#terranerin05997

[gorogues]

purplecyborgnewt said: But we just got him back… Maybe the new writers will find some opportunity to keep him in story anyway?

He may well hang around to help out, but if we do see him it probably won't be in the 'cozy slice of life' approach Adams set up. Which is a bummer, as I was looking forward to it.

terranerin05997 said: Mysterious Allies … It was nice at the Moment but i guess we will see him again in maybe 5 years or so. Or maybe in a pride month comic but i dont think more.

Fingers crossed that things are better than we're fearing! However, I do think we'll be seeing a lot less of him than it seemed a couple of months ago :\ (And as you can see in the post before this, he will be appearing in a reprint during Pride month. Which isn't new content but it's good DC hasn't forgotten about him.)

one-rogue-army said: @tricksterrune How did Roscoe get six extra tiles? There's plenty of ten-letter words that have "rat" in them. :)

He cheats! :>

one-rogue-army said: @gorogues @purplecyborgnewt How about Hartley watches over Central City and all, while Wally’s off exploring whatever’s beyond the Speed Force?

That'd work!

purplecyborgnewt said: @one-rogue-army wouldn’t it still mean he would stay mostly offscreen, I mean off-page, while Wally “experiments with new approaches in new realms”? Unless we’re getting “meanwhile, back on Earth” every now and then…

Unless he's actively helping Wally with some of his explorations (which he might), I think his participation would be fairly sparse, yeah. But considering we might see some far-out trippy stuff it's entirely possible Hartley might be able to help with that.

Also I have the perfect reaction image for this and must use it.

one-rogue-army said: @purplecyborgnewt Looks like Wally’s going to need his family as his lightning rod more than ever. So their wellbeing would matter to the story.

Very good point. I hope we won't see many Wally's-family-in-peril stories, and I think the kids + cosmic horror would be too much. I wonder how much of the family we'll even see.

[gorogues]

terranerin05997 replied to your text post: That is a hard one. It depends which Version you choose. But can be op and pretty useless

Very true, there are so many variables to consider in these fights!

emi-sos-ko said: Thanks!

Never a problem :)

[gorogues]

terranerin05997 said: Hartley went from ash blond to grey in one issue

After being a redhead in the issue before last! Maybe his lesser-known metahuman ability is rapid hair change :>

[gorogues]

Spoilers for upcoming issues (Flash #789 and DC vs. Vampires: All-Out War #6) in this post!

belphegor1982 said: "I've been gut shot"?? Oh, Len. You really gotta think about your life choices, buddy 😬

Pfft, self-reflection is for losers and Flashes.

belphegor1982 said: I missed Wally 🥰 and Linda 🥰 and Hartley 🥰 and the kids 🥰

We all did!

purplecyborgnewt said: Finally the proper reunion!!!

Can't believe it took so long, but better late than never!

t-bombs said: AHHH WE ACTUALLY GOT HUGS :D

There should be more hugging in Flash comics, honestly!

t-bombs said: Okay, this issue is everything to me ❤💚

I'm so glad :)

terranerin05997 said: 🤩 took way too long to bring him back.

It did, but this start sure looks promising! Hopefully the writer follows through with this set-up of Hartley being a co-worker and regular visitor at the house.

t-bombs said: “UNCLE HARTLEY” ;A;

As he should be :D

one-rogue-army said: Why is Len so creaky? :)

tricksterrune said: @one-rogue-army it’s his joints. He’s getting on in years and it permeates his entire being

Sadly, can confirm :O My spine actually crackles when it's grouchy, which is often.

[gorogues]

Spoilers for Batman Urban Legends #17 in this post!

terranerin05997 said: I think len is blushing. Probably the reason for the … I dont think len even graduated school so

If anything, that should garner him more respect -- he didn't graduate but still does work Freeze appreciates!  That takes a lot of skill and autodidacticism.

tricksterrune said: He’s bullshitting, clearly. But that seems like a cute story, thanks for posting it

Heh, I'm not always great at figuring out people's emotions or motivations, so sometimes I just guess at what's happening and hope to not make a fool of myself :)  And the story really is a lot of fun, I enjoyed it a lot!

[gorogues]

villainapologist replied to your ask post: post-flashpoint marco can probably speak either spanish or portuguese. i wish we knew where in south america his family came from. 🤗

terranerin05997 replied to your ask post: He is from Guatemala, so spanish

😲 ....so I can guess how tired and brainfogged I've been recently, because I completely forgot about Marco's existence 😅  You're both right, of course.  He would speak Spanish.  Thank you both for noting that!

one-rogue-army replied to your text post: I think it was said later that Darrow was Rachel's original surname... which means Osgood threw her family name under the bus.

I honestly don't recall ever seeing Rachel's maiden name given, but as noted above I'm not sure I trust my memory at the moment :>  I did check Hartley's two Who's Who entries just now and there's no mention of her maiden name, nor is it in the DC Encyclopedia.  I'd imagine that using her maiden name would make the connection between him and the Rathaways a bit too obvious, so they'd probably go with a completely unrelated name if possible.

one-rogue-army replied to your ask post: I headcanon that Hartley learned ASL once he was disowned, cause he figured only his father's resources would be able to contact (and pay for) Dr. Magnus to maintain the cyberaudio systems. So if those broke down... :(

That's a good one!  I think he'd want to learn ASL just to interact with other Deaf people, but a fear of the implants breaking down is certainly valid.  We know he's a whiz at tech, but it's not clear whether he'd have the skill to fix them himself...obviously Will Magnus' tech is extremely advanced, and he might not want to risk it if he can't.

64th-century-exile replied to your ask post: As Kadabra was called "an entity who denied the groupmind" (Flash v2 #67), I suspect Wally's visits to the 64th century meant he was "hearing" a telepathic translation into English. More likely the 64th century language is Interlac, as LSH had established it as Earth's most common language by the 30th century.

Interlac's a possibility, but there will be at least two major societal upheavals between now and Kadabra's future IIRC, so Interlac may be lost by then as well.  Plus, Kadabra's era is more than 3000 years after even the 30th century, so the language may have shifted yet further.  However, I think you're right about the telepathic groupmind.  They still physically speak because we see them speaking to each other and to Wally, but there's got to be some way of keeping everyone in line with the Clockworks.

secondratevillain replied to your ask post: Considering Roscoe's strict upbringing, do you reckon he could speak another language? Alternatively just as a headcanon I could see him learning Latin for the classy implications. :D

Could be!  He (or rather his Black Lantern zombie) did call himself "educated" once, so he may have learned another language or two.  And even if he hadn't learned Latin in his younger years he totally would learn it in adulthood just to brag :>  Headcanon accepted!

[gorogues]

Spoilers for DCeased: Hope At World’s End #15 in this post!

secondratevillain replied to your photo post: Read this this morning and was so happy to see Hartley survive! :D

It's great news :D  Glad to see that Taylor subverted the anticipated tropes!

terranerin05997 replied to your photo post: I love how wink freaks out about the gun and piper just goes and kills her with his flute. The Ending was a little abrupt and some things are still hanging in the air ... oh well But it was still a nice short story. Also since when is pipers face so ,,square,,

Yeah, the DCeased `verse is still continuing elsewhere, so this isn't the end of the whole concept, just the end of this particular adventure....so as happy as they are right now, tomorrow they'll still have to get up and deal with the Anti-Living.  But at least a huge portion of the army is gone, as are Nightshade and Black Adam.

The art's been a bit weird at times in this series (this issue was particularly odd), but eh.  I'm just glad for a happy ending :)

belphegor1982 replied to your photo post: I stopped following comics closely for a dozen years but I'm SO HAPPY he's alive, "I'm done playing" - asizhfmfjuhlhfs how can you be so badass and THIS MUCH of a dork ♥ And that last panel... *happy sigh*

It’s clearly a practiced skill!  And so great that they all got to go back to their loved ones :)

purplecyborgnewt replied to your photo post: He's alive he's alive hesalivealivealive!!! So it's really over? I can relax and stop panicking (about Hartley, at least- there's still a lot of real-life stuff to panic about)? I can safely start reblogging those posts? Yes?

Yes!  The DCeased `verse is continuing elsewhere (the DCeased: Dead Planet series is still going, at least), so I guess it's possible Hartley will appear in another DCeased series and may not fare as well.  But I had to cut out the last page of this issue for space and it said 'The End' so this particular series does appear to be over.  I haven't seen Hartley in any other DCeased series, so this might be the only one he appears in.  He hasn't been in the Dead Planet series thus far.

one-rogue-army replied to your photo post: "Noble sacrifices are severely overrated if there's another option." YES! Paint this on the wall of every writer's office!

For real!  Obviously Taylor has the wisdom to know what to do :)

[gorogues]

Spoilers for Flash #761 and DCeased: Hope at World’s End #9 in this post!

sharpandtothepoint replied to your photo post: YAYYY! more Hartley and David content! This was a good read and I hope both are alive till the end.

It was pretty good!  I'm not a fan of zombies at all so the DCeased concept isn't my favourite, but the character moments in the various series are great.

My suspicion is that Hartley doesn't survive because he's amongst Jimmy Olsen's photos commemorating the heroes in the very first issue, but you never know.  Maybe he manages to escape the planet and Jimmy's just remembering the people who were important in the fight.

one-rogue-army replied to your photo post: Why hypnosis via Negative Speed Force? Eobard's had that power for ages! Way back when he was trying to force Albert to become Doctor Alchemy.

That's a good point.  I always chalked up that incident to the same phenomenon as half the Rogues having psi powers during the Silver and Bronze Age but never demonstrated it again after one use, but there is precedent for it in his case.  It still comes out of left field though, because I think only a handful of people remember it and there's no reference to that story in the issue.

one-rogue-army replied to your photo post: Also, Roscoe's been upgraded to tapping into the Speed Force? I thought he was a pseudo-speedster, using telekinesis to propel himself. Kind of like Zolomon manipulating time's flow to simulate superspeed.

We don't know if this Roscoe taps into the Speed Force, but the New 52 Roscoe Dillon did (Turbine did too) and this Roscoe's current status/powers is unclear.  Regardless, I don't think the issue was explicitly talking about those with a Speed Force connection, it specifically mentioned vibrations.  I'd think that anyone able to move at high speed could affect such vibrations, and so can people like Hartley and probably the Fiddler.

oimoi-op replied to your photo post: Holy shit they brought Henry back?!?! And those characters from the bad Force Quest arc???!!! And XS?!?!?!?! Man they really did bring back everyone

Pretty much!  I'm a little surprised Hartley isn't there, but nearly everyone got at least a shout-out.  Even Johnny Quick was mentioned.

eobeth replied to your photo post: Eobard did have psychic powers in some of the golden age comics. Not exactly speedforce hypnosis, but then they didn't have the speedfofce then either.

Yeah, though as noted above, a lot of Flash villains inexplicably had psi powers in one issue during the Silver/Bronze Ages and never showed them again.  

purplecyborgnewt replied to your photo post: Yep, those randomly materialised mental powers that he used to knock Barry out. But now he upgraded those to the "Inflict Intrusive Thoughts" level.

Heh, that's the perfect name for his ability :D

belphegor1982 replied to your photo post: Blonde Hartley always makes me go "yeeehhhnope", but this is nice! "Have you tried turning your flute upside down", *snort* Perfect :D

Yeah, I really like Tom Taylor's work.  And though zombies are not my cup of tea, I enjoy the way he mixes humour and horror/drama in his comics...it can be a bit of emotional whiplash at times, but in a good way.

terranerin05997 replied to your photo post: Im Happy that he is back. But i kinda expected that He left with Wally to the other earth after Wally safed him... Did Wally just saved him from a few Zombies and then forgott ?

Wally was rescuing a city of people so maybe he did lose track of a few, or maybe Hartley went back for David or his flute and missed his opportunity to escape.  It'd be interesting if the reason is addressed in upcoming issues.

secondratevillain replied to your photo post: Of all the panels I could have wanted, I would never have guessed that one of them would be David Singh - super serious police captain - and Hartley being carried by the scruff of the neck like unruly kittens XD

I love the way you've put that :D  Best description ever!

[gorogues]

I know that since FP Pied piper is 100% Hero / Civillian now. But we barely see him and I think it would be interesting to get him back to his roots of Villany. Maybe FP changed more than Barry realised. Make Hartley a anti - Villain again. A Ceo/Mayor who abuses his Power and he steps up ? Or something like that. Not a direct attack but a plot do get him removed. I think that would be very interesting and if you have a shadowy villain nobody would suspect the Pied Piper. But what do you think?

I think it'd be something unique and different for sure!  It'd be tricky to handle, because anti-villains can so easily slip into outright villainy, but in today's political climate somewhat more radical activism might be welcomed...a bit like the Revolutionaries in the current Suicide Squad book.  Though things can be so politically polarized that one person may see his actions as villainous and another may see them as completely heroic, which is a difficult tightrope to walk for a writer.

But honestly, I think future Flash writers/DC have to carve out a niche for him, because as it is he's not doing much.  He really should be doing *something*, and it might as well be bold and distinctive.  So I think your suggestion would work well if a writer puts some thought into Hartley's new direction and is willing to (potentially) take some heat for it.

[gorogues]

Spoilers for DCeased: Hope at World’s End and the Dark Nights: Death Metal Guidebook!

peppersandcats replied to your photo post: Oh good grief, I've been out of it. Might need to start picking up DCeased.

It seems like he's going to be a very important character in this particular series!  There have been a few thus far.  Evan and Len were in the DCeased: The Unkillables miniseries, and an undead Digger had a cameo in DCeased: A Good Day To Die.  But I think Hartley will be the Rogue with the most significant role in this AU.

peppersandcats replied to your photo post: OMG George-puppy. <3

His tummy might be a little unsettled, based on what he ate :O

terranerin05997 replied to your photo post: The Anti-life has a Hive-Mind. Maybe if Hartley get infected he could channel the corrupted anti-life with his flute and could turn everyone in ear-shot. One reason why the follow him (or its hust a moth to the light Thing)

Yeah, unless he's immune to the virus (which he might be because of his connection to Anti-Life, sort of like how Cyborg still has his consciousness despite the virus originating in his body) he would probably be extremely dangerous if he became infected.  He might not even be limited by hearing range.

[gorogues]

sharpandtothepoint replied to your photo post: Happy Blog Birthday! And thank you for all you give us.

Thank you for your kind words, that's very sweet of you to say so!  And I'm glad to contribute to the fandom in any way I can :)

Spoilers for non-canon comics beyond this point!

martianmanhunterdc replied to your photo post: Who cares Hartley, Martian Manhunter shared Oreos with Wonder Woman! she´s so special to him (?

I get the feeling that she might have swiped one based on the look of consternation on his face, but maybe he just loves them SO MUCH that he can't help but feel chagrined even when he gives them freely :)

terranerin05997 replied to your photo post: Would be interesting if they would take up his connection to anti life again. (Probably not, but it would be interesting) a la he is immune against the anti life waves

Yes, agreed.  I hope that's something Tom Taylor has thought of and incorporates into the story because it'd be a unique take on what we've seen of the Anti-Life virus so far.  Maybe Hartley tries to fight it.

[gorogues]

Who do you think is the strongest to weakest Rogue ?

That’s a very tricky question, because power levels have fluctuated a lot even if you’re just restricting things to, say, the post-Crisis/pre-Flashpoint era.  Most of the Rogues had significant power-ups from about 2000 to 2010, so someone who had no powers like Digger eventually gained energy powers of his own, and Mark went from a middling user of the weather wand to a very good one and then we found out he had inherent metahuman abilities.

There are a few known quantities; we can assume that the Rogues without powers like the Tricksters or pre-Flashpoint Lisa are the weakest, and we know that Roscoe was the first metahuman Rogue because he developed telekinesis in the Bronze Age. (That’s leaving aside later retcons/implications about some Rogues having metahuman powers, but even in retcons Johns established that Roscoe had telekinesis from the beginning.)

But it’s really difficult to say who’s the most powerful, even if we’re restricting the time period to 2000-2010.  Len had no meta abilities back then, so he’s not a powerhouse like Mark is, but his cold field and that absolute zero stuff are extremely formidable.  I would generally say that the Rogue heavyweight class of powerhouses in that era are Mark, Evan, Roscoe, and Kadabra (with potentially more).  Kadabra can do almost anything so long as he’s got magic, Evan can be just about anywhere in an instant, Mark has tremendously destructive elements at his control, and Roscoe has such a wide range of powerful abilities.  

It’s hard to say whether Replicant would be in the heavyweight class because we scarcely saw him during that era, but he should probably be among them…certainly he would be as originally imagined as a character concept.  Roy could maybe have been among this group if he hadn’t been killed, but it’s also hard to say what Johns would have done with him since he got rid of him without really using him.  Hartley’s quite powerful, and probably moreso if DC had further developed the concept of him channelling Anti-Life.  Unfortunately DC just let that hang after introducing it, so we don’t know where it would have gone.  Al has tremendous power, but in that time period he largely kept to himself so we didn’t really see him do much.  His power levels have fluctuated over the years, so at times anything he transmuted would revert back after a few minutes and other times it was apparently permanent, but it seemed to be permanent in the era we’re discussing.  Al was definitely one of the most powerful Rogues in earlier days when the others hadn’t yet been upgraded.  Magenta’s something of an unknown quantity because she’s so unstable and her powers wax and wane depending on what personality is dominant, but she could potentially be a member of the heavyweight class.

That isn’t to say the other Rogues are weak, obviously.  Mick had intensely hot fire at his disposal just as Len had superior tech, the Tricksters are smart and inventive and their abilities come from their wits, Digger was incredibly skilled and eventually developed somewhat limited energy powers, Owen had bursts of speed, and so on.  The Johns-era metahuman Rogues are about in the middle range of powers, between the tech-using humans and the heavyweights.  They had fairly limited powers which could maybe be developed with time, but what we’ve seen of them thus far would keep them out of the heavyweight class.  The possible exception could be Fallout (who’s not really a Rogue), but the impact he has on others is an inadvertent result of what happened to him.  It’s not clear how powerful he truly is, it’s more that he’s a passive danger to those around him.

So I hope this makes some sense; I don’t think the Rogues’ power levels can truly be placed on a scale and ranked.  It’s more about generalities and potential, and that’s even when measuring them in just one era.  I don’t think someone could successfully argue whether “Rogue War”-era Evan or Mark is more powerful than the other, for example, because it’s difficult to compare.  But I do think you can roughly organize the Rogues into general categories of power levels.

[gorogues]

katzedecimal replied to your ask post: I wrote Pied Piper as a highly creative rules-lawyer, paired him with a bored and practical judge, and got entertaining fic

I remember that!  Very fun story :)

terranerin05997 replied to your ask post: @katzedecimal would love to read it. What is the name ?

I believe it’s this one :)

sharpandtothepoint replied to your photo post: Power pose much Mirror Master?

He knows how to work it!

[gorogues]

Spoilers for current issues of Flash comics in this post!

terranerin05997 replied to your photo post: Im happy that hartley is back, but he looks a little bit .. off (?)

The long blond hair and muscled look doesn't help with that, I suppose, because it makes me think he's about to head out surfing right after helping the speedsters.  But maybe he's really gotten into fitness lately, which isn't a bad thing!

meinarch replied to your photo post: I've barely read the panels but I'm just so, so happy to see Piper appear again as a major character.

I'm so glad :)  He'll be in the Valentine's special next week as well!

Just as a heads up, I've been battling an episode of poor mental health recently and it's taking me a while to get my brain/motivation moving when it feels like crashing to a halt (depression brain fog is painfully real).  Also had my CT scan on Friday for the solid masses in my kidneys, so fingers crossed for good news.

[gorogues]

I love terranerin05997’s idea about making Piper an anti-villain. I’m personally not into his character as an out-and-out hero, and he looked pretty sinister here at the end of his Crimes of Passion story!

Somewhat along the lines of what you said, I think it would give his character a chance to display some of the political stances he’s been given in the past. In my opinion, whatever politics a heroic character might be written to say they have, there’s not a lot of room for them to actually do things that don’t align with the overall status quo of comics; otherwise I’d think they’d end up an antagonist by definition.

Of course, villains are generally doomed to lose, so in the end readers who tend to agree with Piper’s politics would likely be disappointed. But I suppose anything can happen in comics! I’d be happy just to see him stir up some trouble again.

*** gorogues’ reply begins after this line! ***

Yeah, the reason I was being a bit cagey is because I can imagine the scenario aggravating Hartley’s fans and those who agree with his actions; I remember how people reacted to an activist character who was an antagonist on the Flash TV series, and they were angry at the show for painting her as being in the wrong (she killed someone, but her goals were portrayed as righteous).  That could be a headache a writer may not want to touch.  However, the concept is sound and it would definitely carve out a distinct role for Hartley to do something – and do something memorable at that.  He’s being wasted as it is.  And it’s not like his beliefs would be out of nowhere or out of character for him, so he’s the perfect person for the role.