With the Justice League missing and presumed dead, the Rogues return to Central City…what’s left of it, anyway. Remember Grodd’s last visit there? This issue gives us another in-depth look at just what makes the Rogues tick. Let’s just hope they live long enough to demonstrate their better qualities…

LIGHT SPOILERS ONLY

The Rogues have returned to a shell of a city decimated during the Grodd Villains Month story. Captain Cold has only one goal at this point -to get to the hospital and find out what has happened to Lisa. Problem is, the Society doesn’t care about Lisa or the hospital or anything else in the city. They have orders for the Rogues that go well beyond their code – will they go along or will they risk death to fight the Secret Society?

It seems that these Forever Evil tie-ins are not a healthy place for pre-New 52 Rogues to be, and if you’ve seen the preview pages for this issue you have a clear idea of what that statement means. Still, we see a lot of what makes the Rogues the amazing group that they are in this story. This is still a blue-collar group of villains, interested in the score but not necessarily in world domination. They bicker and feud among themselves but know how to pull together when the chips are down. Their reaction to the threats in the city are true to who they are, and that makes for a very good story overall.

Brian Buccellato scripted this issue with art from Patrick Zircher and Scott Hepburn supplied the pencils and inks with colors by Nick Filardi. The art style here is much darker than the usual Flash story, which makes sense given what has happened to Central City and the fact that his is a Forever Evil tie-in. As for the story, my favorite moment is the conversation between Len and Sam in Lisa’s hospital room – can’t spoil it but that moment is very touching. This is an excellent start to the mini-series overall…just wish it were an ongoing instead of a mini-series…

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