FLASH FILES 06- ROGUES RELOADED

Revisiting Flash #14-#17 for Paid subscribers!

I love the Rogues. They are some of my favorite bad guys in comics.

Starting in the Flash #13 we did a four-issue arc that was originally going to be about the Rogues attempting a heist on Gorilla City. Sound familiar?

That’s because it was the plot of my critically acclaimed Black label series…ROGUES.

Way back in 2016, when I pitched this story to DC we all loved it. But there was one big problem. It was a Rogues story and not a Flash story. And we were only six months into the new Flash series, and the focus needed to still be on Barry Allen.

So instead I had to scramble to put together a new pitch for the four-issue arc and time was running out. (I think it was actually planned to be a six-issue arc, but again, time was running out. Double ship was a BEAST to keep up with.)

One of the biggest challenges with Rogues was that it was coming out at the same time as Shadow War, Death of the Justice League, and Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths. It was hard to promote. I wasn’t able to give it the same kind of loud attention I was giving the events. And so I feel like it went under the radar a bit.

Rogues is very personal to me. One of my favorite works for DC Comics. It was more ME than a lot of other works. More in line with Nailbiter, Birthright, etc. My creator-owned series. It was an opportunity to show different muscles than I showed on the Flash series.

And my hope is that it gets a second life now that it’s collected. You can order it from your comic book store NOW.

Now onto the Flash #14 to #17 from 2016!

WELCOME TO FLASH FILES! My monthly annotated breakdown of every issue of my 100-Plus issue run of the Flash. Now before I begin, this is based on MY experiences on the Flash. I can’t speak for others. This is my own personal point of view on working on the Flash for almost 5 years. There will be some insights that I have now as I look back at the series along with behind the scenes notes you might not know. Working on the Flash was one of the BEST times of my life, but it was also a roller coaster with some ups and downs. I’m going to look at each issue. One by one. It’s a LOT of comics. So we better get started! I’m sure these will be full of typos that I will correct and update. Oh, one last thing before we begin…please don’t reproduce this newsletter without our permission.

The name “Rogues Reloaded” was actually suggested by Steve Orlando. We were in a summit in June of 2016 and Rebirth had just started. I had wanted to use “Rogues Rebirth” but that was vetoed because it wasn’t going to be its own series. In the past Rogues stories have had an alliteration with an “R” follow up. Like “Rogues Revenge.” Or “Rogues Rebellion.”

During the summit Steve said “use Reloaded” and I thought it was a genius option and went with it.

The hardest part of this story was a simple one. How do we reintroduce the Rogues to the new (and returning) audience generated by Rebirth in 2016? AND…I’ve read a LOT of Rogues stories. How is this one different? How do the Rogues realize how to pull a fast one on the Flash?

Those challenges lead to one of my favorite arcs on the book!

Continue reading to find out why!