WARNING: The following contains spoilers for DCeased: Hope at World's End #9 by Tom Taylor, Marco Failla, Rex Lokus, & Saida Temofonte, on sale now.
Over the better part of a century, the DC Universe has amassed thousands of stories, and plot points from those stories can return in surprising ways. While the Countdown to Final Crisis maxiseries might be mostly forgotten and fairly maligned today, a minor plot point from it could change the DCeased universe.
As DCeased: Hope at World's End #9 hints at, the Pied Piper might be the most important person left in the DCeased universe, thanks to his intrinsic connection with the Anti-Life Equation that's ravaged this reality.
Coming from a number of different creators (including Paul Dini Jimmy Palmiotti, Sean McKeever, Tony Bedard, Adam Beechen, Justin Gray, Keith Giffen, Jesus Saiz, Jim Calafiore, Carlos Magno, David Lopez, Tom Derenick, Jamal Igle, and Manuel Garcia), Countdown led to the events of Final Crisis and followed multiple characters. During the course of Countdown, Pied Piper was forced through a host of dangerous situations, with Trickster often at his side -- even after his untimely death at the hands of Deadshot. Eventually, Pied Piper found himself taken to Apokolips by Desaad, one of Darkseid's advisors. Desaad told the Pied Piper that he was actually a human vessel for the Anti-Life Equation and that he was capable of activating the code by playing his flute.
Desaad tries to convince Pied Piper to play that music and use the resulting Anti-Life Equation to take control of everyone on Apokolips. But having learned the villain was responsible for the various tragedies and threats that he barley survived and that his reluctant friend Trickster hadn't, Pied Piper turned on him and killed the New God. Deciding to stop the madness occurring on Apokolips, Pied Piper played his "swan song" -- a cover of Queen's "The Show Must Go On" -- at such a frequency and with enough power to shatter Brother-Eye's internal processors, destroy him and much of Apokolips in the process.
While this element of Pied Piper was largely forgotten following the event, it appears that DCeased may be making this plotline from the original series much more important to the future of its world. While the Blighted-Ones have been making their way across the globe and killing or corrupting anyone they can get their hands on, only a handful of beings have been shown being impervious to its effects. Animal heroes and people with healing factors have both been shown to have a natural resistance to the Anti-Life Virus. While he isn't shown being impervious to the effects of the Anti-Life, Pied Piper is shown having a different kind of power over the Anti-Life Virus.
By using his flute, Pied Piper has been trying to force the hordes of Blighted-Ones away. Instead, they actually seem drawn to the music, advancing towards the building where Pied Piper and David Singh had been holed up in. No matter what Pied Piper did, the Anti-Life corrupted Blighted-Ones continued to advance. Only the timely arrival of the Martian Manhunter saved the pair of them from being overrun. However, the Pied Piper could be crucial going forward, because of his flute and his ability to exert some influence on the Blighted-Ones. In theory, he could lure crowds of the corrupted peoples into traps or containment or otherwise serve as the ultimate lure for the undead.
If Pied Piper could somehow learn more control over the music and how it affects the Blighted-Ones, he could even find a way to gain a minor amount of control over them. He just has to find a way to stay alive long enough to find out.