'Gotham' Villain Makes DC Comics Debut

Bridgit Pike, the version of the Batman villain Firefly who made her debut on Gotham, has [...]

Bridgit Pike, the version of the Batman villain Firefly who made her debut on Gotham, has officially made the crossover to the DC Comics universe.

In this issue, Batman is investigating a murder, but finds that searching his apartment will be hard -- since it's set on fire almost immediately after he arrives. The perpetrator, a female version of Firefly, reveals herself and gets away, just as Batman learns from Alfred that the previous Firefly, Ted Carson, had been grooming a protege in Pike.

Here's the official character description she got when she first joined the series in season 2:

"Enslaved by her brothers, a notorious gang of arsonists, Bridgit Pike is forced into the family business. When she catches the eye of Selina Kyle, the young Cat Woman and the soon-to-be-Firefly team up to put Bridgit's firestarting skills to good use. But after a deadly encounter with the Pike Brothers, the meek Cinderella is transformed into a vengeful supervillain, hell bent on destroying those who have wronged her."

The character -- and the world of Gotham -- has changed a lot since then, but it seems likely that Pike's story in the comics will owe quite a bit to that original pitch.

Characters transitioning from other media into comics is rare, but hardly unherad-of. Jimmy Olsen first debuted on a radio series, and Harley Quinn -- DC's best-selling female character right now -- originated on Batman: The Animated Series before coming to comic books (so, for that matter, did Renee Montoya). Smallville's Chloe Sullivan is an odd example of a character who was introduced, then quickly dropped despite a lot of fan enthusiasm for the character.

Gotham itself is such a wildly different take on the Batman mythology, with new and radically reinvented versions of the characters, that it almost feels like opening this door and introducing Pike -- whether she stays on permanently as Firefly or just becomes another supporting villain in the short term -- could lead to lots of new characters (or new takes on existing characters) in the coming months.

Detective Comics #988 is available now in comic shops or online at ComiXology and other digital comics retailers.

h/t CBR

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