Whoa, look, someone is complaining about changes made to characters since Flashpoint! :O And it’s… ME! The guy who hates hearing everyone nitpick about this stuff, and actually likes the reboot! Now in the past I’ve mentioned problems I’ve had with it, but none of them warranted a post solely dedicated to them because it irked me so much. And that’s The Rogues.
The absolute #1 most badass villain team in comics.
Ever.
And they’ve been messed with quite a bit in the New 52. Most notably their costumes, history, and their weapons are now replaced with metahuman abilities. But they haven’t always been that way in this new continuity:
They have guns! :D
… what the hell are they wearing?
Pretty sure that hair’s gonna catch on fire, Mick. Especially considering you wear the suit so you can walk through fire. And forget practicality, the hair doesn’t even look good or natural. Leave that to Kid Flash and Grifter. Cold and Trickster look fine if you ask me (Cold’s coat is pretty cool), but Weather Wizard just looks like a stereotypical hippie now! And you should see Mirror Master (not pictured)… but here’s what they’re like in present day:
Captain Cold:
Cold’s definitely had an upgrade. The eskimo suit was pretty silly, and before I realized how much of a pure badass he was, it was hard to take him seriously looking like that. The gun was cool and had a lot of neat abilties aside from shooting ice beams, but now he literally has ice in his veins and when he uses his abilities, the air around him drops to VERY low temperatures, making it hard for The Flash to get close to him or even use his speed near him. Not to mention he can freeze a couple miles with ease. He’s a threat on his own, and he feels a bit less tough than he was before. But he’s still cool. It’s revealed that in the past he was an alcoholic (mirroring his abusive father), and he was a very, very good leader like he used to be, and his “Rogue Rules” (don’t kill senselessly, no drugs, no revenge schemes, just focus on the score, etc.). Of all the Rogues, I’m most pleased with Captain Cold.
Weather Wizard:
I really like the coat, and it’s a definite upgrade from tights, and the staff is a cool upgrade from the wand, but I miss the domino mask so very much. The facial hair is the next best thing, but… I NEED A MASK ON THIS GUY. He’s never really shown any impressive feats (like starting a tornado inside someone’s stomach to make them explode) and he doesn’t seem to be much of a threat or an intellectual reader-type. There’s talk of how he’s as moody as a teenage girl because his emotions are like the weather, blah blah blah, I forget. He’s just not a very memorable character right now who got his ass kicked by The Flash in a couple pages.
Mirror Master:
Oh hey, he looks like Batman. Cool. He’s stuck in the mirror world… whatever. Not much else is different except IT’S FREAKING SAM SCUDDER. Y’know the Mirror Master that was nothing more than a bank robber. Evan McColluch was a scottish mercenery turned supervillain who added many layers of depth to the character as well as making him much more powerful. Now Evan McCulloch might not have even existed. Who the hell even MISSED Sam Scudder???? Also, he’s dating Golden Glider apparently (yep, she’s alive, hates Cold, is basically an invisible and intangible ghost who tried leading The Rogues). But another thing that bugs me is that his past costume was just… beyond retarded-looking. It’s what you see on the left, but with mirrors sticking out of his shoulders and giant triangles that jutted out awkwardly from his mask. It doesn’t sound like a big change, but it really brought his look way down.
Heat Wave:
… he’s a third-degree burn-victim with goggles and a backpack. He’s usually shirtless so you can revel in his disgusting skin condition, and he shoots fire from his chest. That’s it. Oh, and he gets mad really, reeeeaaaally easy. He doesn’t seem like a pyromaniac anymore, and that awesome suit is gone because… he likes his burnt skin getting more burnt. I dunno. I assume he’s immune to it or something.
The Top:
Now, Roscoe Dillion may have the most retarded costume out of any Flash villain, but he was HANDS DOWN the most sick in the head, and it was awesome. A total psychotic dirtbag. And now he’s just some dude with amnesia who got stuck in the speed force and now he’s out and… still has amnesia. His actual suit isn’t bad, but getting rid of the mask and hair makes him look stupidly plain. he doesn’t even look like a superhero or villain, he’s just a bald guy wearing some science-y thing. And yes, he’s no longer white because DIVERSITY. But most importantly, he’s now called Turbine because tops aren’t modern enough. But hey, no gay sex jokes can be made of his name at least. On the other hand, he’s really not any fun to read about at all, nor is he interesting to look at by any stretch.
The Trickster:
I really like his new look, actually. We don’t know much about him, but he’s definitely Axel Walker. He was kicked out of the Rogues before they all got their powers, so he didn’t get any. But he seems like the same person, so that’s good.
So aside from bad costumes, silly powers, altered backstories, and LACK OF EVAN MCCULLOCH, these really aren’t the same Rogues I used to know. Not even their personalities feel the same (Captain Cold and Trickster excluded). I’m really going to miss the old Rogues, because these ones just aren’t that special.
And dammit, those costumes suck.
