I know little to nothing of The Rogues but on saturday I bought Forever Evil: Rogues Rebellion and it mentions The Rogues #1, the comic I shall be reviewing here, and luckily I have that in my collection so I read it and coming into it as someone who doesn't really know The Rogues does help in that I can't be subconsciously biased and gives me a new angle to come at in that I can decide if it wants me to learn more about The Rogues, which will be the parameters on which I shall judge this.
The Rogues are - Captain Cold (Leonard Snart), Glider (Lisa Snart - Cold's sister), Mirror Man (Sam Scudder), Weather Wizard (Marco Mardon), Heatwave (Mick Rory) and Trickster (Axel Walker).
Starts by mentioning this is set before Grodd #1, we are in Central City as we see The Rogues planning to break someone named The Trickster out of jail.
Keystone City is the setting now as we flashback as we see Rogues breaking into a bank vault by going underneath it through a mine and using their powers to break through. The mine starts to rumble though and sensing danger Cold aborts the mission, though in a surprising touch to me, it is due to the people above being at risk, 'we're The Rogues and Rogues don't kill' says Captain Cold,
A bit of the comic is narrated by Captain Cold, he reveals that Lisas power is that she can project herself anywhere but her powers only showed because of a mistake he made and the team don't trust him anymore. Mirror Man is stuck forever in the Mirror World due to Captain Cold but Lisa, through astral projection as she is in hospital really, reveals that she plans to use her astral projection powers to pull Sam free from the Mirror World, Captain Cold isn't happy as he claims she is putting herself before The Rogues as she is boss and recklessly risking her life.
We are in a hospital now as Lisa is stood over her actual body then she uses a mirror to pull Sam out of the Mirror World but she suffers heart failure and is put on life support. Weather Wizard and Heatwave call an angry Cold a hypocrite as he has done things in the past without consulting The Rogues to which Cold leaves the hospital shouting 'The Rogues Are Done!'.
Cold gives us a brief history lesson now as he recalls when he recruited The Rogues who were wet-behind-the-ears thieves and they were doing well under his leadership until Flash arrived. He then used a 'Genome Recoder' to re-write The Rogues super power weapons into their DNA. Back now and we see Cold has gone back to the bank himself where police show up but The Rogues appear and pull Cold into the Mirror World. Cold tells them he is sorry for giving them their powers and this leads to a Rogue reunion as Cold is made temporary leader in Lisa's absence,
Back to the present day now as Rogues are outside the prison going to free Trickster when a red blur runs through them and the prison wall. Inside now as Cold apologises to Trickster for kicking him out of The Rogues and shows him an amulet style object which he says Pseudo-Flash gave them if they wanted to join the Secret Society, does he mean Reverse-Flash? We see the Crime Syndicate gathered outside what remains of the Watchtower as Ultraman claims the Justice League to be dead. Captain Cold tells The Rogues that the Gem Cities are now their's for the taking but when they return to Central City they see that it has been destroyed. (It transpires that Grodd is the reason, and that is why this happens prior to Grodd #1) =- To Be Continued in Forever Evil: Rogues Rebellion.
Writer; Brian Buccellato
Artist: Patrick Zircher
Colorist: Nick Filardi
REVIEW
- This may of supplanted Zod #1 as my favorite so far of the Villains Month Titles, I have a lot of them but have only got round to reading a few so far though I doubt many will top Zod/Rogues/Grodd issues.
- The fact I knew little to nothing about The Rogues didn't in any way hamper my enjoyment of this comic which is a positive.
- I like the way that they are criminals but also have a heart/conscience, as some villains just kill as many people as possible but Rogues stand out due to their stance.
- Quite a few of the Villains Month stories have focused on the origin of that issues Villain but this is one of the ones where the focus is on pushing an ongoing story, Rogues origins were kept to a single page where Cold recounts how they got their powers.
- This as you may of guessed is my inaugural meeting with The Rogues so I am unsure as to whether these are new costume designs so some long time fans may be annoyed if they are but personally I enjoyed the art of this issue.
- I felt the writing and the story were very strong throughout the issue, I also found out at the end of Grodd #1 that that issue was also penned by Brian Buccellato and I enjoyed that one as well so you can consider me a fan of Mr. Buccellato.
- This issue was a success as it has made me interested in The Rogues characters and that is the ultimate sign of approval really, I intend to peruse my local comic shop for old Flash comics with The Rogue in.
Thumbs well up from me.
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