Rainbow Raider?!?

[ratcreature]

Who comes up with these kinds of "supervillains"?? Okay, so they're called "Rogues" in Flash comics, but still -- Rainbow Raider?!? (also notice Trickster's fearsome rubber chicken, which I suppose could be some kind of deadly weapon in disguise with Trickster, and yet, it looks very silly nevertheless)

And just when thought that this had to be a low for villain names, I get introduced to one called "Crazy Quilt". WTF?

In case you're wondering, where I came across these... um... colorful characters, I'm reading Underworld Unleashed.

Comments

[greenygal.livejournal.com]

*checks* For Rainbow Raider, that would be Cary Bates, the last writer on the first series. In--good lord, 1980.

RR is an extreme example, but he's actually something you see a lot in the old Rogues' Gallery--it's not unique to them, but it does seem particularly prevalent--genuinely powerful (on top of the rest of his "color-based powers," he's got emotion control), but really difficult to take seriously. I mean, two of the most notable of the Gallery are a talking gorilla and a magician named Abra Kadabra. Uh-huh. They scare me, but I've had a lot of practice and haven't read much of their Silver Age stuff. And the lower ranks tend to be gifted techies or at least somehow possess really cool toys--even Captain Boomerang had his gimmicks--but it doesn't matter how cool the toys are if they never use them for anything but robbing banks. Or if they call themselves "The Top." (The Top, I'd like to stress, is dangerous for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with top-themed weapons: he has a brain. But nobody notices because he calls himself that. See also the Turtle.)

[ratcreature]

Yeah. Sigh. I mean they do have powers and cool toys, but somehow project ridiculousness. I guess his is what frustrates them so, but seriously what do they expect? I'm not sure why the average costumed psychotic in Gotham or even in Blüdhaven comes across as scarier even though they usually have less powers. I mean, for example the Mad Hatter's shtick in itself is kind of ridiculous too, and yet he doesn't come across that way. Or take Scarface. Sometimes I think it's because a lot of the Rogues still seem more or less sane, so it's really odd that they do this costume stuff instead of just being, well, criminals, whereas the average Gotham costumed freak is scarier because they all really, really crazy.

[greenygal.livejournal.com]

whereas the average Gotham costumed freak is scarier because they all really, really crazy.

Which as Trickster points out is one of the reasons Kadabra gets more respect, at least in-story. (And by "respect" I mean, when he walks into a room everyone else finds someplace else to be. Because who the hell knows what he's going to do next? Hmm. Wonder if anyone's ever written him in competition with the Joker...)

My question is not, actually, why do they do the costume stuff instead of being criminals, given that they're (mostly) sane. Mine is, jeez, why aren't they off conquering the world? Or possibly selling their inventions and getting appallingly rich? Wasting portable weather control on robbing banks? The opening of UU is not the best idea Waid's ever had, but he certainly called this much: they think too small. Way too small.

[ratcreature]

Yeah, I know that if I could control weather or transform the elements I sure wouldn't do what they're wasting their time on.