Next week’s episode of Arrow, Corto Maltese, will introduce a new recurring character, who apparently will have a big role in the season: Ted Grant, portrayed by J. R. Ramirez. Grant will be featured as the owner of a box gym, who will teach a vengeful Laurel Lance how to fight, thus starting the events that will lead her to become the new Black Canary. This is not Grant’s first live action appearance: he had a cameo in Smallville, portrayed by Roger Haskett. In here, he served in the Justice Society of America as the superhero Wildcat, until the government agency known as Checkmate framed him and his teammates and had them arrested. With no evidence, Grant was released from prison, but he quit being a hero nevertheless, and came back to his boxing career becoming a heavyweight champion. Hawkman also mentioned that he’s had children. Now, let’s see together who this glum superhero is in the comics.
Ted was born in New York City, the son of Henry Grant and his wife. It was the time of the Great Depression, and life was tough for anyone. Henry tried his best to make some money, but always failed to have noteworthy income; he however swore on his son’s cradle that Ted would have never been depending on others, or afraid of anything in life. Since his very childhood, Henry taught Ted boxing, and started saving the little money he earned to send his son to college… unfortunately, both him and his wife died, and Ted was left alone, penniless, with no job, and no possibility of studying. Little more than a boy, Ted was wandering around the East End, when he saw some 
muggers taking a beating on an unloader. Ted intervened without even thinking about it, and beat them until they retreated. The unloader happened to be former pro-boxer Mike “Socker Smith” Muldoon, who was quite impressed by the boy’s skills, and decided to make a boxer out of him. Muldoon trained Ted, and regarded him as the son he never had: from his very first match, Grant made a name for himself on the boxing ring, becoming famous with his ring-name Wildcat. The boy’s enthusiasm also prompted Muldoon to come back fighting, and the two pugilists soon became fan favorite’s. Answering to the crowd’s desire, a match between Muldoon and Grant was organised, and it obviously became an event: unfortunately, this meant a lot of money on bets, a fortune that attracted the attention of Victor Moretti, a mob boss, who tried to fix the match by buying Muldoon. The old boxer refused Moretti’s offer, so the boss bribed Grant’s manager, Flint “The Skinner” Fain: Fain had to hide a poisoned needle in Grant’s gloves, so that Muldoon would have been drugged, the boy would have won the match, and Moretti would have earned a lot of money with bets. Fain, however, miscalculated the dose, and when Ted punched Muldoon, unwillingly piercing him with the needle, the old boxer died. Police found the poisoned needle, and arrested Ted Grant. Worried that the boy would have told the cops about his involvement, Moretti ordered Fain to kill him before the interrogation: the police car was run off the road by Fain, and only Ted survived. Even the murder of the two cops was on him, now.
Without knowing what to do, Ted escaped from the scene of the crash. On the road, he met a boy crying for his comicbook that had been stolen: he told Ted about his hero, the masked Green Lantern, and Ted realized he could have been an inspiration for kids as well with his skills. Taking inspiration from his ring-name, Wildcat, he created a costume resembling a big black cat, and donned it to fight crime. First of all, he hunted down the man who had betrayed him, Flint Fain, and forced him to confess the truth about the needle; he brought him to the police, and Fain 
accused Moretti to save himself: they were both arrested, thus clearing Ted Grant’s name. As both a boxer and a vigilante, Wildcat became pretty popular, and he eventually was contacted by the members of the Justice Society of America to become a replacement member. Grant had finally the occasion to meet the man who had inspired him, the first Green Lantern Alan Scott, and the two became good friends. Eventually, Wildcat became a regular member of the team, and also joined the All-Star Squadron, the team formed by President Roosevelt following the attack on Pearl Harbor to defend the home front. When the villainous King Inferno, an evil magician, cursed Wildcat with a powerful incantation to turn him into a cat, the sorcerer Zatara tried to help the hero by modifying the curse: from that moment, despite staying human Grant acquired some properties of the cat he took the name and costume from, and gained nine lives, a near-immortality that allowed him to come back from the dead and to have his aging greatly slowed. After many years serving in almost any incarnation of the Justice Society, Wildcat retired to private life, and even from the ring as an undefeated champion. He started mentoring new heroes, and he trained the second Black Canary, Laurel Lance, the second Starman, Jack Knight, a young Bruce Wayne, who would have later become Batman, and even a depowered Superman. Despite wanting to get some rest, Grant’s lust for action was far too strong, and even being over 70 years old he gladly accepted the offer of the new Justice Society, becoming once again a regular member of the team. Crime would have known again the taste of Wildcat’s punches.
A hard man for a hard life, Ted Grant is an old-fashioned tough guy, often harsh to his children and his pupils alike, but nevertheless caring and dedicated. Born and raised in the 1920s, Grant is quite a chauvinist, something that brought to him a lot of occasional affairs (even with Catwoman and the queen of Amazons, Hippolyta!) and of clashes with the female members of the superteams he’s been part of, particularly Power Girl. As Wildcat, he’s one of the most proficient hand-to-hand combatants in the world, an undefeated boxer who’s also become, with the years, master of several other martial arts, such as Muay Thai and Capoeira. Grant also possesses an unlimited number of lives (as explained by Dr. Fate), and he can die for good only if he’s killed nine times in a single “rebirth cycle”; also, his senses are sharper than humans’, and he’s perfectly able to see in the dark. A warrior born, and a hero by choice, Wildcat is a man who dedicated his entire life to protect the innocents… taking some satisfaction for himself from time to time.
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