Count Werner Vertigo of Vlatava (or simply Werner Zytle in Prime Earth continuity) is a DC universe villain mainly portrayed as an enemy toBlack Canary and Green Arrow but has fought Batman as-well.
He is a power-hungry noble who lost his lands to Soviet invaders and who subsequently moved to the USA in an attempt to grab at power. He additionally has the power to cause vertigo-like effects in other people.
History[]
Pre-Crisis[]
Origins[]
Count Werner Vertigo was born into the imperial family of the Eastern-European nation of Vlatava. Likely due to his family's history of incest and inbreeding, Werner was born with a genetic mutation that resulted in him having an inner-ear problem that causes him extreme pain, a disproportioned sense of hearing, and intense balance issues.
For his condition, when Werner was a child his wealthy parents had devices implanted in his ears which soothed and controlled his issues. As an inadvertent side-effect, it gave Werner the ability to cause others to suffer from the same, "Vertigo Effect".
When his nation was invaded by the Soviet Union, Werner would flee his homeland but cling onto what little of his family's lost status he had left. In search of jewels which once belonged to his family, he traveled to Star(ling) City where his robberies and powers made him an enemy of Black Canary and Green Arrow.
Suicide Squad[]
After his imprisonment at the hands of Green Arrow and Black Canary, Werner joined the Suicide Squad as a means of shortening his sentence.
Post-Crisis[]
Under the Hood[]
Count Vertigo was a member of the Society, hired by Black Mask through Deathstroke during the former's time as Gotham's reigning crime-lord. Count Vertigo alongside Firestorm villain The Hyena and Shazam! villain Captain Nazi were sent to Gotham to kill the rising gangster known as the Red Hood who had become an enemy to Black Mask.
Red Hood and Batman subsequently teamed up in a brief truce to take out the three super-villains.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Vertigo Effect: Werner can install disorienting and even painful vertigo and nausea into the minds of others. Originally this stemmed from devices in his ears but his body came to internalize it naturally.
Paraphernalia[]
- Magnetic Boots:
- Ear Devices:
Werner Vertigo as he appears in Batman: The Animated Series
Appearances in Batman Mythos Related Media[]
- Batman: The Animated Series: Count Vertigo (DC Animated Universe) Werner Vertigo appears in the episode Off Balance alongside Ra's al Ghul and Talia al Ghul in their first appearance of the show. He fills the role of the comic-book villain Ebeneezer Darrk from a 1970s storyline of which the episode is loosely based on. Here he is a member of the League of Assassins who kidnaps Talia after forming his own splinter faction of Ra's al Ghul's League. His powers are also shown to come from his eye-piece rather than ear-pieces.
- The Batman: Count Vertigo (Matsudaverse)
- Arrow (CW): In the show Arrow (which blatantly reuses elements and characters of Batman media), we are given two different adaptations of Count Vertigo.
- The first is Cecil Addams, a drug-dealer who sells a drug known as Vertigo which earns its name for inducing disorientation. Due to the drug needing to be injected via the neck and causing death in many, Cecil becomes known as, "The Count" due to the injections on the dead looking like vampire bites.
- The second incarnation of the character is Werner Zytle, a crime-lord who weaponized the drug for its disorienting effects to kill his enemies.
- Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay: In this films Werner Zytle is a member of the Suicide Squad where he has an affair with Jewelee behind her husband Punch's back. He, Deadshot, Black Manta and the couple are later sent to recover a data-file from the gangster Tobias Whale before killing the gangster. Vertigo and Jewelee then kill Punch and try to escape only for Waller to detonate the bomb in Vertigo's neck and for Deadshot to kill Jewelee himself.