Russell Tovey's Gay, Nazi-Fighting Superhero 'The Ray' Debuts Tonight on The CW

Here's a superhero we can get behind. The CW is showing off the network's first openly gay superhero called The Ray, who is set to appear on their hit series Arrow--and Russel Tovey himself is getting behind the mask. The former Looking actor is stepping into the role for the network's four-part crossover event "Crisis on Earth-X," which finds a team of superheros that would make Justice League blush fighting Nazis in an alternate universe where Hitler won the war.

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Tovey's character, Raymond "Ray" Terrill, is notable not just for being gay, but because in his "civilian" clothes, he's seen wearing striped pajamas and a pink triangle, the outfit and symbol gay people were dressed in during the Holocaust.

The Ray first appeared in a 1973 issue of Justice League of America and was a "reporter who discovered a group of government scientists working on a secret project to turn light into a weapon of mass destruction. But before he could report on his findings, the project head exposed Ray to a 'genetic light bomb.'" From there, he gained superhuman powers and got to work fighting the good fight.

In addition to this appearance on The CW's Arrow-verse event, Tovey will also voice an animated version of The Ray in a separate series called Freedom Fighters: The Ray.