Rogues' Revenge #3 summary
This is the summary I posted to flash_rogues, but since Piper appears in it a fair amount, thought I'd post it here too.
As seen in the preview, the Rogues go back to Clyde Mardon's old observatory to hide out and use one of Roscoe's old speedster-tracking devices to find Inertia. (Incidentally, that's not the only Flash-tracking device he built, but the other one was handily portable and top-shaped. Of course.) There's a flashback to when Clyde was killed. Mark is having flashbacks/hallucinations to his brother's death, and freaking out. They find Inertia via the tracking device and McCulloch's mirrors, and he's with Zoom.
Meanwhile, Zoom is giving more lessons to Inertia, who's being pouty and whiny. Piper and the rats are watching them. Zoom then gives Inertia a bit of his time powers as part of the lesson, and Inertia seems to be getting the point -- but that's when the Rogues show up. They tell Zoom they only want the kid, but we all know he hates them, so he beats them around a bit, and then Piper uses his music to immobilize them all. Hartley reminds McCulloch that he owes him for killing his parents, and Evan can't resist getting in a dig about kissing, for which he gets a kick to the face.
That's when Hartley gets a spear right through the shoulder -- Libra is here, with little Josh. Libra says it's blasphemy that some say Piper is a muse to the New Gods. (That would be an interesting role for him, wouldn't it?) Libra's voice is hypnotic, and Len tells Mick to concentrate on the fire when he seems to be falling under its spell. Anyway, Libra says that Josh bounced around for a while (WTF happened to Iris? Irresponsible!), and Mark's mother apparently claimed him. But she didn't want anything to do with Mark, and Libra managed to get Josh through unmentioned means. He says he'll drink the kid's blood if Mark won't pledge his loyalty to the god of Evil. Mark gives a monologue about how great his brother was and how he killed him anyway, and then asks "What makes you think I care anything about that child?" Libra wants him to give a yes or no answer, and Mark appears to be agonizing over it for a while, but then Inertia gets frustrated and snaps his fingers next to Josh's head as a horrified-looking Mark watches. BOOOOOM. Libra actually looks shocked by this, which is kind of amusing.
Zoom isn't happy with his new protege, but he's already unleashed something he can't control, and now Inertia changes his costume and calls himself 'Kid Zoom'. He beats up Libra and tries to put his own spear through his mouth, but Zoom angrily intervenes, scolding him. Again, however, he's unleashed a monster -- Inertia grabs him and uses the time powers he'd been given a taste of earlier, to suck them from Zoom and send him back along his own timeline. Zoom goes through flashbacks of his past, and is actually left as Hunter Zolomon in his wheelchair, before the accident that turned him into Zoom! Inertia's about to kill him too, and that's when the Rogues attack. They slow him down a bit, but aren't having much of an impact until Piper immobilizes him with his music. Len asks Mark if he wants to kill the kid, but he decides he wants them all to do it together, like they'd started it. So the Rogues all attack Inertia en masse like they'd attacked Bart, leaving him...dead, apparently.
Piper looks pretty upset, and Cold points out he's an accessory to the crime, and if comes after the Rogues again, they'll spread that around. Libra congratulates them, saying it was a shame about Zoom, since he was to be a messenger of Darkseid (meanwhile, Hunter is mumbling about needing a cosmic treadmill to get his powers back). Len asks if that's what this is all about, asking if Libra's a disciple of Darkseid, which Libra affirms. Len says he has nothing to offer them, and Libra tells them Barry Allen's back, which they don't believe. Libra says Barry will hunt them down, but they don't seem concerned, and as they leave, Len tells Libra to tell Darkseid to "Stay the fuck off Earth".
Sometime afterwards, Chyre and Morillo note that Piper turned himself in to the police, "talking about the end of the world". The cops then find the body of Inertia left outside the precint, with a note from the Rogues reading "Tell the Flash we're even -- the Rogues".
Meanwhile, the Rogues go hang out in the basement of the Flash Museum to discuss Barry Allen. Some seem to believe he might really be back, some don't, but they're all a bit concerned. Axel asks if the older guys are really going to retire, but Len says they won't, because he believes that even if they did, Barry would still come after them due to unfinished business. And as we see Barry running and looking rather intense, the issue ends with Len's words: "And if the Flash is really back...there's no more rules in this universe to follow."
So...thoughts? Does anyone think Josh is really dead? I'm wondering if Inertia basically used the time powers (of which he'd only had a taste at the time, granted) to send him into the timestream. We never saw a body. I'm wondering if we're going to see an older Josh return in the future. I did think it was a bit odd that Mark didn't seem too unhappy about his son's apparent death, though. But I am inclined to think his "I murdered my brother" routine to Libra was to make himself sound all tough, as a bluff.
First mention of Mark's mom! So we know she's out there.
I guess Johns dropped the promised revelation of which Rogue genuinely wanted to kill Bart, because we never saw it.
I'm kind of puzzled by the way they all talk about Barry -- Barry was never a huge hardass. I think Wally's harsher than Barry ever was, so why do they talk about fun and games with Wally, but seem kind of nervous about Barry? It doesn't make any sense to me.
As seen in the preview, the Rogues go back to Clyde Mardon's old observatory to hide out and use one of Roscoe's old speedster-tracking devices to find Inertia. (Incidentally, that's not the only Flash-tracking device he built, but the other one was handily portable and top-shaped. Of course.) There's a flashback to when Clyde was killed. Mark is having flashbacks/hallucinations to his brother's death, and freaking out. They find Inertia via the tracking device and McCulloch's mirrors, and he's with Zoom.
Meanwhile, Zoom is giving more lessons to Inertia, who's being pouty and whiny. Piper and the rats are watching them. Zoom then gives Inertia a bit of his time powers as part of the lesson, and Inertia seems to be getting the point -- but that's when the Rogues show up. They tell Zoom they only want the kid, but we all know he hates them, so he beats them around a bit, and then Piper uses his music to immobilize them all. Hartley reminds McCulloch that he owes him for killing his parents, and Evan can't resist getting in a dig about kissing, for which he gets a kick to the face.
That's when Hartley gets a spear right through the shoulder -- Libra is here, with little Josh. Libra says it's blasphemy that some say Piper is a muse to the New Gods. (That would be an interesting role for him, wouldn't it?) Libra's voice is hypnotic, and Len tells Mick to concentrate on the fire when he seems to be falling under its spell. Anyway, Libra says that Josh bounced around for a while (WTF happened to Iris? Irresponsible!), and Mark's mother apparently claimed him. But she didn't want anything to do with Mark, and Libra managed to get Josh through unmentioned means. He says he'll drink the kid's blood if Mark won't pledge his loyalty to the god of Evil. Mark gives a monologue about how great his brother was and how he killed him anyway, and then asks "What makes you think I care anything about that child?" Libra wants him to give a yes or no answer, and Mark appears to be agonizing over it for a while, but then Inertia gets frustrated and snaps his fingers next to Josh's head as a horrified-looking Mark watches. BOOOOOM. Libra actually looks shocked by this, which is kind of amusing.
Zoom isn't happy with his new protege, but he's already unleashed something he can't control, and now Inertia changes his costume and calls himself 'Kid Zoom'. He beats up Libra and tries to put his own spear through his mouth, but Zoom angrily intervenes, scolding him. Again, however, he's unleashed a monster -- Inertia grabs him and uses the time powers he'd been given a taste of earlier, to suck them from Zoom and send him back along his own timeline. Zoom goes through flashbacks of his past, and is actually left as Hunter Zolomon in his wheelchair, before the accident that turned him into Zoom! Inertia's about to kill him too, and that's when the Rogues attack. They slow him down a bit, but aren't having much of an impact until Piper immobilizes him with his music. Len asks Mark if he wants to kill the kid, but he decides he wants them all to do it together, like they'd started it. So the Rogues all attack Inertia en masse like they'd attacked Bart, leaving him...dead, apparently.
Piper looks pretty upset, and Cold points out he's an accessory to the crime, and if comes after the Rogues again, they'll spread that around. Libra congratulates them, saying it was a shame about Zoom, since he was to be a messenger of Darkseid (meanwhile, Hunter is mumbling about needing a cosmic treadmill to get his powers back). Len asks if that's what this is all about, asking if Libra's a disciple of Darkseid, which Libra affirms. Len says he has nothing to offer them, and Libra tells them Barry Allen's back, which they don't believe. Libra says Barry will hunt them down, but they don't seem concerned, and as they leave, Len tells Libra to tell Darkseid to "Stay the fuck off Earth".
Sometime afterwards, Chyre and Morillo note that Piper turned himself in to the police, "talking about the end of the world". The cops then find the body of Inertia left outside the precint, with a note from the Rogues reading "Tell the Flash we're even -- the Rogues".
Meanwhile, the Rogues go hang out in the basement of the Flash Museum to discuss Barry Allen. Some seem to believe he might really be back, some don't, but they're all a bit concerned. Axel asks if the older guys are really going to retire, but Len says they won't, because he believes that even if they did, Barry would still come after them due to unfinished business. And as we see Barry running and looking rather intense, the issue ends with Len's words: "And if the Flash is really back...there's no more rules in this universe to follow."
So...thoughts? Does anyone think Josh is really dead? I'm wondering if Inertia basically used the time powers (of which he'd only had a taste at the time, granted) to send him into the timestream. We never saw a body. I'm wondering if we're going to see an older Josh return in the future. I did think it was a bit odd that Mark didn't seem too unhappy about his son's apparent death, though. But I am inclined to think his "I murdered my brother" routine to Libra was to make himself sound all tough, as a bluff.
First mention of Mark's mom! So we know she's out there.
I guess Johns dropped the promised revelation of which Rogue genuinely wanted to kill Bart, because we never saw it.
I'm kind of puzzled by the way they all talk about Barry -- Barry was never a huge hardass. I think Wally's harsher than Barry ever was, so why do they talk about fun and games with Wally, but seem kind of nervous about Barry? It doesn't make any sense to me.