"Captain Pierre" is an older, rather slovenly, airship pilot plying his trade in the vicinity of England at the time Agatha visits that country. He is contracted ✣ by Madwa Korel and Ariadne Steelgarter to covertly take them from Londinium to Big Rat Island. His main defining characteristic is that he doesn't care about (practically) anything, and states so repeatedly, to the point of naming his airship ✣ after the founder of the Stoic school of philosophy. This attitude actually saves his life, when he correctly (and indifferently) predicts that Madwa intends to kill him upon arriving at their destination, causing the Smoke Knight to decide to keep him around for now. We see him again later lounging ✣ in his assigned quarters on the island, briefly observing the antics of the miniature Castle and Beast clanks sent out by Agatha to explore. The duo fail to realize they are being watched, and Pierre.. well, he doesn't care.
But when Team Agatha takes him prisoner, it rather shockingly turns out ✣ that there is at least one person who can force him to show an interest in current events: his daughter, Bangladesh DuPree (‽) Evidently Pierre abandoned his family ten years ago without explanation; when pressed on this point by Bang, he claims that he as a Professional Castaway[1]and her Pirate Queen mother had "professional differences". Note that this makes him the fourth male character of Europan extraction we've met who hooks up with the Queen of a "barbarian" civilization. (Five, if you count the traveling-show version of Barry and all those High Priestesses.) As the Professora herself says ✣ in Paris, it's an old, old story.
A bit later on, when it comes time to rapidly depart Big Rat Island, it is less shockingly revealed ✣ that Pierre has a rather lackadaisical attitude when it comes to his airship-repair schedules. Between them, Bang and Agatha manage to get the Zeno of Citium airborne, and then Queen Albia gives the ship a rather major upgrade, at least in looks.
About the name[]
This character has never been named in the comic. For ease of reference, he has been assigned his placeholder moniker in honor of the similar-minded protagonist of Maurice Sendak's children's book Pierre: A Cautionary Tale in Five Chapters and a Prologue.
This was done before it was known that he is Bang's father. While it seems very likely that his family name is DuPree, which was passed on to Bang, even this cannot be regarded as certain.
The fact that he shares a first name with Parisian university student Pierre van Stron is entirely coincidental.
References
- ↑ It is not clear that Bangladesh's father considers himself to be a "professional castaway". Bang refers to him as such in a rather angry outburst, making a disparaging contrast between him and her mother, the Pirate Queen.