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Planetary #9

365 DC Comics Heroes & Villains Paper Cut-Outs

The Pied Piper

Hartley Rathaway was born into a wealthy family.  Early in his toddlerhood, Hartley’s parents discovered that he was deaf.  They spared no expense in their efforts to help their son hear, including experimental treatments.  They financed and ultimately developed highly sophisticated hearing implants that were designed by the cybernetic progeny William Magnus.  These implants proved successful and young Hartley was able to hear.

Later in his adolescence, Hartley discovered that the implants not only allowed for normal hearing but could also be enhanced so that he could hear all manner of sounds, frequencies outside of the range of human hearing.  

He became a master of sound and experimented with sonic vibrations that could affect the thoughts, moods and actions of those around him. He devised specialized melodies that could effectively hypnotize others and other vibrations that could break apart solid matter.  

Now a young man, Hartley found himself quite bored and he decided to try his hand at being a super villain, seeing as a fun lark.  He crafted up a costume along with a specialized flute and dubbed himself ‘The Pied Piper.’  This flute could hypnotize people and, at its highest frequency, deliver a sonic blast that could break through concrete.  With this flute, The Piper set about a crime spree in Keystone City and it was not long before he ran afoul of the city’s speedster protectors, The Flash (Barry Allen).

Following a number of defeats at the hands of The Flash, The Pied Piper threw in with team of supervillains known as the Rogues (composed of The Flash’s most persistent of foes).  Hartley continued to operate as the Pied Piper simply for the sport of it, because it was fun.  This changed in the wake of the Crisis on Multiple Earths event wherein the Flash valiantly sacrificed his life.  Hartley was moved by the hero’s selfless action and he decided to reform and discontinue his villainous ways. 

Hartley rededicated himself to prosocial causes and, when Wally Wets took up the mantle as the new Flash, Hartley became an alley to him as well as a friend to Wally and his girlfriend Linda Park.  Around this time, Hartley also came out as gay (this was one of the first main characters in a DC comic book to be openly queer).  

Following further misadventures, Hartley completely retired from his role as the Pied Piper and ultimately became the conductor of the Central City Philharmonic Orchestra.  Although he continued to have ties with The Flash and has been in a longterm relationship with David Singh, the director of the crime lab at the Central City Police Department.