The Rogues

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15 years ago - Leonard Snart learns Barry Allen's secret identity and strikes a deal with him to allow for leiniency as long as he keeps his crimes non-violent.  He first forms the Rogues. Roscoe Dillon vies for control of the Rouges, but is shut down by Snart. Membership: 28-year-old Leonard Snart, 26-year-old Mick Rory 31-year-old Lisa Snart, 34-year-old Digger Harkness, 34-year-old Sam Scudder, 25-year-old Mark Mardon, 23-year-old James Jesse, 37-year-old Roscoe Dillon, 29-year-old Albert Desmond
​14 years ago - 38-year-old Roscoe Dillon's powers flare.  He attacks the Rogues and battles the Flash, ultimately dieing as the Speed Force consumes him. ​Membership: 29-year-old Leonard Snart, 27-year-old Mick Rory, 32-year-old Lisa Snart, 35-year-old Digger Harkness, 35-year-old Sam Scudder, ​26-year-old Mark Mardon, 24-year-old James Jesse, ​30-year-old Albert Desmond
13 years ago - 33-year-old Eobard Thawne fully recharges his powers and attempts to take over the Rogues, killing 33-year-old Lisa Snart & 36-year-old Sam Scudder.  Leonard Snart must team up with 30-year-old Barry Allen & 13-year-old Wally West to stop him.​ Membership: 30-year-old Leonard Snart, 28-year-old Mick Rory, 36-year-old Digger Harkness, ​27-year-old Mark Mardon ​, 25-year-old James Jesse, ​31-year-old Albert Desmond
12 years ago - 32-year-old Albert Desmond​ is freed from the philosopher's stone.  Hartley Rathaway joins the Rogues Membership: 31-year-old Leonard Snart, 29-year-old Mick Rory, 37-year-old Digger Harkness, ​28-year-old Mark Mardon ​, 26-year-old James Jesse, 14-year-old Hartley Rathaway
​11 years ago - The Rogues ally with Gorilla Grodd until his plans become evident.  They then help Barry Allen & Wally West stop him. Membership: 32-year-old Leonard Snart, 30-year-old Mick Rory, 38-year-old Digger Harkness, ​​29-year-old Mark Mardon, 27-year-old James Jesse, 15-year-old Hartley Rathaway
9 years ago - Barry Allen dies fighting Eobard Thawne. Leonard Snart, Mick Rory, & 17-year-old Hartley Rathaway attend his funeral, & Hartley decides to quit.  Membership: 34-year-old Leonard Snart, 32-year-old Mick Rory, 40-year-old Digger Harkness​, ​31-year-old Mark Mardon, 29-year-old James Jesse
8 years ago - Evan McCulloch joins the Rogues. Membership: 35-year-old Leonard Snart, 33-year-old Mick Rory, 41-year-old Digger Harkness​, ​32-year-old Mark Mardon, 30-year-old James Jesse, 25-year-old Evan McCulloch
7 years ago - Frankie Kane begins working with the Rogues.  Her powers overwhelm her, allowing her Magenta persona to take over. Wally West brings her in to get her the treatment she needs, and ends the deal with the Rogues, bringing them in, including 36-year-old Leonard Snart, 34-year-old Mick Rory, 42-year-old Digger Harkness, 33-year-old Mark Mardon, 31-year-old James Jesse, 26-year-old Evan McCulloch
​6 years ago - 20-year-old Hartley Rathaway comes out publicly as a former Rogue.  Leonard Snart & Mick Rory break out of prison and begins the work of re-establishing the Rogues.   Membership: ​ 37-year-old Leonard Snart, 35-year-old Mick Rory
5 years ago - Evan McCulloch escapes the Suicide Squad after Rick Flagg's death.  He rejoins the Rogues. Membership: 38-year-old Leonard Snart, 36-year-old Mick Rory, 28-year-old Evan McCulloch
​4 years ago - Mark Mardon retakes remote control of his nano-satellites from prison and escapes. he rejoins the Rogues. Membership: 39-year-old Leonard Snart, 37-year-old Mick Rory, 29-year-old Evan McCulloch  ​36-year-old Mark Mardon
​3 years ago - ​Clifford Devoe assembles a new, more lethal team of Rogues. To stop him,  Wally West reaches out to the original Rogues, building a new deal similar to the one they once had with Barry Allen.  After the fall of the New Rogues, the Trickster joins the original team.  New Rogues Membership: 58-year-old Clifford Devoe, 23-year-old Frankie Kane, 16-year-old Axel Walker, 25-year-old Tony Woodward Membership: 40-year-old Leonard Snart, 38-year-old Mick Rory, 30-year-old Evan McCulloch  ​37-year-old Mark Mardon
​2 years ago - Owen Mercer's father Digger Harkness dies. He takes up his father's role as Captain Boomerang & joins the Rogues. Membership: 41-year-old Leonard Snart, 39-year-old Mick Rory, 31-year-old Evan McCulloch, ​38-year-old Mark Mardon, 17-year-old Axel Walker, 21-year-old Owen Mercer
1 years ago - 22-year-old Owen Mercer is unable to work with the Rogues and winds up arrested and recruited by the Suicide Squad. Leonard Snart refuses to ally the Rogues with the Legion of Doom. Membership: 42-year-old Leonard Snart, 40-year-old Mick Rory, 32-year-old Evan McCulloch, ​39-year-old Mark Mardon, 18-year-old Axel Walker

Noteworthy Teams

​Original Team

The New Rogues

Other Members

Current Team
The Trickster
You can see the kernel of the the idea of the Rogues evolve over the decades before Mark Waid formalized the idea in his early 90's series.  Flash Villains (many of them invented by John Broome & Carmine Infantino) might have had a variety of themes, but they all share a similar feel of being centered around a central gimmick  (I use the phrase "gimmick-villains" in a lot of these timelines). That's not a condemnation of the characters, but it does present a bit of a problem over time... once the Flash finds a way to beat someone's gimmick, how do they ever present any sort of challenge ever again?  The answer that seems to have evolved over time is the main idea that eventually led to these villains being the first to really band together; you stay dangerous by layering your gimmicks together.  

All Rogues are Flash Villains, but not all Flash Villans are Rogues.  Characters like Gorilla Grodd or the Reverse-Flash are obviously standouts, but they often find themselves going up against the Rogues just as much as they do the Flash, and that fact alone makes the notion of the Rogues one of my favorite things about the Flash.

The Rogue's Comic History

The very first time the Flash villains all worked together was way back in 1962 in the Flash #130.  It as more of a casual team-up, not the pseudo-family the Rogues would become, but it was a a pretty clear indication that there was something about the bad guy's the Flash fought that made them stand out besides their ridiculous concepts.  

Mark Waid is the man most responsible for rethinking the way the Flash's enemies work.  He was giving the book a decidedly blue-collar feel.  Wally West was someone who had been a super hero for most of his life and he was GOOD at it.  If you really wanted to challenge him, you needed to strengthen his enemies.  I don't know if the words "super-villain union" ever actually cropped up on the page, but that is absolutely what the Rogues are, and it's pretty brilliant.  It's a way to take a disparate group of individuals and immediately strengthen them.  No other group of baddies in comics have managed to turn themselves into such an effective unit, and it's led to all sorts of really fantastic storytelling over the years.  Batman's enemies might be more deadly, Superman's might be more powerful, but the Rogues are the most ORGANIZED, and that has proven to be more than enough to make them among the scariest comic book villains in the game.  

Our Rogues Story

Other than the original creation of the team (based on a deal made with Barry Allen to follow a code of conduct and keep his identity secret in exchange for some measure of leniency) and the occasional addition or loss of a member, there are really five major events that really define the timeline of the Rogues.  The first is the first time the Rogues wind up working WITH the Flash, when Eobard Thawne tries to take over the group.  It's fun part of the Flash's story that he often winds up working with his villains.  It happens again when they find themselves on the same side trying to stop the invasion of Gorilla Grodd.  

The third big event is the actual death of Barry Allen.  There are other heroes that have died over the years, but none of them have such a personal relationship with their villains as Barry did, and it's pretty fitting to have some of their members show their respects.  

We really wanted to show Wally West being very effective as a hero, and given that he doesn't really worry about his secret identity the way Barry did, it actually worked really well to have it come about that he chooses to end the deal with the Rogues.  This needed a catalyst, and the fall of his one-time girlfriend Frankie and her joining the Rogues as Magenta worked very well.  There have been plenty of periods in the comics when the Rogues were coming apart at the seams, and having Wally actually take them down totally delivers that.  
Finally, there have been several internal struggles for power within the Rogues, and while we included a small version of that between Captain Cold and the Top early in their existance, the creation of the New Rogues actually mirrors events that happened during Geoff John's run.  We used different characters (including classic Flash Villain the Thinker), and the resultant story is a huge part of the Rogues history and feels very authentic to their story.  

So what's next?  The Rogues have deliberately rejected an overture from Gorilla Grodd's Legion of Doom, which actually puts them on the outs of the world of DC's Super Villains.  I don't know if it will happen any time soo, but I have to imagine that, somewhere down the line, this group is going to have to pick a side. While many of them would never accept this... I can actually imagine a story where the Rogues wind up giving their one-time nemesis actual membership.  That would be insane.