Legends Of Tomorrow: Who Is The Pilgrim?

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow introduced us to the Pilgrim. Though we saw a display of some impressive abilities, the Pilgrim still remains a mysterious figure. This article takes a look at this character’s comic origins.

“Last Refuge” — the twelfth episode of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow introduced us to the deadly assassin known as the Pilgrim. Exploding onto the scene and determined to carry out her mission, the Pilgrim had the Legends scrambling through time in an attempt to save their younger selves. Although we saw her in action throughout the episode, the character is still very much a mystery. This article explores her origins in the comics, and how she might return for future episodes.

Comic Book Biography

Created by writer Brandon Choi and artist Whilce Portacio, the Pilgrim — introduced as Maritza Blackbird — made her first appearance in WildC.A.T.s #2 (September 1992). WildC.A.T.s was originally created in the Wildstorm Universe of comics, which was an imprint of DC Comics. DC later absorbed Wildstorm into its main continuity during The New 52 reboot. Hence, why this character now appears in DC’s main stories.

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Maritza Blackbird came from a wealthy background and wanted to lead a solitary life. She joined the army and went into the special forces. Given the code name Pilgrim, Maritza was the only woman to be in the US Special Forces. She trained as a sniper and reconnaissance expert which led to her being recruited to be part of a black ops Delta Force team called Team 7. Team 7 was later tasked to retrieve “biological units.” Betrayed by International Operations, Team 7 discovered that the items were actually symbiotes. In order to survive, Maritza and her team were then forced to bond with these so-called “golden symbiotes.”

After bonding, Team 7 became imbued with superhuman abilities. Calling themselves WetWorks, the team went rogue and dedicated themselves to fighting the supernatural. One of the groups WetWorks fought against was the Vampire nation — a group of vampires within a bigger organization of supernatural beings called the Night Tribes. WetWorks later found out that they were manipulated into fighting the Vampire Nation by the Were Nation — a group of werewolves who were also members of the Night Tribes. In a twist of fate, Maritza discovered that she belonged to the Were Nation.

Skills and Abilities

Maritza is an elite soldier trained in the art of warfare, which makes her a master of various fighting skills and weaponry. When she was imbued with the golden symbiote, her and her team were given the ability to coat their skins with a golden armor by allowing the symbiote to flow the substance out of their skins. The golden symbiote also gives her a telephathic link to other golden symbiote possessors — in particular, WetWorks. Other superhuman abilities from the golden symbiote include invulnerability, superhuman strength, superhuman reflexes, teleportation, invisibility, and time travel.

Being a member of the Were Nation or, more specifically, being a werewolf, Maritza also possesses supernatural abilities which include superhuman strength, enhanced senses, and claws.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow Incarnation

In DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, actress Faye Kingslee portrays the Pilgrim. This is the first incarnation of the character outside of the comics. Here, the Pilgrim is not given a backstory, but it’s implied that she works for the Time Masters — Rip Hunter’s former organization. Tasked with killing the Legends, the Pilgrim used the strategy of assassinating the team’s younger versions of themselves.

During her battles, she displayed fighting abilities that were on par with Sara Lance’s League of Assassins training, and could take multiple hits from larger attackers like Mick Rory. She also seemed unaffected by individual weapons hits, as they only temporarily slowed her down and didn’t do any physical damage in the long-term.

The ability which gave her the biggest advantage over the Legends was her temporal micro-manipulation. This ability worked by stopping time in her immediate vicinity, causing opponents and their weapons fire to seemingly freeze. Other than a radius of influence, there didn’t seem to be a limit on the number of attackers she could affect — although it did seem that a good amount of concentration was required. This was evidenced and shown to be her downfall when a young Rip stabbed her multiple times. When she lost focus, the Legends got out of their time freeze and attacked her simultaneously with their firepower, eventually incinerating her.

Next: Catch up on Legends of Tomorrow with a recap of 'Last Refuge'

At the end, we see a pile of ash and dust, and a lone weapon next to them. Though this is implied as her death, there is still the possibility that she may have teleported out. Because we know very little of the Pilgrim’s background and abilities in this incarnation, there is still the speculation that she may have used other means to survive the attack.

With the promise of a Season 2 and four more episode to go for Season 1, there is definitely a chance — and hope — that we’ll be seeing the Pilgrim facing off with the Legends again.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow airs on The CW on Thursdays at 8:00PM EST.

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