THE FLASH Casts Clancy Brown as General Wade Eiling

Who's next?  Captain Atom?

The Hollywood Reporter revealed yesterday that upcoming CW series The Flash has cast veteran sci-fi actor Clancy Brown as DC Comics character General Wade Eiling.  The role will be recurring and Brown will debut in the series' fifth episode.

Described in the article as "a tall and imposing man, with 'a face carved from years of duty,'" Eiling will be depicted as the leader of a black ops army team pursuing Plastique (Kelly Frye) with the plan of using her as a human weapon.  Eiling is "fanatically intent on protecting American interests around the world and may have ties to a central Flash character."

A beloved character actor, Brown is no stranger to comic book roles, having voiced Lex Luthor for years in Superman: The Animated Series, Justice League, Justice League Unlimited and Superman/Batman: Public Enemies.  He's also voiced Mr. Freeze on The Batman, Trident on Teen Titans, King Faraday on Young Justice, Sasquatch on The Incredible Hulk, Captain George Stacy and The Rhino on The Spectacular Spider-Man, Mr. Sinister on Wolverine and the X-Men, Odin on The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Taskmaster on Ultimate Spider-Man, Red Hulk on Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H, and Parallax in the 2011 live-action film Green Lantern.

Brown has also appeared in a number of memorable film and television roles, including Rawhide in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, Victor Kruger/The Kurgan in Highlander, Captain Byron Hadley in The Shawshank Redemption, Sargeant Zim in Starship Troopers, Klevin Inman on Lost, and Sheriff August Corbin on Sleepy Hollow.

Created by Cary Bates and Pat Broderick in 1987, Wade Eiling first appeared in Captain Atom #1 as an Air Force general who blackmails Nathaniel Adam into taking part in an atomic experiment that caused Adam to jump forward in time eighteen years and turned him into the superhero Captain Atom.  In later years, Eiling was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, so he arranged for a team to recover the indestructible body of the Shaggy Man and transferred his brain patterns into the body.  Taking on the creature's massively powerful form with regenerative powers, Eiling became known as simply The General and was later recruited by the groups The Secret Society of Super-Villains and The Suicide Squad.

This will be Eiling's first depiction in live-action, after J.K. Simmons voiced the character on Justice League Unlimited, and Jeff Bennett on Young Justice.

The Flash debuts on The CW on October 7, 2014, with the fifth episode expected to air on November 4th.