Top 10 characters the Arrowverse completely botched

5. Orlin Dwyer/Cicada

The Flash has always had a problem conjuring up villains even half as good as Reverse Flash or Gorilla Grodd, and that really shows in latter season big baddies like Zoom and Savitar. Nowhere is that lack of inspiration more prominent than with Cicada.

After his niece is injured during a superhero battle, Orlin Dwyer dons a lazy costume and a dark matter dagger and declares war on all metahumans, super-powered individuals who were now firmly established within the Arrowverse. Now, we have a trite revenge plot which doesn’t feel entirely earned and a baddie who shouldn’t be nearly as tough as they make him out to be.

Sure, he has a dagger that saps the heroes’ powers, obviously having thematic significance in robbing metahumans of what makes them special, but nothing else about him poses a serious threat, either physically or psychologically. Theoretically, you could just shoot him. Problem solved.

He’s certainly not bright enough to counteract such a basic strategy, and he’s not engaging enough to warrant any other approach. If they were going for what essentially amounts to a prejudicial X-Men villain, they needed a stronger catalyst, a more devastating event to set him on the path to extermination. As it stands, he simply seems like a spiteful twerp.

Despite that, the character was not dead on arrival. They could have still garnered some drama from his predicament…until he started talking. Chris Klein’s performance is hilariously bad, putting even the worst preschool plays to shame.

Whether he’s going for intimidation, empathy, or some other approach, he always glares through squinted eyes and speaks in comically slow growls (Are you sensing a pattern here with the stupid voices?). I don’t know what moron directed him to act this way, but it makes him impossible to take seriously on any level.

I’d also roast Sarah Carter as his adult niece from the future, who takes up the Razzie mantle as a second Cicada, but she’s not around long enough to leave much of an impact.

Once again amplifying our suffering is the fact that, like with Prometheus, the creators constantly tease us with a much better storyline. We’re often treated to a futuristic subplot with a terminally ill Reverse Flash teaching Barry’s daughter how to be a speedster. Is he really a dying man trying to atone for his crimes, or is he just manipulating her for his own agenda? Either way, I want to watch that show instead.