GENERAL
Real Name: Piper (first name unrevealed)
Identity/Class: Human magic item user (turned into werewolf) (late 19th century, World War I to 1932)
Occupation: Conspirator, murderer, kidnapper; former military officer
Group Membership: The Board (at least a dozen unidentified members)
Affiliations: Baron Zemo (Heinrich Zemo), Nox and her litter, NYPD (at least the corrupt elements within the police force)
Enemies: Charles Lindbergh, Charles
Lindbergh Jr., Mystery Men (Achilles/Dr. Lewis Green, Aviatrix/Sarah
Starr, Operative/Dennis Piper, Revenant/Ezekiel Wright, Surgeon/Dr.
Rupert Kingsley), Alice Starr;
the residents of Dark Willow, West Virginia, several unidentified
children
Known Relatives: Dennis Piper (Operative, son)
Aliases: Lysseus, Major Piper
Base of Operations: His hideout in Westchester
County, New York;
his home on Central Park West in New York City, New
York;
the Board's HQ in the Empire State Building in New
York City, New York;
mobile aboard the Board's airship
First Appearance: Mystery Men#1 (August, 2011)
Powers/Abilities: General Piper is a natural leader with vast military experience and strategies he could use on the battlefield or in a board room filled with powerful industrialists. He was a master tactician that always seemed to be one step ahead of his enemies because he was so good at foretell an enemy's next move. He was a well respected authority figure that ruthlessly used his influence with the law to his advantage. He had no qualms about committing crimes and was in general a morally completely bankrupt person.
He is an experienced hand-to-hand combatant with years of military training in armed and unarmed combat. He regularly carried and used a handgun.
He used a charm provided by Nox to make himself look attractive to women and make them see him the way he wanted to be seen instead of his old wrinkly self. The charm also gave him the power to make people forget that he was around at all if he wanted to and even when they saw him one moment they would forget that they did a moment later.
Using a mystic bracelet provided by Nox he could transform into a werewolf with enhanced human strength, speed, stamina, agility, reflexes and senses. He had clawed hands and a jaw filled with a set of large pointed teeth like canine that could easily rip through flesh. Though he regained his human personality while in werewolf form, wearing the bracelet decreased his mental acuity. He could control his transformation and switch back to his human form at any time, but once he put on the bracelet he could not take it off anymore, decreasing his intellect permanently. (see comment)
Height: Unrevealed (5'9" (as human); 6'8" (as
werewolf); by approximation)
Weight: Unrevealed (180 lbs. (as human); 300 lbs. (as werewolf);
by approximation)
Eyes: (Human) Red; (werewolf) solid red
Hair: (Human) White; (werewolf) black
History:
(Mystery Men#5 (fb)) <1914> - As part of a test Major Piper locked
his son in a room with raising water and informed him when only three
minutes of air remained. Dennis escaped the room at with two minutes
remaining by unlocking the lock that was underwater, but was then faced
by three men that were ordered to kill him with baseball bats. Dennis
fought his way through them with the lock and chain he had kept from the
flooded room and one of the baseball bats he took from one of the
attackers. In the end Major Piper was disappointed that it took Dennis
seven minutes to get through the test.
(Mystery Men#2 (fb) - BTS) - He personally trained his son and gave him the freedom to do whatever he wanted with his life only to be disappointed by him constantly.
(Mystery Men#5 (fb) - BTS) - He rose through the ranks to become a General (likely during World War I).
(Mystery Men#1 (fb) - BTS) - The General always protected his son Dennis from the law, but mostly to protect himself...
(Mystery Men#3 (fb) - BTS) - ...because he actually hated his son all his life...
(Mystery Men#4 (fb) - BTS) - ...and knew from the day Dennis was born that he would one day have to kill him.
(Mystery Men#1 (fb) - BTS) <1930s> - At some point the General formed a secret cabal of industrialists known as the Board. During the Great Depression they stayed wealthy and in power controlling elections, police departments, local governments and putting down unions. They owned legal endeavors like mining operations they also gained wealth through illegal drug trade and the morally questionable step to increase nicotine in cigarettes to make them more addictive. He was troubled by the work strikes, food riots and the appearance of the vigilante known as Revenant because he couldn't fix all these problems by themselves.
(Mystery Men#3 (fb) - BTS) - At some point the General began suffering from a deadly lung disease.
(Mystery Men#1 (fb) - BTS) - The General formed an alliance with the Fear Lord Nox and worked hard to restore her physical form. In return she provided him with a charm that made him attractive to all woman by making them see him the way he wanted them to see him and not his true self.
The General put a lot of funding into Professor Lewis Green's archaeological dig in Turkey to excavate the ruins of Troy to find an amulet...
(Mystery Men#3 (fb) - BTS) - ...once worn by Achilles. The General wanted it to gain divine strength, power and vitality.
(Mystery Men#2 (fb) - BTS) - At some point the General learned about his son's criminal activities as the Operative.
(Mystery Men#1 (fb) - BTS) - <1932> - The General promised to introduce Alice Starr to a film director, who would surely offer her a role.
(Mystery Men#1) <1932> - After starring in another performance of A Few Wild Oats on Broadway, Alice Starr was picked up by the General, who, by mystical means, immediately made everyone else present forget that he was there. The General took her in his car to his boat the Pied Piper (name revealed in #2) after promising her that she would be safe with him. Alice became concerned when the director wasn't there, but not for long because the General slew her with a meat hook inside a mystic circle as a sacrifice to help the Fear Lord Nox regain her physical form, but the sacrifice was not enough to restore her. The disappointed General dropped Alice's lifeless body overboard and it washed ashore and was found the next day on the beach.
(Mystery Men#2 (fb) - BTS) - A man working at the marina saw them arrive and a lot more. The General threatened him to stay quiet about what he saw and made it clear that he would know if he even uttered his name.
(Mystery Men#1 - BTS) - The General not only quit protecting his son, but actually had him framed for the murder of Alice, who had been Dennis's girlfriend. The police went after Dennis, but he escaped.
(Mystery Men#3 (fb) - BTS) - In Dark Willow, West Virginia the miners protested for a living wage and safe working conditions, but the local police were in the Board's pocket and brutally took down the protesters.
(Mystery Men#1) - The General met with the Board in the newly opened Empire State Building and was surprised that they seemed unhappy despite all their success. He was heavily criticized for the funding of the Troy dig site and had to defend it to the rest of the Board as an important investment that would be important to all of them if he found the item he sought. He left the meeting after coughing up some blood.
The General went to a brothel that night to relax, but the young girl got possessed by Nox. Though the General was glad that she showed herself, he wasn't happy about the timing. Nox explained that she needed a greater sacrifice than Alice Starr to restore her. She reminded him of all the things she had done for him, but was also thankful to him and assured him that what he had done already for her had granted her the strength to put the amulet he sought to where Professor Lewis could find it. She asked the General for a sacrifice that would wound the entire nation to restore her physical form. The young girl's body broke apart during the possession until nothing was left but a pool of blood to the General's disappointment.
(Mystery Men#3 (fb) - BTS) - The General began abducting children for a summer solstice sacrifice to restore Nox's full power.
(Mystery Men#3 (fb) - BTS) - In Dark Willow local physician Dr. Rupert Kingsley was nearly burned alive after helping one of the union leaders, who got nearly beat to death by the police. Heavily burned he took on the secret identity of the Surgeon and went after the local police and learned from the sheriff the Board, the mining company's owners from New York City, were behind the orders.
(Mystery Men#2 - BTS) - The Revenant and the Operative, the General's son, found out that he was behind the murder of Alice after talking to a man working at the marina, who was afraid to even utter the General's name.
(Mystery Men#2) - The General had another meeting with the Board and informed them that they should maintain the economic depression for another four to five years to expand their holdings before coaxing the nation into a military operation allied with Germany and Japan. He was sure that by 1937 the US would aid these nations in their own expansion. The Board liked his thinking, especially a Russian woman that knew that war and suffering was good for business. Another Board member once again confronted him about the spending on the Turkey dig site and the General assured him that the spending was done on that operation because Green had found what the General sought and was on his way back to the US to hand it over to him.
(Mystery Men#2 - BTS) - On the General's order Professor Green was picked up by a driver at Curtiss Airfield in Queens to be directly brought to him, but Green fled and took the amulet with him after the driver threatened him with a handgun because he wouldn't shut up about wanting to meet with his fiancee first.
Meanwhile the General headed home and already knew that the Operative, his son, and the Revenant were waiting for him. He called his servant about it and told him to call the police in advance of his arrival.
(Mystery Men#2) - The General arrived in his home on Central Park West and was told by his servant that he had already called the police and that Green had called. The General asked not to be disturbed and took Green's call in his study. Green promised to deliver the amulet to him the next morning, but the General wasn't too happy about the arrangement. The Operative then appeared to confront his father about Alice's murder. The General was disappointed that his son had become a masked outlaw on the run from the police and admitted Alice's murder. He pulled a gun on Dennis, but the Revenant disarmed him. The General wasn't surprised and even told them that he already knew that they would be here. He then informed them that he was stalling them because the police were already on their way to rescue him. They barely escaped from the police with the help of Alice's sister Aviatrix (Sarah Starr).
(Mystery Men#3) - At the Board's headquarter at the Empire State Building the General flipped out because Green had not delivered the amulet to him. He even attacked the concierge for disturbing him in his rage, but the concierge got possessed by Nox, who promised that she could still get him what he wanted, but she needed her true form first and to achieve that the General needed to abandon his morality and humanity for the next step. The General was ready to do whatever she wanted.
(Mystery Men#3 (fb) - BTS) - The General ordered the massacre of the population of Dark Willow, West Virginia and it was enough to restore Nox's form. He also had the son of the Stark family abducted for the summer solstice sacrifice to restore Nox to full power.
Unaware of the massacre the Surgeon from Dark Willow made it to New York City and broke into General's office in the Empire State Building to learn more about the Board and then abducted one of the members to interrogate her about the General.
(Mystery Men#3) - Late at night the General's men pulled Professor Green from his bed and took him to the roof to hand over the amulet the General had paid him to find. They made it clear that he would not survive the encounter. On the roof the General told Green that he couldn't wait until morning because he had to accelerate his timetable. The General told his men to leave because he could handle Green by himself and then finally explained that the amulet he had dug up for him was created by the Greek gods and was what made Achilles into the greatest of Greek heroes. The General ordered Green to put it on the ground because Green was not worthy touching it and the General first needed to sanctify his own flesh before touching it. As a parting gift the General explained the exact powers and limitations of the amulet on Green before pulling his gun on him, but Green blocked the bullet with Achilles' the amulet, jumped off the roof and activated it to escape the General and his men.
(Mystery Men#3 - BTS) - Meanwhile the Surgeon interrogated a Board member about the General, but the Operative, Revenant and Aviatrix went after the same Board member. Revenant and the Operative were shocked by Surgeon's methods, but accepted him as an ally after learning from him that the General was not only Alice's murderer, but also involved in the abduction of several children. He was shocked to learn from the newspaper that everyone in Dark Willow was dead and he was sure the General was behind it.
(Mystery Men#3) - In his Westchester hideout the General was complimented by Nox for helping her regain her physical form. She gifted him a bracelet that, even though it was not equal to Achilles' amulet, would grant him great power. They had to be ready for the man with Achilles' power and the other Mystery Men coming after them. She was confident that the General would deal with them and retrieve the Achilles amulet before the summer solstice sacrifice of the children the General had abducted over the last couple of weeks. The General wasn't sure how to find the Mystery Men, but Nox assured him that they would find him after their next step.
(Mystery Men#4 (fb) - BTS) - The General abducted Charles Lindbergh's son and it shook the nation as Nox had predicted. Professor Green posed as a federal agent to get into the Lindbergh home in East Amwell, New Jersey during his investigation of the child abduction committed by the General. He was exposed by a real federal agent, but saved by the Surgeon, who had been sent away by the Mystery Men because they didn't like his methods. They interrogated another Board member and learned from him that the General was setting up a trap for the Mystery Men and would kill them.
Days later the Mystery Men learned from one of General's many underlings about General's hideout in Westchester while they were watched by the Surgeon and Achilles, who were well aware that the others were walking into a trap.
(Mystery Men#4) - The General was wearing the bracelet and standing in front of the prison with the abducted children. He wasn't happy that Nox treated him like her servant, but she assured him that it was an honor. She also told him that the Mystery Men were on their way and that he would regain Achilles' amulet, which he still needed to survive. The General finally used the bracelet to transformed into the werewolf Lysseus. Nox took him to a shed to introduce him to her litter that would fight alongside him against their enemies.
The Mystery Men soon arrived at the General's Westchester hideout and the Operative came face to face with his transformed father after opening the door to the storm cellar. Lysseus slashed his claws across the Operative's face, punched out Revenant and pulled Aviatrix from the sky, reveling in the fact that he could kill two sisters because of how rare that opportunity was and vowing to have fun with her before killing her. Lysseus made it clear that he always knew that he would have to kill his disappointment of a son one day. Surgeon hit Lysseus directly in the spine with a syringe filled with a neural anesthetic and it weakened the werewolf enough for Achilles to knock him to the ground, but Nox then released her offspring sired by Cerberus on the heroes. They took Achilles to the ground for Lysseus to retrieve the amulet and its power, but Achilles released an energy blast from the amulet to get rid of his lupine attackers and break free. He escaped with the scene with the rest of the Mystery Men.
(Mystery Men#4 - BTS) - The General and Nox abandoned the Westchester hideout and took the children to an airfield.
(Mystery Men#4) - The General realized that he couldn't remove the bracelet and that his mind didn't feel right, but Nox told him not to worry about it.
(Mystery Men#4 - BTS) - Nox used her illusory powers to make people believe that the Lindbergh baby was dead, but it was actually a puppet that got buried. The Board's airship made a stop at the Lindbergh baby's grave to check on the illusion.
(Mystery Men#4) - The General accompanied Nox to the grave and she slaughtered two grave robbers that had discovered the truth before they could tell the press. The General reminded Nox that he still needed Achilles' amulet to survive only to be ignored by Nox because the great sacrifice was one month away. The General closed the grave while she returned to the airship.
(Mystery Men#5) - The General assured Nox's new ally Baron Zemo that the Board would support their allies back in Berlin, but one Board member immediately started to cause problems. He not only pointed out that one of them got killed, but also that the General was behind with his work. He also wasn't a fan of Zemo while another didn't know why they were listening to Nox. The General guaranteed the Board that he would provide them with limitless wealth and power if they just continued to do what he said. He asked all Board members to participate on summer solstice in a sacrifice of a group of children in the circle in their meeting room to grant Nox her full power, but a male member of the Board was not on board with his plan. The General quickly stabbed him to death inside the circle with a sacrificial dagger and his life energies flowed into Nox and the Board members. The General asked them again if they would join him after this and the rest of the Board was more then willing though one of them still didn't see the profit in killing children and left.
(Mystery Men#5 - BTS) - The Operative and Surgeon confronted him shortly after and he tattled about the planned children sacrifice, which included the still living Lindbergh baby.
(Mystery Men#5) - On the night of the summer solstice the General had the children put aboard the Board's airship to transport them to the place where they would be sacrificed. The General and Nox took off in the airship, but the Mystery Men invaded it during the flight. The General tried to shoot the Revenant, but the bullets went right through him and Revenant knocked him out. The Surgeon then tried to sedate to prevent his werewolf transformation, but it was too late and the General transformed into Lysseus once more. Nox and her litter surrounded the Mystery Men, but the General asked the litter to hold back because he wanted to slay his son on his own. He slashed the Operative's face, but didn't account for the vast training he had put his son through in the past to finally pay off. The Operative caught Achilles' sword and decapitated Lysseus with one swipe. Lysseus head dropped to the floor and Nox picked it up and was not really sad because he had outlived his usefulness anyway. She then ordered her children to kill the Mystery Men.
Comments: Created by David Liss & Patrick Zircher.
The General's son Dennis Piper (aka. the Operative) went on to become the Ferret (using the alias Leslie Lenrow) after he was given the Eternity Mask by the aged Black Rider (Matt Masters). Read Marvel Comics#1000 (October, 2019) to learn more.
The General's comment on Sarah Starr in #4: "A little old for my taste, but I think I will enjoy her before she is sacrificed." He was a real scumbag! A pedophile, a rapist, treated everyone working for him like crap and did everything for money and to keep his power. His health was waning and it seemed like he just wanted to become immortal or at least put his mark on history. This sounds so familiar, but I can't put my finger on it...!
The two images with the General/Lysseus with Nox are here to show the size comparison.
The Mystery Men won at the end, but Nox actually gained a new ally by personally bringing back the Lindbergh baby back to his family and in the end Baron Zemo and Charles Lindbergh shook hands and she was happy. General Piper not so much because he was dead and he so deserved it! You want irredeemable evil? This guy is it!
By issue #4 Nox was done with General Piper. He got her what she wanted and then gave him a cursed item he could never take off again that literally made him dumber and then when he finally bit the dust fighting his son like the most alpha male doofus, she was just like "Eh, he dead, don't care, bye!"
This profile was completed on 11/23/2025, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 25th anniversary event.
Profile by Markus Raymond.
CLARIFICATIONS:
The General has no known connections to:
images: (without ads)
Mystery Men#5, p6, pan1 (main)
Mystery Men#1, p4, pan2 (head shot)
Mystery Men#5, p3, pan5 (in 1914)
Mystery Men#2, p18, pan5 (with gun)
Mystery Men#5, p14, pan3 (General and Nox)
Mystery Men#4, p11, pan2 (Lysseus and Nox)
Mystery Men#4, p12, pan6 (as Lysseus)
Mystery Men#5, p17, pan5 (death)
Appearances:
Mystery Men#1-2 (August, 2011) - David Liss (writer), Patrick Zircher
(artist), Bill Rosemann (editor)
Mystery Men#3-5 (September-November, 2011) - David Liss (writer),
Patrick Zircher (artist), Bill Rosemann (editor)
First Posted: 09/25/2026
Last updated: 11/23/2025
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
Copyright info
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