The DC Comics Black Label imprint Rogues ages several of the Flash’s most dangerous villains, effectively giving them the Old Man Logan treatment.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Rogues #1, now on sale from DC Comics.
The nature of superhero comics usually means that characters aging is something of a rarity, allowing generations to enjoy the same group of characters from the same general window of their fictional lives. But some series have effectively bucked this trend to depict heroes and villains as older than they are usually seen, and with that age generally comes a surprising level of grizzled brutality.
The DC Black Label title Rogues (by Joshua Williamson, Leomacs, Matheus Lopes, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou) introduces a grim and gritty older version of numerous Flash villains, more or less giving one of DC’s most distinct band of bad guys their own Old Man Logan arc.
Rogues takes place a decade or so after a more recognizable version of the DC Universe played out. The Flash Rogues in particular have seen better days, with age catching up to them en masse. Some, like Golden Glider and Trickster, have found legitimate careers as a social worker and performer, respectively. Some, like Weather-Wizard and Captain Boomerang, have passed on. The story largely focuses on Captain Cold, who’s carved out a quiet and unremarkable life for himself as a warehouse supervisor. However, when he discovers how little his employers respect him, Cold decides to recruit the surviving Rogues to go out on one last job that could result in them making so much money that they will never have to work again.
Rogues is the latest in a trend of superhero stories that explore the waning days of major heroes. Although stories like these have existed for decades (perhaps most famously with Alan Moore and Curt Swan’s “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow” and Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns), the 21st century has been full of them. Old Man Logan became a major success for Marvel, resulting in a number of dark potential future stories for many established characters. Meanwhile, DC has produced Old Lady Harley, Catwoman: Lonely City, Batman/Catwoman, and Batman: Last Knight on Earth, each focusing on the titular character(s) dealing with their older age and experience. This has even become a defining trend in the mainstream DC Universe, in which a visibly older Superman has moved aside for his son.
Rogues is just the latest example of this trend and perhaps the most brutal. Focusing on the villains instead of heroes like Batman or anti-heroes like Catwoman, Rogues is more willing to showcase the brutality of its focal characters. Notably, this includes Captain Cold freezing a band of police officers and then shattering them to pieces in front of his crew, highlighting his ruthless nature. Without the brightness afforded by the Flash or the inherent goofiness of their younger days, Rogues instead casts a spotlight on how troubled and dangerous these criminals really are.
At the end of the day, Rogues has more in common with Old Man Logan than any of its DC contemporaries, embracing a far grimmer tone than the overtly bittersweet tone of its peers. This story portrays the characters as broken people instead of bombastic villains, with Captain Cold’s outburst even frightening his partners-in-crime. It’s also worth considering why this trend has become so prevalent, especially in consideration of DC’s much-touted plan to formally turn a fresh generation of heroes into a new iteration of the Justice League, at least momentarily. The slew of “older heroes and villains” stories might come from DC’s desire to highlight new characters while not necessarily writing off the old ones, relying on dark alternate realities tales to explore what happens when heroes get old.
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