In the Germanic languages, V is often pronounced F, while the Japanese tend to confuse L and R. Combine these and Roy’s last name comes out Biforo which is not far off from Bifrost which is the name of the rainbow the Norse gods use to travel between Asgard and Midgard. Wow, that’s a big stretch.

They cause uncontrollable break-dancing.

…okay, that totally changed my mind. Rainbow Raider is the best supervillain ever.

DB: I’ve often wondered what your indigo beams do.

RB: They cause uncontrollable break-dancing. I hit Batman with one in Brave and the Bold #194….

DB: The time you teamed up with Dr. Double X?
Get down and boogie with Rainbow Raider!

RB: Right. I hit Batman with an indigo beam, and he just lost it. He started spinning around on the ground, doing all these awesome moves. I can still hear him singing: “Open the door, get on the floor, everybody do the dinosaur…”

Double X and I just stopped and stared. So did Flash, who had teamed up with Bats. We couldn’t believe it. Editor Julius Schwartz eventually cut that scene from the final issue, and I was forbidden from ever using my indigo beam again.

DB: I actually found some footage from that scene. Here’s a shot of you break dancing!

RB: Oh, geez! We really got carried away. Swept up in the moment.

Booster persuaded him to help save paintings from a fire in the art museum. Roy could not let all that art be destroyed!

I like that version of his origin the best. He got ditched by his business partner and supposed friend right when they were on the brink of success, then immediately after that he had to deal with his pop’s death. That’d put me in a crime-committing mood!

Yeah, it does make sense.

You guys do get the name, right? Just checking.

Yes, but I can’t claim credit for figuring it out; right there in his Wiki entry is the reason for his name. :p

@Zenrage: Well, in the case of the Scarlet Spider you had Peter’s clone trying to make a life for himself and he needed an alias. He got the first name from Uncle Ben, of course, and Reilly was Aunt May’s maiden name. As for this Deathfly person, it is a mystery to me as well…

The one name I never did get was Ben Riley. I’ve seen two insect-themed characters given this name as an alter-ego (The Scarlet Spider, Deathfly). I have yet to figure out why, though.

You guys do get the name, right? Just checking.

The guy did have his moments (puce or not, it still looks like that blast was pretty effective, and you know what they say about vomit-inducing-rays by any other name).

Kind of ironic that he’d mock Booster Gold as being second rate (with Booster probably thinking the same about him) and then, according to Axolotl’s comment above, stop fighting him and team up very shortly after.

In one of those scans he’s yelling at a guy named Morris. The natural assumption would be that he is doing this because he doesn’t like Morris, and that assumption would be…absolutely correct! You can see the reason here (the commentary isn’t kind to the Raider either, although if Roy were alive he might take small comfort in what was said about Morris’ outfit):

http://www.seanbaby.com/stupcom/rainbow4.htm

I like that version of his origin the best. He got ditched by his business partner and supposed friend right when they were on the brink of success, then immediately after that he had to deal with his pop’s death. That’d put me in a crime-committing mood!

Here’s something else. An interview with the Rainbow Raider:

http://www.fanzing.com/mag/fanzing43/iview.shtml

The following is a spoiler quote and most of the final part of the interview, but I am compelled to include it. Partly because it includes an explanation for what you told me about the way he was acting before getting killed, Lia, and I guess that’s as good an explanation as any.

DB: Let’s talk about your recent career change. Why’d you decide to quit DC and come to Fanzing?

RB: I wanted to get back to my roots as an artist. Plus, I was tired of being typecast as a “goofy, but loveable villain.”

I felt that I had accomplished everything I could in comics, and it was time for a change. Aside from Captain Cold, most members of the old Rogues’ Gallery have died or gone onto other things. A new generation of villains are coming to the forefront, and being a bit old school, I felt out of place.

When you guys called, I decided that I couldn’t turn down an opportunity to become the curator of an art gallery!

DB: Were there any hard feelings?

RB: No, not really. Geoff [Johns, writer of the Flash] was really cool about it. He came up with the idea of my death scene in Flash #183. Geoff was introducing Blacksmith, a new villain, and he wanted to kill somebody off to make her [Blacksmith] look tough. Originally, he wanted to off the Turtle, but I persuaded him otherwise.

DB: You suggested he use you instead?

RB: Yeah. In many respects, my “death” was a nice solution. Geoff got what he wanted, it enabled me to get out of my DC contract, and it hopefully offered my fans a sense of closure.

DB: In the scene leading up to your death, you seem to be acting out of character. Instead of the loveable rogue we’ve come to expect, you’re suddenly an angry trouble maker. Even your costume is gone, replaced by an grungy looking trenchcoat.

RB: I can’t talk about that, but there was a reason for it.

DB: You mean the person Blacksmith killed might not have been you? An imposter?

RB: Let’s just say that there are ways that I can come back, if need be. I left some options open. I also signed a standard “flashback” contract, which enables me to appear in any stories set in the past.

DB: Is there anything in the works?

RB: I’ve discussed a “Rainbow Raider: Year One” miniseries with Geoff and Scott [Kolins, the penciller of Flash], but their schedules are pretty busy right now. In the meantime, I’m content with my new curator duties here at Fanzing. I get a monthly gig and I’m doing something I love. What more could a guy want?

Also, once I posted a whole bunch of Raider scans just for the hell of it. Enjoy.
http://community.livejournal.com/flash_rogues/24614.html

By the way, it includes the “colorblind spastic” panel.

Matt D – Johns brought in a whole legacy group called the Rainbow Raiders (1 per color) to replace him.

My mental image of what they could look like is very Power Ranger-y.

@Skemono: Well, there’s nothing wrong with the name “Roy,” and there wasn’t much his father could’ve done about the last name. I think the blame lies with one of those guys on Ellis Island. You know the type, the people whose job it is to say “Welcome to America! What’s your name?…No it’s not, your name is ‘Bivolo’ now.”

I’ve never considered it tragic enough to power a life of supervillainy, though. I get more emotional about my family’s history of male pattern baldness than the colorblindness thing.

This character makes much more sense if you assume he’s trying to get revenge on the world not over his colorblindness, but over his father cursing him with a really stupid name.

I mean, come on… Roy G. Bivolo? It’s like his father wanted him to have the crap beaten out of him in school.