rogues gallery

Noun

rogues' gallery (plural rogues' galleries)

1. (historical) A set of pictures of convicted or suspected criminals used in law enforcement investigations to help witnesses identify suspects.
   • Near-synonym: lineup

   Synonyms:

   lineup

2. (broadly) A group of people having the same (usually disreputable) characteristics.
   • In 1919, when Charles E. White began the task of collecting a sort of rogues' gallery of the measurements and family particularities of all makes and models of revolvers and pistols, in the hope of better identification of bullets in murder cases, it seemed a relatively simple enterprise.1925 June 20, Wesley W. Stout, “Fingerprinting Bullets: The Silent Witness”, in The Saturday Evening Post, volume 197, number 51, Philadelphia, Pa.; London: Curtis Publishing Company, →ISSN, →OCLC...
3. (broadly) A set of supervillains associated with a particular superhero franchise.
   • It is still perhaps the most important decade in Spider-Man's comic book career. The 1960s not only saw the birth of the fabled wall-crawler himself, but they also ushered in one of the greatest rogues galleries in the history of comic books.2012, Matthew K. Manning, Tom DeFalco, “The 1960s”, in Spider-Man: Inside the World of Your Friendly Neighborhood Hero, New York, N.Y.: DK Publishing, →ISBN, page 56