In particular, today, I felt like sharing a few details about a couple of Ruby's rogues. They'll be featured in the second episode, so now's a good time to talk about them. I promise it's nothing spoilerish! Nothing I consider a spoiler, at least. (I mean, some background on the characters is all I really go on about.)
One of them is Black Lightning. He's Ruby's archnemesis, and has the power set equivalently matching hers to back that up. They frequently steal technique ideas from one another, using them in their slightly-different ways (because their powers do have some differences in them), and both have things the other does not, but he's consistently a match for her: he's her age, and he grows in skill at about the same rate Ruby does because he gets to fight just about as much as Ruby does.
I mean, obviously, Ruby still technically wins most of their fights, but he's one of the few rogues who actually has a secret identity, and necessitating that statement is him never having been successfully captured. So, he did earn the spot, even though if I'm fully honest, he's in the comic less often than he should be given that title. (He also is more of a solo villain, so he doesn't exactly participate in villain teamups, really.)
His weapon, Storm Reign, functions much akin to a spirit totem, in many ways. Among them, he's able to hide his malevolence from spirit totems (which usually ping in advance sensing motive to do evil) until the moment he strikes, which quite frankly makes him a terrifying villain to be up against in theory. (His main drawback? Laziness. He doesn't put much effort into being evil, but if he did......) He's one of only two rogues with that ability, the other being Paul Tristan Reagan Geist.
It won't happen in-comic in a while, but eventually, to keep up with Ruby's powers and upgrades, he gets an upgrade of his own, to a special sword. I can't talk about the specifics without going into spoilers, but what I can say is that it's the hairpin-inspired split-blade/two-pointed blade I made, the one which universally has the power to blast opponents with energy, has a serrated blade on one side and a smooth blade on the other, and in this case also is infused with his darkness powers.
Of course, this does lead to some hilarity. See, that weapon was invented by me. Ruby, while she has developed into her own character, has her roots as being an author avatar of me, including sharing some of my traits. Among them? She's the in-universe creator of the weapon, so suffice to say, she is not amused he stole that idea from her.
The other character I wanted to talk about is Professor Zweifel. He's a bit of an underutilized character. Of my rogues, he's probably one of the ones I use the least, even though in the background he's one of the more important ones, contributing to many significant events by his name being dropped alone.
Basically, he has three personalities. These personalities--or moods--are not alter-egos. They are not alternative identities. They are not split personalities, either. They're simply a shift in his personality. What that means is, he ALWAYS identifies as the same individual. He'll give different names for his different moods, but that's something he could easily live without.
He always has the same memories (no divide there!), and not just the same memories, but the same feelings attached TO those memories. (So even in his 'good' form, he'll reminisce about "good times" he had murdering people.) His basics don't change: same physical strength, same high intellect. Much of his personality quirks and mannerisms are even preserved between the three! (Though, each of the three do have differences.)
Yet, they are still distinctly different, as if a switch has been pulled, and he has absolutely no control over which mood he's in at any time. It quite literally is like a switch being flipped: he can't hide it, he instantly has a change in his speech, his attitude, everything, the moment a shift occurs.
One of the personalities is an evil overlord, hellbent on power and world domination. Another is an evil mad scientist. With the usual cliches. Using inventions to wreck havoc, furthering scientific knowledge at all costs, and so forth. The third, his "good" side, is...well, he's still a mad scientist, just one who has morals, ethics, and actually bothers to follow laws in his work.
That being said, if he breaks the laws/commits a sin against humanity in his other personalities, he won't turn himself in for it, even in good mode. He also won't apologize for his actions, nor atone for them. Again, he will retain his attitude of the crimes as he remembers them, so any heinous acts aren't going to make him feel so guilty he willingly goes back to jail if he broke himself out under a different personality.
As far as I know, there's no actual mental condition that works anything like the described, where the person both simultaneously is a different person in many key areas, but also isn't the same person. His objective, his dreams, his goals, his methods, even how he thinks, they all change between personalities. Yet he still has memories of his other selves and is able to feel the same way he did, despite not thinking the same way.
His main importance to the story is that he creates stuff for the heroes when in good mode (many inventions are mentioned as being at least partially his), and he has made breakthroughs in evil scientist mood that weren't discarded (the attitude there was more or less, "That's great knowledge to have! We'll use it in the future. Don't expect that to excuse your crimes, though!"), and sometimes he helps villains out, too, so he's an important figure.
I like both of them quite a bit. I like all my rogues (wouldn't create them if I didn't!), but if I had to rate them right now, they'd be in the top five.