You know you're grasping for straws when you have to reference a Ray Bradbury story in the title of your post, and you're not even sure you remembered it right. I dunno, it's just that some days... *weeps openly* Okay, Blockade Boy, shake it off, shake it off. Put yourself in the "zone." *exhales deeply* Let's go!
This is the costume Nightcrawler wishes he had worn! But it's too late for regrets, because the suit got snapped up by one of my favorite Flash villains, the Rainbow Raider. The Raider, a.k.a. Roy G. Bivolo -- ha ha ha! shut up! -- was color blind. Bivolo's pop tried to invent a device that could compensate for that, but the closest thing he created was a pair of goggles that gave the wearer the power to drain the color and vitality from people's bodies, create solid rainbow bridges and prisons, and alter the emotions of anyone he looked at. What a rip-off! This one time, Lenscrafters tinted my prescription sunglasses the wrong shade of smoky gray, so I think I can relate.
Our Mister Bivolo ended up another victim of the violent typing fingers of Geoff "I Need A Hug" Johns. In an act perfectly symbolic of Johns' tenure on the Flash title, he had the Rainbow Raider -- a blatantly goofy but also fun, clever, and well-designed villain -- get murdered by "Blacksmith," a serious, one-note hateful villain of Johns' own creation, who had an eyesocket-scoopingly ugly character design (by Scott Kolins. OF COURSE.) The irony being that Blacksmith herself was also goofy, albeit in a completely unintentional and unpleasant fashion. And then he introduced, years later and seemingly out of nowhere, a seven-person team of color-themed villains calling themselves "The Rainbow Raiders." And to this day, I have no idea if they've ever carried a story on their own. I think they mainly just show up at funerals. Like the Vice-President. What the fuck ever, Johns.
In theory, the Rainbow Raider's outfit shouldn't appeal to me at all. I mean, the man wore a freakin' rainbow. However, the Raider did several things to balance that out. He wore enough black to compensate for all the color. He also varied the width of the stripes, to keep it from becoming boring. And he flared the shoulders, which created an interesting silhouette. So I'd say, "Lookin' sharp, Rainbow Raider! Also? Sorry you're dead now." What do you say, Mister Bivolo?
Atta boy!
10 comments:
I've never really been a DC guy, and one of the few DC comics I ever had was this really weird pink-covered volume of (I assume) unconnected reprints. It had some Legion stories (Timberwolf I do remember), and I remember a story with the Rainbow Raider. (I think.) He created a paint that made him invisible, IIRC. I don't remember him wearing any costume, and I don't remember the Flash ever showing up. (I said it was really weird.) I wondered what that story was about for years.
No real point to that story. I agree that his costume isn't nearly as bad as it could be, mostly due to the black.
Oh yeah, they made a movie.
No costume, no Flash, and invisible paint? Huh. That is really weird. I wonder who, for sure, that guy was? I bet Scipio would know. Also, I wish one of the Marvel vs. DC books had shown the Rainbow Raider vs. Marionette from the Micronauts comic. The battle of the stripey costumes! Vertical vs. horizontal! (They're natural enemies!)
I'd forgotten about the movie (although you had my hopes up, there, for "Rainbow Raider: The Motion Picture.") I caught a little of it on TV last year and I have to agree with the IMDb user comment: "Wonderfully boring." Haw! Is that anything like "enchantingly dull?"
Thanks for opening up your comments to us non-bloggers BB; I've been waiting to make catty comments for ages. But not this time because you're right, Rainbow Raider's costume kind of works. I find myself wanting the bands on his torso to vary width asymetrically, getting wider as they go to the right or left. It would make it a bit more dynamic. I have a nagging sense that it would end up all tacky, though.
Bill
That's a pretty good idea for the Raider's costume, Bill! I wouldn't worry about how it would affect the taste level. When you're working with rainbows, the outfit is automatically tacky, and any design alteration is a lateral move.
Re: the comments thing, I realized I was being kinda silly with all the restrictions for my little cowtown blog here. And my goal is to eventually have Absorbascon-levels of traffic, so I want to make it easy for folks to comment when they wanna. So thanks for trying again!
That last panel just may be the greatest comic book panel of all time.
I agree, Devon. In fact, I'd love to have that on a t-shirt.
I always liked the Rainbow Raider as one of a the only "latter-day" Flash villains who looked like they could fit in with the old guys in terms of design, power, and goofy Silver Age-ish charm. (Counter-examples: Colonel Computron - though I would like to see him revived as a modern-day villain who uses explicitly mid-'80s computer technology in his schemes - and Big Sir....)
I can just see Computron using a cassette tape drive, like the old Commodore computers! He'd be slow but deadly. Like the Turtle! That's an awesome point about his being dated, by the way. It's like the recent spate of villains who look like Marilyn Manson. In fifteen years, no kid is going to know who the hell that is. God willing.
Dear sir,
I too love Rainbow Raider, and you are awesome.
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