Sunday, February 12, 2023

Bring on the Bad Guys: The Pied Piper

 Real name: Hartley Rathaway

First appearance: The Flash I#106 2/2 (April/May 1959)

Abilities: Hypnotic flute 

Worst act: Robbery

Quote: "Now...by my mastery of sound...I will project a message into the air...a message to the Flash!"

Created by: John Bromme (script), Carmine Infantino (pencils), Joe Giella (inks)


Now this one is interesting. The Pied Piper was the first Flash foe to properly reform, and I have to admit I rather like the idea of reformed rouges. 


Rathaway was born deaf, and after getting some implants in his ears became obsessed with sound. From there he was pretty much your typical crook only with a sound gimmick. 

The reforming part was a stroke of genius, I have to say. The whole Barry had people mindwipped was just stupid, however, and should rightly be ignored. His end during Final Crisis should have been the end of the character, as it was nearly perfect coda of the character but of course he came back to life. DC then rebooted, thus rendering the whole thing moot. 




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