The final season of The Flash has quite a few hurdles to leap. Not only does it have to serve as a sendoff for Grant Gustin's incarnation of the Scarlet Speedster, but it's also attempting to tie up various loose ends from around the Arrowverse — and that's a very tall order to fulfill. But throughout the four episodes that have debuted so far, the show is leaning on one element that's been present throughout the show's entire run: the Rogues. The Flash has one of the most iconic rogues' galleries in comics, rivaled only by Batman and Spider-Man. And that continues throughout Season 9, especially in the latest episodes.

RELATED: The CW's 'The Flash' Season 9 Cast and Character Guide

The Rise of the Rogues in CW's 'The Flash'

Wentworth Miller as Leonard Snart Before His Sacrifice
Image via The CW

In DC Comics canon, the Rogues are a group of foes that often oppose the Flash — but with a twist. While the Sinister Six are dedicated to killing Spider-Man, the Rogues put profit above all else. Therefore, they live by a strict code of rules. Their membership may have changed over the years, but those tenets have stayed the same. And throughout The Flash's entire run, a number of classic Rogues have been introduced. Chief among them were Leonard Snart (Wentworth Miller) and Mick Rory (Dominic Purcell), better known as Captain Cold and Heatwave. With their weaponry allowing them to generate intense blasts of heat and cold, they were more than a match for the Flash — until they (mostly) joined the side of the angels in DC's Legends of Tomorrow.

There have been other takes on classic Rogues as well. Mark Hamill would reprise his role as Jesse James, aka the Trickster, as he previously played the prank-themed villain in the 1990's Flash show. Efrat Dor played Eva McCulloch, aka the Mirror Monarch — a gender-flipped version of Flash's foe the Mirror Master. And the first ever Arrowverse crossover pitted Barry and Green Arrow (Stephen Amell) against Captain Boomerang (Nick Tarabay).

New Rogues, Old Problems in 'The Flash' Season 9

Javicia Leslie as Red Death/Batwoman in The Flash Season 9
Image via The CW

Season 9 of The Flash has introduced a new group of Rogues, who are working for the mysterious Red Death — recently revealed to be an alternate universe version of Ryan Wilder/Batwoman (Javicia Leslie). Their membership includes a new Captain Boomerang, Owen Mercer (Richard Harmon); Michelle Amar, the mute serial killer known as Murmur (Alexandria Wailes) and the sonic generating Fiddler (Magda Apanowicz). Two of these new Rogues have strong ties to the Flash mythos: Mercer is the son of original Captain Boomerang Digger Harkness, and in addition to utilizing his father's trademark boomerangs, he himself is a speedster. Amar is a gender-flipped version on the gruesome serial killer, who's battled Barry's predecessor Wally West. As for the Fiddler, she too is a gender-flipped version of a supervillain who battled the Justice Society of America.

In Episode 3 of this season of The Flash, "Rogues of War," Barry ends up forming his own version of the Rogues to battle the Red Death's. Those include the metahuman crime lord Goldface (Damion Poitier), pyrokinetic Jaco Birch (Max Adler) and the Pied Piper, Hartley Rathaway (Andy Mientus). Once again, showrunner Eric Wallace pulls from comics canon as Rathaway did eventually join the side of the angels — though he helped Wally West, not Barry Allen. Either way, the fact that the Rogues are playing a major part in the final season of The Flash is a big deal.

'The Flash' Film Could Have Used The Rogues

The Flash Michael Shannon Zod
Image via Warner Bros.

This leads to the upcoming Flash film, which will see Ezra Miller's Barry Allen rewrite time — but not for the better, as General Zod (Michael Shannon) reigns supreme and there are no metahumans. While the scope and scale of the film looks very intense, it seems to be playing more on the return of Michael Keaton as Batman and Sasha Calle's Supergirl rather than the Flash mythos. Fans online have even pointed out that the film would be better served if Flash was facing the Rogues.

Ironically, that could have been in the works. The Flash has gone through a number of screenwriters and directors, but plans for another abandoned set of films reveal that an iconic Rogue could have been part of the film at one point. Zack Snyder and Jim Lee's storyboards for their now-abandoned Justice League trilogy revealed that Lex Luthor would have formed a new Legion of Doom, and one of its members would have been Captain Cold. If The Flash is successful enough to spawn a sequel, perhaps the Rogues could fit into Peter Safran and James Gunn's new vision for DC Studios.

The Flash speeds into theaters on June 16, 2023. Read up on everything we know so far about Safran/Gunn's The Flash here, including a look at the film's first trailer.

New episodes of The Flash air Wednesdays on the CW.