#retcons

In Flash vol. 2 #215, Barry Allen describes the Top thusly:

"His name was Roscoe Dillon. But you know him better as the Top. For a long time, he was just another one of the Rogues. A small-time crook from Central City who got creative, like Len Snart and Digger Harkness. He had a talent for inventions and explosives, and an obsession with, of all things, tops. The only good memory of a horrible childhood, he claimed. Like every one of the Rogues."

This is all fine so far as it goes, though since Roscoe almost blew up half the world with a giant spinning nuke in his first appearance, the claim that he's solely small-time is somewhat dubious.

"But unlike the others, behind his illusion-casting and shrapnel-spewing tops, Dillon had a power. He could spin his body at speeds that even made me think twice. He did it through a kind of telekinetic activity."

This is our first clear retcon. While Roscoe could indeed spin at super speeds, in his first appearance in Flash vol. 1 #122 (1961), the spinning was something he taught himself how to do, rather than an innate power as such. More importantly, he spun well before he showed any signs of telekinesis. Since his telekinetic powers appear in the same issue where he dies (Flash vol. 1 #243, 1976), it would appear that they were not intended to be the means by which he spun at super speed.

"And over the years. that mind-over-matter power grew. Dillon became faster. Worse. He got smarter."

Roscoe did claim that the spinning increased his brainpower, but that happened prior to the start of his supervillain career. And it wasn't his telekinesis that made him smarter. If anything, he seems to have developed the telekinesis because he became smarter (as a result of the spinning).

"For months, he eluded me. Over eleven police officers gave their lives trying to stop him. And I nearly lost mine. The only reason his spree eventually ended was that Dillon got sick. He claimed his mental powers and my super-speed vibrations were at fault. A kind of super-powered brain tumor. He died a few weeks later. An autopsy could never be done because the body was stolen by the Rogues. Who knows what they did with it?"

This appears to be a retelling of the events of Flash vol. 1 #243-244 (1976)...but retconned nearly beyond recognition. In those issues, the order of events is as follows:

Roscoe Dillon robs a train carrying gold with his newly-developed telekinetic powers.

The Flash tries to stop him, but fails.

Roscoe discovers that he is dying because of the interaction between his telekinesis and the Flash's super-speed.

Roscoe goes on a week-long crime spree, during which he plants his top bombs around the city. No one is killed, let alone 11+ police officers. (At this time, death was an enormous deal, and the death of a police officer was an even more enormous deal. Notably, when Goldface later has a police officer killed, the impact lasts for years and is treated as a uniquely horrible act. There is no way that more than 11 officers died off panel with no one mentioning it.)

Roscoe records his evil plan for the Rogues and dies.

Mirror Master discovers Roscoe's body.

The Rogues hold a funeral and uncover the evil plan to blow up Central City.

Apparently one of them turns the body over, because the state then holds another funeral for Roscoe, complete with newspaper reporters and a priest.

The Rogues run around trying to stop the bombs.

Barry successfully defuses the bombs.

No one dies (except Roscoe himself). And the events described last about a week, not months.

Bates later added that Roscoe met with Lisa Snart, his girlfriend, at some point in this crime spree to tell her he was dying (Flash #300).

In Flash vol. 2 #215, Barry continues:

"Not long after [Iris died], things took another turn. My parents were in a car accident they barely survived. After that, my father was different. His eyes...there was something new in his eyes. When his heart stopped, something entered into his body. Roscoe Dillon's mind. It was so powerful, it had survived death....The Top tormented my mother for weeks, and teamed up with his old flame the Golden Glider, until he finally revealed himself to me....Eventually, I exorcised the Top's spirit and saved my father."

This is a take on the events from Flash vol. 1 #297-303.

In that arc, Nora and Henry Allen are driving home to see Barry when a teenaged driver crosses the white line and slams into their car (he was paying more attention to his girlfriend than the road). Nora is sent into a coma; Henry's heart stopped and the teen resuscitated him via CPR.

Barry visits his parents in the hospital and invites Henry (whose body is now possessed by Roscoe) to live with him. Notably, he does not notice that his father is different in any way, and indeed, in Flash vol. 1 #299 Barry says that he feels closer to his father (really Roscoe) than ever, and reveals his secret identity to him. So he had no clue that his dad was acting oddly--it takes him to issue #303 to work it out!

Furthermore, Nora does not wake up from her coma until issue #301, and, while she does suspect that her husband is not himself by issue #303, Roscoe does not appear to do much of anything to torment her directly, let alone for weeks. Instead, he and Lisa launch into their plan to kill Barry and take his body for Roscoe pretty much immediately, and Barry frees his dad before his mom ever leaves the hospital.

The overall scheme did last weeks, but Nora was unconscious for most of it, and at no point do we see Roscoe directly interact with her in a cruel manner. Now, he is pretty nasty about her and pretending to love her over the phone with Lisa, but it is not the sort of cruelty that Johns implies in his retelling.

And then Johns starts making up stuff wholecloth.

Barry claims that Roscoe returned from the dead once more a few weeks later, attacked Patty Spivot, attacked Nora and Henry again, and tried to dig up Iris' grave.

Barry then claims that he had Zatanna brainwash him into being good. Over the next few weeks, the guilt drove him insane, and then he brainwashed the other Rogues into reforming with the telepathic powers he never had outside of this retcon, before committing ghost suicide by abandoning his host body.

Needless to say, there is zero indication of any of this in the Bronze Age comics.

In issue #216, Wally has Zatanna undo the brainwashing, and Roscoe becomes both sane and evil immediately.

The problem with this is...

Roscoe came back sane (and evil) in the 1990s Hawk and Dove series and possessed Senator Thomas O Neil. Then, in the Flash vol. 2 #120-121, Roscoe tried to become president, failed, and went crazy after being attacked by the soulless bodies of the Rogues who died in Underworld Unleashed.

This would imply that he was no longer brainwashed for awhile after he came back to life the third time, since he was neither benevolent nor insane.