The Flash: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Rogue War | CBR - CBR - Comic Book Resources

In 2005, Geoff Johns was finally ending his lengthy run on The Flash, which would be one of the last times Wally West would be a focal point of the DCU before the mantle went back to Barry Allen. The first major run following Mark Waid's landmark series, Johns managed to re-define both Central and Keystone City, creating a host of new villains and raising the profile of all the rogues Wally West had faced in the past.

His last run on the character was Rogue War, with art by renowned penciler Howard Porter. The storyline saw Flash go up against all the villains he'd faced over the course of Johns' run, tying things up for the run itself while also setting up things to come for future storylines in the DC Universe.

10 Zoom Made Wally Relive His Worst Moments

Zoom Made Wally Relive The Worst Moment Of His Life

Hunter Zolomon’s driving force in the comics is to force Wally West to become a better hero. His method of choice? Forcing Wally to go through extreme trauma, believing that’s the only way he'll understand how to improve himself. During Rogue War Zolomon uses the help of Eobard Thawne to go back in time and drag Wally back to the day he caused Linda to miscarry their kids, forcing him to watch that moment again and again while Zoom and Thawne taunt him for his failure. Fortunately, Barry arrives to take Thawne out and Wally gets to try again to defeat both versions of Zolomon.

9 Prologue Was A 1/2 Issue

The Rogue War prologue is a storyline where Flash chases down the new Trickster, Axel Walker. Though normally a storyline like this would be featured within the main Flash comic, this was produced in a unique format that no longer exists. Wizard Magazine, a monthly magazine focusing on comics and genre culture in general, would regularly produce one-half issues that would be part of a DC, Marvel, or independent comic book company. The issue featured Axel Walker’s storyline, along with looks at pencils and the script for the comic book itself.

8 Features Captain Boomerang Searching For His Dad

Captain Boomerang Is Looking For His Dad

The inciting incident of Rogue War is Owen Mercer, the new Captain Boomerang, joining up with the rest of the Rogues in search of his father. Owen was originally introduced in Identity Crisis, joining up with his dad just before his dad lost his life in a double-murder planned by Ray Palmer’s wife. With nowhere else to go, Owen joined the Rogues and became a true member as the Rogues helped him find his father’s missing body.

7 The FBI Tries To Use Captain Boomerang's Body For Information

The DCU’s government had had it with supervillains by the mid-2000s. Rather than continue to deal with villains laying waste to their cities and waiting on the heroes to do something about it, in Rogue War it’s discovered that the FBI has taken Captain Boomerang’s dead body and are re-animating it, Frankenstein-style to get information out of him.

This would eventually lead to stories like Salvation Run, where the government takes every supervillain they find and dumps them onto a separate planet.

6 Barry Comes Back Briefly

Rogue War takes place when Wally West is still the primary Flash in the DC Universe and the true Fastest Man Alive, but that didn’t mean Barry Allen couldn’t make appearances. The character pops up at the tail end of Rogue War, recalling a prophecy that had been made during the Wally West Flash era that he would meet Wally three more times. Rogue War was the second time the two of them met and would see Barry show up to stop Eobard Thawne, dragging him back to the future and away from Wally and Hunter Zolomon’s battle.

5 The Top Turns Some Reformed Rogues Evil

The Top Can Reform Rogues And Make Them Evil

One of the things that had happened during the ’90s was that some of the rogues had begun to reform themselves. The Trickster, James Jesse, even went so far as to join the FBI. Meanwhile, the Pied Piper continued to be a hero, occasionally helping Wally out. But during Identity Crisis, Wally had learned Roscoe Dillon, The Top, had been brainwashed into “fixing” some of the Rogues. Dillon was able to control a new set of rogues, while also reverting Trickster, Pied Piper, and Heat Wave to their old selves.

4 Old Trickster Puts Young Trickster In Place

Old Trickster Puts Young Trickster In His Place

James Jesse does his best to stay on the straight and narrow for much of the comic book but puts on his costume to lead a set of Rogues into battle against Captain Cold and the other Rogues. However, he’s eventually pushed too far and gets unleashed by the Top.

Though Axel Walker is desperate to prove himself a superior rogue, James Jesse easily defeats him, dumping him into a trash dumpster and threatening him to give up the Trickster name entirely if he knows what’s good for him.

3 Captain Boomerang's Mom Is A Speedster

Much of the storyline around the new Captain Boomerang involves where his power comes from. Unlike his father, this version of Captain Boomerang isn’t just supremely capable with boomerangs, but also seems to have super-speed. Originally, the Rogues believe this is because his mother is actually Captain Cold’s sister, Golden Glider. In actuality, Rogue War reveals his mother was Meloni Thawne, the mother of Bart Allen as well, and she met Owen’s father when he was sent to the future.

2 Captain Cold Kills The Top

Captain Cold had long been established as the head of the Rogues, but Geoff Johns re-established the Rogues as the top dogs in Central City. Rather than leaving them as Silver Age comedic jokes, he made them into threats on the level of Batman’s group of rogues. Rogue War sees Cold go to war with Trickster and Heat Wave’s “good” rogues at first, then later The Top and his brainwashed crew. After trying to negotiate with The Top, he finally kills him for believing he was better than the rest of the group.

1 The Rogues Join The Secret Society

At the time this Flash run was coming to an end, DC was building towards its big anniversary storyline for Crisis on Infinite Earths. In Infinite Crisis, one of the plot threads was Lex Luthor getting together all of the villains, gathering them into a group known as the Secret Society. With the Rogues newly reformed, they agree to join Lex’s several hundred-member army in a story that would eventually play out in the miniseries Villains United.

NEXT: CW's The Flash: 10 Basic Mistakes Barry Allen Keeps Making