The Villain Origins retrospective won’t go past the 80s for a variety of reasons, so this is the last time we will meet a new member of the Flash Rogues Gallery.
And he’s definitely the flashiest.
FLASH #286 (1980)
by Cary Bates & Don Heck
My apologies for any of my readers that happen to be colorblind.
You’ll understand why soon.
We begin with the Flash coming across a rainbow even if it hasn’t rained in a while, and also it’s the middle of the night (despite the blue sky).
Enjoy that caption because that’s basically the last time this story references anything that even remotely resembles actual science.
The guards of the museum are too sad to be in this story to be of any help.
I do appreciate Flash thinking first about his other villains, but… NONE of them would pull something like this? Granted the only telepath in his classic rogues gallery is Gorilla Grodd who I don’t think is into arts, and it’s not like Captain Boomerang or Captain Cold would do this.
But no, this is of course the introduction of Rainbow Raider and his gloriously tacky costume.
Yep, we are definitely going there. Blue light makes you sad.
Considering the Flash can run at a bajillion times the speed of light, how the heck is Rainbow Raider ever going to hit him!?
Flash… one of your regular villains is Mirror Master, HOW DID YOU NOT SEE THAT COMING!?
Too bad he wasn’t hit by blue light, because we’re missing the chance to have Sad Flash.
Rainbow Raider is probably one of the villains whose name readers keep remembering wrong, because since he can literally ride rainbows you would assume he was named Rainbow RIDER.
Apparently blue light makes you depressed but black light turns you into Whitewashed Flash.
Although I’m not entirely sold on why Rainbow Raider thinks this is a major victory. Sure he got away, but how is being whitewashed going to stop the Flash from coming after him?
You would think Rainbow Raider stole those paintings for money, but he’s just an art enthusiast.
And to make things ridiculous, his actual name is a pun: Roy G. Bivolo, based on the acronym ROYGBIV for the colors of the rainbow.
Which means we never learn what middle name the G. stands for. But I’ll bet it stands for something like “Grey”.
As for his origins… he’s colorblind. Well not the typical version of color blindness, but the MUCH more rare Achromatopsia.
His “tragedy” is that he’s a very talented painter, but can’t get anywhere because he can’s see colors. Now I don’t know anything about art, but I’m calling bulls#it on this: you mean to tell me that an accomplished painter wouldn’t be able to get at least SOME good publicity out of this!?
But apparently in the DC universe being colorblind is the worst thing that could happen to a human being.
This consumes his father’s life, to the point that when he dies he just barely finished creating goggles that could cure his son.
Aaaaaand that didn’t work.
Now I’m no optometrist, granted, but if I were you I would get those eyes checked.
Yeah apparently those goggles are supposed to make him see colors, but instead they SHOOT SOLID RAINBOWS.
And that’s ON PURPOSE. Because apparently it’s much easier to MAKE SOLID RAINBOWS AND EMOTION-CHANGING RAYS that make you see colors.
I bet Cyclops used to be a patient of his father.
Meanwhile, Whitewashed Flash is keeping a low profile and doesn’t have anyone to talk about it, since his wife Iris was recently murdered.
And the reason why he’s whitewashed? Because black reflects light.
That makes perfect scientific sense. If you’re insane.
Don’t worry, he won’t have to pretend he’s cosplaying as Spider-Man villain Tombstone (look him up), thanks to the makeup left by his dead wife and a hair dye.
How is the fact that he’s lost color given far more attention than him losing super-speed!?!?
Well maybe it’s because he still has enough super-speed left to turn back into Whitewashed Flash.
Instead of making his targets sad, Rainbow Raider decided to make them angry.
I think it’s working on me as well.
Whitewashed Flash is ready to stop him, but Rainbow Raider has an unexpected weapon: Dazzler!
Then Flash discovers that he can change his color by vibrating through stuff.
And that is the secret to how to run really really fast.
Good thing the citizens of Central City have a wide variety of car colors.
Which is completely useless because TWO PANELS LATER Rainbow Raider zaps him with red light, turning him back to normal.
0.0000000000001 nanoseconds later, Flash wins.
Historical significance: 0/10
Thank God he was never linked to that “emotional spectrum” nonsense to become an edgy Green Lantern villain.
Silver Age–ness: ∞/10
Needless to say THAT IS NOT HOW LIGHT WORKS. It would already be utterly ridiculous for the Silver Age, but in 1980!?!?
Does it stand the test of time?: 0/10
This one really, REALLY feels like an early 60s story that was left on the shelf. And maybe it should’ve stayed there: the villain is as ridiculous as his motivation is flimsy, the fights are unremarkable, and the Flash feels really colorless throughout.
How close is this to the modern character?: 10/10
While never a major player and only an occasional Rogue, Rainbow Rider stuck around for decades. He was eventually killed off in 2002 in Flash vol.2 #183, because being a villain from 1980 instead of being from the 60s or 70s meant Geoff Johns could get rid of him in the most brutal way instead of bending the universe to bringing him back.
So he got murdered by Blacksmith, a new villain nobody ever cared about.
He was a zombie for a while, because comics, and in the next DC continuity he showed up in 2016 with the new codename Chroma that seems to have stuck. What a boring name and even more boring design.
He also shows up in the Flash TV series. No idea if he’s any good since I haven’t seen him, but he looks boring.
The same series has a second Rainbow Raider, named Carrie Bates (I see what you did there) who at least looks like she might be a fun character.
Rainbow Raider, despite being tragically lame, was somehow an inspiration for others.
In Captain Atom’s Post-Crisis continuity, Dr Spectro was a fake super-villain used by Wade Eiling to cover up Project Atom, although he later turned to crime anyway, using Rainbow Raider’s tech.
During Darkest Night, we were introduced to the Rainbow Raiders, a 7-person team, each with their own color. They learned that villains with emotional connections to heroes were rising from the dead as powerful zombies, so they deliberately drank poison and died. Since they had no emotional connections to any heroes, their corpses proceeded to lie there and rot. They have never been seen again.
ROYGBIV? Who says comics aren’t educational? I had never heard of this before.
As for what the “G” stood for, I nominate “Greg.”
Of course you would 😀