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gorogues · 1 month ago

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Hi! 👋

So what’s the difference between the comic version Rogues and the Arrowverse Rogues? I haven’t watched any live action stuff about them but I would still like to know the difference between these two. (Backstory and personality-wise, but you can add other stuff if you really want to)

Thank you!!! And have a good day/night :)

Hi! It's been a few years since I've watched those shows, but here's as best as I remember it.

Len: The Snarts had their comics backstory of a violently abusive ex-cop dad, and Len raised Lisa after their father went to prison. As an adult, he tended to work with Mick and Lisa in criminal activities, but was still protective of his sister and he killed their father after dad had risked her life as part of a criminal scheme. He continued in crime, but developed a working relationship with Barry and they eventually came to an agreement in which Len could commit crimes as long as he didn't kill anyone or tell anyone about Barry's identity. He was later recruited into the Legends of Tomorrow and came to relish heroic work, which ultimately led to conflicts with Mick, and Len then sacrificed his life to save the Legends and defeat the Big Bad. He had a lot of similarities to comics Len, although more of an interest in heroism, and had a closer and even flirty relationship with Barry.

Lisa: The Snarts had their comics backstory of a violently abusive ex-cop dad, and Len raised Lisa after their father went to prison. As adults, they worked together in crime and kidnapped Cisco to build weaponry for them, which they used to attack a crime boss and commit general shenanigans. However, Lisa flirted with Cisco and he had a thing for her, and she came to Team Flash for help when she thought Len had been kidnapped. It turned out that Len was on a job with their father because dad had secretly implanted a bomb in Lisa; Team Flash got the bomb out and Len killed their father for the cruelty he'd inflicted on her. After that, she was generally involved in crime with her brother until he joined the Legends of Tomorrow and was killed, but we don't know much about her activities after that. Personality-wise, she was very flirty but extremely tough and a bit of an action junkie, so pretty similar to comics Lisa. No skates or jewel weapons, though.

Mick: He had the most development and most airtime of all the Flarrowverse Rogues, and thus unsurprisingly the biggest character arc. He began as a one-note raging villain, and later received a little more depth but had an in-universe reputation for being stupid, violent, and thoughtless. Even his best pal Len treated him like he was stupid, sometimes quite overtly. Over time we learned that he had a lot of past trauma (his father was a traumatized and abusive Vietnam vet), and he formed bonds with new caring people and was able to show his depth: still grumpy, but intelligent and with surprising interests. He became a successful novelist and basically blossomed into a different person over the course of Legends of Tomorrow. You can see aspects of comics Mick (who has gone through phases of being a one-note raging villain and also been more gently sensitive) in him, but he's radically different in backstory and character portrayal.

Digger: Very different from the comics. He was an ex-special forces operative who became a mercenary and was drafted into the Suicide Squad, but Lyla Michaels tried to liquidate the team in the field and Digger's brain bomb malfunctioned so he didn't die…and then he came after her and anyone associated with her for revenge. He set a bunch of bombs and tried to blow stuff up, but in the end he got killed. He certainly seemed more like an ex-military soldier than a criminal or supervillain, which fit well with his CW backstory but he was nothing like his comics incarnation.

Owen: Very different from the comics. He wore a comics-accurate outfit…but it was Digger's outfit, not Owen's. He was just a villain/criminal who decided to take Digger's mantle after he died, and he worked for the Red Death (a crime boss). He was basically just a skilled asshole, but a smartassed and entertaining one. Also had an interesting friendship with the second Murmur.

Roy Bivolo: He only dealt in negative emotions -- fear and anger -- and was a bit of a psycho who did angsty edgy art and seemed to enjoy hurting people. I liked that the show did a more accurate depiction of his achromatopsia than the comics ever have; he wore dark glasses and his hideout had low lighting to accommodate his vision problems. There was a female Rainbow Raider (Carrie Bates, not another Roy Bivolo) later on who dealt in positive emotions, and she was fun.

Hartley: He was pretty different in that he was a perpetual jerk, even after he'd reformed. He was an engineer at STAR Labs and a protégé of Harrison Wells (who was Eobard Thawne in disguise) but hated Cisco, and when Wells seemingly replaced Hartley with Barry he developed a violent grudge against them all. He mostly used sonic tech rather than musical instruments, and used tech to cope with the damage done to his hearing by the particle accelerator accident. He was pretty cruel as a villain; at one point he sent some metas to destroy a city dam, which could have killed thousands of people. Anyway, he didn't get over the grudge for a long time, though the universe reset itself a couple of times and eventually he got a boyfriend named Roderick who was hurt by a battle between Hartley and the Flash. Team Flash helped save his life, so Hartley more or less let go of the grudge and reformed for Roderick, and later helped Barry when he needed it.

James: Mark Hamill reprised his Trickster role from the `90s Flash series, and he was kinda fun but not in a traditional James way. He was definitely a psychopath and a murderous criminal who tried to kill hundreds or thousands of people for laughs, but he had some theatrical panache while doing it.

Axel: He idolized James Jesse and was delighted to learn that James was his father; it turns out that his mother was Prank, James' old sidekick from the `90s Flash series. He's also a psycho who likes killing people, but he too has something of his father's style.

Mark: He and his brother Clyde had been violent bank robbers who worked together before getting meta powers. Clyde became the original Weather Wizard, but he was killed by Joe West and Mark took over the mantle and sought revenge. Mark was generally pretty murder-happy, especially towards Joe and the Flash. He had a kid like in the comics, but ironically she used tech and he had meta powers (so the opposite of pre-Flashpoint continuity), and she was older and tried to kill him for being a crappy dad.

Sam: He was a wannabe gang leader with his girlfriend Rosa (Flarrowverse Top), though he tended to talk over her and eventually she murdered him to take his place. He got his powers when he'd insulted Len and Len had been in the process of killing him when the particle accelerator exploded, but it left Sam trapped in a mirror for a few years until he freed himself. He was vain and showy and could travel through mirrors, but we didn't really see much of him.

Evan: There was a gender-swap, so she was Eva. It was a complicated story, but the gist is that the real Eva was killed in the particle accelerator explosion, and a mirror duplicate of her was created and trapped in a mirror universe. She didn't know she was a duplicate, and was unhappy to be trapped; she dragged Iris into the mirror universe and created a duplicate Iris in the real world. Once Eva escaped the mirror world, she killed her crappy ex-husband but soon learned that she was in fact a duplicate and her whole existence was a lie. She created a ton of mirror duplicates and they tried to destroy Central City, but she was convinced to stop and decided to make the mirror world into a better place for them. As you can tell from these events, she was basically nothing like Evan aside from the name.

Roscoe: There was a gender-swap, so she was Rosa(lind). She was a wannabe gang co-leader with her boyfriend Sam, but he tended to sideline her and eventually she killed him. She didn't spin (except for a gag when Jesse Quick tossed her into the air), and originally she only had vertigo powers. Later she gained empathic powers and quasi-telepathic powers and developed an odd frenemy relationship with Cecile Horton (who was part of Team Flash and had similar powers), which was the only thing I liked about her.

Dr Alchemy: His name was Julian Albert in the show, and he was a work colleague of Barry's who fell under Savitar's control after finding the Philosopher's Stone. Savitar used him as a cult leader granting/restoring powers to people in his Alchemy persona (which he didn't know was happening), but Julian was eventually able to break free from him and joined Team Flash. The team used him to contact Savitar, and as Julian he pursued a relationship with Caitlin and tried to cure her of her Killer Frost persona. There were some similarities to Johns' post-Flash: Rebirth revamp of him, in that he was Barry's bitchy co-worker instead of someone he befriended after Al reformed. The Savitar and cult thing was different, and in the CWverse the Philosopher's Stone was made out of Speed Force or something.

Abra Kadabra: Originally he was a cool criminal from the future with amazing tech that looked like magic (it gets my seal of approval), and then he was brought back in another episode which revealed he was a dude named Philippe who tried to destroy Central City because his family had been erased in Crisis and he was angry. Barry was kind to him and he backed down, and then he got killed while helping the Flash.

Magenta: A nice teen with magnetic powers and mental health issues from an abusive parental figure, so fairly similar to her comics self. She didn't have a romantic history with Wally or any member of Team Flash, and she got her powers from Dr Alchemy.

Lashawn: She was called Shawna, and her backstory was completely different. In the comics she committed crimes only to save her father's life, but in the CW she was an ordinary thief and tried to spring her loser boyfriend from jail with her teleportation powers. She joined Hartley's vengeance squad after a time incarcerated in the Pipeline, but wasn't okay with his plan to destroy the city and she told Iris West about the plan before anyone could be killed. So in that sense she was different from most of the Rogues, and somewhat like her comics self.

Girder: He was completely different. In the Flarrowverse he was a former bully of Barry's, and he was more like Colossus (from the X-Men) than Girder because he could transform from a human into a metal form and even looked like Colossus instead of a rusted junk pile.

Blacksmith: Also completely different. She was an odd woman who liked to reinvent herself with fake names and new personas, and she wanted to be a crime boss like her comics counterpart but wasn't nearly as intelligent or threatening. Her powers were better, though, and I liked her lovers/rivals relationship with Goldface. In the comics she could manipulate and meld metal and flesh, but in the CW she could shape a specific type of metal into projectiles and defensive functions.

Tar Pit: His backstory was completely different, as he was betrayed by a comrade and knocked into a tar pit, leaving him trapped for years underground and seeking revenge on those who wronged him after he was free. Thus, his personality was less cheery than his comics self because what he went through was pretty traumatic. He had a human form and a tar form instead of being a perpetual tar monster.

Double Down: His powers were mostly the same (though tattoo-based), but he was more of a gang enforcer in the Flarrowverse. And there was no cursed deck of cards in his backstory, alas.

Cicada: Totally different. In the CW, the first Cicada was a guy who blamed metahumans for his family's misfortunes and went on a killing spree, and then he was killed and replaced by an insane future version of his metahuman niece who picked up his war and murdered metas.

Murmur: There was a man and a woman who went by that name in the Flarrowverse. Neither spoke English (they both had their mouths sewn shut) so we don't know a ton about them, but they were surprisingly true to the original comics version. The woman used ASL, which gave us more insight into her personality and she was rather witty. I liked her friendship with Owen.

Chillblaine: Not exactly a Rogue, but the Flarrowverse version had a lot more development than his comics counterparts. He was a lot smarter (a former scientist) and liked to walk around shirtless, and he had a redemption arc but then went bad again and then redeemed himself once more. He was in a relationship with Killer Frost when she was killed, which devastated him.

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