All of the best superheroes have a rogue’s gallery. Of course, some have more than others.
Take Batman for instance. The world famous Dark Knight Detective has, unquestionable, the largest, most well- known, and most unhinged group of villains you could ever commit to an asylum: Joker, Catwoman, Two-Face, Riddler, Ra’s Al Ghul, Penguin, Scarecrow, Bane, Poison Ivy, Clay Face, Hugo Strange, Firefly, Killer Croc…uh…Ventriloquist…um…Tweedle Dum and Dweedle Dee!
Crazy! And that’s just scratching the surface!
Then there’s Spider-Man and his set of well-known dastardly rogues: Green Goblin, Electro, Doctor Octopus, Rhino, Lizard, Sandman, Vulture, Mysterio, Kraven the Hunter and Venom. That list also goes on and on.
Beyond Batman and Spider-Man, there aren’t many heroic protagonists that have produced the same kind of extensive cadre of villains. Certainly not to the same level of pop culture interest.
A rogues gallery reflects the breadth of stories that writers and artists are able to tell about our favourite heroes. But the villains have lives – and stories to tell, too.
If you’re a Flash reader, you’ll know that his rogues gallery contains some of the most diverse and colourful characters in all of comicdom. And those rogues are now the highlight of a riveting new tale, care of DC Comics’ more mature Black Label imprint.
Rogues, written by Joshua Williamson (The Flash, Batman, Infinite Frontier) and illustrated by Leomacs (Basketful of Heads) is a four-issue miniseries under more mature auspices. Sure, these characters have endured plenty of failures, hard time, disrespect and various degrees of mockery, but here we get a clear-eyed Captain Cold, straight out of prison, tuning up his cold-ray gun and scheming one last heist with all of the villain pals he sees as family.
The first issue of Rogues is all about recruitment – and who doesn’t love those kind of team-up stories? Cold adamantly goes about locating all the members of the team he needs to pull off their one last robbery: his intelligent and planful sister, Golden Glider (now a social worker helping others in need), an old acquaintance in the powerful fighter known as Bronze Tiger, the master of magnetism, Magenta, the interdimensional traveler known as Mirror Master alongside other colourful, longtime Flash villains, Heatwave and Trickster.
Alongside Captain Cold’s ambitious scheme, this set of rogues aims to set themselves up for life doing what they do best with one final score: heading to the impenetrable Gorilla City stealing from the all-powerful mind flayer Gorilla Grodd himself!
This is do-able. This is survivable. Right? Right?
Find out who’ll make it and how. Join this malcontent family of absolutely wonderful villains by making the run to your local comic book shop today and picking up Rogues #1!
