DC Pride 2022 Will Finally Make an Iconic Animated Batman Villain Canon

The Infinite Frontier relaunch has been taking a unique approach to DC Comics canon, both by restoring previously-forgotten elements of canon, and by weaving in some fan-favorite elements from the franchise’s movies and television shows. This year’s upcoming DC Pride anthology is expected to do the latter in a major way, with a buzzed-about story also serving as the main line comic debut of an iconic animated villain. As a report from Them revealed on Monday, an upcoming story in DC Pride 2022 will be centered around Connor Hawke and his journey to come out as asexual. As it turns out, Connor’s coming-out story will be juxtaposed with a fight against Music Meister.

Yes, that Music Meister, who famously made his debut on the small screen in Batman: The Brave and the Bold. The character was created for a Season 1 episode of The Brave and the Bold, and was established as a metahuman with the ability to hypnotize people through song… and often make them sing along as well. Portrayed by Neil Patrick Harris, The Music Meister was first introduced in “Mayhem of the Music Meister!”, a full-fledged musical episode that saw him butting heads with Batman and Black Canary — and trying to get the latter to fall in love with him. Eventually, the duo defeated the Music Meister by harnessing Black Canary’s sonic Canary Cry, and using it to counteract his hypnotic effects. The character then briefly appeared in an issue of the Brave and the Bold tie-in comic, as a background player in Bat-Mite’s efforts to impress Batgirl.

Music Meister was then carried over into live-action in 2017, when Darren Criss portrayed a version of the character in a crossover between The CW’s The Flash and Supergirl. In the crossover’s main episode, “Duet”, Music Meister trapped the titular characters inside of a dream where they’re stuck in a 1940s musical, ultimately hoping to teach them a lesson about love.

Despite having such a memorable tenure, Music Meister has yet to make an appearance in the main DC canon, which makes his debut in Connor Hawke’s DC Pride 2022 story all the more interesting. According to the story’s creative team, Connor’s fight against the Music Meister will serve as a metaphor for his asexuality, particularly through Connor using high-tech earplugs to resist the villain’s magical powers.

“We were splitting it into the actions of the script,” co-creator Ro Stein revealed, “and it was like ‘these lines fit really well with the actions we’ve picked … this is kind of creepy, actually!’”

What do you think of Music Meister making his comic debut in DC Pride 2022? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!