One-Shot Wonders: Who is Alexis Cooper?
Name: Alexis Cooper
Debut: DC Retroactive: The Flash - The 80s (2011)
Aliases: -Alchema, Chemistry Majorette (main)
-Reflexa, Queen of Reflections (previous)
-Countess of Cold (previous)
Appearance: Red hair, rounded face, beauty mark above her lip on the left side, yellow lightning bolt makeup over her right eye as Alchema
Alexis Cooper is the primary antagonist of DC Retroactive: The Flash - The 80s (2011) in the story “The Path of True Love”, written by Bill Messner-Loebs; this is her first and only appearance in DC Comics.
This one-off Rogue was a civilian briefly taken hostage by the Trickster during a robbery before she was rescued by Wally West. After Wally rescued her, she became infatuated with him to the point of obsession, convincing herself that he loved her and that they were dating. After writing him hundreds of letters over the space of a couple of months and being dissatisfied with the generic fan-response she received from him in return, she turned to more drastic measures to get his attention.
After all, The Flash never forgets about the Rogues.
She initially visits Captain Cold and offers herself as “the best hostage, well, ever”. When Len shuts this idea down, telling her that he doesn’t want to attract a hero’s attention and about the Rogues’ code - “We don’t traffic in drugs. We don’t endanger women or children. We don’t take advantage of deluded people.” - and discourages her from getting caught up in the romance of crime and heroics, she switches to a new plan. She knocks him out cold, steals the cold gun, and goes on a crime spree as the “Countess of Cold”.
Her crime spree leads her to target jewellery stores and museums - always leaving the loot behind, making it clear it’s not Len or the Rogues - in order to get the Flash’s attention, while at the same time going after the Rogues, incapacitating them and stealing their weapons. In addition to her “Countess of Cold” alias, she adopts the moniker “Reflexa, Queen of Reflections” before becoming “Alchema, Chemistry Majorette”, her main and final alias that she adopted after her run in with Dr Alchemy left her with all the abilities of the Philosopher Stone after she drained it of its power when Al tried to trap her in it.
Wally sets a trap to lure her to the Keystone Arsenal, where she is caught by him and arrested. Wally implores the agent who has been on the case with him to spare her from Arkham or Belle Reve, and the agent reveals he’s in fact a headhunter looking to find a hero for a growing city in Australia, and points out that she took down the Rogues single-handed and that he’s already got the paperwork sorted. When Wally protests, the agent informs him their first choice was Guy Gardner.