Flashpoint: Citizen Cold

Scott Kolins.

"Cold Hearted:" A longtime Flash villain, Leonard Snart aka Captain Cold, has led the Rogues from one crime to the next. Always priding themselves for their code of conduct as criminals, the Rogues have been always been a tight family. Now in this Flashpoint world, he no longer has his Rogue family, and Cold serves a new purpose: hero.

Summary: We open with Cold in wait for Mr. Freeze, who received a tip that the technology needed to save his dying wife was in STAR Labs. Cold jumps out and attacks him, as a news van holding Iris West and her nephew, Wally... who in regular world served as the Flash when Barry died. Cold quickly points out how different they are (this has a running gag in comics for years that one is always called the other and they hate it), pointing out that while, Freeze's gun is a tool of cryogenic medicine, Cold's guns are purely weapons, so in this case, cold>freeze. Freeze, despite having his body frozen, quickly leaves it as the head spider thing last seen in the Batman cartoon. Freeze freezes the news van with Iris and Wally, sending it heading for the water. Cold shoots the van and the water, freezing it, saving them. (Saving a reporter with a red haired sidekick... where have seen such super actions before?) Cold catches up to Freeze's head and informs him that his wife just died, thus alerting Freeze that Cold set him up, and Cold breaks the glass helmet, keeping Freeze cold, and murders the man. The public rushes Cold and applauds him and Iris and Wally appear at his side for an interview. Cold turns them down, but makes a date with Iris and takes off. He then tells us that he became a hero so that he could do whatever he wanted. Cutting to Iron Heights Prison, we see that Cold has his own freezing level of the prison for his enemies, all former Rogues. Weather Wizard is being escorted to his cell, beaten heavily. We also see that Trixter II, the teenager, is also there, and he tells us about the death of Mirror Master. The Weather Wizard here seems to be different from the standard one, and seems to still have a brother. We then see the Mirror Master, who is trapped in the mirror world thanks to Cold, unable to leave, or bring anyone in, but he has a plan for the Rogues to get revenge. Cutting back, Cold is now drinking and out on the town with a floozie. Returning home, we see that his abusive father, a cop, was murdered by Cold's sister. Given the amount of abuse and torture from her father, she is already planned to have a light sentence, but she will be held at Iron Heights. We then cut across the rooftops to a person taking pictures of Leonard Snart, who then relaizes that he's Cold. Realizing he's been seen, he races off and jumps in his car, and makes it to his garage, while calling Iris West. As the phone call goes out we zoom out to see the body of Wally frozen solid, and Cold standing over him.

High Points: I've never been a huge Flash fan, but his Rogues are some of the best characters around. I really like this alternate world's take as the characters themselves are unchanged... its just a world without the Flash. The characters here are spot on, even in this skewed world. The story is great and I think this will compete tightly with Knight of Vengeance as my favorite Flashpoint title.

Low Points: The art here is really subpar in spots, although this really is a gritty book, it just looks too rough... and the prison scene is just awful, artistically. Once again a case where the artist is also writing. And the art always loses in those cases.

Verdict: A. This is a great book, and if you like the Rogues, this is an awesome story. Its not the best jump-on point for new readers, but its pretty straightfoward. Highly recommended. Cool story requires cool picture: