Psycho-Pirate May be Missing From Dark Crisis | CBR
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Detective Comics #1058, on sale now from DC Comics.
As the Arkham Tower incident came to a close in this most recent Detective Comics issue, the Bat-Family were all made aware that it was Psycho-Pirate who was keeping all of the facility’s most violent inmates in line. He was hiding from Darkseid after the events of Infinite Frontier (by Joshua Williamson and Xermanico), fearing the impending judgment of the vengeful Lord of Apokolips. However, he has more than just Darkseid to worry about now.
All of Gotham seemed to be after him in Detective Comics #1058 (by Mariko Tamaki, Amancay Nahuelpan, Jordie Bellaire, and VC’s Ariana Maher). The GCPD was after him for his role in the Arkham scam. Meanwhile, Gotham’s criminal element was after him for his association with the person who was running the scam, the late Dr. Wear. Only the Bat-Family seemed to be out to protect this staple Crisis villain. However, with everyone in the DC Universe after him, what does this mean for his role in DC’s next Crisis?
Dark Crisis is coming this summer and with it, there will come many of the classic Crisis elements. One that’s been consistently present is Psycho-Pirate himself. He has played a major role in almost every Crisis. In the original Crisis on Infinite Earths (by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez), he was recruited by the Monitor to save the multiverse. However, he was later poached by the villainous Anti-Monitor. Under him, Roger Hayden was responsible for some of the worst parts of the Crisis, having used his Medusa Mask to pit three of the five remaining Earths against the other two, and manipulating Barry Allen into powering the Anti-Monitor’s machine.
He was sent to Arkham Asylum after that, as the only being in the universe who could remember the old Pre-Crisis reality. This unique ability has made him an integral part of DC’s other big reboot events, and Hayden can remember every change to the reality that’s ever taken place since the original Crisis.
He next appeared in Infinite Crisis, where he teamed up with that event’s big villain, Alexander Luthor Jr. Again, Hayden was used by the real mastermind to manipulate strange new worlds, but this time it was about bringing them into existence and immediately destroying them in search of the perfect universe. Psycho-Pirate’s unethical manipulation of others’ emotions on such a grand scale came back to bite him when Black Adam, who Psycho-Pirate helped Luthor capture, killed him. Despite his death, he later appeared in Blackest Night as a Black Lantern to plague that event. He returned to life post-Flashpoint and his mask even cameoed as part of the reality-altering Doomsday Clock (by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank). It reacted with the iconic Watchmen button, showing once more how intertwined the character is with any and all reality-altering events.
Will he appear in the next Crisis though? Dark Crisis is just around the corner and Psycho-Pirate is still hanging around in Gotham. Not just that, he’s actually planning to go back into hiding. Essentially, he intends to wait it out for the entirety of this next Crisis and not participate at all. He might not even appear once in Dark Crisis. It wouldn’t be the first Crisis he’s skipped either. Hayden’s death in Infinite Crisis meant that he wasn’t there for Final Crisis (by Grant Morrison, J.G. Jones, and Carlos Pacheco). He’s already been a major part of Infinite Frontier, which set up Dark Crisis, but perhaps that series was enough involvement in a Crisis for him this time around.
Batman made a particularly ominous and mysterious offer to Psycho-Pirate at the end of this issue of Detective Comics. Despite Hayden’s belief that there was no other alternative than to go into hiding, Batman dropped a hint that there might be another option. Perhaps the Dark Knight will be the reason Psycho-Pirate is involved in the next Crisis. Batman could be recruiting him to help in the impending mission that will kill the Justice League, or maybe it’s something a little more out there but equally as important. Psycho-Pirate’s future appearances remain uncertain but, whether he’s in Dark Crisis or not, it looks like his next steps are intertwined with those of the Dark Knight.
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