The Good
The Rogues have their ups and downs as the continue to work together. Mirror Master is trapped in the mirror universe, and Glider's body is still in a coma. Can they work together as a team and will they work with the Crime Syndicate?
As far as villains books goes, this one works on multiple levels. A chunk of the issue parallels the first issue of FOREVER EVIL, as The Rogues enter Iron Heights, to break out Trickster, then head to Happy Harbor to see the Crime Syndicate speech, where villains from Iron Heights and Belle Reve stand in attendance. As far as the parallel storytelling goes, it's solid and nice to see what these guys are up to, but the real heart of the story is the battle to keep this group together. When you have a group this tight, there are going to be a few struggles and some bonds will be closer than others, and that can lead to some in-fighting, especially when one of the Rogues has a romantic relationship with another one, which happens to be the sister of Captain Cold. Writer Brian Buccellato does a great job at giving the reader a bit of everything here.
Artist Patrick Zircher and colorist Nick Filardi do a bang-up job here. The art here is a bit darker and grittier, which fits the Rogues and this story very well. Zircher's page set-ups. later in the issue are fantastic. He steps away from more traditional style layouts and has some panels that seem a bit more chaotic to match the chaos happening within the panels. He does a lot of great things with body language and facial expressions as well. Nick Filardi's colors work really well here and really fit the tone of the book and The Rogues. His colors give the feeling of doom and gloom. He uses a duller color palate which really goes well with the idea that these characters can never win.
This 3D cover is pure awesomeness. Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato put together one of the cooler looking 3D covers. The art style is extremely cool. The focus on Captain Cold's fury of ice coming from his hand as a great starting point, as the reader's eye makes its way around the page. Plus, Captain Cold just looks so dang cool.
The Bad
No real problems with this issue. This issue turned out pretty dang awesome.
The Verdict
I'm a bit biased when it comes to the Rogues. They're one of my favorite teams in comics. While they may be villains, there's a great dynamic between these characters, as we've seen in the past. This issue spends a lot of time playing on this family dynamic in a fun way. While some of the redesigns aren't my cup of tea, Buccellato made me forget all about that by making these characters really feel like individuals. Zircher and Filardi are great here and do this team and book justice. This is one of the better Villains Month books so far. Overall, I highly recommend this issue.
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