LGBT Character Of The Week: Pied Piper
These week we look at not a hero, but a villian. Sometimes. Hartley Rathaway, also known as the Pied Piper, was born deaf. After his hearing is cured due to medical research funded by his wealthy father, he becomes obsessed with sound. A genius of sound-based sonic technology, Rathaway has crafted his own sophisticated flute capable of hypnotizing anyone within range of its sound. He can make anyone do what ever he wants of them, and can even make himself 'invisible' to other's perception. Bored of his lifestyle, he turned to crime as the Pied Piper.
After the death of Barry Allen in the first Crisis, he retires from supervillainy, and eventually comes out of the closet to the new Flash, Wally West. He joked that it's ironic, considering he's one of the few villains to ever 'go straight'. This also made him one of the first openly gay characters in the DC Universe.
Piper recently returned to the limelight in DC's weekly Countdown series, he spent a lot of time on the run with fellow rogue Trickster, and eventually ended up destroying the merged Apokolips/Brother Eye entity with a performance of Queens 'The Show Must Go On'. His current fate is unknown but it is doubtful he could have survived the planet exploding without rescue.
Pied Piper is also the source of our own kid_ampersand's avatar.
Sgt. Sausagepants
Posted to Comics on 28 March 2008
· Comments (1)
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Wunderbar! Hartley is the best, and I'm glad such a formerly obscure character contributed so largely to the death of the Fourth World by playing a Queen song.