Magpie (Margaret Pye) is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. She was created by John Byrne, and first appeared in The Man of Steel #3 (November 1986).[1]

This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points. (December 2021)

Magpie
Magpie, from the cover of Batgirl (vol. 5) #8 (February 2017) Art by Christian Wildgoose
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	The Man of Steel #3 (November 1986)
Created by	John Byrne
In-story information
Alter ego	Margaret Pye
Team affiliations	Black Lantern Corps Suicide Squad
Abilities	Hand-to-hand combat Fingernail extending

The character has been portrayed in live-action by Sarah Schenkkan in the final season of Gotham, and by Rachel Matthews in the first season of the Arrowverse series Batwoman.

Fictional character biography

Magpie is a jewel thief who specifically targets jewels named after birds and then replaces them with booby-trapped replicas.[2] Taking a job as a museum curator, Pye is slowly driven mad surrounded by the beautiful things that she so loves but can never own. She was notable in Post-Crisis continuity as the first villain who was defeated by Superman and Batman working together, Superman having visited Gotham to "apprehend" Batman before Batman's demonstration of his skills while tracking Magpie convinced Superman that Gotham needed someone like Batman to protect it.[3]

Some time after during the events of Legends, Pye is released on an insanity plea and goes on another rampage, before eventually being stopped by Batman and Jason Todd.[4]

Magpie disappears for a length of time, until it is revealed that she is Poison Ivy's cellmate at Arkham Asylum.[5]

Shortly thereafter, she is murdered by the Tally Man II, along with Orca, the Ventriloquist and Scarface and the KGBeast, villains working for the Penguin. Ultimately, her death was part of a revenge scheme by the criminal known as the Great White Shark.[6]

During the "Blackest Night" storyline, Magpie is among the many deceased villains that receive a black power ring and become reanimated into a Black Lantern. She is seen slaughtering people in a grocery store and working closely with the reanimated Trigger Twins and King Snake.[7]

In 2011, DC Comics rebooted the DC Universe through "The New 52". During the "Forever Evil" storyline, Magpie appears as a member of the Secret Society of Super Villains which Outsider set up on behalf of the Crime Syndicate of America.[8]

In 2016, DC Comics implemented another relaunch of its books called "DC Rebirth", which restored its continuity to a form much as it was prior to "The New 52". Magpie is one of the villains taken down by Batman and Catwoman after he takes her along with him on an average night of his job and fought Batgirl in her quest for justice.[9] She has also had a run-in with the Flash and Iris West after they were undercover as supervillains in the nation of Zandia, which serves as a haven for criminals like her.[10]

When at Belle Reve, Magpie joined the Suicide Squad. On her only mission, she and the Suicide Squad were sent to fight some Revolutionaries. Magpie infiltrated the submarine where the base of the Revolutionaries is located and was killed by Thylacine almost immediately.[11]

Powers and abilities

Magpie is an expert at hand-to-hand combat. Later appearances showed her with the ability to extend her fingernails into a set of strong sharp claws.

Equipment

Magpie is an expert at creating gadgetry that resembles the items that she stole. She also makes use of weapons that are explosive, can emit airborne toxins, or shoot razor blades.

Other characters named Magpie

A male character named Merg Gaterra uses the name Magpie in Pre-Zero Hour comics. He was an Angtuan enemy of the Legion of Super-Heroes and was hired by Monitor to steal items from the Legion's headquarters. [12]

Alternative versions

Injustice 2

Magpie appears in the prequel comic to Injustice 2. Following the events of the first game, Magpie is shown as a member of this universe's Suicide Squad.[13] The Impostor Batman detonated the bomb in Magpie's head for being useless.[14]

Batman: Li'l Gotham

Magpie appears in the Batman: Li'l Gotham comics.

In other media

Television

Animation

• A variation of Magpie appears in Beware the Batman, voiced by Grey DeLisle. This version uses the identity of Margaret Sorrow. [15] She can grow poisonous claws for nails and is unable to feel pain after an experiment that would purge Margaret Sorrow's kleptomaniac tendencies in return for a reduced sentence at Blackgate Penitentiary. However, her memories altered with the new identity of "Cassie", Margaret's darker aspects manifested as a second personality: Magpie. In "Secrets", prior to learning the full extent of the experiment and thinking they only robbed her of her memories, Magpie tries to get her memories back and get her revenge on the psychiatrists Joe Braxton and Bethanie Ravencroft that ran the experiment before being stopped by Batman and Lt. Jim Gordon. In "Attraction", she has developed an obsession with Batman after he visits her in prison. Magpie also becomes jealous of Katana and escapes from Blackgate, declaring her love to Batman and threatening Katana. Magpie lays a trap for her and tries to bury her alive. However, Magpie is defeated by Batman and Katana escapes. Magpie is later one of the several villains gathered by Ra's al Ghul in "Reckoning" to bring Batman to him, dead or alive. She engages the other villains in battle while they are all competing to get to Batman.
• Magpie appeared on promotional artwork released for Harley Quinn.[16]

Live-action

• Magpie makes her live-action debut in the episode "13 Stitches" of the fifth season of Gotham, portrayed by Sarah Schenkkan.[17] Her visual appearance is based on the character's Beware the Batman design and her obsession with shiny objects remains intact as her reputation is known by even Selina Kyle. However, her real name "Margaret Pye" is not mentioned in the episode. During the No Man's Land event, she steals a diamond from the Penguin, causing him to cut a deal with Selina Kyle to track her down. Cobblepot and Kyle find Magpie's hideout, whereon Selina tries to use her whip to capture the thief. Magpie recognizes her as the one who stabbed Jeremiah Valeska before revealing that the room they are in is filled with her explosive replicas. This distracts Penguin and Selina enough for Magpie to get away. After escaping her explosive room, Penguin finds Magpie trapped in one of his own traps and shoots her much to the objection of Selina. Oswald then makes it clear that nobody steals from him.
• Magpie appears in the Batwoman episode "Who Are You?", portrayed by Rachel Matthews.[18] Similar to the original comics, this version is a professional thief who covets expensive jewels while using 3D-printed bombs as distractions in her robberies. In her civilian identity, Margot Pye poses as a photographer to canvass the location for her heists, which leads her in a plot to steal Martha Wayne's necklace from Luke Fox which brings her alter ego against Kate Kane as Batwoman. After obtaining Magpie's plans, Batwoman finds that she will strike a museum event where Martha Wayne's necklace is being donated to. When Magpie attacked, she unleashed some pearl bombs which Batwoman had to protect people from. After the last one was disposed of before it can harm a girl, Batwoman used her grappling hook to pull Magpie off a building causing her to fall into the nearby fountain for the Crows to apprehend. After Kate recognizes Magpie's true identity, Sophie Moore has the Crows take Magpie to Blackgate Penitentiary. In "A Narrow Escape", Magpie is shown to be incarcerated at Arkham Asylum. When Tommy Elliot called her a myna to Dr. M. Butler, Magpie corrected Tommy by stating that she is a Magpie. In the episode "If You Believe in Me, I'll Believe in You", Alice releases Magpie to steal a journal written by Lucius Fox from Tommy's gangster contact Johnny Sabatino. After Batwoman thwarts this plot, Magpie manipulates her sister Reagan Nye (portrayed by Brianne Howey) to get it for her. Once that was done, Magpie gives the journal to Alice who has the tracker in her removed. In the episode "A Lesson from Professor Pyg", Ryan and Alice were tracking someone who's using a bullwhip and believing Magpie is doing all of this only to learn that she prefers shiny objects. It was later revealed that it's Flamingo who's doing all of the victims.

Film

• In the animated direct-to-video movie Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (2009), Magpie is mentioned by Superman wondering what happened to her with Batman commenting that Magpie died some time ago.
• Magpie appears in The Lego Batman Movie.[19] She is among the villains who assist Joker in his attack on Gotham City.

Miscellaneous

• Magpie appeared in the DC Super Hero Girls comic books.

References