Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for The Flash season 9, episode 3, “Rogues of War.”A DC Comics villain originally introduced to the Arrowverse in Arrow was reintroduced with a major change that made them far more dangerous in The Flash season 9. The original Arrowverse Murmur was a ruthless gang leader, given the nickname after he sewed his mouth shut as a meditative focus. The new Murmur is far truer to the original DC Comics’ character but still benefits from one major change from both the comics and the Arrow villain.
The Flash season 9, episode 3, “Rogues of War” found Barry Allen assembling his own team of Rogues to counter the gang founded by the mastermind villain Red Death and beat them to the punch in stealing the advanced quantum engine that Barry determined was the villains’ next target. This led to a four-on-four superhuman battle, as The Flash, Goldface, Jaco “The Hotness” Birch, and Pied Piper faced off against Chillblaine, Captain Boomerang, The Fiddler, and the new Murmur. The fight between Murmur and Pied Piper seemed to be a complete mismatch, given Murmur was apparently an ordinary human with no special skills apart from a talent for knife fighting.
The new Murmur was revealed as a metahuman when she absorbed a point-blank blast of Pied Piper’s sonic powers with no apparent ill effect. She then communicated to Piper, using American Sign Language, that her team would welcome him, but the reformed Pied Piper refused, saying he wasn’t a killer. While the new Murmur’s powers were not defined in The Flash season 9 episode “Dogs of War,” it seems logical to presume she has the power to absorb sound. Beyond explaining her use of ASL and how she shrugged off Piper’s attack, this would also resolve just how she could ambush Piper in the first place, given his enhanced hearing.
How Else The Flash Season 9 Changed Murmur From Arrow
The most obvious change between the two Arrowverse Murmurs is that the new one is a woman named Michelle Amar instead of a man named Michael Amar. Iris West-Allen recalled the details of the new Murmur’s background, describing her as “an angry med student turned serial killer” who used her surgical skills in murdering her victims. By contrast, the Arrow version of Murmur preferred guns to knives and did not seem to be particularly sadistic.
It is also worth noting that the Murmur presented in The Flash season 9 is far more accurate to the comics than the Arrow version, despite her newfound metahuman status. The comic book version of Murmur was a medical doctor named Michael Amar, who went insane and removed his own tongue after accidentally confessing to a series of murders. It remains to be seen if the new Murmur in The Flash season 9 did something similar, but she’s already proven herself to be a true threat to Central City.
The Flash season 9 continues on Wednesdays on The CW.