So in this rendition of Rogues Recap, I'm doing something a little different: I'm going to be covering Rogue War and giving context to it by looking at their deaths, rebirth and reformation attempts. This is gonna take a while so strap in.
As a note, my comics knowledge is pretty specialized to only a handful of titles so I don't have every single appearance the Rogues made outside of Flash v2 or anything pre-Crisis. For example, I don't know how far back Piper's social justice actions go as he's already doing them in his first appearance in Wally's run. Maybe one day I'll cover the Rogues during Barry's time but first I'd need to be in possession of those comics to do it.
Issues featured: Underworld Unleashed, New Years Evil, Flash v2 monthly issues: 120, 126-129, 139-140
Warnings for mild blood, body horror and some of DC’s patented racist fake countries.
In 1995 there was an event called Underworld Unleashed which starts with the Rogues being tasked by Kadabra to raise a little hell...
Scudder died during Crisis on Infinite Earths (if someone talks about pre/post-Crisis, they’re pretty much guaranteed to be talking about Crisis on Infinite Earths). This is McCulloch, just so you know.
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One of my favorite things about Kadabra is how he's not really considered a Rogue. He's kind of a fringe Rogue, a little like Alchemy, where they don't really work with him (or like him) but the other Rogues don't hate him the way they do, say, any of the villain speedsters.
Though you'd think that would change after Kadabra pulled something like this on them.
Anyway, they all die in their respective explosions and their souls captured by the event's Big Bad: Neron. Neron then goes on to manipulate events so all the inmates at Belle Reve escape in a blood bath.
Meanwhile, Trickster- James -is internally monologuing about how he'd drifted from the other Rogues and how pitiful his life has become. But, upon reading about the other Rogues' death- and the ignominious description of their legacy ("They knocked over jewelry stores and pestered the Flash"), decided he's going to be looking for the next big con.
He finds Bivolo who tells him about a candle that was given to him and a bunch of other costumed villains.
Really, Bivolo. You took your eyes off him, what did you expect?
Tricks does as instructed and then
James's excitement as he sees all whose around him quickly turns to trepidation as he sees all whose around him, recognizing ego and aggro about to pop off. Which is when Neron steps in to make his offer. He introduces the villains to his inner circle which consists of Kadabra, Lex Luthor, Circe, Polaris and the Joker. James's discomfort grows, not helped by the Fiddler freaking out next to him because he recognizes Neron as another name for the Devil.
Neron offers a trade- the ability for the villains to achieve their wildest dreams in exchange for their souls, encouraging them to extract revenge on the heroes that have beaten and humiliated them. Some villains decline and are sent away, others accept. James decides to stick around- he knows a con when he sees one and he wants to know what Neron really wants.
Whatever it is, somehow James fits into it...
(I completely forgot there were tie-in issues of Guy Gardner: Warrior and Extreme Justice in this collection, they're absolutely ridiculous)
Neron tells James to keep an eye on his inner circle while Neron visits various heroes- Wally included -and gives them an offer: their souls for the return of their dead loved ones. James, meanwhile, is not having the best of luck with his task.
They go to the soul jar and Luthor and Joker trick the other three into breaking it open, getting their souls sucked in instead of gaining power. Neron reappears to James, revealing that was the outcome he was hoping for.
Through manipulation and selective wording, Neron tricks the JLA into believing he's after Superman's soul. Superman, who no one has seen and so the JLA believes Neron is holding captive. Blue Devil, one of the heroes swayed by Neron's dealings, brings them to Hell.
So the heroes fight their way through the place, loosing some of their numbers as they go and James is trying to figure out the most important part of Neron's plan.
As the heroes go, their numbers dwindle further, giving into their darker impulses like despair and apathy and anger until the remaining few manage to make it to Neron's throne room. James finally twigs onto Neron's plan: it's not Superman's soul he's after, it's Captain Marvel's.
A giant bolt of lighting cracks into the room, clearing the heroes' minds and they attack Neron. James pulls Marvel aside, letting him know how they can actually defeat Neron.
"...even a bad one."
The heroes are returned to Earth which is intact, everyone lost in the battle returned to life- minus the Rogues -all the empowered villains still retain the new abilities and James...
Well, he has a bit of a change of heart.
A few months later (about a year real time), we get this little bit of foreshadowing:
Between this and Axel, I think it's safe to assume James is very bad at security.
A few issues later and Keystone is beset by all manner of terribleness- ice thick enough to make a steel bridge collapse, a highway engulfed in flames. The Rogues have returned.
At this point in time, Wally had been exiled from doing the Flash thing Keystone and instead working in a city in California (which had been drowned by Major Disaster in the issue prior) so the Rogues are unchecked, completely cutting off any evacuation attempts and displaying power much greater than they had before.
All except Digger for the moment because, I mean... boomerangs are a little more difficult to upscale than, say, turning the reflections of a skyscraper into a giant laser to blow up a plane.
Wally, sensing Linda's in danger (from the aforementioned plane falling at her), returns to Keystone where he quickly meets up with the Rogues who have had to find other distractions while waiting for him.
Wally realizes they no longer have their souls- Neron does. He then gives a brief recap of Underworld Unleashed before going to James for help. Unfortunately, the Rogues got to him first.
Wally then goes to Piper who reveals he was given a strange, unlit candle.
And he's off to see the devil.
I mean you could also have him take their bodies too so he could torture them for eternity as what you're currently asking him means he loses something and gains nothing. But Wally sees Major Disaster lurking around Hell, too, and realizes the destruction of Santa Marta, the return of the Rogues, even Piper having a candle, it was all a ploy by Neron.
To further the urgency, Neron reveals he also has been in possession of Jay who, as was seen in an earlier issue, was captured and beaten by the Rogues. Neron lets Wally take Jay and go, convinced Wally will be back to make a deal.
The League gets called in by Wally but even they're having a hard time dealing with the super powered Rogues' teamwork, lack of moral scruples and inability to be hurt.
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Here's some Superman Blue for those of you who've never seen him before.
And then the Rogues really get viscous.
Wally goes to Neron but Neron no longer is interested in Wally's soul. Instead he wants Wally's love for Linda, something he says is so pure that Wally uses it as a beacon through time and space. Neron hates it and wants it gone. After Wally agrees and leaves sans love, Disaster asks why Neron didn't take Wally's soul. Turns out Neron already made a deal not to take it earlier that day. And in exchange, Linda gave him her love for Wally.
Neron, always true to a deal, releases the Rogues' souls.
Unfortunately, though the Rogues have stopped, their avatars hadn't.
Fortunately, however, the purity of Linda and Wally's love for each other is corrupting Neron, making him compassionate and he demands they take it back. They refuse until Neron gets rid of the avatars and restores all the lives that were lost. Neron accepts and all is well, except for the Rogues who managed to escape in all the chaos.
There are a couple very brief instances of the other Rogues trying to do good- or at least less evil -in the world in order to stay out of Neron's clutches.
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Their time as the devil's plaything didn't affect them all too much to be honest. McCulloch pretty much goes right back to fucking with Wally and robbing places and there was an incident where Mick and two other villains sank a cruise ship during a three-part crossover on Wally, Connor and Kyle's titles though his attempts at redemption does eventually go better.
Some unspecified time after the Flash/GA/GL crossover- as specifically said in the issue -the Rogues are back at it again in New Years Evil, breaking into a holy temple of Meshta in the Kingdom of Zhutan- which is basically a racist rendition of Ye Olde Mongolian Times. Mick is already questioning if they should be doing this from page one.
This is an odd thing for Mark to be saying as this was published five months before his stint revitalizing a desert but.
Personally I'm more curious as to how McCulloch knows all this.
Anyway, turns out it's actually a set-up of sorts by James who was asked by an old flame to save her son, Billy. James had installed his own alarm to go off when the Rogues try to take the disc. Which they do and it does.
They're caught in short order by Warlord Khurda and his nephew Lawrence who stops his uncle from killing the Rogues outright.
I did not know mirrors and boomerangs were considered elements. Also I love Digger's booga-booga hands.
Lawrence, wanting to hurry the new age in, calls for the Majee- who happens to be Billy. James decides, after seeing Billy and his priests being escorted to the temple, to have himself and Mindy, the mother, captured as well because this plan is the best.
James gets this show on the road with a little of his patented showmanship. And some assistance from Piper.
This plan makes so much sense, you guys.
Lawrence prays for his god Ahrnyu to show its power in response and show it does, by essentially exploding out of Lawrence's body as a giant lizard. It then reveals Piper and says the Rogues aren't avatars, therefore it's going to kill them. As James distracts Ahrnyu, the Rogues get the disc.
Then, with zero foreshadowing, Ahrnyu turns into Neron!
Honestly, there's no amount of words I could say that would ever get across the utter ridiculousness of this so just experience it for yourselves:
Neron gets his ass stomped by the glowing angel thing and James brokers a deal- Neron will leave Zhutan and its people alone and forget the Rogues, in return, the glowing guy will let him go. James says he doesn't want the deal extended to himself because he wants Neron to remember who beat him twice.
And none of this was ever mentioned again. Which I don't really blame people, it's a pretty slapdash plot but still.
Anyway, during this weird time period when some of the Rogues are maybe attempting to be good, Linda is killed by the Black Flash (Wally brings her back, like, three issues later) and for some reason the Rogues show up to her funeral.
I say some reason because a couple pages later half of them are shown on tv being arrested by Jay and Jesse so???
Anyway, that's really about it for the Rogues' attempts to reform minus a few issues Mick worked at Cadmus alongside Superboy and Guardian which was already covered here and Piper’s whole thing.
