Villain Profile: The Penguin

It’s time for another Theme Week. What’s the theme this time? Birds. Why? Why not? Well, to be honest the thought process went like this. I’m delivering mail at my new job, hear a crow cawing at me, heckle the birds, and then thought, there are a lot of bird themed Superheroes. I’ve had worse ideas.  So that’s why. Am I nuts? Yes. Are we still doing it? Totally. Let’s get to it.

Wan wan wan wan. I think that's how I onomatopoeia-ize
Penguin's Laugh.

Another random tidbit about me, I love penguins. Those weird, waddling birds that swim like torpedoes, but don’t fly, I just love ‘em. I’ve seen just about any movie or film that relates to these birds. From Happy Feet to March of the Penguins. Some might say I have a problem. Thus, you can imagine my…mixed feelings about Oswald Cobblepot. Either a tiny high society gangster, or gross tiny high society gangster. Aka, rock and hard place. But more on that in a second.

Imagine that short, fat little kid that was always picked on in elementary-high school. Every school had one. That was Oswald. He also had an oversized, beak-like nose, and was forced to carry an umbrella by his overprotective mother. Apparently his father died from pneumonia, so his mother somehow thought that the umbrella would protect her son from lung inflammation. This guy had absolutely no chance of being normal, did he? Anyway, there are two distinctive reasons as to why this bird became a crook. One, his mother died, and he was forced to sell her collection of pet birds to pay for her debts. His first criminal act was to steal the birds back, and things just kind of snowballed after that. In the other, he’s rejected from his high-society family, and turns to crime to help him live the life he’d grown accustomed to before being cut off. Either way, he dresses in formal wear, top hat, monocle, and tux. Making him one of the most formal criminals since Deadshot. What’s that? Deadshot came second? Oh, well, there you go.

He began his career in Gotham City by stealing a priceless painting. How did he do it? Rolling it up and stuffing it into the handle of his umbrella. It was the 50s, security tech wasn’t all that great. He kept it as a symbol of his intellect, and as proof his worth to the local mob bosses. He helped the mob perform some difficult heists, then murdered the boss with his bizarre umbrella gun and took over. He then started one his most ingenious plans to date, getting rid of Batman. Penguin’s plan was to frame Batman for his thefts. Batman unravels the plot, but Penguin escapes. The Penguin has become one of Batman’s most well know and persistent foes. Some put him on par with the Joker in terms of notoriety. His crimes range from extortion to blackmail to theft. He uses various means to perform said crimes, from advanced technology to highly trained birds that follow his commands. Who knew that a degree in Ornithology could be so useful? He was one of many villains that participated in an auction that the insane professor Hugo Strange put on for Batman’s secret identity. Batman stopped said auction, which I’m sure got Oswald all flustered.

I wonder if his left eye still works...

As time has gone on, the Penguin has shifted from street crime to the more legitimate kind. He opened up a large Bar/Casino called the Iceberg Lounge. He uses this place as a front for his illegal enterprises, and also to generate funds for his operations. Arms dealing, drugs, extortion, that sort of thing. Batman could technically ruin this business but chooses not to, as the Penguin is willing to serve as an informant so long as Batman doesn’t affect his business. Sometimes, it’s better to stick with the devil you know.

The Penguin is an…interesting bad guy. He uses his intellect and ill-gotten gains to finance a criminal empire that rivals that of Black Mask. He uses a number of umbrellas with various hidden weapons inside. Said umbrella weapons range from a hidden sword, gun, flamethrowers and poison gas spray. He’s also surprisingly athletic for a fat guy. He’s self-taught in several martial arts, including Judo and bare knuckle boxing. He usually delegates the dirty work to his various henchmen, but does get his hands dirty from time to time.

The Penguin is one of Batman’s most recurring villains. He’s appeared in just about every Batman franchise to date.

Let’s take a second to discuss his looks. In most of his incarnations, he’s just a short, fat millionaire. It worked for about forty years, so it wasn’t a bad look. Back in 1992, this changed. He was portrayed by Danny DeVito in Tim Burton’s Batman Returns. This version is a horribly deformed man, with flipper like hands, a hunchback, and razor teeth. He’s a social outcast and wants vengeance against the social elites of Gotham City for shunning him. Different shows and movies flip flop between these two versions.

I haven’t seen the live action Batman TV show from 1960s. But, I do know, that the Penguin’s actor, Burgess Meredith did have a lasting effect on the character. I’m talking specifically about his laugh. Meredith had this distinctive, squawking laugh. This has followed the Penguin ever since.

24 years later, and Danny DeVito's
Penguin still freaks me out.

He was a major antagonist in Batman: The Animated Series. This version takes elements from the Burton movie, such as his flipper like hands, and more hunchbacked features. But, like the comics, he’s a wealthy aristocrat and love of the finer things in life. He is one of five Batman villains that all attend a poker night in “Almost Got ‘im.” This baddy poker night includes Two-Face, Poison Ivy, Killer Croc and the Joker. Most colorful poker night, ever. They each tell a short story about the time they almost killed Batman. Penguin’s plan involved spraying Batman with hummingbird food and then releases a bunch of hummingbirds with poison tipped beaks. They sting him repeatedly, and would have killed him, if Batman hadn’t been able to activate the sprinkler system, and wash himself clean. One of his biggest episodes was “Birds of a Feather.” In it, the Penguin honestly tries to reform, mend his ways and be a functioning member of society. This plan is somewhat ruined by Veronica Vreeland, a Gotham socialite that wanted to make a splash at one of her parties. She pretends to like the Penguin, and he starts falling in love with her. His heart breaks when he hears the other guests pointing out that he’s just being used, and kidnaps them all to hold for ransom. Batman saves the day, and Penguin points out that all he wanted was for someone to like him. It’s really rather sad. He was also one of three villains that Professor Hugo Strange invited to an auction for Batman’s secret identity in “The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne.” Like Joker and Two-Face, he isn’t sold by Strange just telling them, once Batman destroys the proof.  

Penguin reappears in the New Adventures of Batman. The “sequel” show to Batman: TAS. Somehow, between the two shows, Penguin goes through some major plastic surgery. He’s not the only character to get a major make over, but his is one of the more obvious changes. He’s set up the Iceberg Lounge by this point in the show, and has taken up the artsy arms dealer part of his character.

I bet there are some folks who'd be willing to kill
for Penguin's plastic surgeon.

He was a major villain in The Batman. This version is another of the more gross looking versions of the character. The Penguin is obsessed with re-establishing the Cobblepots as a major family in Gotham City. His family also used to employ Alfred Pennyworth’s family, before they hit on hard times. As such, he has a personal grudge with Batman’s butler. Bet that’s the first time that’s ever happened. This version uses a number of specially trained birds, and these pair of creepy kabuki twins with razor sharp claws. Penguin occasionally has some really good ideas for really stupid reasons, like in “Team Penguin,” where after watching an Ocean’s Eleven parody, he decides to create a team of villains to defeat Batman. His team consists of Killer Croc, Bane, Killer Moth, Firefly, and Ragdoll. Overall, no one on said team respects him or takes orders well, except for Killer Moth, who is unusually loyal to Penguin. They steal some experimental chemicals, which turn Killer Moth into a giant mutant moth. Batman, Batgirl, and Robin are able to stop them. He gets his flipper hands on Hal Jordan’s Green Lantern ring during “Ring Toss,” and uses it…somehow. Despite never showing any particularly strong willpower. Somethings are better left unanalyzed.

He’s got a few parts in the Arkham games. He’s one of the various villains thrown into Gotham City’s Arkham City, an open air prison. Unlike the others, he wasn’t arrested, he just refused to leave his casino when Hugo Strange started setting up shop in the lower end of Gotham City. He’s a major player in Arkham City’s power structure, he runs one of the biggest gangs in the city, and supplies various factions with resources. He’s also got the monster Solomon Grundy in his basement. He’s appears in pretty much the same capacity in Arkham Origin. Arms Dealer, who the player never fights directly. This version, rather than having a monocle, has a part of a broken bottle jammed into his face over one eye. Extra game content reveals that a distraught patron jammed the bottle into his eye, and that it’s stuck in there too good to be removed. It makes him look rather distinct.

The Penguin is an interesting bad guy. Of all of Batman’s bad guy’s he’s one of the few to not suffer from an obvious mental disorder. Which is getting increasingly rare. I like the more modern version of the character that mixes the grossness of the Burton version with the more traditional aristocrat. He’s got a minor bit in Batman: Assault on Arkham, where he outfits the Suicide Squad with tech and info. In the scene, he’s sipping a fine wine, and gulping down whole fish. It’s creepy and gross, but highlights the best parts about the character. He’s the aristocratic avian, the waddling arms dealer, the Penguin. Next time, the Falcon.

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