THE FLASH – Rules of The Rogues


The Rogues struck again in last night’s episode of The Flash. Not only did the Scarlet Speedster have to deal with a Groundhog’s Day experience when he accidentally time-traveled, but also had to fight The Rogues and their newest member, Lisa Snart aka Golden Glider.

The most shocking part of the episode was [SPOILER ALERT!] when Leonard Snart (aka Captain Cold) learned The Flash’s secret identity! To keep that and his friends safe, Barry struck a deal with him: If he wants to keep stealing, his crew can’t kill anymore. Cold agreed, knowing that he could never leave the criminal life behind. Sounds like the start of the infamous Rogue Rules, the limited, but sacred, set of rules they live by in the comics. Even the bad guys need some sort of creed to follow. For those unaware, those rules are:

ROGUE RULE #1 No Killing (unless you have to)

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As seen in the last episode, Captain Cold has to swear off killing if he wants to keep operating in Central City. This was a rule he had already established in the episode Going Rouge. In fact, he shot one of his henchmen for doing just that, saying that killing (especially cops or security guards) brings too much attention to them. Snart will have to drive that into the rest of his crew who seem to have no problems killing (or beating, burning, or golden-ing) others. Snart has ignored that rule more than once, particularly when he got revenge on his sister’s murderer in The Flash #182 (2002).

ROGUE RULE #2 No Drugs

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The Rogues may be a group of super criminals, but they’re also a s#!@ storm of psychoses. Heatwave the pyromaniac, Trickster is a violent sociopath, and Weather Wizard has unresolved sibling issues! The last thing they need are drugs (at least the non-prescription kind). These guys have no problem with alcohol (Heatwave was knocking back shots on guard duty), but they are completely anti-drug. Cold enforces this rule heavily, saying that drugs eventually lead to violating Rule #1. Seen in The Flash #213 (2004), he even resorted to beating Mirror Master senseless when he discovered he was looking through a different looking glass.

ROGUE RULE #3 – Make It Only About the Score

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Unlike most supervillain groups in comics, The Rogues have no world dominating plans or holy crusade. They’re just a bunch of crooks and misfits who like to get paid. Just as The Flash is sometimes referred to as a ‘blue collar superhero’, The Rogues are simple criminals who just happen to wield amazing technology. A lot us could think of much better uses for those weapons and/or powers, but they just got as far as “Okay, time to steal stuff”. Unfortunately The Rogues always break this rule, which is usually why they always lose. When it’s not a personal vendetta against The Flash, it’s a vendetta against each other, or within themselves.

You can read more about the Rogue Rules in The Flash Annual #1 (2012). And be sure to catch The Rogues’ kookiest member, The Trickster, on next week’s episode of The Flash!

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