PIPER
Real Name: Unrevealed
Identity/Class: Human mutant (Morlocks)
Occupation Musician, alligator trainer
Group Membership: None;
formerly Drain Dwellers (Annalee, Ape, Beautiful Dreamer, Erg, Leech, Tar Baby), Morlocks (Berzeker, Blowhard, Caliban, Callisto, Cybelle, Healer, Jo, Masque, Plague, Scaleface, Sunder, Tommy, Zeek and unrevealed others)
Affiliations: the Five (Egg/Fabio Medina, Elixir/Joshua Foley, Proteus/Kevin MacTaggert, Hope Summers, Tempus/Eva Bell), Piper's Alligator's (Rudolph and others), Power Pack (Energizer/Katie Power, Gee/Alex Power, Lightspeed/Julie Power, Mass Master/Jack Power), Thor
Enemies: Marauders
(Arclight/Philippa Sontag, Harpoon/Kodiak Noatak, Riptide/Janos
Quested, Scalphunter/John Greycow, Scrambler/Kim Il Sung, Vertigo)
formerly Power
Pack (Energizer/Katie Power, Gee/Alex Power, Lightspeed/Julie Power,
Mass Master/Jack Power), X-Men (Lockheed, Nightcrawler/Kurt Wagner,
Shadowcat/Kitty Pryde)
Known Relatives: Rat King (son)
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Krakoa;
formerly The Alley, Morlock tunnels, Manhattan, New York
First Appearance: Power Pack I#11 (June, 1985)
Powers/Abilities: Piper can psionically control animals through melodies he plays on a flute to help focus his powers. Using his instrument, he can easily tame otherwise savage creatures such as Manhattan's sewer alligator population. The Piper has also been seen controlling large numbers of bats, frogs, rats and even cats. Without his flute, he immediately loses all control over his pets (see comments).
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 170 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Grey
History:
(Power Pack I#11 - BTS) - Through unrevealed circumstances, the mutant who became known as the Piper was cast out of regular society. He found and joined the Morlocks, an underground mutant community and soon found a home for himself in the sewer tunnels of New York, using his powers to "befriend" many of the animals sharing the sewers with him. Piper befriended a group of Morlocks that stuck relatively close to the surface world. The band of outcasts called themselves the Drain Dwellers.
(Uncanny X-Men I#193 - BTS) - After the Marauder Scalphunter anonymously killed several of Annalee's children, their bodies were discovered by Sunder and the others who returned them to the Alley where an inconsolable Annalee learned the fate of her offspring.
(Power Pack I#12 - BTS) - The empathic Annalee experienced severe emotional distress after the loss of her children. Her misery subconsciously started influencing the mood of her fellow Morlocks; Ape, Erg, Tar Baby and the Piper. Feeling responsible for the kids' deaths, the band of Morlocks felt obligated to replace them. In the hopes of attracting children, the Piper controlled a cat. After tying a tin can to the cat's tail so it would seem in distress, Piper used his powers to have him running around the streets of Manhattan in the hopes of attracting children.
(Power Pack I#11) - Spotting the cat, the heroic preteens known as Power Pack decided to help and rescue the poor animal. It lured them into the sewers however (undoubtedly thanks to the Piper's influence). When the super powered siblings were surprised and split up by suddenly rising water levels, Jack and Julie Power got attacked by alligators who where under the Piper's control. Alex and Katie managed to track down their family and fought off the alligators so they could escape from the sewers with the cat in tow. However, during the chaos the children lost their backpacks and text books. The Piper found them and figured the children would return to search for their belongings. He took the books and vowed to wait for their return.
(Power Pack I#12) - When Power Pack realized their backpacks were still in the sewers, they decided to go back and collect them. Immediately upon returning to the sewers, they were approached by the Piper and his fellow Morlock Drain Dwellers Erg, Ape and Tar Baby. After a brief struggle the Morlocks managed to capture Power Pack and took them to Annalee who was thrilled to have new children to take care off. Beautiful Dreamer panicked when she realized Annalee's replacement family came from the surface. Piper managed to assure her they were captured in the storm drains so no one would miss them. He also wanted her to change their memories with her dream smoke, so they would never remember any other home than the Alley. They also summoned Masque to change the childrens' features, turning them into full fledged Morlocks. As soon as Masque arrived, Power Pack managed to escape and fought the Morlocks with the help of X-Men members Nightcrawler and Shadowcat who happened to be visiting the Morlocks at the time. After an intense struggle, the children were freed. Piper and the others begged the two X-Men not to tell Callisto what they had done, fearing what she might do to them. As a sign of good will, Piper returned the schoolbooks to the children as they were leaving.
(Thor I#364) - While transformed into a frog, Norse thunder god Thor ended up in the Morlock tunnels, towing a bunch of dead rats with him, he was seeking aid that would help the frogs of the Central Park reservoir survive a concerted attack by the rats. As such he came upon the Piper who was playing a random tune to his alligators. Intrigued by a frog who towed rats with him he hoped to learn more and used his powers to control the frog to jump towards him.
(Thor I#365) - Thor, however used his strength to jump on Piper and hit him in the head. Figuring the Piper's flute was the source of his powers, Frog Thor grabbed the instrument. Without his instrument to focus his powers the alligators turned against their master as the Piper fled to higher ground through one of the manholes. Frog Thor than managed to lead the alligators to Central Park as well to lay assault on the rats, having tracked down the frog the Piper almost smashed Thor with a rock and reclaimed his flute. Feeling that the frog wasn't exactly what he seemed he told Thor about his home and the Morlocks and that he was moved to see a creature that would risk its own life to save his brothers and sisters. Offering his help for the future the Piper once again played his flute to command all his alligators and the park's rats to join him in returning to the sewers.
(Uncanny X-Men I#211) - When the Marauders entered the Alley and began massacring the Morlocks en masse, Piper was one of the first Morlocks who used his powers to fight the Marauders, playing his flute to draw all his pets from their holes to attack the Marauders. They however were no match as the Piper was found dead when the X-Men arrived on the scene.
(Thor I#373 - BTS) - While in Central Park Thor was contacted by a frog called Puddlegulp he had met previously, it told him the alligators had began to die with terrible screaming heard from the sewers. Recalling the events of his meeting the Piper, Thor decided to investigate the situation and ended up fighting the Marauders, avenging the Morlocks' deaths.
(Hellions#1 - BTS) - Following the Krakoan resurrection protocols, Piper was among the many mutants resurrected by the Five (Egg, Elixir, Proteus, Hope Summers, Tempus). Piper was one of many who accepted the invitation to remain on the sovereign mutant island nation, ruled by the Quiet Council.
(Hellions#1) - Learning Scalphunter of the Marauders was also living on Krakoa, Piper met up with his fellow resurrected Morlocks friends to confront the assassin on the the anniversary of the mutant massacre. However, during the confrontation, Scalphunter showed no remorse and assembled a large assault weapon prompting Callisto to send Piper and the others to kill him noting that whoever would fall would be reborn. Piper and the others were presumably killed and subsequently resurrected. To punish Scalphunter for his actions he was grafted onto Mr Sinister's Hellions team amongst other undesirables.
Comments: Created by Louise Simonson (writer), June Brigman (pencils), Bob Wiacek (inks).
The Piper is of course named after the storybook character the Pied Piper of Hamelin by the Brothers Grimm (Hamelin, incidentally, is the Dutch town Haarlem). In his first appearance, the Piper lived up to his fairy tale namegiver by luring away the Power Pack children. The Piper was absolutely powerless without his flute to control his subjects. You'd think that over the years, he might have developed certain whistling sounds to allow him to retain even the most basic of control.
Piper, as part of the Morlocks, was profiled in the
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition#9, Marvel
Encyclopedia: X-Men.
Profile by MarvellousLuke
CLARIFICATIONS:
Piper has no known connections to
Using his mutant powers, the Piper tamed most of the animals living in the underground. Chief among them were a group of alligators that had taken up residence in the Manhattan sewers. He even gave some of them affectionate nicknames like Rudolph, and fitted his pets with leashes. However, the alligators only tolerated Piper because of his powers, without them they wouldn't think twice about turning on him (as shown in Thor I#365). Piper used the alligators to round up Power Pack when they were lost in the sewers. Later, the reptilians made their way up to Central Park where they assaulted a large group of rats who were battling a group of frogs at the time (Thor was among the frogs, turned into an amphibian by a magical enchantment). When the Piper reclaimed his flute he steered the alligators back to the sewers. Some time later, he summoned the gators to help out his fellow Morlocks during their fight against the murderous Marauders. However, the sewer creatures were no match for the seasoned mutant assassins. The Marauders killed all of Piper's alligators, which was witnessed by one of the frogs the deceased gators had helped to protect. Determined to avenge the alligators, the frog sought out Thor so he could pay back the Marauders for their crimes.
--Power Pack I#11 (Power Pack I#11-12, Thor I#364, Thor I#365, Uncanny X-Men I#211, Thor I#373 BTS
images: (without ads)
Power Pack I#12, cover (main image)
Power Pack I#12, p19, pan5 (closeup)
Thor I#365, p1, pan1 (controlling frog Thor)
Power Pack I#11, p18, pan 5(alligators)
Power Pack I#11, p22, pan4 (Rudolph)
Appearances:
Power Pack I#11 (June, 1985) - Louise Simonson (writer), June Brigman
(pencils), Bob Wiacek (inks), Carl Potts, Pat Blevins (editors)
Power Pack I#12 (July, 1985)- Louise Simonson (writer), June Brigman
(pencils), Bob Wiacek (inks), Carl Potts, Pat Blevins (editors)
Thor I#364 (February, 1986) - Walter Simonson (writer, pencils, inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Thor I#365 (March, 1986) - Walter Simonson (writer, pencils, inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Thor I#373 (November, 1986) - Walter Simonson (writer), Sal Buscema (pencils, inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Uncanny X-Men I#211 (November, 1986) - Chris Claremont (writer), John
Romita Jr., Bret Blevins (pencillers), Al Williamson (inks), Anna
Nocenti (editor)
Hellions#1 (March, 2020) - Zeb Wells (writer), Stephen Segovia (pencils, inks), Jordan D. White, Annalise Bissa (editor)
First Posted: 03/30/2014
Last updated: 06/01/2020
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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