Is the Flash about to face a Rogue War?
Entertainment Weekly has revealed that the CW series The Flash has cast Katee Sackhoff as Amunet Black, better known to DC Comics fans as the supervillain Blacksmith. The character will make her debut in "Girls Night Out", the fifth episode of the show's fourth season.
According to the article, Blacksmith is described as "a steely and badass boss of an underground black market for supervillains. Amunet uses every means possible, including the long list of metahumans under her thumb, to ensure her illicit enterprise thrives."
Sackhoff, 37, is best known as Lt. Kara "Starbuck" Thrace on the Sci Fi Channel series Battlestar Galactica. She's also voiced the comic book characters Sarah Essen in the animated movie Batman: Year One, and She-Hulk in The Super Hero Squad Show. In addition, she's appeared on episodes of Longmire, Robot Chicken, Star Wars Rebels, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Futurama, 24, and Bionic Woman (2007).
Created in 2001 by Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver, Blacksmith first appeared in The Flash: Iron Heights as Amunet Black, who ran and operated "The Network," an underground black market in the twin cities, Central City and Keystone City, for supervillains to buy, sell, or move contraband. During that time, she had a brief marriage to the supervillain Goldface. When they divorced, she stole the elixir that gave him his powers and changed it to gain the ability to merge metal with flesh and shape it to her will. She was able to keep The Network hidden from the authorities, and if any villain reformed or quit crime, she made sure the memories of the Network were erased from their minds. When Goldface and criminal profiler Hunter Zolomon (the future Zoom) were about to find out about The Network, she sent the Trickster to stop them. Having a vision of power, Blacksmith planned out her takeover of the twin cities, with herself as the leader.
First, she organized a new group of Rogues, which consisted of the Weather Wizard, Mirror Master, Magenta, Murmur, Girder, Plunder, and the Trickster. She made sure that her rogues were strong and had better control of their powers. Next, she and her Rogues had the Flash's allies removed or incapacitated. Mirror Master framed the Pied Piper for the murder of his parents. Plunder took out Chunk and shot Plunder's doppelganger, Detective Jared Morillo, and assumed his identity. Then, Mirror Master kidnapped Cyborg and police officer Fred Chyre and trapped them in a mirror universe, along with all the other police officers of Keystone City. The Rogues then removed the speedsters by giving Jesse Quick's company financial trouble, and sent Jay Garrick to a hospital in Denver when his wife Joan became ill.
After everything had been put into place, Blacksmith and her Rogues launched their takeover and began by attacking the Flash. They attacked hard and fast, which left Flash tired and badly injured, but just as they were about to finish him off, they were stopped by the Thinker, who wanted to use the Flash's brain to upload information. After the Thinker was defeated, Blacksmith and the Rogues resumed their plan and attacked Flash and Goldface. They successfully defeated the Flash while Goldface escaped. During the fight, Blacksmith used her power to transform her body into ebony metal, while villains in the Network began to loot and pillage the two cities. Fortunately, Goldface led the people of the twin cities against the Network, while the Flash managed to defeat the Weather Wizard, Mirror Master, and the Trickster before they escaped. With her Rogues defeated, Blacksmith tried a desperate attack by collapsing the bridge that connects Keystone City and Central City. The Flash quickly managed to rebuild the bridge and finally defeated Blacksmith by stranding her on a barge in the middle of the river. With her Network discontinued, she was sent to Iron Heights prison.
The Flash returns to The CW for Season 4 on October 10th, 2017.