The TV series Arrow may be fun (and very shirtless), but its actual LGBT content has been pretty mild, limited to a bisexual female character who for 90% of the time they’ve been only shown being interested in guys. It’s been a particular surprise as the show’s creator and driving force, Greg Berlanti, is gay (and incidentally dating LA Galaxy soccer player Robbie Rogers).
However new sister-show Flash may well feature more gay content. Back in July it was revealed that gay DC Comics character David Singh (played by Patrick Sabongui) would be a recurring character. At the same time Berlanti said another gay character would also appear in the first half of the season, but wouldn’t be drawn on whom.
Now we may know, as TVLine reports that The Pied Piper will be the villain in at least one of Flash’s episodes. The Piper, real name Hartley Rathaway, was one of the earliest openly gay characters in mainstream comics (although he came out long after his first appearance in 1959, when he revealed his sexuality in 1991 it was still incredibly rare).
Rathaway has had a couple of different back-stories, which means in his Flash appearance he may or may not be deaf. Whichever it is he’ll be obsessed with sound and famously in the comics invented a flute that hypnotises people, as well as having various other sonic devices that allow his to manipulate those around him.
He eventually stopped being a bad guy, turned good and at one point also dated David Singh, which gives plenty of possibilities as to how the character can be used in Flash.
At the moment it doesn’t appear the character has been cast.
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