Walter "Walt" Arnold was the football coach of Smallville High School.
History
Arnold was hired to coach the Smallville Crows around 1976. Over the next 25 years, Walt coached the team to frequent victories and championships. As Smallville was a football town, many of its residents enjoyed seeing the Crows games and they thought of Coach Arnold as a man who was instilling positive values in their kids. However, there were darker sides to his nature. If a player screwed up on the field, Walt could become enraged and hit the player, then threaten to cut the player if he talked. Walt also had no problem bending the rules of the school to ensure that his team would win. One of his players was failing a class; Walt supplied the boy with the answers to the midterm exam to stave off academic probation, as that would have rendered the boy ineligible for football. This however, failed to come to the attention of school authorities. In fact, Walt had recently been honored for a 1/4 century of coaching for Smallville by being awarded a sauna.
In 2001, Walt was seeing his 200th victory come up. However, things had begun to change around Smallville High. The school had a new principal, James Kwan, who refused to look the other way with Walt's methods. Furthermore, Chloe Sullivan, a freshman and wannabe journalist, began investigating him and writing negative articles about his behavior.
Walt's long time with the team had earned him a private sauna. Unbeknownst to him, some of the stones in it were meteor rocks. Prolonged exposure to the meteor rocks resulted in Walt's body becoming mutated and he developed pyrokinesis, that linked itself to his anger. With this new ability, Walt tried to kill both Kwan and Sullivan, but failed. Walt was soon confronted by Clark Kent, whom Walt tried to fry, but Kent proved invulnerable. Becoming angrier, Walt set the area around him on fire. This proved Walt's undoing, as he started a conflagration from which he could not flee. As a result, Walt died from immolation.
Powers and Abilities
Powers
Weaknesses
- Power Limitation: While being pyrokinetic, Coach Arnold was still vulnerable to fire and extreme heat.
Notes
- Walt Arnold was played by Dan Lauria. The surname "Arnold" was a homage to the Arnold family on The Wonder Years,[citation needed] whose father was also played by Dan Lauria.
Trivia
- Walt Arnold was the first Metahuman to die within the series.
Related
- 2 Appearances of Walter Arnold (Smallville)
- 1 Images featuring Walter Arnold (Smallville)
- Quotations by or about Walter Arnold (Smallville)
- Character Gallery: Walter Arnold (Smallville)
Footnotes
  This character has been primarily an enemy of Superman in any of his various incarnations, or members of the Superman Family. This template will categorize articles that include it into the "Superman Villains category." |