5 Musical Superheroes You Didn’t Know About

In the past few years, superhero movies and TV shows have become one of the most successful and profitable entertainment out there. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is the highest-grossing franchise of all time, with the Avengers as the 5th most highest-grossing film of all time. Impressive!

When it comes to these famous superheroes (and villains), there are definitely some crazy characters with musical superpowers. You probably haven’t heard of most of them which is why we decided to share this with you! 

The Pied Piper

As a child, most of us grew on the famous story of the Pied Piper who saved the town of Hamelin from a rat infestation by playing his pipe. The pipe made the rats follow the piper who led them out of town. But not everyone knows that this is only the first half of the story. 

The second half of the story was cut out from some children books due to it’s scary plot change. The story tells that the mayor of Hamelin didn’t pay the pied piper for his job, end even hinted that he brought the rats himself in order to get some “easy money”. The piper left the town angrily, but came back later and used his pipe to attract the town’s children this time. In one version of the story, the kids followed him into a cave and were never seen again. In another version of the story, he lured the children to walk into the River Weser, just like he did with the rats, and they all drowned. There are also happier versions where the kids return home after the piper gets his payment. 

The White Violin

You’re used to epic and happy-ending superhero stories. This one is nothing like that. Prepare yourself for a violent and sad story, brought to you by “Dark Horse” comics (the fifth best comics company in the world!).

Vanya Hargreeves was raised in the “Umbrella Academy”, a boarding school for gifted children, but was always told she was “not special”. When growing up she was invited to perform in an orchestra for her stepfather’s memorial, but she refused. After a fight, the conductor revealed to her that her stepfather ran experiments on her and the other kids while they were sleeping and that she was “the most dangerous of all”. 

Her physical appearance changed and her mind was warped, so she now reveled in destruction and chaos. She ripped the conductor in half with the first note from her violin and started to kill everyone in the theatre where the orchestra was based, until one of the other kids from the boarding school shot her in the head. Before she passed out, she said that the symphony could not be stopped. A huge piece of the moon fell to earth, but one of the other kids used telekineses to catch the piece of the moon and saved the world.

Somehow, the White Violin was saved and didn’t die, but was left paralyzed, amnesiac and powerless.

Mark Sheppard

Though little is known about Mark Sheppard’s past, he’s a mutant who got accepted to the Xavier Institute (the X-Men school) and oh boy does this guy has a super cool ability!

His codename is DJ, and he possesses the ability to transform music to create various effects. In other words, each music style he listens to gives him a different ability: “hard” music lick rock allows him to generate damaging blasts, classical music give him the ability to create forcefields, dance music enables him to create blinding lights and gospel music allows him to fly.

Sadly, his story ended. He lost his powers in a big Marvel comics event, called “M-Day” and died. But you know how it is with superheroes, they always come back to life somehow.

Fiddler

Isaac Bowin, or “Fiddler” was a DC villain and had the urge to travel. He left home and ran out of money and became a drifter. He eventually got locked up in an Indian prison, where a fakir there taught him hypnosis through sound manipulation. After mastering that skill, using his violin, he killed the fakir and excaped the prison and embarked on a criminal career. 

The Fiddler appeared mainly on ‘The Flesh’ comic books, but also had appearances in many other DC comic books such as Justice League, Batman and Superman.

Emma Coolidge

This is the only superhero I know about that uses music and musical instruments that appeared on the screen. She’s a character that appears in the 4th season of ‘Heroes’.

Her ability is to see sound waves as beautiful lights. Yeah.. That’s called synesthesia (a neurological phenomenon in which senses are “mixed” together. People who suffer from synesthesia says they can see sound, or can even in rare occasion feel the same sensation that another persons feels, such as touch.).

Along the show Emma finds out she can do more than just see musical notes and sound waves. Here’s a video of her scenes in the show.

In the next four years there are plans for almost 40 superhero movies. It’s only a matter of time until we see one of those characters makes a cameo, or get a main role in a movie.