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Since I've totally lost my mind and volunteered for the ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
flash_rogues holiday gift exchange, I'm doing character analysis.
PIPER
Real Name:
Hartley Robert Rathaway. He dislikes his given name (from thought balloons, and is generally called 'Piper' by anyone and everyone). He may not have a strong identification with his name because he was pre-lingually deaf until the age of 7 or so, and may have a signed name that he identifies with more strongly but that hasn't come up in the books at all. He certainly identifies with his alias more than his legal name.
Aliases:
The Pied Piper, Henry Rathaway [pre-Crisis?], Henry Darrow [pre-Crisis?], Mr. Devon [pre-Crisis?]
Background:
Only son and older child of Osgood and [Rachel?] Rathaway, publishing magnates. Piper was born into wealth, but was more of a status symbol and ornament than a cherished child. His parents weren't abusive, just distant and very concerned with appearances. He was raised mainly by nannies and his family housekeeper, and thus it wasn't apparent until he was a toddler that he was profoundly deaf – he had been thought to be mentally disabled before then (considering his younger sister has some undetermined mental disability, it might have been hereditary in his family, and a known possibility which lead to the misdiagnosis).
His parents sunk a fortune into restoring Piper's hearing, and before he was a teenager, they succeed. He has super-tech cochlear implants that replaced his actual middle ears [made by Dr. Will Magnus of the Metal Men], and has hearing that is sensitive beyond 'animal range'. Likely this means that not only can he hear farther and fainter sounds than a normal human, but that he can hear into infrasound and ultrasound.
Once he could hear, he became obsessed with sound, and more importantly *music*. He took in everything from Classical to Punk, and learned to play a variety of instruments, focusing on woodwinds. He claims not to be good (concert-level?) musician, but I think it's partly high standards, and partly the fact that he can hear flaws that no one else can.
He was so obsessed with music that he managed to get himself kicked out of every college he attended. This lead to fights with his parents over his lack of ambition and his obsession with music. In the end, he came out of the closet and left home (stealing a small fortune in seed money) with the idea of becoming a maker of musical instruments. Piper did actually make better instruments, but during testing [while busking, it looks like] he discovered that he could hypnotize people and from there it was a short hop to robbing banks. For the attention and the acceptance being a Rogue got him (yeah, it was one of the more wtf decisions he could have made. In his defense, he was maybe 19 or 20 and kind of dumb about life at the time.)
Somewhere around the time of Crisis on Infinite Earths, Piper started getting seriously into charity work – distributing food to the homeless and such. This was *before* he stopped being a villain, by the way. He turned to social work, *then* reformed. It's pretty indicative of how his mind works – do the right thing for powerless people, bedevil people with money and power, and pissing off more people just means more attention for himself.
He became a socialist or became more heavily involved in politics about this time as well. He may in fact be an anarchist. Because he himself doesn't fit into/be affected by hierarchies, he might not comprehend that they are real for the majority of people.
Deafness:
Pre-lingually deaf, Piper should have gotten intense education in ASL from the moment he was diagnosed. According to the lovely![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bayleaf, whose brain I'm going to pick, given his background as a deaf child of hearing parents who were resistant to dealing with his condition and wanted to 'fix' him, he was probably taught orally. This would account for the fact that he got thrown out of every college he was sent to later in life – he probably hates teachers and school because as a child who couldn't hear but was pushed to talk, his education would have been incredibly frustrating. He may have caught up with his reading by adulthood, but his language skills would have lagged (critical period) even after he got his implants and kept him from reaching his potential there. He may have difficulty *writing* things coherently in English – Jai and Iris West might be better writers than he is. Considering his parents were publishers, Piper's poor language skills would have been a real point of contention when he was still living at home; they were still a problem later on, but by then the Rathways had to deal with the fact that he'd become a costumed criminal, which rather tops an inability to write comprehensibly.
Costume and equipment:
Piper's earliest costume included a [tasseled? Elf?] hat, a polka-dotted tunic, pixie boots and tights or over-the-knee boots and tights, and half-circle [or square] cloak. He uses his pipe [a metal instrument somewhere between a clarinet and a soprano sax, from the art; he made it himself, back when he was trying to be a legitimate instrument maker], a pair of double shawms (for mind control ETA it's an aulos, possible of brass) or any of various wind instruments (including the quake-pipes).
His [Waid] era costume was a green and white jumpsuit with some tailored details like 'bloused' cuffs, and a small amount of armor including greaves and shoulder plates. He had a hood that he almost never pulled up (only visual I have seen with the hood up was when he was being impersonated, or after Iron Heights), instead letting it remain a cowl most of the time; include at this time are fairly heavy goggles, possible with heads-up display technology incorporated into them. He has a gun harness with holster across his chest for one of his sonic guns. This is during the period where he is unabashedly a hero; he wears the costume for fights, but he more often wears civilian clothes (usually green, often oversized or otherwise quirky). He generally uses a sonic gun at this point, and rarely a flute or pipe, though he will carry them around on a tool belt when wearing civilian clothes if he thinks he needs them (i.e. when Linda ropes him into the Kobra mess).
His post-Iron Heights costume includes a green gloves and boots, a short cloak with a hood that he almost never takes *down*, and square-framed green glasses that he almost never takes off (even when he takes off his hood). The glasses are often colored as the only thing visible beneath the hood – they might be glowing (or, alternate interpretation is that his *eyes* are glowing and he's just hiding that with the glasses.). His jumpsuit has become dark grey and more form-fitting (gone are the cuffed sleeves, as well as the small amount of armor Piper wore), with a belt and bandoleer with various musical devices and/or weapons, including what appears to be an amplifier/speaker box on his right hip, and a tuning fork (used to stun people into immobility) on the bandoleer. He generally attacks with his concert flute or his pipe, instead of a sonic gun, at this point. However, since he has discovered how to stun people into immobility with a tuning fork, the lack of his sonic guns is hardly a liability; it's one *less* weapon that anyone can turn against him, since the sonic guns work for anyone, and the musical instruments work for him alone.
He may be using the hood as a 'hide'. He started wearing it up after he escaped from Iron Height and was recruited into James Jesse's FBI project. He fluctuated between his Waid era costume [green and white jumpsuit, cowl] and his post-Iron Heights escape outfit [grey and green jumpsuit, short full circle cloak with hood], and he tended to be less crazy and rat-obsessed when wearing the green-and-white.
The artists are inconsistent about whether Piper wears hearing aids/microphones for his cochlear implants. Personally, I like it when he does.
Meta-humanity:
Piper is a metahuman. He can play multiple notes at once on his flute, talk and play music at the same time, play in impossible time (7/8.5, anyone?), hypnotize with music, produce a 'wall of sound' that can stop a fully loaded train, create any number of sonic based gadgets with five minutes and a rummage in an electronics store and generally create a lot of havoc with music.
His sonic guns will work for anyone -- he's made hypersonic cannons and handweapons and handed them out in crises (Linda gets some lovely ones). This is part of him being a gadgeteer genius when it comes to sonics and audio equipment.
However, his instruments will only work for him. Anyone can *play* them, but only Piper can get the weird effects like hypnosis and paralysis out of them.
In COUNTDOWN, Desaad of Apokolips said that Piper was channeling the Anti-Life Equation through his music. Considering that Piper proceed to blow up Desaad's head in revenge for what the New God had done to Trickster and then went after Brother Eye, Piper is capable of killing and world-breaking with his power, though seems to he have blocked the knowledge that he can out. Of course, the entire series was so bad that it's being shuffled out of continuity, so who knows *what* is happening with Piper there.
I'm pretty sure that his meta-human abilities were triggered during the operations that installed the implants that replaced his cochlea and made him hear. It would have been sufficient trauma and stress, which seems to be required to trigger those sorts of abilities. It also explains why he wound up so obsessed with sound and music, if his meta-human abilities latched onto this new sensory channel he suddenly had.
Rats:
Piper didn't have accompanying rats until after he was incarcerated in Iron Heights. Given that Warden Wolfe had every incoming supervillain/meta-human beaten up by the guards while manacled to a chair to *start* with, the fact that Piper went somewhat crazy and was desperate to escape isn't that surprising. He assaulted Rogue-profiler Hunter Zolomon during an interview; even though he was beaten by the guards immediately, Piper managed to break off the top of Zolomon's cane and pick it up. This was apparently his entire goal for the assault, as he concealed the cane top until he was returned to his cell and then carved it into a high-pitched pipe (in appearance, close to a picco pipe) – which he used to summon rats. From the sewers. Lots of them. And called them his friends.
Piper may have used the rats to excavate behind his cell and loosen the bricks enough that he could escape into the sewers and caves beneath Iron Heights.
He certainly used them in swarming attacks against Blue Beetle, Booster Gold and Firehawk in the Flash issue tie-in to IDENTITY CRISIS. The glowing eyes on the rats mirror Piper's own glowing eyes – indication of power? – whenever he controls them.
It is likely that he just summons sewer rats whenever he needs them, and they are not pets per se. When he's not 'on the job', he has at most one rat on his shoulder (which he pets, and which shows *his* emotional reactions). However, he does refer to them as 'my friends' (you know, the way Sweeney Todd refers to his *razors* as his friends), and he was distraught at the thought of being stuck on Apokolips (where he could have been raised to the level of a god) because it was a 'world without rats'. When he fell back to Earth, he landed in Gotham, and his first words to anyone beside himself were to rats in the alley – "Hi, guys! Miss me?" – which indicates Piper might have a severe problem distinguishing people from rats in his mind. I think he's as likely to save the life of his rats as innocent human bystanders right now, and be completely convinced that saving the rats was the right call.
Romantic Relationships:
Earl Povich [Fury] – armed costumed bank-robber. Modest superstrength, excellent reflexes/aim. He and Piper did several jobs together, then he went solo for one job and was nabbed by Barry Allen, the second Flash. After several years of imprisonment, he escaped and went on a rampage, which Piper stopped. Vicious, but not dumb – he got sound distorters to combat Piper's musical hypnosis. Tall, messy dark hair, muscular.
Michael Forbes: British chef who was Piper's date to Wally's mother's wedding. Helped out at the soup kitchen Piper was involved at. Tall, dark hair and beard, broad.
James [surname unknown]: Geekish architect that Piper was in a long-term relationship with. They shared a house in Central City. Fate unknown, but he's gone by the Johns run. Medium height, dark hair.
Piper seems to like dark hair, and men taller than he is, though that isn't a breaking point.
flash_rogues holiday gift exchange, I'm doing character analysis. PIPER
Real Name:
Hartley Robert Rathaway. He dislikes his given name (from thought balloons, and is generally called 'Piper' by anyone and everyone). He may not have a strong identification with his name because he was pre-lingually deaf until the age of 7 or so, and may have a signed name that he identifies with more strongly but that hasn't come up in the books at all. He certainly identifies with his alias more than his legal name.
Aliases:
The Pied Piper, Henry Rathaway [pre-Crisis?], Henry Darrow [pre-Crisis?], Mr. Devon [pre-Crisis?]
Background:
Only son and older child of Osgood and [Rachel?] Rathaway, publishing magnates. Piper was born into wealth, but was more of a status symbol and ornament than a cherished child. His parents weren't abusive, just distant and very concerned with appearances. He was raised mainly by nannies and his family housekeeper, and thus it wasn't apparent until he was a toddler that he was profoundly deaf – he had been thought to be mentally disabled before then (considering his younger sister has some undetermined mental disability, it might have been hereditary in his family, and a known possibility which lead to the misdiagnosis).
His parents sunk a fortune into restoring Piper's hearing, and before he was a teenager, they succeed. He has super-tech cochlear implants that replaced his actual middle ears [made by Dr. Will Magnus of the Metal Men], and has hearing that is sensitive beyond 'animal range'. Likely this means that not only can he hear farther and fainter sounds than a normal human, but that he can hear into infrasound and ultrasound.
Once he could hear, he became obsessed with sound, and more importantly *music*. He took in everything from Classical to Punk, and learned to play a variety of instruments, focusing on woodwinds. He claims not to be good (concert-level?) musician, but I think it's partly high standards, and partly the fact that he can hear flaws that no one else can.
He was so obsessed with music that he managed to get himself kicked out of every college he attended. This lead to fights with his parents over his lack of ambition and his obsession with music. In the end, he came out of the closet and left home (stealing a small fortune in seed money) with the idea of becoming a maker of musical instruments. Piper did actually make better instruments, but during testing [while busking, it looks like] he discovered that he could hypnotize people and from there it was a short hop to robbing banks. For the attention and the acceptance being a Rogue got him (yeah, it was one of the more wtf decisions he could have made. In his defense, he was maybe 19 or 20 and kind of dumb about life at the time.)
Somewhere around the time of Crisis on Infinite Earths, Piper started getting seriously into charity work – distributing food to the homeless and such. This was *before* he stopped being a villain, by the way. He turned to social work, *then* reformed. It's pretty indicative of how his mind works – do the right thing for powerless people, bedevil people with money and power, and pissing off more people just means more attention for himself.
He became a socialist or became more heavily involved in politics about this time as well. He may in fact be an anarchist. Because he himself doesn't fit into/be affected by hierarchies, he might not comprehend that they are real for the majority of people.
Deafness:
Pre-lingually deaf, Piper should have gotten intense education in ASL from the moment he was diagnosed. According to the lovely
bayleaf, whose brain I'm going to pick, given his background as a deaf child of hearing parents who were resistant to dealing with his condition and wanted to 'fix' him, he was probably taught orally. This would account for the fact that he got thrown out of every college he was sent to later in life – he probably hates teachers and school because as a child who couldn't hear but was pushed to talk, his education would have been incredibly frustrating. He may have caught up with his reading by adulthood, but his language skills would have lagged (critical period) even after he got his implants and kept him from reaching his potential there. He may have difficulty *writing* things coherently in English – Jai and Iris West might be better writers than he is. Considering his parents were publishers, Piper's poor language skills would have been a real point of contention when he was still living at home; they were still a problem later on, but by then the Rathways had to deal with the fact that he'd become a costumed criminal, which rather tops an inability to write comprehensibly.Costume and equipment:
Piper's earliest costume included a [tasseled? Elf?] hat, a polka-dotted tunic, pixie boots and tights or over-the-knee boots and tights, and half-circle [or square] cloak. He uses his pipe [a metal instrument somewhere between a clarinet and a soprano sax, from the art; he made it himself, back when he was trying to be a legitimate instrument maker], a pair of double shawms (for mind control ETA it's an aulos, possible of brass) or any of various wind instruments (including the quake-pipes).
His [Waid] era costume was a green and white jumpsuit with some tailored details like 'bloused' cuffs, and a small amount of armor including greaves and shoulder plates. He had a hood that he almost never pulled up (only visual I have seen with the hood up was when he was being impersonated, or after Iron Heights), instead letting it remain a cowl most of the time; include at this time are fairly heavy goggles, possible with heads-up display technology incorporated into them. He has a gun harness with holster across his chest for one of his sonic guns. This is during the period where he is unabashedly a hero; he wears the costume for fights, but he more often wears civilian clothes (usually green, often oversized or otherwise quirky). He generally uses a sonic gun at this point, and rarely a flute or pipe, though he will carry them around on a tool belt when wearing civilian clothes if he thinks he needs them (i.e. when Linda ropes him into the Kobra mess).
His post-Iron Heights costume includes a green gloves and boots, a short cloak with a hood that he almost never takes *down*, and square-framed green glasses that he almost never takes off (even when he takes off his hood). The glasses are often colored as the only thing visible beneath the hood – they might be glowing (or, alternate interpretation is that his *eyes* are glowing and he's just hiding that with the glasses.). His jumpsuit has become dark grey and more form-fitting (gone are the cuffed sleeves, as well as the small amount of armor Piper wore), with a belt and bandoleer with various musical devices and/or weapons, including what appears to be an amplifier/speaker box on his right hip, and a tuning fork (used to stun people into immobility) on the bandoleer. He generally attacks with his concert flute or his pipe, instead of a sonic gun, at this point. However, since he has discovered how to stun people into immobility with a tuning fork, the lack of his sonic guns is hardly a liability; it's one *less* weapon that anyone can turn against him, since the sonic guns work for anyone, and the musical instruments work for him alone.
He may be using the hood as a 'hide'. He started wearing it up after he escaped from Iron Height and was recruited into James Jesse's FBI project. He fluctuated between his Waid era costume [green and white jumpsuit, cowl] and his post-Iron Heights escape outfit [grey and green jumpsuit, short full circle cloak with hood], and he tended to be less crazy and rat-obsessed when wearing the green-and-white.
The artists are inconsistent about whether Piper wears hearing aids/microphones for his cochlear implants. Personally, I like it when he does.
Meta-humanity:
Piper is a metahuman. He can play multiple notes at once on his flute, talk and play music at the same time, play in impossible time (7/8.5, anyone?), hypnotize with music, produce a 'wall of sound' that can stop a fully loaded train, create any number of sonic based gadgets with five minutes and a rummage in an electronics store and generally create a lot of havoc with music.
His sonic guns will work for anyone -- he's made hypersonic cannons and handweapons and handed them out in crises (Linda gets some lovely ones). This is part of him being a gadgeteer genius when it comes to sonics and audio equipment.
However, his instruments will only work for him. Anyone can *play* them, but only Piper can get the weird effects like hypnosis and paralysis out of them.
In COUNTDOWN, Desaad of Apokolips said that Piper was channeling the Anti-Life Equation through his music. Considering that Piper proceed to blow up Desaad's head in revenge for what the New God had done to Trickster and then went after Brother Eye, Piper is capable of killing and world-breaking with his power, though seems to he have blocked the knowledge that he can out. Of course, the entire series was so bad that it's being shuffled out of continuity, so who knows *what* is happening with Piper there.
I'm pretty sure that his meta-human abilities were triggered during the operations that installed the implants that replaced his cochlea and made him hear. It would have been sufficient trauma and stress, which seems to be required to trigger those sorts of abilities. It also explains why he wound up so obsessed with sound and music, if his meta-human abilities latched onto this new sensory channel he suddenly had.
Rats:
Piper didn't have accompanying rats until after he was incarcerated in Iron Heights. Given that Warden Wolfe had every incoming supervillain/meta-human beaten up by the guards while manacled to a chair to *start* with, the fact that Piper went somewhat crazy and was desperate to escape isn't that surprising. He assaulted Rogue-profiler Hunter Zolomon during an interview; even though he was beaten by the guards immediately, Piper managed to break off the top of Zolomon's cane and pick it up. This was apparently his entire goal for the assault, as he concealed the cane top until he was returned to his cell and then carved it into a high-pitched pipe (in appearance, close to a picco pipe) – which he used to summon rats. From the sewers. Lots of them. And called them his friends.
Piper may have used the rats to excavate behind his cell and loosen the bricks enough that he could escape into the sewers and caves beneath Iron Heights.
He certainly used them in swarming attacks against Blue Beetle, Booster Gold and Firehawk in the Flash issue tie-in to IDENTITY CRISIS. The glowing eyes on the rats mirror Piper's own glowing eyes – indication of power? – whenever he controls them.
It is likely that he just summons sewer rats whenever he needs them, and they are not pets per se. When he's not 'on the job', he has at most one rat on his shoulder (which he pets, and which shows *his* emotional reactions). However, he does refer to them as 'my friends' (you know, the way Sweeney Todd refers to his *razors* as his friends), and he was distraught at the thought of being stuck on Apokolips (where he could have been raised to the level of a god) because it was a 'world without rats'. When he fell back to Earth, he landed in Gotham, and his first words to anyone beside himself were to rats in the alley – "Hi, guys! Miss me?" – which indicates Piper might have a severe problem distinguishing people from rats in his mind. I think he's as likely to save the life of his rats as innocent human bystanders right now, and be completely convinced that saving the rats was the right call.
Romantic Relationships:
Earl Povich [Fury] – armed costumed bank-robber. Modest superstrength, excellent reflexes/aim. He and Piper did several jobs together, then he went solo for one job and was nabbed by Barry Allen, the second Flash. After several years of imprisonment, he escaped and went on a rampage, which Piper stopped. Vicious, but not dumb – he got sound distorters to combat Piper's musical hypnosis. Tall, messy dark hair, muscular.
Michael Forbes: British chef who was Piper's date to Wally's mother's wedding. Helped out at the soup kitchen Piper was involved at. Tall, dark hair and beard, broad.
James [surname unknown]: Geekish architect that Piper was in a long-term relationship with. They shared a house in Central City. Fate unknown, but he's gone by the Johns run. Medium height, dark hair.
Piper seems to like dark hair, and men taller than he is, though that isn't a breaking point.
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It's not like any of my local friends *know* anything about the Flash Rogues...
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Why do I always fall for gadgeteer genius/charming goofball pairs?
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Because they're awesome?
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Damn you universe! You need to expand to save these guys, not kill them!
I think I read a fic where Piper and Booster had an odd kind of surrogate relationship going on, until they realized that one of them can travel through time, and the other can hypnotize people. Clearly, it was meant to be!
There was also a great one involving James somehow finding himself in Heaven (and finding it utterly boring, of course) and teaming up with Beetle to devise a way out of the place. Genius!
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I'm sorry, Piper and neotoma...and any other victim of my horrible puns. But I had to say it. James, stop laughing at me. You've done much worse.
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I'm going to have to write up a list of Piper and/or Trickster fics, because there really should be a nice comprehensive list out there we can point new fans to.
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I just had to look up Aulos when you mentioned them. There's some soundbites online, and I have to say that even without probable meta power, those things could probably hypnotize someone!
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Those are kind of cool too. I'm sure Piper experimented with all sorts of ancient instruments once he got bored with 'regular' modern types.
I wonder if he ever played with an ocarina once he got some of his effects down?
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I think the trick with aulos is that he can get two notes at once with a double-aulos without much effort. Which would have been a concern if he thought he might have to deal with resistance.
Also, his 'pipe' might be a fipple (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fipple) flute -- somewhat less fine control, but not nearly as finicky as a reed instrument, which would be likewise important in a fight.
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Secondly, why do I have the image of a bored Trickster giving Piper a kazoo, just to see what he'd do with it? Or better yet: if Deadshot had taken his instruments, and yanno, kept them far away, like an intelligent captor...and Piper just let loose with a filched kazoo out of one of James' infinite pockets? He would have one too...
"Hmmm" the Third, couldn't the double-aulos also add a layering effect? Say he wanted someone to do multiple/complicated things or send different people different messages...the more complex the tunes the more precise the actions? While in burst fighting or when faced with a super-quick enemy like the Flash he'd be able to get the message out much more quickly using simpler instruments like the fipple flute or kazoo!
Fourth, damn you wiki! It is a time-sucking, brain-stealing trap. And I love it too much to be allowed on there ever again.
Wow, I'm sorry, I'm really rambling now. A getting dirtier. Waaaaaaay past my sugar kick...I should sleep...
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why do I have the image of a bored Trickster giving Piper a kazoo, just to see what he'd do with it
Because James likes trouble and he bores easily.
I think Piper has to trade-off ease of use and durability against fine control. His concert flute is probably wonderfully versatile, but it's really ease to damage.
You want to see a bad wiki for sucking you in, look at TV Tropes (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HomePage) and search for all the entries where Piper or Trickster are mentioned -- Crowning Moment of Awesome (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/CrowningMoment/ComicBooks), Ho Yay (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/HoYay/ComicBooks), Straight Gay (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StraightGay), The Power of Rock (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ThePowerOfRock), Heel Face Turn (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HeelFaceTurn), and Xanatos Speed Chess (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/XanatosSpeedChess) are just *some* of them.
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Thanks for the links though, I hadn't caught all of those...
I'll read the Grodd thing when I'm more coherent.
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There's a rather nice line in Final Crisis: Rogues' Revenge #3 that Libra says about Piper that describes him: 'They say you're able to conduct the powers of the Anti-Life equation through your instruments. That you are a Muse to the New Gods.' I rather like that bit.
I'm not sure that Piper's ever actually described as a metahuman ... though he kind of probably is maybe-ish not sure. I thought that originally he was just a normal (as normal as Piper gets) man who discovered how to do weird things with sound. I mean, he clearly has to be ... but I don't remember it ever being stated anywhere in comics. I haven't read every comic he's ever been in, of course, but I caught up on all the scans on
Deaf until the age of seven? I'm just interested as to where you got the age from. For some reason I thought it was earlier than that but I'm always ready to learn new things.
Good work on the profiling!
But please, please correct Sweeney Todd's name. There's another 'e' in it. Cineworld cinemas got it wrong on everything when the film came out and it drove me absolutely mad. Sweeney, not Sweeny. Thank you!
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I believe that
I'm guessing. He was definitely a toddler when diagnosed, and it took several years before his parents found someone capable of replacing his entire middle ears. Based on the art, he's a child, not a teen, so I'm guessing between 5 and 10, and probably in the middle -- which would be 7. Also, if he's much older, he would have had a harder time acquiring a spoken language, and if he's much younger, he would have remembered much less.
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I suppose it depends who said it in the lettercolumn. It does make perfect sense that he is; it just never gets mentioned. Piper clearly needs more canon time. :D
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I have a bunch of Piper information from when I gathered it up to write the character up to role-play him on a game. I think I can fill in the bits you aren't sure of, too (it may take me a bit to write it up, tho).
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