Classic Fantastic is our series of features on the classics of the format—please check out our other picks for the most important titles, in terms of appeal, innovation, and storytelling, that every library should own.

What’s it about?

In the DC universe, Leonard Snart was once the supervillain known as Captain Cold, a prominent villain, or rogue, who clashed with the superfast superhero The Flash. With his cold gun, he could freeze the so-called fastest man alive in his tracks, but that was a while ago. Now, Leonard is out on parole. Having served his time in prison, Leonard endures a parole officer who’s a jerk and a steady paying job that doesn’t respect him in his quest to stay on the straight and narrow, until he’s finally had enough. He’s just learned of an epic score that could set him and his fellow Rogues up for life, so he’s getting the crew back together for one last heist. Joining Snart are a list of once feared villains who have suffered from addiction, dead-end jobs, and the endless cycle of prison and rehabilitation. Golden Glider, Trickster, Magenta, Bronze Tiger, and Mirror Master have, in one way or another, been kicked in the teeth by life and now want to kick back. All involved are looking to reclaim their glory days of going toe-to-toe with superheroes. It’s the heist itself that gets a little tricky. Before these rogues can enjoy their score, they must break into the mysterious Gorilla City, a city hidden away from civilization that boasts a populace of superintelligent gorillas and is ruled by Grodd, a gorilla with both a keen intellect and a savage disposition. When they get to Gorilla City, it isn’t the city that they expected and obviously the heist doesn’t go according to plan, but what heists in these kinds of stories ever go to plan?

Notable Notes

While DC villains like Lex Luthor and the Joker get all the accolades for their dirty deeds, Flash villains, calling themselves Rogues, are more blue-collar. Not interested in taking over the world or somehow sending the Earth crashing into the sun, all these villains care about is the next big score, and Snart has often emerged as the leader of this group among its various members. This mentality of simply wanting to make a living being bad makes them the perfect protagonists for a heist storyline. Fans of the Suicide Squad, a typically more adult themed team of supervillains who are enjoying a bit of a resurgence in popularity, should like this depiction of villains doing villainous things. Writer Joshua Williamson has worked on several DC superhero projects like “Green Arrow” and “Justice League,” and he demonstrates his familiarity for DC’s superhero universe, but he also tells a grittier, more grounded story. That grittier and more realistic tone is emphasized by illustrator Leomacs, who did the artwork for adult horror and fantasy comics like “Basketful of Heads” and “Ghostlore.” Most of the characters in this story don’t necessarily look like big-time supervillains with steely gazes and spandex-squeezed muscles; Snart is older, thinner, and balding while a freshly sprung from rehab Mirror Master is typically portrayed with wide, glazed eyes that shows he might be more committed to getting his next fix. Even Gorilla City gets a grittier makeover in an unusually fantastic way, looking more like a Las Vegas run by the mob than a lost city full of gold.

Significance

“The Flash” series completed its ninth and final season in 2023 while a 2021 Suicide Squad movie starring Idris Elba and Margot Robbie helped people forget the less-than-successful Suicide Squad movie in 2017. This proves that superheroes are not only a part of popular culture, but they remain ripe for reinvention. The Flash made his debut in 1956 and is still running thanks to his appearances in different media, but his villains, the Rogues, have the potential to steal the spotlight, thanks to the Suicide Squad, a series that is so similar in tone and premise that these groups interacting or teaming up doesn’t seem like a stretch. Apart from the current popularity of superheroes, this comic, part of DCs Black Label imprint, shows a gritty take on superheroes that isn’t just morally corrupt people snarling and dropping f-bombs. Many of the villains in this book are multifaceted individuals with their own unique goals and interests, and just like any good crime story, they sometimes run counter to the group’s overall objective. Some might want the money while others want to relive the glory days. Superhero graphic novels are often ridiculed as adolescent power fantasies, and many adult superhero tales are derided as simply everyone’s favorite superheroes and villains swearing, but “Rogues” actually works as a mechanically precise heist story that just happens to feature supervillains.

Appeal

Fans of The Suicide Squad and adult fans of superheroes, particularly ones who want a mature kind of storytelling, should enjoy reading this story and watching the wheels coming off this caper. This book should also appeal to fans of movies like “Ocean’s Eleven” and “The Italian Job,” where the thrill is watching to see whether everything goes right, goes wrong, or both (spoiler alert: there’s a lot that goes wrong). While this book features fantastical elements like cold ray guns and lost gorilla cities, this book has the beating black heart of the darkest kind of noir story. Along with the swearing, there is a lot of death in this book, often in very violent ways. Even those who manage to walk away with all their various organs in their original locations don’t walk away unscathed, so fans who don’t mind superpowered individuals dying or killing should give this book a read (Just prepare for the gore!).

Why should you own this?

A surprisingly popular trope in the superhero genre involves spotlighting their villains, whether as complete antiheroes or showing a more sympathetic side. “Rogues” takes this concept to a new level by offering a group of villains who feel like their backs are to the wall. Readers will root for these heroes and feel their loss when this heist goes tragically off the rails. With debt, addiction, and a dwindling legacy all threatening to overwhelm them, they strike back the only way they know how: by trying to commit the biggest score of their lives. The book is also one of the strongest from the DC Black Label imprint, showing that one can tell a mature noir story that can also include a talking gorilla. Rogues By Joshua Williamson Art by Leomacs DC Black Label, 2022 ISBN: 9781779516855 NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+)