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Fans of Batman and Spider-Man might argue their heroes have a better rogues’ gallery than the Flash, but the Scarlet Speedster’s is certainly the most organized.
For years, the Flash’s most frequent sparring partners have worked together – sometimes loosely, sometimes in close union – as the Rogues. The development of this criminal affiliation has been a continuing subplot on the CW’s “Flash” series.
In both comics and on TV, Captain Cold is the head and heart of the organization. Portrayed in recent years as a practical villain without delusions of grandeur, Leonard Snart is armed with a gun that drops temperatures to absolute zero. Snart started out working with his sister, Golden Glider, a figure skater who initially used offshoots of her brother’s weaponry, and Heat Wave, a pyromaniac with his own gun that generates fire.
The origin of the Rogues as a team depends on which version of DC continuity we’re talking about. Originally, a number of Flash foes were broken out of prison by Gorilla Grodd (a member of a telepathic race from Gorilla City rather than the mutated gorilla on the show). While they were defeated, Captain Cold and Heat Wave saw the value of working together and enlisted the Pied Piper, Captain Boomerang, Weather Wizard, Trickster and the Top. With the exception of the Top, versions of the others have all appeared on “Flash” and “Arrow.”
Following the comic book death of Barry Allen (spoiler alert: He’s back), a number of the Rogues reformed. Glider and Cold even formed a business – Golden Snowball Recoveries – to get back lost or stolen items.
In the wake of the “Identity Crisis” series, it was revealed that many of them turned over new leaves because of being mentally manipulated by the Top, who was first turned “good” by Justice League sorceress Zatanna for her teammate, Allen. That secret caused problems for Barry’s successor, Wally West, and played a major role in the “Rogue War” storyline.
Over time, the Rogues mostly returned to their villainous ways, even killing Wally’s successor – Barry’s time-traveling grandson Bart – after being manipulated into battling him by the villain Inertia. The group attempted to maintain its own code of honor, killing only in certain circumstances (including taking revenge against Inertia).
Many of the Rogues originally got their abilities from advanced technology, but in the revamped DC universe, several struck a deal resulting in their genetic alteration to internalize the powers. They’ve continued to show their loyalty to their hometown, helping the Flash take on Grodd’s gorilla soldiers and standing up, albeit somewhat disastrously, to a world-dominating group of super-villains led by evil versions of the Justice League.
In the latter story, Cold was separated from the others and wound up teaming with Lex Luthor’s band of upstart super-criminals. Luthor parlayed his success into a spot on the Justice League, while Cold became his head of security and has assisted the League at times.
One classic Flash Rogue who hasn’t shown up on TV yet is the Mirror Master, who gets around and commits crimes by traveling through a mirror dimension accessible with the right tech and any reflective surface. It’s probably only a matter of time until he shows up in what could be a visually stunning episode.