The Flash 58

[knight_moves]

Wally is fighting a court case with a hot heiress over the Icicle's inheritance (it's a long story). When suddenly...

Comments

[iamrman]

Abra Kadabra? He's gonna reach out and grab ya.

[mazway_75]

Always baffled as to the love Kadabra got from Messner-Loebs and then even more so from Waid at the expense of the other Rogues.

[mastermahan]

I'd say it's precisely because he's not a Rogue. The Rogues are great antagonists, but the fact that they team-up so much really reduces their perceived threat. How are the likes of Heatwave, Trickster, or Captain Boomerang supposed to challenge Flash on their own when he routinely defeats a team of Rogues? It largely reduces them to a single unit.

For established villains outside the Rogues, you basically have Reverse-Flash, Gorilla Grodd, and Abra Kadabra. The first two are used all the time. Abra provides a third option, and 64th century tech means he can do pretty much whatever the writer wants.

Which isn't to say traveling back in time to become a stage magician isn't goofy as all hell.

[icon_uk]

Yeah, he started out as a Rogue, but it became pretty clear post Crisis that they not only did NOT like this dude, but they considered him too whacked out to be useful, and too chaotic to share their goals.

[mastermahan]

Huh, I didn't know Abra ever was a Rogue. He's certainly not a good fit. The Rogues are professional criminals. Abra's a weirdo who traveled through time to be a stage magician.

Have Booster Gold ever fought Abra Kadabra?

[icon_uk]

It's a vague sort of thing and might depend on my interpretation of the semantics, so don't treat my comment as gospel.

Back when I was still lower case icon_uk, "The Flashes Rogues Gallery" just referred to the Flashes particular set of criminal opponents rather than an actual unofficial alliance or team. So Abra was included in the line up by default.

These Rogues knew each other professionally, but weren't really friends or allies, and were all pretty serious about try to actually kill the Flash, and Abra tended to show up less than the others I think.

"The Rogues" didn't really become the "blue collar band of criminal brothers" (who have allowed themselves to be distracted into an ongoing feud with the Flash), we now know them as until post Crisis on Infinite Earths and Abra wasn't a part of them then.

The well-after-CoIE-event "Underworld Unleashed" has a nice moment where James "Trickster" Jesse is looking at Neron's council of evil and is impressed that Neron has managed to recruit someone of Neron's power levels. He notes that the Rogue's had never considered Abra to be one of them and had told themselves it was because he was too pompous, but it had actually been because he was powerful enough, and unhinged enough, to frighten them more than a little.

[superfangirl1]

That guy on the left panel. On the second page. Look like Hank hill to me with glasses and blond hair. I'll tell you what, that boy ain't right.

[icon_uk]

"If I had a nickel for every time one of my court cases ended with the clients being sucked into a mystical vortex..."