The Penguin brought a surprise Batman villain to the HBO show

The penguin has defiantly refused to delve too deeply into the Batman canon. A spin-off of something darker and more down-to-earth The BatmanThe HBO show focused on its titular Batman antagonist and the much more street-level mafia war sparked by the events of the film (and, you know, Penguin's own assassination of the Falcone crime family's would-be successor). . Rich).

Episode 4 changes that. A look back at Sofia's time in Arkham Asylum gives us a glimpse into the Executioner's true background and introduces another Batman villain into the mix.

(Ed. Note: This post contains spoilers for episode 4 of The penguin.)

In The penguinMagpie tries hard to introduce himself as Magpie, not Margaret, and if you have any idea what kind of world Gotham is in, you might perk up.

Magpie is a minor Batman villain who first appeared in The Man of Steel #3. She hasn't really been featured prominently in most comics or the DC Universe on screen, but we've noticed some consistency to her character in the iterations we've seen. Born Margaret Pye, she has coveted shiny objects all her life. As she grew older, she took a job at the Gotham City Museum for Antiquities to be closer to such valuables. At some point the proximity was too close; Her thoughts spiraling, she became a magpie and began stealing the museum items, only to be caught and sent to Arkham Asylum.

Like many Gotham villains, she has no powers to speak of. She is a skilled gymnast and uses some light weapons such as explosives, poisons and razor blades. Magpie takes it a step further and creates deadly, booby-trapped duplicates of the museum items she steals! But despite appearing in Batman comics since 1986, she has only appeared on screen in episodes of Gotham And Batwomanplus a background appearance in The Lego Batman Movie.

This is a show about Oswald Cobbnot “Oswald Cobblepot” from DC. This is important to understand what the Magpie lore is here. First of all, there are no comics that show Sofia Falcone and Magpie together in Arkham.

“I had a lot of freedom because of the isolation of this universe and also because the character Magpie hasn't been featured much in DC Comics over the years,” says Marié Botha, who plays Magpie. “And so I tapped into the unpredictable madness and strange moments of joy and anger that happen in Arkham. And then I just built my own version.”

And so Magpie's foray into the Batman Epic Crime Saga is limited: She's landed in Arkham and (apparently) dies when Sofia freaks out and slams her head on the table. But Botha says she developed the “3D version” of Magpie beyond the scope of the episode, drawing on canon and tailoring it to insights into the character from the script.

“I really loved (her obsession with shiny things) – seeing Sofia Falcone come in as a shiny thing, a shiny object,” says Botha, noting that Sofia still looks very “polished” amid all the excitement surrounding her family and her family (alleged) track record as a serial killer. “I love that we meet through that little stud hole at the beginning because I could really play with my eye and my mouth and my fingers to try to get to that shiny thing to try to own it, to make her my friend.”

Botha's goal in working with episode director Helen Shaver was always to bring the same level of pathos to “Magpie.” The penguin works to take care of all of his Gotham offenders. Even in this brief appearance, the magpie is just a wounded bird to Botha; Someone who oscillates between their inner child and their traumatized adult self. And even if she leaves the story as quickly as she enters, she stands in the story like an omen. After all, Sofia has only been there for a short time and has already killed someone. Magpie has been around for a lot longer… Well, as we see at the end of the episode: Arkham is really giving you a run for its money.