Rogues Gallery Round-up

DC Universe Badguys

Friendly bunch, just want to shake your hand.

I love Batman's villains. They're crazy, gaudy and full of pulp-inspired goodness. These are villains that have stood the test of time and already have some classic stories under their belt and I enjoy their sporadic reappearances. I've spoken before about the collected rogues of both Green Lantern and The Flash but what is a rogues gallery and the concept of heroes having a set rogues gallery in the first place? A rogues gallery is not exactly unique one to comic books but is a tent pole concept to comic book titles and heroes that continues to this day.

Batman's rogues are a mirror of the bat-clad hero in that they're more based in realty than most of the other super-villain variety. Large gorillas immediately pop in mind as some of the more unreal characters we see in comics. Some of the more enjoyable as well, no doubt. This unreality makes them no less loved, mind you as I've done my best to collect EVERY Post-Crisis appearance of Monsieur Mallah and The Brain. I will do my best to document their romance and the pitfalls they face. Spoiler: there's not a lot of issues that dedicate story time to these characters. I know, it makes me sad too. But just wait until we get to the giant gorillas in suits that make a quick comeback in the 90s; I'm so excited.

Friends. Lovers. Inspiration.

Damn my digression: this article's about collections psychopathic humans and robots, not just gorillas. Every comic book superhero needs to have a rogues gallery, meaning a collection of villains and ne'er do wells that only plague a certain hero and the city the hero calls home. Why would a villain like The Shark continue to plague Coast City or Green Lantern? There's no personal grudge there. Why does Captain Cold continue to rob banks in Central City when The Flash repeatedly trounces him? Again, there's no personal enmity between Cold and The Flash, in fact there's even a grudging respect. Why not move out of Central City though? Fight slower heroes? Go to Louisville, Kentucky; no heroes there. In fact, why does The Flash stick to one city. He runs so fast he faces the consequence of accidentally flying through time at regular intervals. Boy should be patrolling on a global level. Super-speed is pretty unstoppable really.

Rogues galleries are a pretty silly conceit most of the time and I find myself thinking: 'just go somewhere else Major Disaster, stop sticking around Coast City already. You're just going to get punched.' Although, moving won't even work half the time, Dr. Light moved to Gateway City and still happened to run across a retired Kid-Flash who trounced him with a trashcan. To my earlier point, the concept of not having a personal grudge is not applicable to all villains: Lex Luthor and The Joker do have personal grudges or obsessions with the hero, in this case Superman or Batman, respectively. For most villains, in Batman's case Scarecrow, Riddler, Penguin, et al, have no real problem with neither Gotham City nor Batman. Why stick around? And crazy isn't a viable excuse here. And maybe I'm selling my argument short by describing it in terms of geographical location, everything residing in one city, but more in the terms of why don't villains crossover between heroes more often? It does happen, but a rogues gallery is a hero owning a set group of villains.

Flash fights these guys over and over. But now they're spooky.

I've mentioned before, part of the reason a rogues gallery exists might be due to audience expectations: I enjoy seeing conflicts build up between a hero and a reoccurring villain. The stories then build off run another and ideally the characterization of both combatants deepens and the reader is treated to escalating conflicts and two enemy's constantly trying to outwit and out-play one another. That's the expectation at least, but really, that's not what happens.

Lex hates both Batman AND Superman.

Over time the hero and villain fight and every few years the villain reappears. After 50, 60, 70 years of story things (and really, it happens before that, but I'm concerned with Post-Crisis versions of these stories) stagnate. Stagnation is even the least of the issues for any continuing story, because after a while both hero and villain look utterly incompetent and the war between them, instead of being exciting is simply an endless war of attrition. The hero fails to keep the villain locked up and the villain fails to be able to pull off a crime successfully or even kill the hero. The continuing story and need for a rogues gallery than makes most stories redundant. As much as I love comics, shitty stories are not what I like. How many times can The Joker break out of prison and how many people can he murder before he's captured again? Continue cycle. Joker stories in particular, especially with more modern stories (see the current 'event' story 'Death of the Family' for an example) seem to only be able to frame his threatening nature in how many people he can kill at any one time. Joker becomes less of a character and more of a blunt weapon and Batman looks more and more ineffectual. He'll never stop The Joker because he holds life sacred. At what point does the sane answer become for Batman to just kill The Joker? Sometimes this might be brought up in-story, but it's just anti-climactic hand-wringing that the audience knows will bring about no lasting change.

The new Joker, same as the old except now he's torture-porny.

Because heroes have rogues galleries and these rogues galleries are perpetual in a continuing narrative. Story suffers for the characters merely existing. As much as I love comics, this 'keep the characters stagnant' attitude has always been my biggest criticism. A story without an ending is no story at all. This is part of the reason I've started this blog because with 'Crisis on Infinite Earths' event and the more modern 'Flashpoint' event, the Post-Crisis continuity finally has a beginning and end. Sort of. As close as I'll get with mainstream superhero comics at least.

Rogues galleries go against the idea of change or an ending to a story and conflict and instead set up a situation where one character is in conflict against another set group of characters ad nauseum.