A Real Rogues' Gallery!

The cover above for The Flash #174 is on my top ten list all-time. The image Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson is amazingly dramatic with the beaten Flash at the base of the logo made giant with the villains atop it leering down at their beaten enemy. The "six super villains" are members of the Flash's Rogues Gallery. arguably the most entertaining brood of baddies any hero ever had. Most were created by John Broome and designed by Carmine Infantino.

Here's a pin-up by Infantino featuring all of the Rogues (at the time). With the exception of Super-Gorilla Grodd, and Professor Zoom the Reverse-Flash and possibly The Top, these are men with gimmicks. The dangerous toys used by dangerous men to commit crimes, crimes meant to enrich themselves. That's part of the charm of the Rogues, their motivations are for the most part base, simple greed or revenge. No one here wants to rule the universe (well maybe Grodd) but rather wants to see the Flash dead or worse or merely to get some loot. That's a criminal I can get my mind around. Nihilistic and megalomaniacal villains are fine and well, but crazy bastards like that don't speak to the avaricious heart in us all.

Here are the Rogues on their debut covers (though some appeared and battled the Flash before they got a cover gig).

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