Arrow season 6: Rick Gonzalez on Wild Dog costume criticism

When Arrow season 6 kicked off, one of the big surprises was seeing a new Wild Dog costume for Rick Gonzalez. We didn’t see that coming, especially since his original costume was one of the more unique in the show’s world — even if it did share some similarities to other fictional characters like Casey Jones (ironically played by Stephen Amell in the past) or Jason from the Friday the 13th movies.

There are certainly plenty of people out there who do not love the new Wild Dog costume, with one of the most important people being the character’s original creator in Terry Beatty. In a post on Facebook, Beatty made it clear that he didn’t love the character’s appearance and felt as though it lost the spirit of what made the original version (see above) special. He did praise Gonzalez for everything he brought to the role though, so he was at least happy about the idea of the character in that sense.

Now, Gonzalez has spoken out in terms of the depiction of his character, and why he does continue to believe that the show’s version works. Here’s what he had to say to Yahoo! on the subject:

“I did hear that Terry Beatty, the original creator of Wild Dog in the comic books, wasn’t too happy about [the costume upgrade] … And I totally get it. It can feel we’re not keeping the integrity of Wild Dog the same, especially by changing his look.

“I promise you that Maya [Mani, the show’s costume designer] took everything from the original design and upgraded it and tried to make an homage to that [while at the same time integrating him into the Arrowverse]. And I agree with him — I love the original costume! It’s incredible.”

This ultimately may be a situation where both perspectives have an argument (at least CarterMatt thinks so). We do agree that the original Wild Dog costume was more creative and far more appropriate for the street-level vigilante that the character originally was. However, he’s now a part of a team who has a number of fancy costumes that are designed with a certain aesthetic in mind. It ultimately wouldn’t make that much sense if everyone from Dinah Drake to Curtis Holt having great new functional costumes and he just kept his the same — unless of course they just found a way to upgrade what he originally had.

In some ways, the permanent new costume is a badge of honor given the fact that it means that the show is planning to keep him around for a while. Typically, if you get a unique outfit it means that Arrow/any other show in the DC superhero universe is planning to keep you on board for some time.

Which Wild Dog costume do you prefer?

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