Charles Halstead Charles Halstead is a
linotyper for the
Daily 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 the
Courier with leads to his crimes. Halstead pens a letter to the
Courier, challenging the
Justice 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 by
Doctor Mid-Nite. Each JSAer was given an emotion and a task to solve. With the JSA dispersed and only
the 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 the
Courier 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 the
mysticism of emotions until his death sometime in the 1960s.
Roger Hayden and
Hourman. Cover to
Showcase #56. Art by
Murphy Anderson. Roger Hayden is a jailed gangster who is a cellmate to Halstead on the parallel universe of
Earth-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. Following the events of
Crisis on Infinite Earths, Hayden escapes
Arkham Asylum and encounters a renegade Fifth Dimension
Thunderbolt genie who has merged with private investigator
Jonni Thunder. 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 the
Crisis and the existence of parallel Earths.
Post-Crisis Hayden shows up again in
Grant Morrison's run on
Animal Man, imprisoned in Arkham Asylum. The effects of the electroshocks given to him by Thunderbolt have worn off and Hayden's memories of the
Crisis and of the prior existence of multiple Earths are restored. Psycho-Pirate ends up releasing several people who were killed during the
Crisis 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. Psycho-Pirate does not appear again until the 1995 storyline
Underworld Unleashed, where he sells his soul to the demon
Neron 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.
Infinite Crisis . Art by
Phil Jimenez.|thumbDuring the
Infinite Crisis event, Psycho-Pirate is recruited by
Alexander Luthor Jr. and uses his powers to torment
Power Girl and force
Black 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. In the
Blackest Night storyline, Psycho-Pirate is resurrected as a
Black Lantern. He attacks
Smallville, using his powers to manipulate the inhabitants and sway
Conner 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. Conner attacks Superman and aids the Black Lantern
Superman 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.
The New 52 In September 2011,
The New 52 rebooted DC's continuity. In this new timeline, a new depiction of Psycho-Pirate first appears in
Superboy (vol. 6) #23 as a member of the Twenty, a group of people who are infected by
Brainiac with a psionic virus and gained psionic abilities. He was captured by the
H.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. ==Powers and abilities==