DC Just Revealed the Fate of Two of DC’s Best Rogues

Absolute Flash kicked off the second phase of the Absolute Universe, giving readers an all-new Wally West to follow. Absolute Flash #1 was a wild ride, one that showed how different this Wally and his world are, starting with his powers and moving on from there. This extended to his greatest villain, the Rogues. In the mainline Earth, the Rogues are the best supervillain team ever, a group that understands working together better than any other villains out there. However, the Absolute Rogues aren’t criminals, instead they’re working for the government. Absolute Flash #1 introduced readers to the new versions of Captain Cold, Captain Boomerang, Golden Glider, Mirror Master, and Trickster, with Cold, Boomerang, Golden Glider, and Trickster chasing Wally. Absolute Flash #2 reveals that they’ve been at their work for a long time, revealing the grisly fate of two DC characters — Heatwave and Firestorm.

The Absolute Earth was created by Darkseid, meant to be a world controlled by his powers. Readers have seen that in the other Absolute books, as this is a world full of pain and control, the two things that Darkseid believes in. The Rogues being a government hit squad is a cool addition, and learning what the government did to Heatwave and Firestorm, two heroes with a history of government work in the mainline world, shows just how different this world is.

Heatwave and Firestorm Are Very Different but Do Have Some Similarities

Heatwave is Mick Rory. Young Mick was a pyromaniac, and accidentally killed his family in a fire. He went to live with his uncle, and eventually decided to become a fire-themed criminal. He created an asbestos suit — you know, back before we knew that it would kill you if you were around it too much, Marvel even had an Asbestos Man — and special flamethrowers, becoming Heatwave, and joining the Rogues. He would often clash with Captain Cold, and eventually decided to go on the straight and narrow, partly because of the mental manipulation of the Top. He worked for the FBI and the government and fought alongside Wally West. He’s yo-yoed back and forth between heroism and villainy since then.

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Firestorm isn’t technically a Rogue, but a rather important superhero. He was DC’s big new teen character of the late ’70s. Raymond’s power came from an accident where he was made into a part of the Firestorm matrix with Professor Martin Stein. This gave him amazing power — super strength, invulnerability, flight, nuclear energy powers, and matter manipulation abilities — but only when he was fused together with Stein. Firestorm was once a rather important DC hero, but would fall from prominence as the years have gone by. Doomsday Clock established that Stein created the Firestorm matrix for the US government in an attempt to create superheroes. While the canon status of Doomsday Clock has been in question since the moment it ended, connecting Firestorm to a superhero project makes a lot of sense.

The Absolute Earth Is a Very Different Place

Trickster is able to capture Wally with one of his weapons, and talks about how when they get him back to base, he’s basically going to be dissected by scientists, which is what happened to Heatwave and Firestorm. With Firestorm, it makes sense, since he had actual superpowers that the government would want to understand, but with Heatwave it doesn’t. Different versions of Heatwave have had superpowers — the current version sometimes has pyrokinesis and access to the Sage Force — and it looks like the Absolute version of the character is the superpowered one.

The Rogues have experience with hunting down escaped superpowered people, which gives a readers a clue to exactly what Barry Allen and Wally’s father were doing at the military base. This base is almost certainly the center of the Absolute United States’ superpower programs. The fact that they’ve been dissecting subjects means that they might not understand exactly what they are doing, adding an interesting aspect to this whole plot line.

Absolute Flash #2 is on sale now.