| Psycho-Pirate | |
|---|---|
 The Roger Hayden incarnation of Psycho-Pirate as depicted inDetective Comics #1051 (February 2022). Art by Fernando Blanco. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Charles Halstead: All-Star Comics #23 (December1944) Roger Hayden: Showcase #56 (June1965) |
| Created by | Charles Halstead: Gardner Fox Joe Gallagher Roger Hayden: Gardner Fox Murphy Anderson |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | - Charles Halstead - Roger Hayden |
| Team affiliations | Roger Hayden: Secret Society of Super Villains Black Lantern Corps |
| Abilities | Roger Hayden:
|
ThePsycho-Pirate is the name of twosupervillains appearing inAmerican comic books published byDC Comics.
Bob Frazer portrayed the character for hislive action debut duringThe CW's 2018Arrowverse crossover "Elseworlds". Additionally,Armin Shimerman andGeoffrey Arend have voiced Psycho-Pirate in animation.
The Charles Halstead incarnation of Psycho-Pirate first appeared inAll-Star Comics #23 (December 1944), and was created byGardner Fox and Joe Gallagher.[1]
The Roger Hayden incarnation of Psycho-Pirate first appeared inShowcase #56 (June 1965), and was created by Gardner Fox andMurphy Anderson.[2]
Charles Halstead is alinotyper for theDaily Courier who became jealous of his boss's success; later, he becomes a criminal mastermind under the name Psycho-Pirate. He plans crimes based on emotions, hoping to ruin his boss. A long-time employee, Halstead was a friend and favorite of publisher Rex Morgan. Secretly, however, Halstead was frustrated with his lack of advancement at the paper and, at some point, snapped. He resolved to take what he had never been able to earn. His first target was the newspaper itself. He began to stage a series of crimes based on emotions, cluing theCourier with leads to his crimes.
Halstead pens a letter to theCourier, challenging theJustice Society to stop a new wave of crimes based on a variety of emotions. For example, he engendered fear into the inhabitants of a city where he threatened to unleash a deadly plague until his plan was halted byDoctor Mid-Nite. Each JSAer was given an emotion and a task to solve. With the JSA dispersed and onlythe Atom to guard Halstead, the Psycho-Pirate began a campaign to demoralize the publisher with constant news of despair: business failure, divorce, foreclosure — a series of lies designed to crush the spirit of his employer. To remove the Atom, he convinced the hero that the JSA had been captured and sent the Atom to rescue them. The Atom discovered the ruse and defeated the criminal's henchmen disguised as JSAers. In doing so, the Atom discovered the true identity of the Psycho-Pirate, who shot him to preserve his secrecy. Wounded, the Atom made it to theCourier just as the JSA returned and exposed Halstead as Psycho-Pirate. Halstead was subsequently sentenced to a lengthy prison term after the Justice Society of America captured and put him in jail. Halstead continued to research themysticism of emotions until his death sometime in the 1960s.[3]
Roger Hayden is a jailed gangster who is a cellmate to Halstead on the parallel universe ofEarth-Two. Halstead's dying wish, to have a legacy, prompts him to tell Hayden of a secret which he has divined in his jail years: the existence of the Medusa Masks. These golden masks bestow upon the wearer the power to project emotions onto others. Hayden finds these masks, merges them into a single faceplate and uses its powers to become a supervillain.[3]
In theCrisis on Infinite Earthslimited series, Hayden is abducted by theAnti-Monitor. In exchange for an entire world and all of its inhabitants' emotions to play with, Psycho-Pirate becomes an accomplice to the Anti-Monitor, manipulating a captiveBarry Allen. The Flash's powers are briefly enhanced so that Hayden can control the remaining three alternate Earths at the time (Earth-4, Earth-S, and Earth-X) so that their heroes are provoked into attacking teams sent to rescue them. Psycho-Pirate's use of his powers on this scale causes him to "burn out" so that he cannot use his powers again afterward. Although the Anti-Monitor constantly belittles the Psycho-Pirate, he keeps him around in case his emotion-manipulating abilities prove useful later on and because he lacks the time to find or create someone else with the same powers. After the resolution of the Crisis, when themultiverse is destroyed, Psycho-Pirate is one of the few individuals to remember the original multiverse.[4]
Following the events ofCrisis on Infinite Earths, Hayden escapesArkham Asylum and encounters a renegade Fifth DimensionThunderbolt genie who has merged with private investigatorJonni Thunder. InInfinity, Inc., the two bedevil the members of Infinity, Inc. in a bid to destroy Jonni's mind so that Thunderbolt can seize total control over her body. During the arc, it is shown that Thunderbolt repeatedly shocked Psycho-Pirate to cure his madness. However, the electroshock has the side effect of making Psycho-Pirate lose all memories of theCrisis and the existence of parallel Earths.[5][6]
Hayden shows up again inGrant Morrison's run onAnimal Man, imprisoned in Arkham Asylum. The effects of the electroshocks given to him by Thunderbolt have worn off and Hayden's memories of theCrisis and of the prior existence of multiple Earths are restored. Psycho-Pirate ends up releasing several people who were killed during theCrisis back into the world, although many of them come to realize they are fictional characters. After an intervention by Animal Man, Hayden, seemingly happy, fades away into nothingness.[7]
Psycho-Pirate does not appear again until the 1995 eventUnderworld Unleashed crossover event, where he sells his soul to the demonNeron in exchange for more power. He now sports a black leather jacket and has the metal of his mask as an eyepatch that replaces half of his brain.
During theInfinite Crisis event, Psycho-Pirate is recruited byAlexander Luthor Jr. and uses his powers to tormentPower Girl and forceBlack Adam to power Luthor's dimensional "tuning fork" machine. When Luthor's captives are freed, Adam kills Psycho-Pirate by forcing the Medusa Mask through his head.[8]
In theBlackest Night storyline, Psycho-Pirate is resurrected as aBlack Lantern.[9] He attacksSmallville, using his powers to manipulate the inhabitants and swayConner Kent into attacking Superman. Psycho-Pirate murders several Smallville citizens after using his powers to enhance their emotions, as Black Lanterns enjoy attacking the emotionally overwrought.[10] Conner attacks Superman and aids the Black LanternSuperman from Earth 2; however, the effect of the mask wears off and Conner regains his senses. Clark and Conner decide to separate, with Conner confronting Psycho-Pirate. Conner manages to withstand his emotional manipulation attempts and steals the Medusa Mask. Using the artifact, Conner inspires hope, will, and compassion, ending the riots in Smallville. Conner uses the Medusa Mask on the Earth-2 Superman and Psycho-Pirate, killing them by causing their black rings to malfunction.[11]
In September 2011,The New 52 rebooted DC's continuity. In this new timeline, a new depiction of Psycho-Pirate first appears inSuperboy (vol. 6) #23 as a member of the Twenty, a group of people who are infected byBrainiac with a psionic virus and gained psionic abilities. He was captured by theH.I.V.E. Queen, another member of the Twenty who had become a zealous devotee of Brainiac. Psycho-Pirate managed to escape and sought out the Medusa Mask, an artifact that he believed would protect him against other people with psychic powers.[12]
Charles Halstead has no superhuman powers; however, he is a brilliantcriminal mind with an excellent grasp of human psychology and emotions.
With the Medusa Mask, Roger Hayden is able to project emotions onto other people. Often it seems to intensify emotions that a person already feels, no matter how small. Hayden later shows the power to manifest any DC Multiverse characters that had been destroyed during theCrisis on Infinite Earths or any living character, period. The Psycho-Pirate has also shown some sort of regeneration of body control, as he is able to reform after being crushed byPower Girl, and also disguises himself as aLegion flight ring.
During his 1990s revamp, the Psycho-Pirate was apsychic vampire, able to drain emotions from other people.
FollowingThe New 52 reboot, Roger Hayden is depicted as a psychic who specializes in telepathically manipulating other people's emotions. Examples include: calming a person to make them more reasonable or amplifying negative emotions such as fear or anger to the point of sending people into a murderous frenzy. While wearing the Medusa Mask, Hayden's emotion-manipulating powers were increased to the point where he could control all of Metropolis without straining himself. The mask also provided him with a number of other abilities, including shielding his mind against intrusion from other telepaths, levitation, draining other psi-powered individuals of their mental energies to increase his own, projecting psionic constructs in the form of giant orange snakes which he uses to attack enemies, forming a psychic link with another person, projecting his mind over tremendous distances (essentially granting him omnipresence), deflecting psionic attacks, projecting bolts of psionic energy and creatingillusions.
The Charles Halstead incarnation of Psycho-Pirate appears films set in theTomorrowverse, voiced byGeoffrey Arend.[16] An alternate universe incarnation of Halstead named theAdvisor appears inJustice Society: World War II, while the main universe incarnation appears inJustice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths.[16][20][21]