Rogues (comics)
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The enemies of The Flash form one of the most distinctive rogues galleries in superhero comic books. Some of the Flash's nemeses, led by Captain Cold, constitute a loose criminal association who refer to themselves as the Rogues, disdaining the use of the term "super-villain" or "super-criminal."
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[edit] Golden Age Flash enemies
- Fiddler: A villain who uses a violin to perform various special feats, particularly hypnotic effects.
- Rival: The Golden Age Reverse-Flash.
- Shade: A villain who makes use of a special cane that enables him to cast complete darkness at will. James Robinson later reinvented the Shade as a sort of Victorian anti-hero in Starman, making the character as popular (possibly even more so) than that title's titular character.
- Golden Age Star Sapphire
- Thinker: A villain who uses a specially designed "thinking cap" as an aid in conjuring up and performing various crimes.
- Golden Age Turtle
[edit] Silver and Modern Age Flash enemies
- Captain Cold: Known for being a sympathetic villain, Cold was one of the first villains to face Barry Allen, the second Flash. Capt. Cold uses a freeze gun of his own design.
- Professor Zoom, the Reverse-Flash: A villain from the 25th century with superspeed powers, and was obsessed with destroying the Silver Age Flash. Zoom died when his neck was accidentally snapped by Flash during an attempt at preventing Zoom from murdering his then-fiancée.
- Gorilla Grodd: A hyper-intelligent telepathic gorilla with the power to control the minds of others. Grodd originally hails from a secret African city of intelligent talking gorillas called Gorilla City.
- Mirror Master: A villain who uses various special mirrors to perform all manners of feats, such as moving from place to place spontaneously, enlarging or shrinking objects, and other bizarre feats. Recently, a newer version of the Mirror Master, a Scottish ex-hit man, was supplied by the United States government with technology created by the original Mirror Master.
- Weather Wizard: An escaped convict who stole a weather control rod from his deceased scientist brother.
- Captain Boomerang: A disgruntled Australian ex-toy company boomerang promoter who uses his skills for crime. The original Capt. Boomerang is deceased, but has been recently replaced by his son Owen Mercer.
- The Top: Roscoe Dillon was capable of revolving at incredible speeds, and of creating various effects by this power. He died as a result of an interaction of his and the Flash's powers, but his spirit remained, eventually returning in a new body, which was destroyed by Captain Cold.
- Pied Piper: The formerly deaf son of a multimillionaire who invented a pipe that can induce hypnosis via sound. He later gave up crime to become a socialist champion of the poor and one of DC's first openly gay characters. (Ironically, he came out of the closet while he "went straight" (reformed).)
- Heat Wave: A villain who used a special type of flame thrower in his crimes.
- Rainbow Raider: A colorblind would-be artist, Roy G. Bivolo used a pair of "prism goggles" to commit art-themed crimes. The goggles allowed him to manipulate emotions. (The blue beam caused sadness, the green beam caused envy, etc.) Deceased.
- Trickster: The name of two different villains that the Flash fought.
- Silver Age Turtle: The first foe faced by the Silver Age Flash, the Turtle (originally Turtle Man) is a thief billed as the "world's slowest criminal."
- Abra Kadabra: A 'magician' from the 64th century, his tricks are really the application of advanced science, an expression of the idea that any science so sufficiently advanced that it cannot be understood is indistinguishable from sorcery.
- Zoom: The modern version of the Reverse-Flash, Hunter Zolomon gained Flash-like powers after trying to use the cosmic treadmill to prevent a tragedy in his life, something Wally West, the current Flash, refused to do. Zoom is obsessed with making West a "better hero", often through vicious means.
- Blacksmith: Ferro-kinetic crime lord who founded her own rendition of the Rogues
- Girder: Steel-bodied thug with the habits of a sexual predator
- Magenta: Wally West's ex-girlfriend who gained magnetic powers
- Murmur: A surgeon who went insane, Michael Amar now seeks sadistic ways to kill the voices he hears. His distinctive criminal act is to remove a victim's tongue early during the torture he inflicts.
- Peek-a-Boo: A teleporting metahuman and somewhat reluctant rogue who has fought Wally West on repeated occasions.
- Dr. Alchemy: A scientist whose schizophrenia led to his dark side expressing itself as 'Mr. Element', Albert (or Alvin, continuity varies) Desmond fought his inner villain, but then found the fabled Philosopher's stone, and he adopted the new identity, Dr. Alchemy. He uses the Stone for both pragmatic and sadistic purposes.
[edit] Other media
The Flash television series featured appearances by Captain Cold, Mirror Master, and the Trickster; all but the latter were drastically revamped. Several of the Flash's villains have made appearances on Justice League Unlimited. Gorilla Grodd first appeared in "The Brave and The Bold"; he later returned to form the Secret Society of Super-Villains and finally the Legion of Doom. Captain Boomerang appeared as a member of Task Force X. Many rogues (the identified ones are Top, Weather Wizard, Fiddler, Turtle, Thinker, Dr. Alchemy, Pied Piper, Abra Kadabra) also make cameo appearances in the episode Flash and Substance in the bar they hang out in. Captain Boomerang, Captain Cold, Mirror Master, and the Trickster are the main villains of that episode. Heat Wave was part of the Legion of Doom.
[edit] External links
- Crimson Lightning, an online index to the comic book adventures of the Modern Age Flash.
- Alan Kistler's Profile On: THE FLASH - A detailed analysis of the history of the Flash by comic book historian Alan Kistler. Covers information all the way from Jay Garrick to Barry Allen to today, as well as discussions on the various villains and Rogues who fought the Flash. Various art scans.
