So these guys are awesome and you should respect them.
Review for Final Crisis: The Rogues Revenge.
So here it is people my 200th review. Unlike Silkcuts I don't really have any synchronicity with choosing this comic to review. I read it, I really liked and I wanted to express my opinion of it. Back in august I was in Edinburgh and I visited this nice, little comic shop called DeadHead Comics and I picked up this and the first trade of Fables and I loved both trades. But I felt I had more to talk about this one.
The Story: Captain Cold, Heatwave, Weather Wizard and Mirror Master are back on earth from Salvation planet and want one thing: to kill Inertia because he forced them to kill Bart Allen.
The Good: One of the aspects I have noticed with Geoff Johns is that he wants us to like the heroes of his childhood, like making Hal Jordan one of the biggest heroes out there even tough I found him and Barry Allen boring in Blackest Night. But what Johnns excels is writng villain and making us understand why they do the actions they perform. And he brings all of this here for a simple revenge story od old men not wanting to be sscrewed over and want peace and quiet for a little while. What I find interesting is that as readers looking at these gimmicky villains we can see that these guys wont ever beat Barry, Wally or Bart and they know it to, all they want is to rob some banks, get some cash and not be bothered by people. But what we see in this mini-series is that if nothing they can slow the Flash down a little, melt his boots and apparently and when he's running he is running 20 times faster then the speed of sound and that doesn't even warm up his cowl, these men are profesionnals and they mean each action they do. And it's easy to find these villains likable is because they have a code of honour and the first rule is never kill a speedster because that just cause's problems and two you only kill when it's a kill or be killed situation, this shows maturity in these men. Also there is two running subplots of young men learning the tools of the trade of being villains, Axel Walker (the second Trickster) learns what it takes to be a Rogue, wich is you show why you can helpful and you earn the name. And at the same time we have Inertia being trained by Zoom and is trying to teach about his internal clock, the thing that will make him a true speedster. Now before I wrote that Geoff wants people to like Hal and Barry even tough we have had two characters that, to some people, are much more interesting characters are basically pushed aside to second stringer, or in Wally's case not appearing anywhere for a long while but with a villain it's okay if this is done because one that has been existing for a long time and so they are very interesting and well developed and when a new version appears you just grown because they are boring. This is embodied with the New Rogues who is lead by a kid from the tough streets of Gotham up against Cap Cold, who for each and every day of his childhood he was beaten by his father because he showed emotion's and he said that made him weak, also we never see his face wich makes him out as a faceless monster (and we get to see more of that in Flash #182). And the scene with Len confronting his father just showed that as much as he hates him family is still family and you still can't hurt them and it ends with him making Heatwave kil him and just shows that revenge is hollow. We also get to see Johns implementing an idea from the Silver Age in the modern world and it makes sense, before I did the review for a trade showing the first appearance the Rogues and the last one was their first team up and they are in a men's store where villain costumes are sewed. Here it tells us that Gambi made there costumes resistant to five hundred miles per hour winds (wich I guess is how fast the Flash runs) and seeing him strung up and beat up just psuhes them over the edge because nobody touches their friends who simply makes clothes for them and isn't appart of their crimes. Scott Kolins art is very skectchy and energetic and I understand why this guy drew The Flash.
The Bad: Have you read the wall of text ? If you have then I don't this comic, I love it.
The Verdict: So yeah, this book shows us an amazing characterization of each of the Rogues and just shows us why these men are great villains for the Flash and why they should be feared and even respected at times. This is a buy for any Flash fan or anybody interested in reading the Flash.
