FLASH VS HIS ROGUES GALLERY

This weekend’s light-hearted and escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at the 1960s and 1970s Flash stories in which several of his recurring villains would team up against him.

FLASH Vol 1 #155 (September 1965)

Title: The Gauntlet of Supervillains

Villain Roster: Captain Cold, the Top, Mirror Master, Heat Wave, Pied Piper, Captain Boomerang and Gorilla Grodd

Synopsis: Gorilla Grodd (the mysterious villain referred to on the cover) engineers prison breakouts for the six other Flash foes mentioned above. Grodd uses the other villains to wear down the Flash and erode his powers, hoping to then kill the hero himself.

NOTE: The semi-annual team up of Flash villains soon becomes referred to as his Rogues Gallery Convention and/ or “Convention of Flash Villains.” For a time the event was almost as frequent as the annual Justice Society/ Justice League get-togethers. 

FLASH Vol 1 #174 (November 1967)

Title: Triumph of the Six Super-Villains

Villain Roster: Captain Boomerang, Mirror Master, Heat Wave, Pied Piper, the Top and Captain Cold

Synopsis: Mirror Master’s tech enables him to discover Earth-148, an alternate Earth where Flash is a villain and his Mirror Master counterpart is a hero.

He recruits the other five villains mentioned above in a plan to finish off the heroic Flash by using Earth-148 and its differences to their advantage.   

FLASH Vol 1 #231 (February 1975)

Title. The Only Crook Flash Could Never Catch

Villain Roster: Weather Wizard, Heat Wave, Mirror Master, The Top, Pied Piper

Synopsis: At what our five villains indicate has been an event they’ve celebrated at least one or two previous times, we see some of the activities at their Convention of Flash Villains. The highlights of the proceedings are special effects reenactments of the attendees’ most recent clashes with Flash, but altered to depict them successfully killing their mutual foe.

The Rogues even have a display featuring items in honor of a few villains who couldn’t make it to the convention this year. One of Captain Cold’s cold guns is there, as is a bust of Gorilla Grodd and a boomerang in honor of Captain Boomerang. Trickster gets a verbal shoutout.

Presently, the time comes for the criminals to vote on who wins this year’s award for Best Death Trap for Flash, as represented by their reenactments. A villain calling himself the Dude (at right) suddenly crashes the proceedings and claims to be the only supervillain that Flash has never beaten or caught.

SPOILERS: The Dude turns out to really be Flash in disguise so he could infiltrate this year’s convention of his Rogues Gallery. As “The Dude” he appears to have high-tech weaponry in his walking stick and old-timey hat. 

        At the appropriate moment, Flash turns the tables on the villains and sends them back to prison.

FLASH Vol 1 #234 (June 1975)

Title: I’m Going To Kill You, Flash. But Not Til I’m Good and Ready

Villain Roster: Saber-Tooth, Captain Cold, Heat Wave, Pied Piper and Captain Boomerang

Synopsis: Dexter Myles, former ham actor and now the curator of Central City’s Flash Museum, stumbles upon a deadly set of circumstances involving our hero and four members of his Rogues Gallery (see cover).

It all turns out to be an elaborate plot to kill Flash. A plot being masterminded by Saber-Tooth.

FLASH Vol 1 #239 (February 1976)

Title: The Tailor-Made Crimes of Central City

Villain Roster: The Trickster, Mirror Master, the Top, Pied Piper and Paul Gambi (The Tailor)

Synopsis: Paul Gambi, the tailor who covertly spent years providing custom-outfitted costumes for Flash’s Rogues Gallery of supervillains, has been released from prison. A while back, Flash had finally compiled enough evidence to get Gambi charged as an accessory (see what I did there) to his foes’ crimes.

To show Flash that there are no hard feelings, the tailor presents Flash with a costume he has made for him. Our hero wears it into action, and in short order clashes with Trickster, Pied Piper, the Top and Mirror Master after they pull off high-dollar robberies.

Trouble is, the stolen loot vanishes right after Flash nabs each one of the felons during their individual capers. It turns out that Paul Gambi, privately enraged that Flash sent him to prison, devised a costume that would temporarily grant him control over the hero’s actions. (It’s only a comic book. Just go with it.)

The Tailor would have Flash whisk away the loot to a spot of Gambi’s choosing, faster than the eye could follow, then return to the scene to turn the guilty supervillains over to the cops. The costume would also wipe Flash’s memories of those deeds each time.

With the help of Kid Flash (Barry Allen’s nephew Wally West), our hero figures it all out and busts the embittered Paul Gambi once again.

FLASH Vol 1 #243 (August 1976)

Title: If I Can’t Rob Central City, Nobody Can!

Villain Roster: Weather Wizard, Captain Boomerang, Mirror Master, Trickster, Captain Cold, Pied Piper and Heat Wave

Synopsis: The Rogues have gathered this time to mark the passing of the Top, who died in his most recent battle with Flash. Listening to a special message he wanted played in the event of his death, the other supervillains learn that the Top, dying from exposure to Flash’s speed force in addition to his own, planted assorted bombs around Central City during his final crime spree.

Each bomb can be attached to its counterparts, so that when they are all assembled, they will form the shape of one of the late villain’s high-tech tops. This act will neutralize the bombs so that they don’t explode.

The members of the Rogues Gallery want to save Central City because they consider it home and want to go on robbing it, too. (It’s only a comic book. Just go with it.) With time running out before the bombs will explode and wipe out Central City, the supervillains spread out to try finding them.

FLASH Vol 1 #244 (September 1976)

Title: The Last Day of June is the Last Day of Central City

Villain Roster: See previous issue’s roster 

Synopsis: This issue is the second part of two. The Rogues Gallery members raid the designated locations in order to retrieve fragments of the Top’s bomb. Flash battles each of them individually but, with right on their side for a change, the Rogues manage to beat him and escape each time, except for Captain Cold.

Our hero is puzzled by the way each supervillain doesn’t seem to have stolen any loot from the places they raided. At last, he realizes they really must be working for a different goal than money this time around.

When Flash learns what is actually going on, he briefly joins forces with the Rogues to save Central City from the Top’s bombs. He then takes down the remaining villains before they kill him.

FLASH Vol 1 #254 (October 1977)

Title: To Believe or Not to Believe

Villain Roster: Weather Wizard, Mazdan, Pied Piper, Trickster, Mirror Master and Captain Cold

Synopsis: The Rogues lure Flash to this year’s Convention of Flash Villains, where they expose him to what they claim is “the Roscoe Award”, named for the late Top’s real first name. A monumental battle follows, but the Rogues escape.

Flash doesn’t know it, but the Roscoe Award was really a device to implant a post-hypnotic command in our hero’s subconscious. Over the next night and day he clashes first with his old foe Mazdan from the 38th Century (at right), and later with the Trickster.

Mazdan’s technology lets them each escape Flash without the Trickster even having to use the post-hypnotic command. The Rogues meet up back at their hideout and gloat that the Flash is on the verge of losing his mind and his life. 

FLASH Vol 1 #255 (November 1977)

Title: Flashback to Danger

Villain Roster: Same as previous issue.

Synopsis: Flash is under assault by Mazdan’s technology which is reverting him mentally while Mirror Master gets voted to test the post-hypnotic command on Flash. That command enables Mirror Master to defeat Flash that night when he tries to stop MM from robbing a wealthy crowd of all their jewelry at a movie premier. 

The following evening, Flash figures out a way to resist the command and beats the Mirror Master. With the villain being sent off to prison, our hero dons MM’s costume and lies down in an alley seemingly unconscious, hoping the other Rogues will assume he’s really their fellow criminal and try to help him.

FLASH Vol 1 #256 (December 1977)

Title: Prisoner of the Past

Villain Roster: Golden Glider, Mazdan, Pied Piper, Trickster, Captain Cold and Weather Wizard

Synopsis: 3rd part of 3. Flash’s ruse works. Weather Wizard and the Pied Piper come upon him and think he really is the unconscious Mirror Master. They take him back to their hideout to revive him, but once there, Flash takes Captain Cold, Trickster, Pied Piper and Weather Wizard by surprise, defeating them. 

Mazdan, still at large, impersonates the late villain the Top and fights Flash, keeping him off-balance mentally by seeming to be a dead man who has returned for revenge. The two fight in public a few more times over the next few days. Flash’s super villainess foe the Golden Glider (at right – she’s Captain Cold’s sister and the former girlfriend of the late Top) is furious that someone seems to be stealing her dead beau’s villain identity.

Golden Glider dons her costume and sets out to join the action by killing Flash AND whoever is impersonating the Top. Flash ultimately triumphs over all dangers and sends Mazdan back to his future prison.

FLASH Vol 1 #284 (April 1980)

Title: Run, Flash … Run for Your Life

Villain Roster: Lord of Limbo, Mirror Master, Trickster, Captain Cold, Heat Wave and the Pied Piper

NOTE: Yes, this last story featuring Flash’s foes assembled technically takes us into 1980 rather than just the 1960s and 1970s but I wanted to include it.

Synopsis: The Lord of Limbo (at right), an alien who rules a realm outside the normal space/ time continuum, tries to add the Flash to his collection of prisoners from various eras and planets.

The villain’s plan involves some of the members of our hero’s Rogues Gallery, time displacement and, in a particularly ugly move, forcing Flash to fail once again to save his late wife Iris West-Allen from being killed by the supervillain called Reverse-Flash.

NOTE: Iris was killed at a costume party in Flash #275 (July 1979). And by the way, plenty of other recurring Flash villains never made it to the “convention” or other get-togethers, like Dr. Alchemy, Abra Kadabra, Turtle Man (should be the Terrapin), the Z-Gang, Kolossal Kate (the Roller Derby themed villainess), Mr. Originality (should be the Barber) and more.     

FOR MY LOOK AT THE 1960s TEAM-UPS OF THE JUSTICE SOCIETY AND JUSTICE LEAGUE CLICK HERE.

FOR MY LOOK AT THE EARLY 1970s DEFENDERS STORIES CLICK HERE.