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This article contains spoilers for The Penguin episode 4.
The latest episode of HBO’s The Penguin opens the doors to Arkham State Hospital and invites us into the fractured psyche of Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti). Colin Farrell’s titular mobster played second fiddle to Sofia this week, but aside from the Penguin, “Cent’Anni” debuted another bird-themed villain from the pages of DC comics. Although Magpie quickly has her wings “clipped,” she’s an obscure but infamous Batman foe.
While incarcerated at the Arkham State Hospital, Sofia Falcone hears whispering from the cell next door. She meets with Margaret (Marié Botha), who is better known as Magpie. With a penchant for shiny things like her comic book counterpart, Magpie tries to befriend Sofia but, ultimately, is killed by the psychologically damaged Falcone. Sofia is wrongly framed for the murders of multiple women and earns herself the moniker of the Hangman. Ironically, Magpie becomes her first (known) kill.
Comic book Magpie lives much longer and was first introduced in 1986’s The Man of Steel #3. Although Magpie’s debut comic suggests she’d typically be an enemy of Superman, she’s notable as the first Post-Crisis villain to be defeated by Superman and Batman working together. Born as Margaret Pye, she was a curator at the Gotham City Museum of Antiquities and soon developed an obsession for shiny objects. Proving an expert with gadgets, Magpie gained a name for herself by stealing jewels related to birds and replacing them with booby-trapped replicas. She doesn’t have any superpowers, which makes her a perfect fit for the grounded world of The Penguin.
Magpie’s appearance in The Penguin feels like a nod to the Arkham Asylum: Living Hell miniseries, where after a lengthy absence from the comics, she reappeared as Poison Ivy’s cellmate at Arkham. She gets a similarly grim fate to her live-action counterpart, eventually being murdered by Tally Man II alongside other Penguin goons, including Orca, the Ventriloquist and Scarface, and KGBeast. That was typically short-lived because Black Lantern eventually resurrected her. The New 52 Magpie was part of the Secret Society of Super Villains, while Rebirth Magpie was briefly part of the Suicide Squad before a botched mission against the Revolutionaries led to her being killed by Thylacine.
The Penguin is far from Magpie’s first on-screen appearance, having featured in the animated Beware the Batman, where she was reimagined as Margaret Sorrow and voiced by Grey DeLisle. In terms of live-action, Sarah Schenkkan played Magpie in Gotham and Rachel Matthews portrayed her in The CW’s Batwoman. The character also appeared in promo art for the Harley Quinn animated series but hasn’t popped up yet. Instead, Magpie had a non-speaking role in Hell Yeah, Kite Man! and was based on her pre-The New 52 design. Having only featured fleetingly in a handful of episodes (and a background appearance in The Lego Batman Movie), The Penguin is by far Magpie’s most prominent appearance to date.
Botha discussed what it was like playing Magpie to Screen Rant, explaining how she bought every comic that featured the character and tried to channel that into her role. “She has a penchant for shiny things, so I made Sofia a shiny thing to her,” said Botha. “Sofia is famous, polished, wealthy, all things Magpie wants with her whole heart, so crafting that desperation and yearning into her attempts at befriending Sofia was a large part of the work I did.” The actor went on to mention Magpie’s comic book resurrection, and saying that “anything’s possible,” concluded, “There is a part of me that feels not quite ready to say goodbye to Magpie just yet.”
Matt Reeves’ The Batman established major villains like Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz), the Riddler (Paul Dano), and Penguin while also hinting at much bigger mythos through relatively unknown villains like the Trigger Twins (Charlie and Max Carver). The Penguin continues this thanks to possible nods to Clayface, Mister Bloom, and Scarecrow, with the latest episode also giving us its own take on Batman: The Animated Series’ Summer Gleeson. As we head toward season 1’s endgame, there are high hopes that The Penguin could even give a tease of who will be the big bad of The Batman Part II. Sadly, Magpie’s time in the Reeves-verse has already come to an abrupt end.
New episodes of The Penguin premiere Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and Max.
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