Wow, I was shocked to read here the veiled homophobia in the post By Ryn Fraser and the plain homophobic comments here :(, so thanks for this comment Stan 🙂
I’m very disappointed. Hollywood always portray black people as weak, dumb, gay, lazy, selfish, non-trustworthy, bad, short, black as oil, rapist, cheater, flanderer, coward and run from their responsibilty. All black characters always have some catch. Too many black gay characters in hollywood. Straight decent God loving black characters are not available in Hollywood. They really trying their best to feminize the blackman.
There are some postive images from Hollywood about black people.Should there be more?of course but let’s not get carried away.
I’m just glad they aren’t outright turning the character Michael Holt into a homosexual and judging by how well the show handled Sara and Nyssa’s homosexuality as more of an afterthought than the focus of their characters, well then I’m honestly looking forward to this. Arrow isn’t a perfect show but I really enjoy it and their character development so I’m willing to wait to watch the new season before I make up my mind about this. Who knows Curtis Holt just may become the next breakout star of the show.
Except homosexuality isn’t choice plus it’s fine to keep shoving heterosexuality in everyones faces
I am now done with arrow. Its tiring every black person has to die or now be gay. Still surprised diggle is still alive. Loved this show but good bye. Why is every show has to have a gay character and now black and gay wow.
Thank you!!!! Well said
Sorry being gay is not a minority. U can be born black and can’t hide in a Clan meeting I can be white gay and attend every kkk meeting and know one will ever know. Gay is a orientation not a gender or pigmentation.
Just deleted Arrow From my TiVo take care all.
He has a white wife that’s why the same with fake Mr. Terrific. Hollywood does not promote strong black couples
I don’t want to come across offencive but how is being gay being oppressed right now the gay agenda is being pushed more than anything that means they run the industry and a lot more. Second when it comes to being gay nobody can tell if you’re gay or not unless you make it well known it’s not the same for being black
how many % of the worlds men are gay? Is that percente the same as how many character how days are gay in hollywood movies/tv shows?
Same with gender dysphoria/transgender, how many % exists with this mental disorder(according to DSM-5 it is a disorder, not my words, but the book) and how many people with this mental disorder are now in the movies?
I really doubt it fit the percentage…..they over do it.
I dont mind gay people at all, but it is annoying when suddenly 4 people out of a cast of 8 are gay, that is 50% and I really doubt 50% of the world is gay
keep it as it should be percentage wise and it is fine, dont over do it like they have been doing since 2015……
btw did anyone watch last spiderman and count how many people were from different countries, I think I counted 15 different nationalities and 1 transgender person in peter parker’s class…..like really? I would think maybe 4 but mostly 3(American Caucasian, Latino and African Americans) would be most common? but not in the last spiderman, we got philippino, indians(people from India), arabs, etc etc….
If I walk in to 10 different schools in usa and pick 3 different classrooms in each school, visiting 30 classes in total, would I find even 1 class with 15+ nationalities??