The Shattered Prayer

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Che has requested a post about comic book villains. And I think that this is a fantastic idea. There are so many good villains to choose from.
Lex Luthor (who, if he only had a good wig maker would not have become evil) or The Joker who had 1000 different origins. There is even the greatest comic book villain of them all, Darkseid. But since this is my first villain post, I decided that it had to be about the most amazing, frightening, baddest-assed villain of all time!

The Pied Piper.

Okay. He isn’t all that tough, but he’s a sweetheart of a bad guy!

Hartley Rathaway (already you know that he is going to be OH SO GOOD, when his name is Hartley Rathaway) was an enemy of the Silver Age Flash. Hartley made his fist appearance in May of 1959 in Flash 106 (which by the convoluted comic book numbering of the 1950s was really Flash number 2 — back in those days, a low number on a comic meant fewer sales because people thought low numbers meant that it the comic wasn’t established and would likely fail. So when Flash was restarted in the 1950s, they just picked up the numbering from where the last series left off in the 1940s. The most prominent example of this numbering weirdness is Justice League of America Number 1, prominently featuring the Flash, from Oct-Nov 1960, which didn’t even have a number on the cover!)

In order to understand old Hartley, you have to understand what was happening in Comics at the time. In the 1950s, comics in general and super-heroes in particular took a nosedive in popularity. Wertheim had released his book, “Seduction of the Innocent” which (erroneously) purported a link between comic books and juvenile delinquency. He even went so far as to testify in front of Congress on the subject. During his testimony, he alleged that Batman and Robin were gay and that Wonder Woman was a lesbian with a weird bondage fetish (which in my opinion would be a reason to BUY the comics, but I digress). Super-hero comics declined and most were canceled, including the here-to-fore popular Flash Comics with issue 104 in February 1949.

Flash Comics was an anthology comic book starring several Super-Heroes (including the Veronica Lake inspired, fishnet wearing Black Canary), but its two main attractions were Garrick, pipe smoking hat wearing Flash of the 1940s and Carter Hall, archaeologist and reincarnated Egyptian Hawkman. Throughout its run, the two of them alternated as cover stars. Of the two, Flash was more popular, graduating to his own title All-Flash (because, you see, it was All Flash — no Hawkman), which ran for 32 issues between 1941 and 1946. Flash was so popular in fact, he was the third of only five DC characters to get his own Title in the 1940s. They were, in order Superman in Summer 1949 (all titles featuring one character were quarterly, not monthly), Batman in Spring 1940 (and in all fairness Robin, here sporting a green cape, but his name was not in the title of the comic), Flash in Summer 1941, Green Lantern in Fall 1941, and Wonder Woman in Summer of 1942).

But, when Super-heroes were hitting hard times, only Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman survived the purge and continued to be published.
Westerns became the new rage.

As the 1950s wore on, however, Westerns started to lose popularity and Science Fiction was all the rage. The editors at DC (led by Julius Schwartz) decided to capitalize on the Sci-Fi rage by reinventing their Super-Heroes with a scientific edge. Green Lantern no longer had a mystical ring, instead he had a super-scientific ring worn by members of a Galactic Police Force. Hawkman was no longer a reincarnated Egyptian, he was a member of an alien police force sent to earth to study their techniques.

Due to his previous popularity, the first hero to be reinvented (in September-October 1956) was the Flash — his origin needed the least tweaking. Pipe-loving Jay Garrick was a scientist who was exposed to (ahem) “hard water” which turned him into the Flash. Now, Barry Allen (who never smoked in his life!) was a police scientist who was doused by chemicals in a lightning storm which rearranged his molecules into the fastest man alive!

Flash’s villains started to have a (pseudo) scientific edge as well. And one of those pseudo-scientific villains was Hartley Rathaway. Born deaf, his disability was healed by research funded by his millionaire father. Sound thus became an obsession with the super-rich and bored Hartley, and he began to invent sonic weapons.

But his villainy was from boredom. Not from evil. And soon he joined up with the other “Rogues” who plagued Flash — The main six rogues were Mirror Master! Captain Boomerang! The Top! Pied Piper! Captain Cold! Heat Wave! Sometimes Weather Wizard would also show up. As would the Trickster, who would later have a very important role in Hartley’s life. Outside of Batman, Flash had the most realized and largely populated list of villains of any hero in comics (they were so numerous they even held their own conventions!) Unlike some of the other rogues, however, Piper soon became something of an “also-ran” appearing most often with the other rogues and seldom, if ever, on his own. Often, he’d even be left out of the list of the most dangerous rogues.

Perhaps it was his polka dotted outfit. Perhaps it was the slightly gay nature of his powers.

To be fair, the most dangerous of the rogues worked on their own, and not with the others. These included super-gorilla Grodd, 64th century egomaniac Abra Kadabra, and Flash’s arch-enemy Professor Zoom, the reverse Flash, who eventually killed (for a while at least) Flash’s wife Iris West by vibrating his hand into her head and scrambling her brain.

But times were changing again. Flash brought in the Silver Age of Comics and was one of the most popular comics of the 50s and 60s, but soon people tired of him. Changes were made to try to revitalize interest in the comic, including Iris’ death, the apparent murder of Professor Zoom by Flash, Flash’s trial for said murder, and finally the resurrection of Iris and their moving to the 30th century for retirement and cancellation of the comic.

Not long after Flash died in the Crisis.

So where did this leave Pied Piper?

After Flash died, Kid Flash took on the name and mantle of his uncle (Wally West was the nephew of Iris West) and became the third Flash. And the Piper was so moved by the Flash’s death that he decided to switch sides and become a good guy. He even became a social activist and reformer working to help the homeless! In fact, he and Wally, the new flash, became very good friends. They became so close that Piper became a valued ally of the Flash who even helped him with mechanical and technical assistance. Their relationship was so close that Pied Piper came out to Flash

Yes. That’s right. He came out to Flash.

Which is ironic since he is one of the few super villains to have gone straight and stayed that way!

And yes, that is the reason, I chose Piper to start my Villain posting.

And coming out did him a world of good. He started to work out a little, getting a bit more attractive. He even grew a goatee and got rid of those awful polka dots! He even had a boyfriend for a while.

Lately, however, Piper’s hit hard times again. For a while, it seemed as if he were had turned evil once more, but it was just some convoluted story about the formerly dead rogue the Top, who did — well, I don’t know really. It was a bit of a mish-mash, but suffice it to say that Piper wasn’t evil and was still the reformed good Piper. (In a bit of convoluted manipulations, Piper became “good” again by Wally “coming out” to him as the Flash, which restored all of Piper’s memories and made everything wonderful again! Only in comics). Then Piper’s best friend, the Wally West Flash, appeared to have died (he didn’t) and Barry Allen Flash’s grandson, Bart (formerly Impulse) grew up ridiculously fast (soap opera aging fast), and took over as the Flash. This was one of the most disastrous changes in the history of comics, taking the very original and humorous Impulse and turning him into a dark and brooding carbon copy of the Flash that no one liked. He was so unliked as the Flash that the Rogues promptly killed him. Piper and Trickster (who had also reformed, but unfortunately homophobic) were trying to infiltrate the rogues and (even though innocent) got blamed for Bart’s death, and they had to go on the run,
chained to each other.

Now Piper and Trickster are being featured prominently in DC’s new weekly series, Countdown. And even though we have to put up with countless homophobic barbs at Piper by the Trickster, there have been intimations that it may be because the Trickster is attracted to Piper.

As interesting as a Piper/Trickster hookup would be, however, it seems very unlikely at this point because Trickster had his face rubbed off and was shot through the heart last week.

But you never know. Piper’s still alive, and comic book characters die and come back all the time.

So here is to the gay Piper. Let’s hope he keeps, ahem, playing those flutes for a long time to come!

Buy me a beer!

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