#flash rogues

I just want footage of Captain Boomerang doing the nutbush okay that’s all I want

orion-nottson:

Axel could spend months planning a Very Important heist (one that’ll get him street cred and a whole lotta money) but then get distracted by the guard dog and end up missing his window of opportunity, because he was petting the very sweet and fluffy German Shepherd for half an hour.

exasperatedmoron:

Len: Hart, keep an eye on Axel today. He’s gonna say something to the wrong person and get punched.

Hartley: Sure, I’d love to see Axel get punched

Len: Try again.

Hartley: I will keep Axel from getting punched.

We now turn our attention to Flash #193: “Captain Cold Blows His Cool”. The issue was published in December 1969. It was written by John Broome, drawn by Ross Andru, and inked by Mike Esposito. It also has what is quite possibly the best Pre-Crisis Captain Cold cover. 

• Apparently this issue was the first Captain Cold issue comic book writer Geoff Johns ever read, and the cover in particular helped make him the Captain Cold fanboy we all know today. 
  
• The story itself begins with five elderly crooks escaping from prison. The guards go out to search for them, and ask a group of young surveyors if they’ve seen anything. They young men respond in the negative, and the guards drive off. 
• As soon as they’re gone, the “surveyors” reveal that they are the old crooks who escaped, having been de-aged by a mysterious sixth man. Said sixth man also gives them a mirror so that they can fully see the results of their transformation. 
• Old Criminal #2: “Looka me! I’m “Pretty Boy” Lloyd again!” Nice. 
  
• The old criminals ask their mysterious benefactor who he is, how he de-aged them, and why he helped them escape. He responds by ducking behind a tree, taking off his surveyor clothing, and very dramatically popping out as Captain Cold. 
• Captain Cold: “Get set for a big surprise–as I doff my surveyor-garb–and make a spectacular appearance as–CAPTAIN COLD! Fellow criminals, I’ve made you young again! I’ve given you back your youth–but you still retain your old skills–a fact that will be of supreme benefit to us all!” 
• Yes, Captain Cold has created a way to DE-AGE people! And no, he will never use it again after this issue. Nor will it ever be mentioned again, even though it seems like it could be really useful. 
• Old Criminal #3: “Captain Cold! Now things are clearin’ up—he can do anythin’ with that Cold-Gun of his!” Even things that have nothing to do with temperature or motion, apparently. 
• Pretty Boy Lloyd: “Yeah–he’s a real razzle-dazzler, Pop–uh–I mean Harry!” It is interesting that these old criminals seem as impressed as they are by the Captain. I almost would’ve expected them to disapprove him him needing “new-fangled gadgets” to commit crimes or something. 
• Captain Cold takes the old criminals to his hideout, which he has decked out with lots and lots of pictures of Laura Lamont, an old-time movie glamour queen in her seventies. She’s is Len’s newest stalkee-girlfriend, and, in addition to her age, she hasn’t been seen in years. 
• However, Len’s not concerned. He has the power to make his new bride-to-be young again, after all, so all he has to do is find her. And while he’s doing that, he’s going to send the old-time criminals to steal her wedding presents. 
• Because of a newspaper article she recently wrote, Len knows that Iris Allen knows where Laura Lamont lives. As a result, he disguises himself as a lawyer in the hopes of being able to convince Iris to help him find her. 
• Len on Iris: “A week ago an article appeared in Picture News written by Iris Allen–whom I used to be in love with before she went haywire and married that no-account police scientist Barry Allen! With me should could’ve lived like royalty-bah! Who can figure women out?” And this, Len, is why you still don’t have a girlfriend. 
• Also, Len’s disguise consists of a wig, some glasses, and a very fake-looking beard and mustache. 
• Captain Cold drives to the Allens’ house (which he knows the location of for…some reason) in a pink car that I’m pretty sure he stole, and introduces himself as Mr. Pendergast. He tells Iris that his client died and left a fortune to Miss Lamont…if she can be found, then asks Iris to tell him where Laura lives. 
• Iris refuses, but she does promise to contact Miss Lamont and tell her about the inheritance. Len gives her his card and walks away. 
• Iris tells Barry that she’s heading out to see Miss Lamont and tell her the good news. Barry, for his part, thinks that the lawyer looks familiar. His suspicions are raised further when he notices that the lawyer waited in his car for Iris to leave and then followed her to her destination. 
• He changes into the Flash and tries to follow them both, but since he doesn’t know where Miss Lamont lives, he loses them. 
• Then he gets knocked off his feet by a super-sonic blast emanating from a nearby building. He runs inside to see what’s going on and finds two of Cold’s crooks stealing an incredibly valuable painting. 
• “Young crooks? But they blew that safe like seasoned professionals!” 
• In addition to being unusually experienced, the crooks are also armed with high-tech weaponry. Since it’s apparently a sonic weapon, maybe Len got it from Piper? 
• However, well-armed or not, Flash manages to defeat and capture both crooks and take them to the police station. 
• The next day, at the police station, however, he finds that their fingerprints match those of Pop Handley and Fargo Jones, both of whom are pushing sixty. This confuses everyone, as nobody knows about Captain Cold and his magic inexplicable de-aging powers. 
• The police also tell Barry that there were a rash of other robberies that night, with a gold ring, a tiara, and a fur coat all being stolen. 
• Barry goes out to investigate as the Flash and heads to the site where the old crooks escaped. Once there, he finds a frozen stump and leaf and naturally comes to the conclusion that Captain Cold is involved. 
• Barry attempts to follow the residual radiation from Cold’s gun, but it’s been too long since he was there. “Captain Cold’s trail is too cold!”
• Barry proceeds to run around the city in hopes of picking up a new trail. He eventually finds it at the store the mink coat was stolen from. 
• Barry uses the trail to follo Cold to his hideout. Upon his arrival, Cold somehow manages to use his suit to project a proto-cold field to slow the Flash down long enough for him to “reach my absolute weapon!” 
• Said absolute weapon is “this special attachment to my Cold-Gun!….It lowers the blast-temperature of my gun to below absolute zero!” SCIENCE! 
• Amusingly, Len even seems aware of how much science is breaking in this issue. “I know that sounds impossible-but then, everything I do is impossible! I don’t know what will happen when I hit you with this–but it’s bound to be absolutely horrible-oh, absolutely!” Was this a pun on “absolute zero”? 
• As it turns out, the below absolute zero weapon “not only knocked Flash to pieces like a jigsaw puzzle–it embedded the pieces right into the wall!” Um…uh…SCIENCE! 
• Len puts a picture frame around the Flash’s pieces, checks himself out in the mirror (”I must look my best tonight–my very best!”) and then goes out to propose to the woman he’s never met. 
• “I’m as nervous a a cat! I’ve waited so many years for this moment! Sometimes it seems to me that I’ve been in love with lovely Laura Lamont all my life!…But what if she turns me down?—-Bah! She can’t turn me down-not with what I have to offer her!” Oh, Len….Interestingly, this is the first time that Len has considered the possibility that his stalkee-girlfriend might reject him. 
  
• Thus assured, he dramatically breaks into her cottage.
• Captain Cold: “Please be calm, my dear! You have nothing to fear! I am Captain Cold! Perhaps you’ve heard of me!” Len, if you didn’t want her to be freaking out, maybe you shouldn’t have broken into her house and dramatically proclaimed yourself as a well-known criminal. 
• Laura: “Oh, yes–I’ve heard of you! You’re an evildoer–a ruthless criminal!” 
• Captain Cold: “Nothing of the sort–I’ve gotten a bad press, that’s all! Deep down, my heart is filled with love-especially for you, darling! I want you to be my wife! But before you reply, listen! To begin with, as one of your wedding presents, I’m prepared to give you back your youth–your beauty of years ago!” Question: What would Len have done if she was okay with marrying him, but asked him not to make her young again? Would he have been on board with marrying a woman who’s probably at least forty years his senior? That might’ve made for a more interesting story than what we got, actually. 
• Back to the actual story, Laura thinks that he’s making fun of her. In response, he pulls out his cold gun, points it directly at her face, and shoots her with it! Way to calm her down, Len. 
• He tells her to go look in a mirror, and when she does, she sees that she’s young again. She asks him how he did this, and he replies that he’ll tell her after they’re married. Then he takes her back to his hideout. 
• Once they arrive (and she changes or he makes her change into a red dress for some reason), he presents her with the crown, the mink coat, and a bunch of other treasures and jewelry. He leaves her alone with all of the stuff while he goes to phone the justice of the peace, because this marriage is going forward even if they’ve known each other for less than two hours! This is why no one will date you, Len. 
• Instead of calling the Justice of the Peace, Len accidentally calls Mick instead. “By the Aurora Borealis–I know that voice! I absent-mindedly dialed Heat Wave’s number–instead of the Justice of the Peace!” 
• Cold invites Heat Wave over to his hideout so he can show him the defeated Flash (and also have him be the best man at his wedding to a woman who’s forty years older than him who he’s known for two hours).
• However, when Mick arrives and Cold shows him the defeated Flash, Mick totally freaks out for some reason (I guess because he won’t get to have his last fight with the Flash) and blasts the frozen Flash pieces with his heat gun. Somehow, this undoes whatever Cold’s below absolute zero gun did to the Flash, and Flash goes back to normal. 
• Captain Cold and Heat Wave get into a brief scuffle over who’ll get to kill the Flash the second time, and then Barry knocks them both out and takes them to the police. 
• The issue ends with Barry and Iris discussing the case. Iris says that Laura told her that she hadn’t wanted Cold to make her young again; aging had been too painful for her the first time. Therefore, she’s just going to put on a wig and makeup and pretend to be old until she actually is old again. This seems like a potentially interesting bit of characterization; it’s too bad Laura didn’t get very much focus in the rest of the issue.
•  After Iris tells Barry about what happened to Laura, Barry tells Iris that the reason Captain Cold called Heat Wave instead of the Justice of the Peace was because he managed to use telepathy to make sure that it would happen. So yeah, apparently Barry has telepathic powers that he never uses again. 
• In speaking of things that never appear again, what happened to the Cold Gun’s ability to make people young? Why did Cold never use that again, especially once he himself started getting older? 
• And what happened to the de-aged criminals? Did they stay young, or do the effects eventually fade off? 

I have so many questions about this issue. It’s an entertaining story overall, but there are just so many questions that never get answered and so many powers that never get brought up again. 

It’s also a pity Laura Lamont never appeared again. She and Ayesha, the Maharanee of Joadpur (from Flash #150) are easily the most interesting of Len’s non-Iris stalkee-girlfriends.

After a long hiatus, I have decided to return to my summary of Len Snart/Captain Cold’s tumultuous Silver Age love life. Today, we will be looking at the second story in Flash #166: “Tempting Target for the Temperature Twins”. As the title suggests, this story will also feature Captain Cold’s frenemy, Mick Rory/Heat Wave. The issue was published in December 1966, and the story we’re looking at was written by Gardner Fox, drawn by the inimitable Carmine Infantino, and inked by Joe Giella. 

• Although we won’t be looking at it in detail, the first story in issue #166 is called “The Last Stand of the Three-Time Losers” and features the Flash fighting some random crooks, all of whom have already been arrested, convicted, and sent to prison three times and will go to prison for life if they’re arrested again. It was drawn and inked by the same men who drew and inked the Captain Cold story, but it was written by John Broome.
• This story also raises a very pertinent question: if Central City follows a “three-strikes” crime policy as this story implies, how are the Rogues always managing to get out of prison on parole with no apparent difficulties? All of them have presumably been arrested and convicted way more than three times each. Does the law just not apply in the same way to people who take up costumed aliases for some bizarre reason? Do they just assume there’s no point since they always break out anyway? Or are the Rogues secretly a big enough tourist draw/advertising point that the city doesn’t want them to be put away permanently? This story’s premise raises way more questions than I think it intended to. 
• But enough about the legal system of Central City…it’s time for ten pages of never-ending temperature puns! 
• The story begins as it means to go on: “Once more those desperadoes of degrees come into Central City with a hot idea for chilling cold tricks! Yes, Captain Cold and Heat Wave are back at the old stand, dealing out frostbite and heat-prostration at one and the same time! But now they find their nemesis the Flash in cold storage–because of a red-hot injury–making him a tempting target for the temperature twins!” 
  
• Captain Cold: “Cool it, Heat Wave! You don’t have a chance of overcoming the Flash before I do!” 
• Heat Wave: “That’s a lot of hot air, Captain Cold! I’m putting a heat-hex on your cold calculations!” 
• Yes, the whole story is going to be like this. Brace yourself. 
• The story proper opens on Barry Allen, who STILL hasn’t decided to tell his wife (of almost one month) that he is the Flash. Before we can spend much time on his stupidity, however, he notices a factory that’s on fire and rushes to the rescue as the Flash. 
• However, in the process of saving the people trapped inside, he sprains his ankle (as a result of landing hard after the floor collapses under him). A doctor on the scene confirms the injury and tells the Flash that he’ll need to stay off his leg for a few days. 
• The Flash is given some crutches and heads for home, thinking about how this is going to be the end of his secret identity. (Seriously, this is what he’s worried about. He’s got an injury that is supposed to put him out of commission for a couple of days and might make him a target, and his biggest concern is his wife finding out his secret identity.)
  Also, it must be a slow news day, because a reporter on the scene thinks that a picture of the Flash on crutches is going to make for a great story.  (Okay, it’s probably really the whole story about him saving people from the fire, but still!) 
• Meanwhile, Captain Cold and Heat Wave are standing outside the “ultra-fashionable house of gems”.
• Heat Wave: “Fire away, Captain Cold! My blood’s burning for a little action!” 
• Captain Cold: “Cool it, Heat Wave! Ever since we first teamed up as the Temperature Twins, we’ve just about had it made!” 
• The two successively fire their “tricky temperature-triggers” at the wall, making it contract and expand repeatedly until it crumbles. 
• Heat Wave: “We make a terrific team of Thermologic Twins, CC!” 
• Captain Cold: “I hope that’s a compliment, HW!” 
• The “Frosty Felon” and the “Caloric Crook” step through the debris and make some truly menacing threats. 
• Heat Wave: “Don’t move, folks! There’s going to be a hot time in the old town tonight, so stay loose!” 
• Captain Cold: “I’ll keep you as cool as cucumbers!’ 
• Cold freezes most of the people in the store in place, leaving only the models who are wearing the jewels free. They’ve stolen most of the jewels when “their fingers freeze while their hearts catch fire.” The last of the jewelry models is, evidently, attractive to them both. 
• Cold: Heat Wave, did you just cause a mirage with that hot-rod of yours? Ooooh!” 
• Heat Wave: “She’s for real, Captain Cold! Miss Fashion Gem of Central City! Oooh! I want a date with her!” 
• Cold: “ Cool off, Heat Wave! If that choice morsel of frozen dessert goes out on a date with anyone–it’ll be me!” Smooth, Len. Smooth. 
• Heat Wave: “That’s a lot of hot air! She’s for me-” 
• Cold; “Why, you hothead! I’ll freeze you so cold you’ll think an iceberg is a bonfire!” 
• Heat Wave: “I’ll put you in cold storage!” Mick, honey…you’re getting yourself confused. Len makes the cold-based threats, not you.
  
• At this point, Heat Wave realizes that they shouldn’t be fighting, and they propose a friendly competition. Whichever man wins gets to date Miss Fashion Gem (no, she does not get an actual name in this issue). What does Miss Fashion Gem think about all this? Who cares! Not Captain Cold and Heat Wave! 
• “And so these partners in plundering pyrotechnics–those deadly desperadoes who deal in degrees of heat and cold (but are pushovers for a pretty face) stalk out into the street.” This may be the greatest bit of narration in any comic book ever. 
  
• Random Male Citizen: “It’s Captain Cold–and Heat Wave!” 
• Random Lady Citizen: “What gall–robbing in broad daylight! Somebody call the police!” 
• Heat Wave: “Nobody interferes with our game of hearts and flowers!” 
• Random Expository Citizen: “Encircled by tongues of heat–keeping us rooted to the spot!” 
• After preventing the bystanders from calling the police, Captain Cold and Heat Wave move on, looking for an appropriate challenge. Luckily for them, the Flash (still on the crutches) shows up at exactly this moment. Both Rogues are delighted. 
• Captain Cold: “Shivering spines! Here comes the answer to our problem—the Flash!” 
• Heat Wave: “Oh, torrid degree days! Whichever one of us puts our arch-nemesis out of action wins the prize!” 
• I’m not sure why an injured Flash is a more worthy challenge than those random people from before, but whatever. 
• Both of them promptly attack the injured Flash, but, after a few seconds of peril, Flash notices that the “alternate doses of heat and cold–are having shock-effect on my sprained ankle! Easing the pain–a little more of this and my ankle will be back in shape!” 
• Yes. Captain Cold and Heat Wave’s blasts are healing Flash’s sprained ankle. SCIENCE! 
• Flash: “Got to make them keep hitting me with these medicinal temperature treatments–so I’ll pretend to still be injured and run on my hands!” 
  
• Cold: “Ha! Ha! What a sight!” 
• Heat Wave: “Flash–just before you pass out–tell us whether it’s due to my heat or his cold!” I love that Heat Wave apparently thinks that Flash would be totally on board with doing that. 
• Flash: “This breeze I’m causing while rotating on my hands is forming a buffer between me and that heat-and-cold—except for my ankle which needs it most!” Flash comics, everyone: where science goes to die! 
• Once his ankle is fully healed, Flash manages to get Captain Cold and Heat Wave to shoot each other, and both are knocked out. 
• Flash: “In a way, I’m grateful for this double-barreled attack! It safeguarded the secret of my double identity!” Thanks for trying to kill me, Captain Cold and Heat Wave! Now I can keep lying to my wife! 
• Barry drops the crooks off at police headquarters and then goes home to celebrate his one-month anniversary with his wife. 
• Iris: “Oh, Barry–Darling! Happy anniversary!” 
• Barry (thinking): “My identity secret is still safe–but for how long?  Only time will tell!” TELL YOUR WIFE, YOU IDIOT!!!!
• Total panel time for Miss Fashion Gem? Two panels. By the time the Flash shows up, Captain Cold and Heat Wave don’t even seem to remember that they’re presumably fighting over her at all! That definitely makes her the least relevant stalkee-girlfriend so far. 
• Also, if this story is to be believed, Heat Wave and Captain Cold could make a mint selling their technology to hospitals. Flash’s sprained ankle gets healed in what seems like less than a minute! 

Heat Wave and Captain Cold’s never-ending puns are a lot of fun, and they do a good job of carrying the issue. Watching Barry work around his injury is also interesting (even if the solution makes science weep). However, the issue is slightly undercut by Barry’s rather frustrating refusal to just TELL HIS WIFE HE’S THE FLASH ALREADY! (Worse, it’ll take eight more issues before he finally tells her the truth.) 

At long last, I have finally gotten around to actually reviewing this issue! (It actually arrived in the mail a couple weeks ago, I just never got around to doing this post until now.) Today we’re looking at Batman #388: “The Round-Trip Looking Glass”. It was published in 1985, written by Doug Moench, and drawn by Tom Mandrake. 

• The art in this issue is much, much better than the art in Detective Comics #555, which is the second half of the two-part story. 
• After the splash page, which features Batman, Captain Boomerang, and the original Mirror Master (Sam Scudder) fighting one another, the issue begins with Mirror Master breaking into a Gotham City museum to steal the Tien Hsu Jade Necklace through its side door. He does this by using his solar pistol, amplified by a“mirror-amplification device”, to melt the door’s lock and fuse the alarm wires. 
• Meanwhile, Captain Boomerang knocks out the night guard with a boomerang. 
• Mirror Master is about to remove the necklace from its display case when Captain Boomerang uses another one of his boomerangs to break the glass and swipe the necklace.
• Sam has an amazing facial expression as Digger calls him a fool for not noticing the night guard. It is the first of many, many hilarious facial expressions to be found in this issue. 
• Mirror Master and Captain Boomerang discuss the fact that they both decided to come to Gotham City at the same time, with Mirror Master saying that he did so explicitly because Gotham is “the one place without a superhero like Flash, Superman, Green Lantern..”, to which Captain Boomerang replies by saying that “superpowers or not, the Batman is just as fierce as any of the others.”
• Digger knows this because he’s come to Gotham and fought Batman before. (This occurred in Batman #321, another issue that I own and have previously reviewed.) Sam, who has a fantastic confused face, asks Digger why he came to Gotham if Batman is so threatening, to which Digger explains that he wants to get revenge on Batman.
• Sam suggests that he and Digger should team up against Batman (with yet another terrific facial expression). He also refers to Digger “the same old hard case from Down Under” while making this suggestion. 
• Digger, who already has the necklace, isn’t particularly interested in teaming up with Sam, since he thinks that Sam only suggested the alliance because Digger’s currently the one holding the necklace. And while he tells Sam this, he spins the incredibly valuable jade necklace around his finger like an idiot. 
• Mirror Master is not happy to hear this. “Just because you scooped me here–by a sneak attack–you think you’re better than me? Well, forget it! Back in Central City, I was always the Flash’s number one foe!” I would have to agree with Sam on this point. In the Pre-Crisis era, Sam really was the undisputed king of the Rogues. Also, his angry facial expression is great. 
• Captain Boomerang and Mirror Master proceed to get into a hilariously petty argument. 
• Digger: “Maybe things are different here in Gotham. Maybe your gimmicky mirrors can’t cut it here.” (He has an amazingly smug face as he says this, and Sam is pointing a finger angrily at him. It’s great.) 
• Sam: “My gimmicky mirrors? What about your boomerangs?” 
• Digger: “Listen, ace! This boomerang was good enough to-” (And during this bit, Digger is waving his fist right at Sam’s nose. Seriously, they’re both living cartoons in this comic, and it’s amazing.)
• This incredible ego competition is interrupted by Batman using his Batarang to swipe the jade necklace out of Digger’s hand. He then tells both of them that Gotham is off-limits. 
• Sam and Digger react to this in this most courageous manner possible: by freaking out and running away (complete with amazing facial expressions.) 
• Digger: “So long, mate! I’m not ready for for revenge yet!” 
• Sam: “Wait for me! I’m not even mad at him!” 
• As they bravely run away, the two supervillans duck behind a pillar in Dinosaur Hall, and when Batman follows them in, Mirror Master uses one of his mirrors to blind him. Digger then uses one of his explosive boomerangs, which collapses a T. rex statue onto Batman and allows them to escape. 
• The two then promptly return to their petty argument from before.  
• Sam: “You missed, idiot!’ 
• Digger: “At least I stopped him! What did your mirror do? Make him see stars for a bit?” 
• Sam: “That does it! The team-up’s off!” 
• Digger: “It was never on!” 
• Sam: “Then mark my words, Boomerang,’cause I’m gonna make you eat yours! I’m the best criminal in Gotham, and I can prove it!” 
• Digger: “Yeah? Have fun looking in your mirrors, chump–after I’ve humiliated you!” 
• Meanwhile, Batman gets out from under the T. rex statue and goes to the Batcave, where he and Robin (Jason Todd) use the Batcomputer to view the files on Mirror Master and Captain Boomerang (after Jason notes that they still haven’t rounded up all the members of Black Mask’s False Face Society).
• The files are basically just recaps of the pair’s Silver/Bronze Age origins, with two slight differences. The first is that, rather than calling himself Aussie Green as he did in the original story, Digger apparently went in for the interview as Digger Harkness. The second, and more hilarious, is that Batman’s files say that the Mirror Master’s name is Joe Scudder. Moench must have used a Cary Bates issue as reference for Mirror Master’s name. 
• After reviewing the files, Batman and Robin get some sleep, since Batman doesn’t think the two Rogues will be trying anything else that night. 
• Meanwhile, at the docks of Gotham Bay, “Joe” Scudder is trying to think up a crime when he’s approached by three men. One is wearing a skull mask, one is wearing a devil mask, and one is…wearing a Heathcliff cat mask. (Did that last guy miss the “scary masks” memo?) They demand to know if he’s “Joe Scudder”, the “Master of Mirrors guy”, to which “Joe” responds in the affirmative. He’s also clearly really, REALLY freaked out by them, which is hilarious. Apparently, he thought that he was getting jumped and/or mugged by some Gotham goons and actually thought they were a threat to him. His facial expression in the first panel where they show up is amazing.
• The three masked dudes explain that they want Mirror Master to be their new boss, since Black Mask got arrested. “Joe” responds to this by putting on his mirrored sunglasses and using them to hypnotize the thugs. He tells them to go find Digger and put him in the hospital. 
• Once the now-hypnotized thugs leave, “Joe” comes up with the most zero-effort crime imaginable.
• “There’s always that bank across the street…Yeah, what the hell? When in doubt, or just plain bored, fall back on old faithful.” A+ creativity, “Joe”.  
  
• Bruce Wayne has a brief romantic interlude with Julia Pennyworth (she’s Alfred’s niece) before he notices the Batsignal and has to leave her in the lurch. Also, even before this happens, he’s not really paying attention to her or her desire to write a book about Black Mask, since he’s too preoccupied thinking about his OTHER love interest, Vicki Vale.  As a result, Julie is very upset by his sudden departure. Smooth, Bruce. Smooth.
• Batman and Jason get into the Batmobile to respond to the Batsignal, but on their way to police headquarters, they almost crash into Harvey Bullock. Bullock tells the pair that the Batsignal was sent out in response to a report of a “suspicious figure at Zindorf Jewelers” and that he himself was going out to respond to another alarm across the bay. 
• Batman, realizing that both Rogues have struck at once, sends Jason with Bullock while he goes to the Jewelers.
• Meanwhile, Captain Boomerang uses his “mini-rocket boomerang” to fly up to the building’s roof, then uses this same boomerang to break the padlock on the roof door. 
• Digger on finances: “The people who don’t steal are always finding ways to save it–which makes it so much easier for those of us who do steal.”
  
• Before he actually start stealing things, however, the alarm goes off as the three hypnotized goons bust into the store to attack him. 
• Digger’s reaction: “Yoicks.” (combined with another hilarious facial expression.) 
• Meanwhile, “Joe” has just “opened the vault with my mirror-amplified laser” when he gets taken out by Harvey Bullock and Jason Todd in the span of 4 panels. Yes, Mirror Master was defeated by an overweight cop and Jason Todd in 4 panels. Not his finest hour. 
• Back at the jewelry store, Digger is trying to buy off “Joe’s” hypnotized goons when Batman arrives. Digger uses the distraction to tie the goons together with a boomerang somehow. 
• Batman tries to go after Digger but is attacked by the goons, allowing Digger to escape. I guess “Joe’s” hypnotic command to kill Digger was overridden by the goons’ desire to kill Batman. 
• Digger then uses his flying boomerang to break into “Joe’s” Gotham apartment. 
• Digger on Sam “Joe”: “Scudder’s an arrogant fool, not caring if everyone in Gotham’s underworld knew he was in town…and not even bothering to keep his hideout a secret!” How did “Joe” set up this hideout so quickly, anyhow? 
• Digger steals the mirror that “Joe” used for his hypnotic sunglasses.
• Meanwhile, “Joe” escapes from Bullock’s police car by using a false front tooth (which he had previously captured Digger’s image on) to project an image of Captain Boomerang in the middle of the road. Bullock swerves and Mirror Master escapes. 
• After a brief conversation between Batman, Jason, Harvey, and Commissioner Gordon, we cut back to Mirror Master’s hideout, where “Joe” is using his solar pistol to free himself from his handcuffs. 
• This accomplished, he starts admiring himself in the truly astonishing number of mirrors he’s set up in his hideout. 
• “Joe” on himself: “Feels good enough to be back among my mirrors-where I’m still number one and look it.” 
• Suddenly, he realizes that his strobe mirror is missing and reacts in shock (and with another terrific facial expression). 
• “Someone robbed me while I was out–robbed me!!”Sam “Joe’s” repeated freakouts are easily the funniest part of this story. 
  
• Then a boomerang made of mirror flies into the room, and starts smashing all of “Joe’s” mirrors. In hopes of stopping it, he grabs the boomerang, only for the mirror to start pulsing hypnotically. 
• Digger’s voice eminates from the mirror boomerang, telling Sam “Joe” that he must do anything Digger says, including murder. Seemingly hypnotized, Sam “Joe” responds by saying “Y-yes…including…murder”. (As the next issue will reveal, however, he’s actually only pretending to be hypnotized.) 
• The issue ends withe Digger happily thinking about how well things are going for him (complete with one last wonderful expression.)

This comics is amazing, and Sam “Joe” and Digger are comedy gold throughout. It’s too bad the second half of the story had such terrible art. 

Pets:

• When Mark Mardon was a kid, his brother, Clyde, had a dog named Thunder. In most families, the dog would have belonged to both children, but Mark’s parents made it pretty clear that the dog only belonged to their golden child. 
• Mick Rory’s family owned three cows, two Clydesdale horses, a donkey, a mule, two dogs (Spot and Rover), four cats (Fluffy, Stripey, Mouser, and Mr. Tuxedo), nine sheep, six goats, six to ten pigs (at any given time) and many, many chickens, ducks, and turkeys. They also raised bees. 
• Digger didn’t have any pets growing up, but his family did raise a LOT of sheep. His legal father (Ian Harkness) also had a dog named Fang, who liked Digger about as much as Ian did. Digger speculates that Fang was at least part dingo. 
• Roscoe Dillon’s mother, Rosa, owned a Persian named Priscilla (an anniversary gift from her wealthy husband). Unfortunately for Rosa, Priscilla was even less fond of being hugged than Roscoe was. Roscoe, by contrast, got along splendidly with the cat. Both hated crowds, loud noises, and being touched. Roscoe remembers Priscilla fondly as his most understanding family member. 
• Neither Sam nor Evan had any pets as kids. Sam’s apartment didn’t allow pets; Miss McCulloch would’ve loved for her kids to be able to have pets but didn’t have enough room for them in the orphanage. 
• Hartley’s parents owned a number of thoroughbred horses, several show dogs and show cats, and a wall-sized aquarium full of exotic fish. Most of these were more for show than anything else; Hartley wasn’t supposed to touch any of them without explicit permission. On the one and only occasion a rat made it inside the Rathaway estate, he befriended it…only for his mother to promptly have it killed when she discovered it. Now, of course, Hartley is the proud owner of at least six rats. 
• James Jesse didn’t exactly have pets growing up…but since he got to spend time with lions, tigers, elephants, camels, bears, monkeys, and horses in the circus, he didn’t really care all that much. Putting your head in a lion’s mouth is cooler than having a puppy any day. 
• Leonard and Lisa Snart once made the mistake of bringing home a kitten from a neighbor. Lisa named it Gabriela and was thrilled with her new pet….but when Larry Snart came home and saw the kitten, he promptly drowned it in front of his children. A few years later, Larry brought home a pit bull puppy…and predictably abused it until it was the nightmarish guard dog he wanted. The dog didn’t have a proper name (Larry just called it “you mutt”), but the neighborhood nicknamed it the Hellhound. It lived for a few years before Larry tripped over it whilst drunk and killed it in a rage (although not before the dog did a number on him). This dog is also the reason that both Leonard and Lisa are scared of large dogs. 
• Barry Allen owned a cat named Fluffernutter and a dog named Streak the Wonder Dog (after Green Lantern Alan Scott’s dog).

School headcanons: 

• Mark and Clyde Mardon both ended up being placed into a Spanish I class in their Freshman year of high school (one of Clyde’s classes was cancelled abruptly shortly before the start of the school year, and Mark hadn’t been able to decide what electives he wanted to take). This was the only high school course Mark ever earned an A in, mainly because, unbeknownst to the school, both he and Clyde were bilingual and could speak Spanish better than their Spanish teacher. The only downside was that both of them spent a lot of time being bored out of their minds. 
• The one and only time Barry Allen got detention was due entirely to the fact that he got a tardy slip every day for three months. Once the school caught on to the fact that Barry never missed out on any work, they eventually stopped giving him tardy slips at all, instead simply accepting that Barry being late to everything was a fact of nature. 
• Wally West once got detention for using his super speed to leave the school grounds in order to get Indian food…from India. 
• Leonard Snart never once passed a course (he slept through or outright skipped almost every class), but he was never held back a year. This was because most of the faculty wrote him off as a lost cause by the time he was seven years old. This is why Len can barely read and write and knows almost nothing about literature or history. That being said, Len doesn’t have any particular animosity towards the school system. It did give him and his sister free food, after all. (This free food also resulted in Len having a nearly perfect attendance record before he dropped out. He might not have learned anything, but he wasn’t going to miss out on lunch.) 
• If Sam Scudder had gone to a better school, he probably would’ve been put in either a gifted program of some sort or have been skipped a few grades ahead; he is and always has been extremely intelligent. As it was, he went through all of school (until he dropped out) believing that he was just reasonably clever and kind of a nerd; he still doesn’t really realize how intelligent he actually is. 
• Roscoe was likewise very intelligent, although the fact that he was on the autism spectrum before it was widely recognized meant that he often got himself into trouble at school. When he had teachers who liked him and were understanding of his quirks, he did very well in school, but most of his teachers were demanding and critical. As a result, he didn’t always perform as well as he would have been able to under optimal conditions. Also not helping matters was the fact that his father would denigrate his son for any grade less than an A (no matter the context). He still did well enough to graduate high school with a strong GPA and be accepted into college, but it wasn’t until college that he ever felt comfortable in school. He graduated college (a year early, due to his desire to please his father) with a B.S. in engineering…only for his father to criticize him for not having a high enough college GPA, for not graduating at the top of his class, and for having changed his major from business school (which he had hated) to engineering. Shortly afterwards, Roscoe fell into a particularly bad manic episode, which in turn was a major influence in his decision to become the Top. 

One of the more annoying trends that has appeared in the Flash franchise since the Flashpoint reboot is something that I will call hybridization: the merging of two characters into one character that contains aspects of both. These hybrid characters are invariably characters who share a legacy identity, and the merges often anger the fans of both characters. 

Interestingly, the earliest notable example of hybridization that I can think of in the Flash books actually happened shortly before Flashpoint. In 2004, the original Captain Boomerang, George “Digger” Harkness, was killed in my least favorite event comic in DC history, Identity Crisis. In the same comic, it was revealed that he had a son, Owen Mercer, who became the new Captain Boomerang shortly after his father’s death. From 2004 to 2009, Owen bounced around the DC universe, being at various points a member of the Rogues, a member of the Suicide Squad, and a member of the Outsiders. He also spent a lot of time with Supergirl and the two struck up a weird friendship. However, Geoff Johns eventually decided that he wanted to bring back the original Captain Boomerang, and so, in 2009′s Blackest Night event comic, he turned Owen into an idiotic child murderer and had him killed off so that Digger could be resurrected as a much younger and more attractive man. In effect, when Digger returned to life, he seemed to absorb his son’s appearance, general age, and fashion sense, and Owen was effectively forgotten for a very long time. (In fact, Owen wouldn’t reappear until 2018, and when he did, he was effectively written as an entirely different character…and then apparently forgotten again.) That being said, as Digger basically maintained his own personality without absorbing any of Owen’s personality, this is not the worst example of hybridization in the Flash mythos. 

James Jesse, the original Trickster, and Axel Walker, the second Trickster, had a very odd dynamic pre-Flashpoint, mainly because Axel was the only legacy Rogue to take up the identity of a Rogue who was still alive. From 2002 to 2005, James was reformed, so Axel was effectively the main Trickster until James took up the Trickster identity again in Rogue War. In the course of that storyline, Geoff Johns retconned James’ character development so that his reformation was entirely due to the machinations of a brainwashed and crazy Roscoe, and then had Roscoe revert James back to his original, villainous state. Once he was no longer reformed, James promptly beat the crap out of Axel, too his gear back, and told the kid that if he ever caught Axel in the costume again, Axel would be in big trouble. James was thus the primary Trickster again from 2005 to 2008. Unfortunately, during this period, he only featured in really terrible comics, and, as a result, his characterization was derailed and driven straight off a cliff and into a bottomless pit. And then he died. Now that the original Trickster was dead, Axel took the identity once more. Despite being the only living Trickster from 2008 to 2011, Axel was still distinct from James until Flashpoint. However, once Flashpoint happened and the universe rebooted, James was seemingly erased from existence entirely. In the New 52, Axel was the only Trickster who had ever existed, and, as a result, his characterization started to be blended with James’. He got taller and older, he acted a bit more intelligently than he had before Flashpoint, and he started wearing James’ costumes. He stayed in this odd hybrid state until James returned in 2019. Axel got his original costume back and was firmly established as the younger, less experienced Trickster, while James was re-established as the original Trickster, who was older, more cunning, and more subtle than Axel. While James wasn’t quite the same character as he had been before Flashpoint, he and Axel had at least been differentiated from one another again.  Aaaand then Axel was reverted back to his hybrid Axel/James form as soon as Joshua Williamson left the book. Sigh.

Wally and Barry were also hybridized after Flashpoint. Since Wally had been erased from existence, and Barry had been de-aged, Barry started to take on a number of Wally’s traits. The fact that he was now a young, more inexperienced man made the comparisons to Wally pretty much inevitable, and the fact that some writers started giving him Wally’s cocky nature and sense of humor only made things worse. It was to the point that in team books, Barry effectively became Wally, but with Barry’s name, appearance, and job as a police scientist. Once Wally returned in 2016, Barry lost most of Wally’s traits, but his characterization still hasn’t fully returned to what it was before he was hybridized with his nephew. 

In outside media, hybidization of Barry and Wally had already been fairly common. The 1990s Flash show featured a Flash with Barry’s name, occupation, and general attitude, but Wally’s girlfriend and need to eat constantly, and the DCAU featured a Wally with Barry’s job as a police scientist. However, the New 52 caused the hybridization of Barry and Wally to be taken up to 11. The 2014 Flash TV show, the DC Animated Movie Universe, and the Flash of the DCEU all featured a Flash with the name, appearance, job, and love interests of Barry but with a demeanor that was more than a bit reminiscent of Wally…a problem that has yet to be fully solved. 

And then there’s Sam and Evan. Sam died during Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1986, and, after a brief vacancy, the mantle was taken by Evan McCulloch, who first appeared in 1989. Over the next twenty years, Evan solidified himself as the new Mirror Master, becoming more well-known and popular than his predecessor, and in 2011, he was not only the sole living Mirror Master but had been so for 22 years. But after Flashpoint, Evan was erased and Sam, after having been dead for 25 years, became the Mirror Master once more. This decision has always puzzled me. Barry, Axel, and Digger were the primary Flash, Trickster, and Captain Boomerang at the time Flashpoint happened. The other characters who had held the mantle were erased. So shouldn’t Evan have remained the Mirror Master? True, he wasn’t the first Mirror Master, but Axel wasn’t the first Trickster. Why didn’t they just erase Sam from existence in the way they did with James? Why bring back a character who had been dead for 25 years? It’s just such a weird choice.

Making the whole thing even more puzzling is the fact that when Sam was brought back, he was promptly hybridized with Evan anyway. While he didn’t pick up the Scottish accent, he did pick up the tooth gap, Evan’s almost supernatural talent with the Mirror Realm, and eventually Evan’s tendencies towards addiction and generally being a human disaster. He also lost his own incredible inventive talents, his showmanship, his cheeky smugness, and every other trait that made Pre-Crisis Sam so much fun. He’s so similar to Evan at this point that if they gave him the accent and called him Evan, he would actually be almost perfectly in-character! What was the point of bringing back Sam if they were just going to make him a less interesting Evan? ARRGH! 

vigilantsycamore:

I’ve currently got a long-ass post in my drafts outlining how I’d write the plot for a hypothetical Flash movie, but here’s a shorter version (edit: turns out, it’s still long, but it’s not nearly aslong as the one in my drafts):

• First, it has nothing to do with Flashpoint (really, how many times can we doFlashpoint. It’s been a thing for like ten years), except for small hints to tangentially related stuff. It’s also unconnected to the DCEU
• The villains are the Rogues. We start with Leonard Snart, Mick Rory, and James Jesse stealing some tech from STAR Labs. Jesse makes his own gadgets, but he modifies the stolen tech into weapons for Snart and Rory, which is how they become Captain Cold and Heat Wave. More members join over the course of the film
• Barry starts out as a forensic scientist, he has the worst luck, he’s always late, and he’s always stopping to help people even before he gets his powers. He gets his powers while investigating the STAR Labs robbery: a lightning bolt strikes him and some tech from STAR Labs that he was testing to see if there was any evidence there
• Barrystarts out as a forensic scientist, but because he’s always late and he’s in a coma for a few weeks, the Central City Police Department replaces him with someone significantly less good at the actual job. Barry’s powers start manifesting, but at this point he doesn’t really comprehend what they are, it’s just some weird stuff occasionally happening
• In this film, the Mardon brothers are con men who are arrested after Iris West writes an article exposing their scam. Iris and Barry first met while Barry was investigating the robbery, since Iris’ father in this is IraWest, like in the pre-Crisis Comics, and this Ira West works at STAR Labs. They meet again after Barry gets a new job working for Ira. Barry and Iris hit it off, but then the Mardon brothers break out of prison; Clyde Mardon has a heart attack, and Mark Mardon leaves him behind. Mark then tries to do a drive-by shooting to kill Iris, but Barry’s superspeed kicks in and he catches the bullet
• The cops don’t seem very interested in actually investigating the drive-by shooting. Also, one of them recognises Barry and proceeds to be a dick to him because why not. Afterwards, Barry decides “well if the cops won’t track Mardon down I will” and that’s the first criminal he captures as the Flash, dropping him off at the police headquarters with a passive-aggressive note (”since youweren’t catching this guy…”)
• Then Barry makes his suit and we get some fun stuff like a montage of Barry doing superhero stuff. This film would use a lot of Queen songs - like, Barry’s intro would be set to Flash, fittingly enough - and the superheroing is set to Don’t Stop Me Now. During this montage, we also see Snart, Rory, and Jesse upgrade to their supervillain personas, inspired by the Flash - before they were just regular thieves using high-tech gear - as well as seeing Barry and Iris get closer
• Also, the stolen items also include a few other devices than just the cold gun and hot gun. One of those other devices opens portals to a pocket dimension, and at some point during this part of the movie we learn that the idea was developed by a colleague of Ira’s who was then fired for ethics violations, and afterwards ended up in prison because he took being fired badly. Ira was put in charge of completing the guy’s project. And that guy’s name is Samuel Scudder
• Then we get the first confrontation between Barry and the Rogues. The Rogues are robbing a bank to get money, Barry goes to stop them, takes down Heat Wave and the Trickster fairly easily but struggles against Captain Cold. The Rogues get away
• Things go from bad to worse as Barry’s replacement as a forensic scientist is now insisting that the STAR Labs robbery was totally an inside job, and it was Ira who did it. Ira gets arrested, and Iris and Barry both start working on ways to prove Ira’s innocence: Barry by capturing the Rogues, Iris by investigating the robbery herself (off the clock, since otherwise it would be a journalistic ethics issue)
• Barry’s dad being in jail because he was framed for killing Barry’s mom is still a thing here, and Barry’s visiting him when the Rogues attack the prison, breaking out Hartley Rathaway. Hartley flirst with Captain Cold because why not, and while the Rogues also stop to break out two other people: Sam Scudder and Mark Mardon
• Now, Mardon’s just there because he saw the breakout happening and was like “hey, can I join?” and the Rogues shrugged and said sure. Scudder is there because they need him to operate the pocket dimension device, and Hartley is there because 1. the stolen tech includes some sound-manipulating gear he could use, and 2. he already has some sound-based tech of his own that’s useful
• Barry changes into the Flash and tries to stop the Rogues but gets his butt kicked again. However, during that fight, he overhears that Captain Cold’s real name is Snart
• Barry does some investigating (he breaks into the police headquarters and checks their database) and it turns out that while Captain Cold is probably LeonardSnart, who just seems to be a thief, he has a sister named LisaSnart who’s in prison for killing their father (a different prison than the one Barry’s dad is in, and implicitly a more secure one). After some more research it turns out that their father was probably a piece of shit, though nothing was proven. Barry figures that Leonard probably wants to break his sister out, since if hewas a criminal he’d try to break his father out of prison
• After this it’s basically Act 3 stuff. Iris finds out that Barry is the Flash (she visits him to share what she found relating to Ira, but he’s out investigating, and she sees his Flash-related stuff) but pretends not to know. Scudder gets the pocket dimension working, and it turns out it can be accessed using reflections (and a specially-designed ray but mainly the reflections thing). The Rogues break Lisa Snart out of prison and she becomes their final member as the Golden Glider. The Flash tries to stop them, but with Scudder there, there’s not much Barry can do.
• Now, the Rogues’ main plan has worked, but 1. they still have The Flash to worry about, and 2. some of their members, specifically Mardon and Scudder, have their own agendas: revenge.
• The Rogues split into three groups: Captain Cold, Pied Piper, and Trickster take over the police headquarters and take everyone there hostage in order to lure the Flash out, with the Trickset broadcasting this using some sort of camera-based drones; Weather Wizard and Golden Glider go after Iris; and Mirror Master and Heat Wave go after Ira
• Barry is with Iris, but when he sees the Trickster’s broadcast, he leaves to go do superhero stuff. Weather Wizard was willing to kill Barry alongside Iris, but Golden Glider convinced him that it would be better to wait until Iris was alone, so that’s when they go after her. Iris actually manages to get away from them for a while, but eventually they catch up to her.
• Meanwhile, Barry fights Cold, Piper, and Trickster. Trickster’s gadgets pose more of a threat than Trickster himself, but the real issues are Pied Piper and Captain Cold. Barry eventually wins by 1. building up enough speed that even when Snart’s cold gun slows him down, it doesn’t stop him completely and he manages to knock Snart out, and 2. vibrating his own molecules to disrupt the frequency emitted by Pied Piper’s sound tech.
• Cold tells the Flash where the other Rogues are, and Barry is understandably worried. He runs over to STAR Labs, where Ira is being attacked by Mirror Master and Heat Wave. Barry gets Ira to safety and takes down Heat Wave, but Mirror Master is much more of a problem… until Barry tackles Mirror Master and sends them bothinto the Mirror World
• Problem: Barry has no idea how to navigate the Mirror World. It’s a weird dimension of distorted images, and judging by Mirror Master’s taunting it also messes with time somehow
• There’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment where Barry catches a glimpse of his mother’s death through the Mirror World… and yes, that is a metahuman who looks like a palette-swapped version of him
• Barry figures out how to navigate the Mirror World, takes down Mirror Master (though Mirror Master seems to get stuck inside the Mirror World), and is able to rescue Iris just in time by literally jumping out of a mirror and knocking out Weather Wizard
• The good news is, capturing the Rogues is enough to clear Ira’s name, since clearly theywere the ones who stole the gear, and Leonard isn’t one to let someone else take the fall for his crimes. He confirms that Ira had nothing to do with any of the Rogues’ crimes
• The bad news is, near the end of the movie there’s a cool montage of the Rogues breaking out of prison, set to (what else?) I Want To Break Free. Actually that doesn’t sound bad movie-wise but it’s bad for the good guys
• We also establish that Barry is still trying to find a way to clear his dad’s name, and now he has 1. Iris helping him, and 2. a lead in the form of the glimpse he got in the Mirror World. Though he can’t really talk to Iris about that since then he’d have to explain whyhe was in the Mirror World
• Also, Barry and Iris don’t become an item in this film but they’re strongly implied to develop an attraction to each other
• Also also, a few other villains get cameos during the superheroing montage: Roy G Bivolo, at this point just an art thief; Digger Harkness, nicknamed Captain Boomerang by Barry; and the Turtle, as a neat reference to Barry’s first comic book appearance
• There is no post-credits scene, but the final scene before the credits serves a similar role: Mirror Master, in the Mirror World, sees someone in a stage magician outfit stealing a time machine from a futuristic museum seemingly dedicated to the Flash
  
• Since Queen is featured in this a lot (in fact, more than I mentioned here, it’s just that I haven’t figured out where certain songs could go), the credits would also be full of Queen
• Maybe We Will Rock you during one of Barry’s fights against the Rogues? Or even two - one where Barry loses, and then again in the climax when he wins
• What about Bohemian Rhapsody?

I want to see this movie. Great job! 

So I went through every Pre-Crisis Flash comic that I own and categorized all 195 stories by the type of threat faced in them. I divided the threat types into seven categories: Supervillains, Aliens, Random Criminals, Evil Foreign Stereotypes, Supernatural Weirdness, Nature, and The Arc That Never Ends (The Trial of the Flash). Here were the results: 

Mystery of the Human Thunderbolt: Turtle Man 

The Man Who Broke the Time Barrier: Mazdan 

The Secret of the Empty Box: Random Criminals 

The Coldest Man on Earth: Captain Cold 

Around the World in 80 Minutes: Random Criminals

Master of the Elements: Albert Desmond 

Giants of the Time-World: Aliens 

The Man Who Changed the Earth: Albert Desmond 

Conqueror From 8 Million B.C.: Alien 

The Master of Mirrors: Mirror Master

Menace of the Super-Gorilla: Grodd

The Pied Piper of Peril: The Pied Piper 

Return of the Super-Gorilla: Grodd

The Amazing Race Against Time: Nature

The Speed of Doom: Aliens 

The Super-Gorilla’s Secret Identity: Grodd

Return of the Mirror-Master: Mirror Master

Secret of the Sunken Satellite: Aliens 

The Challenge of the Weather Wizard: Weather Wizard 

Meet Kid Flash: Nature (in the form of a lion and bear), plus one Random Criminal 

The Invasion of the Cloud Creatures: Aliens 

The Challenge of the Crimson Crows: Nature (a fire) 

The Mystery of Elongated Man: Random Criminals 

Danger on Wheels: Random Criminals 

Danger in the Air: Trickster 

The Man Who Claimed the Earth: Aliens 

The Big Freeze: Captain Cold 

King of the Beatniks: Random criminals 

The Day Flash Weighed 1,000 Pounds: Grodd

The Elongated Man’s Secret Weapon: Aliens 

The Man Who Stole Central City: Aliens

The Race to Thunder Hill: Random Criminals 

Here Comes Captain Boomerang: Captain Boomerang

The Madcap Inventors of Central City: Random Criminals

The Doomed Scarecrow: Random Criminals

The Midnight Peril: Random Criminals and Nature

The Mirror-Master’s Magic Bullet: Mirror Master 

The Elongated Man’s Undersea Trap: Aliens 

Land of Golden Giants: Nature (giants)

The Trickster Strikes Back: Trickster 

The Secret of the Stolen Blueprint: Evil Foreign Stereotypes 

Beware the Atomic Grenade: The Top

The Face Behind the Mask: Random Criminals 

The Flash of Two Worlds: Shade, Fiddler, Thinker

Space-Boomerang Trap: Captain Boomerang AND Aliens 

Vengeance Via Television: Random Criminal 

The Conquerors of Time: Aliens

The Doom of the Mirror Flash: Mirror Master

Snare of the Headline Huntress: Random Criminals 

The Reign of the Super-Gorilla: Grodd

The Mystery of the Troubled Boy: Evil Foreign Stereotypes 

The Case of the Real-Gone Flash: Abra Kadabra

The Origin of Flash’s Masked Identity: Random Criminals 

Double Danger on Earth: Captain Cold, Trickster, and Nature (Solar radiations) 

Who Doomed the Flash: Mirror Master

Kid Flash Meets the Elongated Man: Weather Wizard

 Captives of the Cosmic Ray: Aliens

The Heaviest Man Alive: Aliens

The Farewell Appearance of Daphne Dean: Random Criminals 

The Plight of the Puppet-Flash: Abra Kadabra

Secret of the Handicapped Boys: Nature

The Man Who Mastered Absolute Zero: Captain Cold

The Threat of the Absent-Minded Professor: Random Criminals 

The Secret of the Three Super-Weapons: Aliens 

The Mirror Master’s Invincible Bodyguards: Mirror Master

Barry Allen-You’re the Flash-And I Can Prove It: Random Criminal 

Vengeance of the Immortal Villain: Vandal Savage

The Pied Piper’s Double Doom: Pied Piper

Mystery of the Matinee Idol: Random Criminals

The Menace of the Reverse-Flash: Reverse-Flash

The Heat is on for Captain Cold: Captain Cold AND Heat Wave 

The Metal-Eater from the Stars: Alien 

The Mystery of Flash’s Third Identity: The Top 

Showdown in Time: Random Criminals 

Perilous Pursuit of the Trickster: The Trickster

Puzzle of the Phantom Plunderers: Aliens 

Trail of the False Green Lanterns: T.O. Morrow

Menace of the Man-Missile: Random Criminal

Lesson for a Star Athlete: Nature and Random Criminals 

The Weather Wizard Blows Up a Storm: Weather Wizard 

The Girl from the Super-Fast Dimension: Nature/Aliens 

The Mirror Master’s Master Stroke: Mirror Master

Fatal Fingers of the Flash: Nature

Our Enemy, the Flash: Reverse Flash and Albert Desmond 

The Day Flash Went Into Orbit: Captain Boomerang

The Doorway to the Unknown: Random Criminals

The Flash’s Sensational Risk: Aliens

Robberies by Magic: Abra Kadabra

Captain Cold’s Polar Perils: Captain Cold

The Touch-and-Steal Bandits: Random Criminals

Invaders from the Dark Dimension: Shade

The Trickster’s Toy Thefts: Trickster 

Case of the Explosive Vegetables: Evil Foreign Stereotypes 

The Mightiest Punch of All Time: Reverse Flash and Albert Desmond

The Day Flash Ran Away With Himself: Random Criminals 

Gangster Masquerade: Random Criminals 

The Gauntlet of Super-Villains: Captain Cold, Captain Boomerang, Mirror Master, the Top, Pied Piper, Heat Wave, AND Grodd

The Super-Hero Who Betrayed the World: Aliens 

Who Stole the Flash’s Super-Speed?: Aliens

The Day Flash Aged 100 Years: The Top 

Battle Against the Breakaway Bandit: Alien 

The One-Man Justice League: Professor Ivo 

The Flash’s Final Fling: Random Criminals 

Big Blast in Rocket City: Random Criminals 

The Case of the Curious Costume: Random Criminals

The Mirror With 20-20 Vision: Mirror Master

Who Haunts the Corridor of Chills?: Alien 

The Flash Stakes His Life-On-You!: Random Criminal 

The Day Magic Exposed Flash’s Secret Identity: Abra Kadabra 

The Flash-Vandal of Central City: Pied Piper 

The Boy Who Lost Touch With the World: Random Criminals 

One Bridegroom Too Many: Reverse Flash (plus cameo by Albert Desmond) 

The Last Stand of the Three-Time Losers: Random Criminals 

Tempting Target for the Temperature Twins: Captain Cold AND Heat Wave

The Real Origin of the Flash: Random Criminals 

The Hypnotic Super-Speedster: Random Criminals 

One of Our Green Lanterns Is Missing: Random Criminals 

The See-Nothing Spells of Abra Kadabra: Abra Kadabra 

Here Lies the Flash-Dead and Unburied: Dr. Light

Grodd Puts the Squeeze on Flash: Grodd

The Machine-Made Robbery: Random Criminals 

Doomward Flight of the Flashes: Alien

Stupendous Triumph of the Six Super-Villains: Mirror Master, Captain Cold, Heat Wave, Pied Piper, Captain Boomerang, AND Top

The Race to the End of the Universe: Abra Kadabra and Reverse Flash (plus Weather Wizard cameo) 

Death Stalks the Flash: Supernatural Weirdness 

Professor West-Lost, Strayed, or Stolen?: Random Criminals 

The Swell-Headed Superhero: Trickster

The Flying Samurai: Evil Foreign Stereotypes 

The Attack of the Samuroids: Evil Foreign Stereotypes 

The Thief Who Stole All the Money in Central City: Abra Kadabra

The Flash’s Super-Speed Phobia: Random Criminals 

The Flash’s Dead Ringer: Random Criminals

Executioner of Central City: Random Criminal 

Threat of the High-Rise Buildings: Aliens 

Time Times Three Equals-?: Reverse-Flash

The Most Colorful Villain of All: Mirror Master 

The Death-Touch of the Blue Ghost: Aliens 

Super-Speed Agent of the Flash: Nature and Random Criminals

Ten Years to Live-One Second to Die: Random Criminals 

How to Invade Earth-Without Really Trying: Aliens 

The Day the Flash Failed: Evil Foreign Stereotypes 

Captain Cold Blows His Cool: Captain Cold and Heat Wave 

The Bride Casts Two Shadows: Supernatural Weirdness 

Fugitive From Blind Justice: Random Criminals 

I Open My Mouth–But I Can’t Scream: Supernatural Weirdness

Four-Star Superhero: Random Criminals 

To the Nth Degree: Nature 

No Sad Songs for a Scarlet Speedster: Random Criminals 

Call It-Magic: Supernatural Weirdness 

Flash?–Death Calling: Random Criminals 

Heart of America: Evil Foreign Stereotypes 

The Flash’s Wife is a Two-Timer: Random Criminals 

The Great Secret Identity Expose: Random Criminals 

The Mind Trap: Supernatural Weirdness 

The Flash of 1,000 Faces: Pied Piper 

The Million Dollar Deathtrap: Mirror Master and the Top

The Slowest Man on Earth: The Turtle 

The Heart That Attacked the World: Weather Wizard and Sinestro 

Green Lantern-Master Criminal of the 25th Century: Reverse-Flash 

The Rag Doll Runs Wild: Ragdoll and Thinker 

The Death-Rattle of the 12-Hour Man: Aliens 

The Fastest Man Dead: Random Criminals 

The Last Day of June is the Last Day of Central City: Captain Cold, Captain Boomerang, Mirror Master, Weather Wizard, Trickster, Heat Wave, and the Top (posthumously) 

To Believe or Not to Believe: Weather Wizard, Trickster, Captain Cold, Pied Piper, Mirror Master, and Mazdan 

Flashback to Danger: Weather Wizard, Trickster, Captain Cold, Pied Piper, Mirror Master, and Mazdan 

Prisoner of the Past: Weather Wizard, Trickster, Captain Cold, Pied Piper, Golden Glider, and Mazdan 

Heat Wave Plays it Cool: Heat Wave

The Case of the Missing Super-Speed: Random Criminal

Riddle of the Runaway Comic: Random Criminals 

The Last Dance: Reverse-Flash and Clive Yorkin 

The Color Schemes of the Rainbow Raider: Rainbow Raider 

Dr. Alchemy and Mr. Desmond: Albert and Alvin Desmond; Supernatural Weirdness 

The Day It Rained Flash: Albert and Alvin Desmond; Supernatural Weirdness

The Good–the Bad–and the Unexpected: Albert and Alvin Desmond; Supernatural Weirdness  

Mirror, Mirror, Off the Wall: Mirror Master 

Lisa Starts With L and That Stands For Lethal: Golden Glider and the Top; Supernatural Weirdness  

The Top is Alive and Well in Henry Allen: Golden Glider and the Top; Supernatural Weirdness 

Prey for the Piper: Pied Piper 

The Good–the Bad–And the Beautiful: Random Criminal 

Colonel Computron Strikes Back–With a Vengeance: Colonel Computron and Captain Boomerang

Captives of the Boom-Boom-Boomerang: Colonel Computron and Captain Boomerang

Dead Heat for a Scarlet Speedster: Heat Wave and Fake Heat Wave 

The Slayer and the Slain: Reverse-Flash 

Down With the Flash: Pied Piper and The Arc That Never Ends

How to Trash a Flash: Pied Piper and The Arc That Never Ends

Beware the Speed Demons: Pied Piper and The Arc That Never Ends (also Captain Boomerang’s voice) 

The Revenge of the Rogues: Pied Piper, Mirror Master, Captain Boomerang, Weather Wizard, Captain Cold, Trickster, Big Sir, and The Arc That Never Ends

Warday: Mirror Master, Captain Boomerang, Weather Wizard, Captain Cold, Trickster, Big Sir, and The Arc That Never Ends

Trial and Tribulation: Mirror Master, Captain Boomerang, Weather Wizard, Captain Cold, Trickster, Big Sir, and the Arc That Never Ends

Smash-Up: Mirror Master, Captain Boomerang, Weather Wizard, Captain Cold, Trickster, Big Sir, and the Arc That Never Ends

Betrayal: The Arc That Never Ends (This issue is 90% reprint) 

The Secret Face of the Flash: Abra Kadabra and the Arc That Never Ends 

Dead Man’s Bluff: Pied Piper and Abra Kadabra; The Arc That Never Ends 

And the Truth Shall Set Him Free: Mirror Master, Captain Cold, Rainbow Raider, Trickster, Weather Wizard, and Captain Boomerang; Abra Kadabra; the Arc That Never Ends 

Good-Bye, Flash: Mirror Master, Captain Cold, Rainbow Raider, Trickster, Weather Wizard, and Captain Boomerang; Abra Kadabra; the Arc That Never Ends 

And here are the totals: 

27 alien stories- 14% of the overall total 

51 Random criminal stories-26% of the overall total 

11 Nature Stories -6% of the total 

10 Supernatural Weirdness Stories-5% of the total 

7 Evil Foreign Stereotype Stories-4% of the total 

12 Stories in the Arc That Never Ends- 6% of the total 

95 Supervillain Stories-49% of the total 

Dr. Light: 1

T.O. Morrow: 1

Professor Ivo: 1 

Sinestro: 1

Vandal Savage: 1 

Ragdoll: 1 

Fiddler: 1

Clive Yorkin: 1 

Turtle: 2

Shade: 2 

Thinker: 2 

Colonel Computron: 2 

Rainbow Raider: 3 

Big Sir: 4

Alvin Desmond: 3

Golden Glider: 3 

Mazdan: 4 

Albert Desmond: 7; 8 if you count the cameo in Flash #165 (2 solo outings; 3 with Alvin; 2 with Eobard) 

Silver Age Grodd: 7 

Silver Age Kadabra: 7 (6 solo outings, 1 with Reverse Flash) 

Bronze Age Kadabra: 4

Total Kadabra: 11

Silver Age Reverse Flash: 6 (5 solo outings, 1 with Kadabra) 

Bronze Age Reverse Flash: 3 

Total Reverse Flash: 9 

Silver Age Weather Wizard: 4 

Bronze Age Weather Wizard: 11

Total Weather Wizard: 15 

Silver Age Heat Wave: 5 (2 with Rogues; 3 with just Capt. Cold) 

Bronze Age Heat Wave: 3 

Total Heat Wave: 8 

Silver Age Pied Piper: 5 (3 solo outings) 

Bronze Age Pied Piper: 10 

Total Pied Piper: 15 

Silver Age Top: 5 (3 solo outings) 

Bronze Age Top: 4 

Total Top: 9 

Silver Age Trickster: 6 (5 solo outings; 1 with Captain Cold) 

Bronze Age Trickster: 10 

Total Trickster: 16 

Silver Age Captain Boomerang: 5 (3 solo outings) 

Bronze Age Captain Boomerang: 9

Total Captain Boomerang: 14 

Silver Age Captain Cold: 10 (5 solo outings; 3 with Heat Wave; 2 with Rogues) 

Bronze Age Captain Cold: 10 

Total Captain Cold: 20 

Silver Age Mirror Master: 11 (9 solo outings; 2 with Rogues) 

Bronze Age Mirror Master: 11

Total Mirror Master: 22-11% of the total! 

There were actually considerably less alien stories-and more random criminal stories- than I was expecting. Also, of the comics that I own, Captain Cold and the Mirror Master are the two villains who appear the most. 

Obviously, this is not an exact count, as there are a number of Bronze Age Flash stories that I do not own (though I basically own the entire Silver Age run, since I have Showcase #4-Flash #199 in trade). 

I asked my criminology professor if I could do my final exam (a paper analyzing a movie or TV show through the lense of a particular theory of criminology) on the 2014 Flash episode “Family of Rogues”. Much to my surprise and pleasure, she said yes. So, if anyone’s interested, here is my almost 8-page college essay on Captain Cold and Golden Glider. 

The Flash, based on the comic book of the same name, is a live-action television program that follows the adventures of Barry Allen, a forensics scientist who gets struck by lightning and gains superhuman speed. It started airing in 2014, and, due to the fact that its protagonist is not only a superhero but also a member of the police, focuses extensively on crime of all stripes, from fairly realistic shootings and thefts to acts of superpowered terrorism to the main character’s own vigilante activities. However, of all the characters on the show, perhaps the most interesting from the perspective of criminology are Leonard and Lisa Snart (alias Captain Cold and the Golden Glider), a brother-sister pair of professional criminals who use fantastic weapons to carry out their crimes. While they appear in a number of different episodes in the show’s first two seasons, the one that provides us with the most information about why they act the way that they do is the third episode of the second season. Entitled “Family of Rogues”, this episode, more than perhaps any other in the series, examines why certain people choose to enter into crime. 

“Family of Rogues” contains four plotlines that interweave throughout the episode, none of which are directly connected to one another. Of these plotlines, three of the four feature no criminal behavior in the present day, and thus can be ignored for the purposes of this paper. All of the present crimes occur in the final and main plot, which focus on Captain Cold, his sister, the Golden Glider, and their father, Lewis Snart. The plot kicks off when the Golden Glider comes to the Flash and his allies (Cisco Ramon and Caitlin Snow), claiming that her brother has been kidnapped. They are skeptical of her claims, since both she and her brother are career criminals, and become even more skeptical when the Flash tracks down Captain Cold and finds him working alongside their father to steal some blueprints, seemingly of his own free will. Also not helping matters much is the fact that Golden Glider admitted that her brother disappeared whilst the two of them and their frequent partner, serial arsonist Mick Rory (alias Heat Wave) were in the middle of an attempted robbery when she was knocked out and he disappeared. However, when Golden Glider is informed that her brother is working with their father (another known career criminal), she becomes alarmed, insisting that her father is “a bad guy” whom her brother would never work with. When Flash and his partners display skepticism, she pulls her shirt down far enough to reveal a large scar near her collarbone, which she got when her father hit her with a bottle at the age of eight. Evidently, the elder Snart was abusive to both of his children. This is enough to convince the Flash that something might be wrong. He seeks out Cold a second time, with similarly unsuccessful results. Cold is unhelpful, providing little information as to why he’s working with his father and telling the Flash “not to save people who don’t want to be saved”. A few scenes later, Cold, his father, and his father’s lockpick are making plans to steal a well-guarded collection of diamonds when the lockpick, who has already mentioned that he doesn’t know if he’ll be able to break through the high-security lock, insults Captain Cold. Lewis, insistent that only he can speak harshly to his son, promptly murders the man by using a detonator to blow his head off, much to Captain Cold’s obvious horror. The next day, the man’s corpse is discovered by the Flash in his role as Barry Allen, forensic scientist. Since the dead man is a known associate of Lewis Snart, and he seems to have had his head blown off by a thermite bomb that was injected into his neck, Barry comes to the conclusion that Lewis Snart put a bomb in his own daughter’s neck in order to coerce his son into helping to steal the diamonds. While Cisco Ramon and Caitlin Snow, Barry’s allies, work to remove the bomb from the Golden Glider’s neck, Barry again meets up with Captain Cold, tells him he knows how Lewis is keeping him in line, and poses as a criminal named “Sam”, who is an expert at cracking locks, so that he can accompany Cold and Lewis on the crime and prevent Lewis from stealing the diamonds or killing the Golden Glider. After disguising themselves as janitors and bluffing their way past security, Barry uses his super speed to remove the guards from the scene to prevent Lewis from murdering them, and then breaks the code on the lock to the vault. Once this is done, Lewis Snart promptly shoots him. While Barry is able to use his speed to catch the bullet, he plays dead in order to be able to change into the Flash. Captain Cold uses his specialized gun to freeze the laser grid, and Lewis Snart unlocks the vault and starts stealing the diamonds, only for the Flash to arrive on the scene. Lewis immediately orders Cold to kill the Flash, threatening to murder his sister if he doesn’t, but Flash and Cold manage to delay just long enough for the bomb to be removed from the Golden Glider’s neck. As soon as he hears that Lisa is safe, Captain Cold fires his gun straight into his father’s chest, killing him in revenge for the years of abuse his sister suffered at his hands. Notably, he offers no resistance when the Flash takes him to prison, and Barry later visits Cold in prison to tell him that he believes that there is still good in him. After all, if there wasn’t, he wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to protect his sister. 

The episode Family of Rogues, and, more specifically, the behavior of Leonard and Lisa Snart, is perhaps best looked at from the perspective of differential association theory. Differential association theory suggests that people who commit deviant acts are influenced to do so by primary groups and intimate social contacts, such as family members, neighbors, and close friends. It was proposed and developed by Edwin Sutherland in the late 1930s and early 1940s, and stresses the impact that other people have on an individual’s view of deviant behavior and the law. Individuals learn deviant behavior in the same way they learn non-deviant behavior: they watch it being modeled by their close friends and family members, and eventually come to imitate it. While people do not become delinquent solely by associating with a criminal, when an individual is exposed to a greater number of people who act as though obeying the law is unnecessary or irrelevant than to people who act as though the legal system is important and just, they are more likely to engage in deviant behavior. If an individual grows up around people who teach them that crime is natural or desirable in some way, such as by telling them that victims of assault “got what they deserved” or that people who leave their property unguarded deserve to have their property stolen, they may internalize these views and be more likely to engage in deviant behavior. The theory also states that a person’s ratio of favorable to unfavorable opinions about the law can change over time as a result of an individual’s changing circumstances. As a result, if a formerly deviant individual finds themselves surrounded by people whose views of the law are generally favorable, their own views on the law and deviant behavior are likely to change, and the individual will often become more law-abiding. (Holland, 2021) 

Throughout the episode, the main characters go out of their way to discuss the ways in which Leonard and Lisa Snart adopted the deviant tendencies they saw modeled in the behavior of their father. As a career criminal who was convicted of a number of violent crimes, there seems to be little doubt that Leonard and Lisa would have been exposed to deviant behavior, from both their father and his criminal associates, from a very young age. While both siblings seem to view their father as a monster, with Lisa pointedly describing him as “a bad guy” and Leonard displaying obvious distaste for his willingness to rely on violence and murder rather than on methodical planning, it also seems clear that their deviant behavior stems in large part from having no other real role models. Lisa claims that her brother “practically raised her”, and that, if he hadn’t been there, that she would’ve turned out even worse than she did, something that seems to acknowledge the role her father played in the siblings’ decisions to turn to crime at all, and Barry similarly notes in a conversation with Joe West that he believes that Leonard’s criminal behavior is in large part a direct result of growing up with Lewis Snart as a father. Even if both siblings hate their father for his abusive treatment of them, Lewis Snart still served as their most important role model during their formative years, and it seems probable that his deviant behavior, as well as the apparent lack of punishment he received for abusing them, played a huge role in shaping the way that they view crime. Ironically enough, it was through Lewis Snart’s example that his son was put in the position to murder him. By setting the example that it is normal to harm one’s family members to achieve your own goals, Lewis Snart sowed the seeds for his own demise. 

However, it isn’t just the siblings’ relationship with their father that reinforces their deviant behavior. While this is indeed a major factor, especially in the particular crimes that Leonard is shown commiting in this episode, their relationship with one another also seems to reinforce their criminal behavior. While the two siblings do genuinely love one another, the criminal behavior of each reinforces the criminal behavior of the other. Since they are far closer to one another than they are to anyone else, this means that both look primarily to another criminal when evaluating their deviant behavior. As a result, their already unfavorable opinions about the law are constantly being reinforced by the person to whom they have the strongest emotional ties, and they are both more likely to continue to pursue deviant behavior. For example, the two worked together during the attempted robbery where Leonard was kidnapped, and each sibling no doubt was supporting the other’s decision to go forward with the crime. Furthermore, with the exception of Flash and his team, the only characters the siblings are ever shown interacting with are criminals, such as their partner Mick Rory, who naturally would provide yet more reinforcement for their beliefs about deviant behavior. In other words, their social milieu is uniquely designed to not only accept but encourage criminal activity. 

It is also worth noting that both Snart siblings display less deviant behavior when they spend time with the broadly law-abiding Flash and his team. Lisa, who spends the entire episode in the company of Flash, Cisco Ramon, and Caitlin Snow, actually commits no deviant acts over the course of the episode itself, something that is a stark contrast to the way that she behaved when she was with her brother and Mick Rory. Far from seeking out further opportunities for deviance, she actually seems noticeably ashamed of her previous criminal activity (“How could I get any worse?”) and, even when under extreme stress, manages to remain remarkably polite and friendly towards Cisco and Caitlin. In other words, when she is surrounded by people who are generally law-abiding, her own propensity towards deviant behavior decreases substantially, and, by the end of the episode, she seems to have decided to abandon a life of crime entirely, as she never troubles the Flash or his allies again. Similarly, once Captain Cold becomes convinced that the Flash really does want to help him, he becomes increasingly less hostile and dangerous towards everyone except his father. Furthermore, after he kills his father, he willingly lets the Flash arrest him and take him to prison, whereas in previous episodes he had fought tooth and nail to avoid being captured. When faced with a law-abiding man who actually cares about the well-being of himself and his sister, Captain Cold becomes more willing to question the basis for his own deviant behavior. 

I would argue that differential association theory is the best way to explain the behavior of Leonard and Lisa Snart in this episode primarily because the episode focuses so heavily on the themes of family and relationships. Not only is the role Lewis Snart played in the lives of his children heavily emphasized, but the differences in the way the Snart siblings behave when they work with the largely law-abiding Team Flash and when they work together as criminals are palpable, and reflects the theory’s argument that people’s attitudes towards deviant behavior can change based upon the people with whom they interact. A number of research studies exist that support the idea that frequent association with deviant peers can affect an individual’s likelihood of engaging in delinquent behavior. Tittle, Burke, and Jackson tested their model of differential association with data from people aged 15 and older living in the United States and found that associating with criminals fostered motives for certain crimes, which in turn increased a willingness to consider offending at some future date (McCarthy, 1996), a 1996 study by Eliott and Menard concluded that associations with delinquent peers usually precede delinquent behavior, and a 1994 study by Smith and Brame concluded that delinquent peer associations increase the likelihood of an individual continuing to commit delinquent acts (Holland, 2021). Conversely, studies of the Danish halfway house Skejby, where prisoners and non-offenders live together in the hopes that the non-offenders will instill non-criminal norms in the prisoners, reveal that the recidivism rates for offenders who live here is 21.1% lower than that of prisoners who were sent to halfway houses that did not use this model (Minke, 2011). In other words, the presentation of criminal activity in the episode lines up quite well with the way that researchers have evaluated similar behavior in the real world. Furthermore, the fact that Leonard, who broadly seems to have a longer criminal record and more criminal associates than his sister, is more resistant to abandoning deviant behavior than his sister, something that would also make sense when one considers that his greater involvement in criminal behavior would provide him with more peers who would reinforce his deviant activities. 

However, differential association theory does have limitations, one of which is that it does not adequately explain crimes of passion (e.g., the husband or wife who murders their spouse after discovering them with a lover). Because crimes of passion are usually done in the heat of the moment, the lessons about crime that a person has learned from their associates are unlikely to be a major factor in their decision to commit the crime. Since these are usually acts of violence committed in moments of extreme anger, jealousy, and/or fear, they are not generally affected by one’s attitude towards crime as a whole.  I would argue that this does serve as a problem for this particular analysis; albeit not a major one. The last crime of the episode, Captain Cold’s murder of his father, is in effect a crime of passion. While he’s clearly hated his father for a long time, there’s nothing in the episode that suggests that he was actively plotting the man’s death from the start; the killing instead seems to be motivated predominantly by the fact that his father had threatened his beloved sister with imminent death only seconds before. Many people, even those with no particular criminal tendencies, would be at least tempted to kill someone who had threatened to murder their sister; therefore, his murder of his father really isn’t attributable to differential association theory. 

Overall, however, “Family of Rogues” serves as a surprisingly complex examination of the ways in which one’s family members can encourage people to engage in criminal behavior. While the crime presented in the episode is not wholly realistic-no real-world criminal has a gun that can freeze laser beams, after all-the interpersonal dynamics between the characters do have a basis in real-world research. For all their comic-book-inspired weirdness, Leonard and Lisa Snart are surprisingly complex characters and do a good job of demonstrating the basic tenets of the differential association theory. 

Citations

Holland, D. (2021). Differential Association Theory . Salem Press Encyclopedia . 

McCarthy, B. The attitudes and actions of others: Tutelage and Sutherland’s theory of differential association. British Journal of Criminology. 1996; 36(1):135. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.bjc.a014062

Minke, L. K. (2011). The Effects of Mixing Offenders with Non-Offenders: Findings from a Danish Quasi-Experiment. Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology & Crime Prevention, 12(1), 80–99. https://doi.org/10.1080/14043858.2011.561624

Detective Comics #555 was published in 1985, shortly before Crisis on Infinite Earths, and features two stories. The first story, “Returning Reflections”, was written by “Jason Todd” (actually Doug Moench), drawn by Gene Colan, and inked by Bob Smith. It’s the second part of a two-part story where the original Mirror Master (Sam Scudder) and Captain Boomerang arrive in Gotham and get into a fight over who’s the better criminal (I’ll review the first half when it arrives in the mail). 

Here’s what goes down. 

• The cover, which unfortunately has much better art than the story inside, was drawn by Paris Cullins, Dick Giordano, and Anthony Tollin. It features Captain Boomerang and Mirror Master fighting one another while a giant Batman looms over both them and the city. “Captain Boomerang battles the Mirror Master to the death!” Unsurprisingly, neither Captain Boomerang nor Mirror Master actually dies in this issue. In fact, nobody dies in this issue at all. 
• The whole story is narrated in the form of Jason Todd, the second Robin, writing down the events of the case in his journal. (That’s why he’s credited as the issue’s writer.) As such, the story begins with Jason explaining the events of last issue. Captain Boomerang and Mirror Master both arrived in Gotham City to rob a museum. After being scared off by Batman before they could get any loot, they decided to have a contest to prove who was the better criminal. In order to win the contest, Captain Boomerang stole a mirror from Mirror Master’s hideout, shaped it into a boomerang (because of course he did), and then used it to hypnotize the Mirror Master into becoming his slave. 
• Batman, Jason, Commissioner Gordon, and Harvey Bullock meet on the roof of police headquarters to discuss their plan to capture the two criminals. After commenting on the fact that the sky is red even at night (as a result of the upcoming crisis), Batman explains that he’s going to have Harvey Bullock carry a valuable jade necklace out of its exhibit in the hopes that Boomerang and Mirror Master will both try to steal it. Once they are out in the open, Batman will be able to defeat and capture them. 
• Bullock is so excited about getting to play a part in the case that he swings his arm widely and accidentally breaks the Batsignal, much to Jason’s annoyance. 
• Batman then dresses up as Matches Malone (much to Alfred’s distaste) and goes to “spread the word” about the necklace “in one Gotham sleaze-pit after another”. As Matches, he gives the phony story about the police being so scared about the potential of Captain Boomerang and Mirror Master potentially stealing the necklace that they’re going to move the necklace out of the museum before the exhibit closes. He claims that, to avoid attention, Bullock will be handling the transition alone in plainclothes, but that there will be plenty of back-up out of sight. “I’ll tell ya…if I had me any fancy mirrors or trick boomerangs, I wouldn’t hesitate a second”. Captain Boomerang, who is at one of the bars, overhears this and decides to send the hypnotized Mirror Master to steal the necklace from Bullock for him. 
• “I’ll use my puppet Mirror Master, and if it works, I’ll have pulled off the perfect crime…for which I’ll later make Mirror Master confess–while I abscond Down Under with the loot. And if it fails, Mirror Master will be immediately carted off to prison. There’ll be no loot, but at least I’ll still be free–having obviously proven I’m the better criminal.” Oh, Digger….
  
• Also, Digger’s hair is super-extra-poofy in this issue, and his face is craggy even for him. 
• Digger uses a radio to tell Sam (and Sam’s horribly-drawn, semi-featureless face) to meet him at the museum so that they can steal the necklace. Once Mirror Master actually arrives the next night, however, Digger tells Sam that he’ll need to commit his caper on his own, then tells him to attack Bullock once he arrives to retrieve the necklace. Unbeknownst to Digger, Batman and Robin are watching the whole scene. However, because Digger didn’t show up, they have to alter their plans and allow Mirror Master to take the necklace in the hopes that this will, in turn, lure out or lead them to Digger. 
• Also, while he’s retrieving the necklace, Harvey Bullock references the movie Maltese Falcon, a movie which I know solely because there was a Transfomers comic from the original 80s Marvel run that took its plot almost wholesale from that movie. 
• “Me, I sure am glad Mirror Master an’ Captain Boomerang ain’t murderers!” An interesting comment from Harvey Bullock that serves to reflect the differences between Gotham Rogues and Flash Rogues even at this relatively early stage. 
  
• Mirror Master attacks and ends up stealing both the necklace and Bullock’s car. He also kidnaps Bullock himself. It’s also worth noting that the art in this sequence is really bad, almost to the point where you can’t really tell what’s going on. 
• Jason Todd is upset over the fact that Bullock was kidnapped, but tries to hide this fact by pretending to be annoyed with Bullock’s incompetence. Batman isn’t fooled and Jason has to admit his affection for the old cop. 
• Mirror Master takes Bullock and the necklace with him to his meeting with Captain Boomerang, who flies in on one of his flying boomerangs. Yes, he has flying boomerangs that can support his weight. Digger Harkness can do anything with boomerangs. 
• Mirror Master reveals to Captain Boomerang that he was never hypnotized. “Fool! You can’t hypnotize me with my own strobe mirror! When the mirror boomerang first pulsed in my hand, I simply closed my eyes!” Mirror Master played along and pretended to be hypnotized in the hopes that he would be able to double-cross Boomerang and use him as a scapegoat for the theft. When he didn’t show up, Mirror Master had to think on his feet and ended up kidnapping Bullock to ensure his getaway. 
• We also get more of Mirror Master’s horribly-drawn, semi-featureless face here. It’s really unnerving, but not in a way that I think was intentional. 
• Mirror Master then hypnotizes Bullock with the strobe mirror and orders him to “commit my first murder for me–shoot the Australian Rogue!” This is another interesting comment that seems to confirm that he, at least, had no body count at this point. This, combined with Bullock’s early comment, also highlights the fact that the Flash Rogues took much longer to become murderous than did most other supervillains.
• Bullock tries to resist, but the hypnotism is too strong for him to shake on his own. Luckily for both him and Digger, Batman and Robin bust through the window (in a horribly-drawn panel), and Robin kicks Bullock’s arm so his shot goes wild and doesn’t hurt anybody. 
• Batman, Bullock, Robin, Mirror Master, and Captain Boomerang get into a fight that ends with both villains being knocked out and captured. We also learn that the “necklace” Bullock was carrying was actually just some of the broken shards from the Batsignal, so that there was no danger of the priceless neckace being damaged in all of the chaos. The issue ends with Jason noting that his journal entry describing all this “couldn’t even pass for a comic book”, which is really meta. 
• Also, the art for the final fight scene is pretty terrible. The action is really hard to follow and most of the individual figures are badly drawn. 
• Overall, this is an entertaining story with really, really terrible art. It’s too bad the art is so bad, because with a better artist (or maybe inker) this could’ve been a great Flash Rogues vs Batman story, in the way that the first part was. 

The second story in the issue is a Green Arrow tale called “The Case of the Runaway Shoebox!” It was written by Elliot S! Maggin and drawn by Dick Dillin and Dick Giordano. It’s a fun little story with much, much better art than “Returning Reflections”. 

Tune in next time for the review of the first half of this story, Batman #388! 

Hugo Strange: From the patient files of Dr. Hugo Strange, director of Arkham Asylum. Patient: Roy G. Bivolo, alias the Rainbow Raider. Patient displays noticeable low self-esteem, but since he only arrived at Arkham Asylum a few days ago, I have not had time to give him a full psychological evaluation. Session One. Hello, Mr. Bivolo. How are you? 

Rainbow Raider: Confused. Why am I in an insane asylum? I am not insane. I am an artist! It isn’t my fault that no one appreciates my talents! 

Hugo Strange: Mr. Bivolo, you were not sent to Arkham Asylum because of your mental state. You were sent here because Iron Heights Penitentiary is currently incapable of housing inmates, and, through a series of baffling bureaucratic and judicial decisions, all of Iron Heights’ costumed criminals were sent here. 

Rainbow Raider: Oh. (Pause) Well, that makes me feel better. I have had more than my fill of people discounting my artistic talents. 

Hugo Strange: So, Mr. Bivolo, why did you take to costumed crime? Your records suggest that your family was quite well-off, and you have a college degree in fine arts. 

Rainbow Raider: Why? Why? I’ll tell you why, Doctor! (Pause) As a boy, I was an artistic prodigy! I had the talent to be the next Michelangelo, the next Picasso, the next Frieda Kahlo! 

Hugo Strange: I’ve seen your work, Mr. Bivolo, and I would be inclined to agree with you. A few of your pieces were included in your files, and they belong in a museum. 

Rainbow Raider: (Upset) Don’t mock me, Doctor! (Pause) I know all too well that I will never be a true artist…for I was born under a curse! While the untalented multitudes have the ability to see the full range of color, I was born colorblind! 

Hugo Strange: Mr. Bivolo, colorblindness is a very common condition. 

Rainbow Raider: I am not speaking of red-green colorblindness, Doctor. I am speaking of true color blindness; seeing the world entirely in greyscale! I was born with complete achromatopsia!

Hugo Strange: Is that why…

Rainbow Raider: Yes, Doctor, that is why I am wearing these sunglasses. In addition to my total inability to see the wonders of color, I am also extremely sensitive to light. (Pause) And legally blind. 

Hugo Strange: Do you mean to tell me that you created all of the art in your files while legally blind? 

Rainbow Raider: Yes. 

Hugo Strange: Mr. Bivolo, if you are able to create such astonishing art whilst suffering from a severe eye condition, I cannot imagine why you believe that you will never be a true artist. Your work is incredible. 

Rainbow Raider: (Angry) Stop making fun of me! I know that I am a failure as an artist! You don’t have to mock me for it! 

Hugo Strange: Mr. Bivolo, I am not making fun of you. I am praising your talent. 

Rainbow Raider: But…but you can’t think I’m talented! The art critics of Central City told me a long time ago that I would never be an artist, and certainly they couldn’t have been wrong! 

Hugo Strange: What on Earth could have prompted an art critic to say something like that? Granted, I am not an art expert, but even I can tell that you are immensely talented. 

Rainbow Raider: Doctor, I cannot distinguish between colors! How can I be a true artist if I can’t use color? 

Hugo Strange: Mr. Bivolo, there is such a thing as black-and-white art. 

Rainbow Raider: I know there is…but…but I certainly couldn’t produce any that was good enough. (Pause) Not only am I colorblind, but I’m so nearsighted I’m legally blind in general. And blind people…blind people can’t make good art. 

Hugo Strange: What? Who told you that? 

Rainbow Raider: Well, nobody’s  directly said it, but I can see it in the way that people react when they learn that I’ve got achromatopsia. When my classmates learned, they started making fun of me. When my teachers learned, they stopped pushing me. And when dealers learn about my condition, they usually refuse to look at my work out-of-hand. As long as I’m colorblind, I’ll never be good enough to be a real artist. (Pause) And it’s not fair! There are so many artists who don’t have half my talent who get money and fame, and I can’t even sell one painting because of my condition! 

Hugo Strange: Mr. Bivolo, there are a number of blind artists. Keith Salmon, John Bramblitt, Ersef Armagan…even Claude Monet suffered from vision problems later in his artistic career. Your issue is not your condition. Your issue is your lack of confidence in yourself. You have allowed the prejudices and cruel comments of the people around you to convince you that you will never be a true artist unless you fit their preconceived ideas of what an artist should be. If you realize that your talent is not dependent on your ability to see normally, you will realize what I already do: the fact that you are an astonishingly talented artist. 

Rainbow Raider: You…you really think so? 

Hugo Strange: I do. (Pause) So again, why costumed crime? 

Rainbow Raider: I wanted to get revenge on all those hacks who became famous instead of me. (Pause) And on all those talentless people who got to enjoy the full beauty of priceless works of art when it was denied to me, a true artist! 

Hugo Strange: But I thought you believed that your achromatopsia meant that you could never be a true artist. 

Rainbow Raider: I did. I wanted revenge on them for the fact that they had been able to become famous only through my ill-fortune. They weren’t as talented as me, and yet, due to a cruel twist of fate, they became famous while I languished in obscurity! 

Hugo Strange: I…see. (Pause) You have quite an impressive array of powers, Mr. Bivolo. According to your files, the special goggles you wear allow you to perform all kinds of feats, including riding on rainbows and altering people’s emotions. 

Rainbow Raider: That’s right. They were a gift from my optometrist father before he passed away. 

Hugo Strange: If you have such power, Mr. Bivolo, why did you limit yourself to such relatively petty crimes? Why not use your powers to try to take over the world? (Pause) And why did you never try to sell any of the paintings you stole? Most of them are worth a fortune

Rainbow Raider: Because I don’t care about sordid things like power or money. I am driven by a higher and nobler motivation: art appreciation! 

Hugo Strange: And revenge? 

Rainbow Raider: And revenge. 

Hugo Strange: Interesting. (Pause) Mr. Bivolo, your files state that you are usually a solo operative. Do you ever interact with your city’s other costumed criminals? 

Rainbow Raider: Not often. Most of them are philistines who don’t have the least appreciation for art, and many of them are too violent for my tastes. No matter how angry I may be at the art world…I don’t want anyone to die. (Pause) Also, most of them think I’m a pathetic loser. It’s so unfair! I’m way more powerful than Heat Wave or Captain Boomerang! 

Hugo Strange: Is there anyone that you do get along with, Mr. Bivolo?

Rainbow Raider: Dr. Alchemy. The original, that is, not the redheaded gremlin. 

Hugo Strange: You are friends with Dr. Alchemy? The alter of the unfortunate Dr. Desmond? 

Rainbow Raider: Yes. He’s a little spooky, but he’s a true lover of culture, and we’ve had some really stirring conversations about both literary and artistic masterpieces. 

Hugo Strange: Are you friends with Dr. Desmond or Mr. Element?
Rainbow Raider: No. Just Dr. Alchemy. Dr. Desmond’s all right, but he’s a bit boring and unimaginative. And I’d be more than happy if Mr. Element never appeared again. He makes fun of me, just like everyone else. 

Hugo Strange: You are friends with Dr. Alchemy? 

Rainbow Raider: Yes. I already said that. 

Hugo Strange: He…doesn’t strike me as the sort to make friends. 

Rainbow Raider: He’s not. I’m his only friend. (Pause) Just like he’s-*sigh*- my only friend. 

Hugo Strange: What do you do with the rest of your time? (Pause) When you aren’t robbing museums, that is? 

Rainbow Raider: I draw. Or paint. Or sculpt. (Pause) Creativity is in my very blood, doctor. 

Hugo Strange: I would agree. And because of that, I think that it might be helpful to you if you used your art as a form of therapy.

Rainbow Raider: What do you mean, doctor? 

Hugo Strange: Art is, among other things, a way of expressing one’s feelings and emotions. If you want to be able to recover from your insecurities, anger, and self-doubt, one of the best ways for you to do it would be to put those feelings into your artwork itself. Once you do, you will not only be a healthier person but a better artist as well.