The Flash’s best DC villains teamed up for a wild Gorilla Grodd heist

Rogues, DC’s latest Black Label series from legendary Flash scribe Joshua Williamson and artist Leomacs, has an instant hook. A decade after their prime, Captain Cold pulls a group of the Flash’s infamously kooky villains out of retirement for one last heist.

I was expecting a fun book, but not the beautiful balance of color and grit, lightness and emotional heft, that’s demonstrated in Rogues #1. What about the actual heist? Snooping in Gorilla City to steal Gorilla Grodd’s secret gold. That’s good stuff right there.

Is there anything else happening inside our favourite comics’ pages? We’ll tell you. Welcome to Monday Funnies, Polygon’s weekly list of the books that our comics editor enjoyed this past week. It’s part society pages of superhero lives, part reading recommendations, part “look at this cool art.” There may be some spoilers. It may not provide enough context. There will still be some great comics. This is the latest edition.

Several images of a middle-aged Leonard and Lisa Snart (Captain Cold and Golden Glider) drawn over a street scape as they argue. “All we ever did before was help our-selves,” says Lisa. “What about me then? HUNH?” Leonard hits back. “WE WERE CRIMINALS!” she snaps. He insists, and she plants her feet dramatically, gasping “LEN!” in orange lettering in Rogues #1 (2022).

It is the work of this artistic team that we should be most proud. Leomacs offers the complete package. His character designs and emotions are clear, simple, and unique. The dirty details of Central City’s underbelly couldn’t be more 1970s realism. Matheus Lopes, one of my favorite colorists at the moment, shows that dark doesn’t have to mean dull, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou’s lettering? Impeccable! Makes text feel like voice acting.

RoguesIt feels like an Image Comics miniseries about crime, but with DC characters. It’s a treat.

“We can’t give you everything,” Batwoman says to investigative reporter Deb Donovan, “but a deal’s a deal.” “Damn right,” Deb replies, in Detective Comics #1058 (2022).

Detective Comics’ weekly-publishing Arkham Tower arc is over, and it’s one of those things that I wish I liked more. The reverse countdown chronology was more confusing than it is exciting, according to me. However, I do love the Bat-family liaising instead with a reporter!

There’ve been a few periods of Batman history in which James Gordon wasn’t commissioner of police, and that usually means that the Bat-family’s relationship with the office is still there, just more frigid. The idea of Bats and free press is something new for me.

A strange humanoid figure with a large eyeball for a head sucks down an enormous cloud of smog in the form of a screaming face. “Omigod...” says a bystander, “I’m babysitting a power plant grim reaper!” in Ghost Cage #1 (2022).

I had no idea about it Ghost CageExcept that the cover featured some very cool characters. Turns out it’s a blazingly dynamic shōnen-influenced fable about … a mad industrialist creating a weird lil’ dude to kill an escalating series of his living power plants? Corporate capitalism. I’ll definitely be reading more.

A faux stained glass window depicts a line of Esquecida warriors with bows drawn underneath a blue-skinned priestess with a jade pendant. The image is flanked by jaguars and inset panels repeating mirrored scenes of the Greek goddesses creating the Amazons in the Well of Souls, in Trial of the Amazons: Wonder Girl #1 (2022).

The thing about Joëlle Jones is that you never have to wonder why her books are late to shelves — she draws … she just draws the hell out of them. That’s been unfortunate for Wonder GirlYara Flor and the ability of this issue to put her on the map in the DC Universe. This is where you can get completely-Jones-drawn issue like Wonder Girl: Trial of AmazonsEvery page of this book is jaw-dropping.

I hit this faux stained glass window page spread of the history of the lost Amazonian tribe of Amazons, the Esquecidas and said “Damn, Joëlle! Daaaaaaamn!” out loud in my apartment. Very few artists could bring the origin of Their tribe of Amazons and flank the page with direct callbacks to George Pérez’s definitive origin of Themyscira His own style of artistic expressionStick the landing. Phew. Phew.

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