A hero is only as good as his villains, and when it comes to Flash, the Scarlet Speedster has some of the greatest villains in comics. From the insanity of Reverse-Flash to the bestial power of Gorilla Grodd, to the science-as-magic of Abra Kadabra, the Flash has faced some of the most threatening supervillains in the DC Universe, but there are only a few he has a grudging respect for.
Captain Cold is one of those foes. As an early Flash villain and the leader of the Rogues, he is a supercriminal with a strict set of rules that he abides by and enforces while on the job. At the same time, he is a Central City native who will become his city's hero if needed, though he would much rather spend his time robbing its banks and jewelry stores.
10 Brother And Sister
Leonard Snart was born into a bad situation. His father was an abusive alcoholic who liked to take his frustrations out on his son. Leonard would do what he had to in order to protect his younger sister, Lisa, from their father's rage, which meant taking every beating he could. The actions of his father taught Leonard two important lessons.
The first lesson was that in order to get through life, a person needed to control their emotions. The second lesson was that it was never OK to hurt those who were weaker than you. These lessons would encapsulate everything Leonard would do as an adult.
9 Safety In The Cold
When the beating would get really bad, Leonard's grandfather would take him and Lisa away from the family home and into his ice cream truck. At the time, the back of that freezing truck was the only place where Leonard felt safe.
Leonard would come to find great comfort in the cold. It dulled the pain of the already existing bruises and ensured that he wouldn't get new ones for a while. There, in the back of that truck, Leonard's true identity could come out, unafraid of the repercussions of a drunken father.
8 Life Of A Criminal
Looking for a way out for him and his sister, Leonard did what so many youths with no other options do; he turned to crime. Leonard started off with small jobs - stealing cars and sticking up gas stations - but as he got better at the work, he moved up. Working with local gangs, Leonard started to go after bigger jobs, including banks and jewelry stores. Through it all, Leonard kept to his second rule and never hit or attacked anyone he was robbing, which often led to him getting into arguments with his fellow criminals.
7 Life Of A Supercriminal
During one job, the worst thing that could happen to a Central City criminal happened to Leonard - the Flash showed up. Leonard was caught by the speedster and sent to prison. While locked up, Leonard read an article that claimed the emissions of a cyclotron could disrupt the Flash's powers. Once out of prison, Snart stole a cyclotron and turned it into a gun. If a costumed hero was going to get involved with his city, then Leonard would become a costumed criminal to take him on. Leonard Snart became Captain Cold.
6 Life Of A Rogue
Not long after starting his career as Captain Cold, Leonard met some of the other supercriminals of Central City. He bumped into Trickster when they both tried to rob a charity event, began working with Heat Wave, and even brought in his sister Lisa, who used her skills as a figure skater for the touring Futura Ice Show to become Golden Glider.
Captain Cold realized that alone, none of Central City's supercriminals stood a chance against Flash, but if they came together they could combine their skills to take down the Crimson Comet. When Mirror Master, and Weather Wizard joined in, the Rogues were born. Over the years, the Rogues would have a number of members, but these five are the foundation of the crew.
5 Life Of A Hero
Captain Cold was locked up in prison during the events of the Crisis on Infinite Earths, but when word reached him that Flash had died, he and the other Rogues knew what they had to do - retire. With their greatest adversary giving his life to save the Multiverse, the least the Rogues figured they could do was to put away their costumes.
After he met the third Flash, Wally West, Captain Cold decided to get back into the costume game, but this time as a hero for hire. With his sister Golden Glider, he opened up Golden Snowball Recoveries. The business quickly went under, but not before they helped Flash save a group of children trapped in a mine.
4 Death Of A Rogue
Captain Cold returned to a life of retirement, spending his days going to Central City Combines games or just hanging around his city. Retirement suited him, but not his sister. Golden Glider took Leonard's equipment and would give it to random men she was dating to go on crime sprees, calling them Chillblaine.
The fourth Chillblaine would become the last one. No longer wanting to be the hunky but brainless muscle, he turned his cold gun on Golden Glider and killed her. This didn't sit well with Leonard, who came out of retirement to handle the situation.
3 Revenge Served Cold
As the leader of the Rogues, Captain Cold had instituted one major rule for the crew - no killing. He did this in part because of his own beliefs from how his father had treated him, but also because he knew that the moment a Rogue killed someone, Flash wouldn't take it easy on them anymore. Leonard had gone his whole career without ever hurting an innocent person or killing anyone, something most supercriminals couldn't say. That was all about to change.
Wearing his Captain Cold gear, Leonard hunted down Chillblaine. Leonard found his target in a hotel owned by the Candyman, one of Keystone City's biggest crimelords. Leonard killed a number of the Candyman's men before reaching Chillblaine, who he impaled on a number of ice spikes.
2 Murder Of A Speedster
After Captain Cold killed Chillblaine, he called the other Rogues out of retirement and brought the crew back together. When they were contacted by an evil kid speedster called Inertia to help deal with the fourth Flash - Bart Allen - the Rogues headed off to Los Angeles to get to work.
In the battle, Inertia blocked Flash's connection to the Speed Force, something the Rogues didn't realize. They all attacked at once, killing Flash. Knowing that the murder of the Flash would have the Justice League coming for them, the Rogues went into hiding, but nothing would ever be the same again.
1 A Darker Rogue
After Flash returned from the Flashpoint, the world was different, and that included The Rogues. In this reality, they had never killed a Flash, but they were still darker than they had been before. Captain Cold's "no killing" rule was replaced with "no killing unless..." which opened the door for The Rogues to go further than ever before. Captain Cold's rage about his father was eating him up inside, and the constant losses to Flash weren't helping. When the chance presented itself, Leonard used his fellow Rogues to take over Central City with the help of Perpetua and Lex Luthor. With the help of Golden Glider, Flash defeated Captain Cold but not before hundreds of Central City citizens were killed.