Penguin: Pain and Prejudice

[Silver Nemesis]

Fans of DeVito's Penguin might want to give this 5-part miniseries a look. It depicts Oswald's post-Flashpoint origin story and seems to be taking some cues from Batman Returns.

The opening scene depicts Oswald's birth and his father's horrified reaction upon seeing his son's appearance for the first time.

It's also noteworthy that Oswald's previously unnamed father is finally given a name, and it's the same name he had in Batman Returns: Tucker Cobblepot.

My only complaint so far is that Oswald is depicted with normal hands. Personally, I think the idea of him being born with syndactyly should have been formally adopted into the canon by now. Lots of artists draw him with fused digits anyway, and it lends an extra layer to his psychological profile to have his bird-like appearance grounded in a real life medical condition. They could always explain that he had corrective surgery and depict him with ordinary hands as an adult. But I think him being born that way adds something special to his origin story.

Penguin: Pain and Prejudice is written by crime author Gregg Hurwitz and illustrated by Szymon Kudranksi. Issue 1 is available now.

[Paul (ral)]

Szymon Kudranski posted some artwork on his blog last week
http://szymonkudranski.blogspot.com/2011/10/penguin-art-1.html

[The Dark Knight]

The BR Penguin was well ahead of its time, no doubt about it.

The Arkham City version takes cues from it. And now this one.

[BatmAngelus]

I asked Gregg Hurwitz about the Batman Returns reference at the Comikaze Expo yesterday.  Surprisingly, his response (as if an answer to Silver Nemesis's post) included the reason behind his decision to give Oswald normal hands:
http://www.batman-online.com/?news&id=88

[Silver Nemesis]

That's an outstanding report, BatmAngelus. It must have been a fun event.

I liked Gates of Gotham, so it's nice to know Higgins is getting more work.

It's interesting Hurwitz cites Jason Aaron as an influence. The scene in P:P&P #1 where Oswald punishes someone for insulting him is clearly inspired by a similar scene from Joker's Asylum. In Joker's Asylum it's a chef who laughs while looking in Cobblepot's direction.



In Pain and Prejudice it's some sap who insults him in the Iceberg Lounge.




Hurwitz may have unwittingly inherited influences from Batman Returns, since Jason Aaron was quite a fan of DeVito's Penguin and his own story was likely influenced by the film. Aaron once said:

Over the years, I think Joker and Two-Face have headlined the best stories. Penguin has rarely had his day, though Danny DeVito's performance in "Batman Returns" was pretty great.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=16924

I do take issue with some of the comments by Hurwitz though. I'd like to address these now, as well as some other peeves I have about the way the Penguin has been handled in recent years. And this is going to lead into a lengthy rant, for which I apologise in advance.

Out of all the household name Batman villains, he's the only one who's totally sane.

It's quite common for contemporary profiles to describe the Penguin as 'totally sane'. But I strongly disagree.

Oswald Cobblepot is a man who emphasises more with birds than he does humans. He displays a sociopathic disregard for human life (just look at the aforementioned scenes from Joker's Asylum and Pain and Prejudice) and bird-like mannerisms (squawking, waddling, eating fish, swimming with penguins). And everyone seems to forget that, while he's spent time in Blackgate Prison, he's also served terms in Arkham Asylum for the criminally insane.



So while he may not be as crazy as the Joker or Riddler, he certainly isn't what I would term a 'totally sane' well-adjusted human being.

"There was only one influence from the movie," answered the writer.  "And that was the father's name."

I may be wrong about this, but I'm pretty sure the back story about Oswald coming from an aristocratic family – with the Cobblepots serving as a parallel to the Waynes – originated in Batman Returns. Prior to 1992, the Cobblepots had been depicted as a fairly ordinary middle class family.

The Pre-Crisis Penguin's back story was depicted in 'The Origin of the Penguin' (Best of DC #10, March 1981). According to this, Oswald's father had died from bronchial pneumonia when he was very young. His invalid mother provided for him by running the family bird shop. But her medical expenses depleted what little money they had, and following her death the Cobblepot bird shop was possessed by repo men. With no other source of income, Oswald turned to a life of crime and became the Penguin. This story makes no reference to the Cobblepots being rich or aristocratic.



The Post-Crisis Penguin's back story was told in 'The Killing Peck' (Secret Origins Special, 1989). It was pretty much the same as his Pre-Crisis origin, only with more of an emphasis on the bullying aspect. It explains how he got the nickname 'Penguin' from a bully called Sharkey, who in this version is responsible for killing all the birds in Oswald's pet shop. Neither of Oswald's parents make an appearance.

The next time his origin was depicted was onscreen in Batman Returns. But the origin of the Post-Crisis Oswald was expanded upon further in 'Burning Faces' (Batman #548, November 1997). Here we see Oswald's Post-Crisis mother. And unlike the earlier version, she is not an invalid. She's instead shown to be an overbearing woman who beats her son with an umbrella.



So while Oswald's mother in Pain and Prejudice is clearly based on the Pre-Crisis version, the character of Tucker Cobblepot – the wealthy, aristocrat who rejected his son because of his repulsive appearance – was taken from Batman Returns.

"I didn't want to make him just some sort of freak of nature where he's obviously distorted and disgusting.  That was almost too easy for what I was trying to get at.  He's somebody who looks different, but not beyond the range of human experience.  [Oswald was] picked on and has certain grudges and resentments and fears because of that."

I'm assuming he meant 'beyond the range of relatable human experience'. Because deformity is a fact of life many people have to live with, and the psychological toll of enduring it on a daily basis would add a fascinating new dimension to Oswald's personality. To quote the opening soliloquy from Shakespeare's Richard III:

Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,
Have no delight to pass away the time,
Unless to spy my shadow in the sun
And descant on mine own deformity:
And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
I am determined to prove a villain
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.

To have Cobblepot's anger and resentment stem from his own self-loathing – from the undeniable fact of his physical deformity – adds so much more depth to the character than simply having him peeved at the people who bullied him as a kid. It's one thing for others to find him repulsive, but something else altogether for him to despise himself. It changes his grievance from something remote that happened to him as a kid, to something more immediate that's still happening to him as an adult; something he has to live with on a daily basis and confront every time he looks in the mirror. Every time he sees his appearance it should remind him of all the things he can't have, and consequently resents other people having.

This is one of the reasons I dislike the Iceberg Lounge. It allows Cobblepot to have what he wants – women, status, affluence – without having to prove himself worthy of those things. One of the most endearing qualities of the older Penguin stories was his inferiority complex and the way he tried to compensate for his physical shortcomings through other means (verbal eloquence, gentlemanly behaviour, etc). Placing the Penguin in the Iceberg Lounge is like placing the Joker in Arkham Asylum: it cages him and stops him from taking flight. It reduces him to a supporting role and sometime-informant for Batman; a far cry from yesteryear, when he used to be one of the Dark Knight's greatest adversaries.

I much prefer the older depictions of the Penguin, back when he was a cunning master criminal who pulled off outrageous heists themed around birds, and was constantly posturing in an effort to appear gentlemanly. By contrast the modern Penguin is a boring, generic crime boss who just sits behind a desk and orders people killed. What happened to the old Penguin who was the equal of the Joker, constantly quoted Keats and Shakespeare, and wielded an array of lethal umbrellas? I miss that guy.

Just to clarify, I'm not criticising Hurwitz specifically, but rather DC's overall approach to the character. They seem to want to keep him as a supporting player rather than the A-list villain he used to be. And that's why so many younger Batman fans think he's lame.

I do find it disappointing though that Kudranski wanted to draw the Penguin with webbed hands and Hurwitz stopped him. Personally I think that was a mistake and represents a missed opportunity for the character to evolve, both visually and psychologically.

Oswald's lack of physical dexterity serves as a potent visual metaphor for his social maladjustment (similar to Edward Scissorhands). He can't touch and interact with people without drawing attention to his physical inadequacies. It would also serve as a constant reminder of the human frailty driving his inhuman acts of violence. If DC really doesn't want the adult Oswald to have fused fingers then fine, they could explain he underwent corrective surgery to separate them later in life. But having him born with the condition would ominously foreshadow his destiny as the bold bird of banditry.

It also bothers me how often people describe the Penguin as an ordinary man in a black suit. He's always looked weird. In his very first appearance he sported abnormal posture and disproportionately scaled limbs that made him look like a real Penguin. In the Bronze Age he had a near-metahuman ability to endure freezing temperatures. This is most memorably portrayed in 'C-c-cold!' (Detective Comics #541, August 1984), in which Batman almost freezes to death in Antarctica while the Penguin flaunts a bizarre immunity to the subzero climate. This story seems to imply that Oswald has more in common with penguins than just his looks.



Cobblepot also clearly self-identifies as a 'freak' in 'The Penguin Affair' (1990). This was the story that first introduced Harold, Batman's disabled mechanic. And here the Penguin tries to win over Harold by presenting himself as a kindred spirit and accusing Batman of targeting them because they're 'freaks'. This predated his memorable line in Batman Returns when he says: 'You're just jealous because I'm a genuine freak and you have to wear a mask.'



Just to reiterate, I'm not criticising Hurwitz or this miniseries so much as the overall treatment of the character in recent years. Since the early 90s, the Penguin's taken an increasingly peripheral position in Batman's gallery of rogues. He's only really taken centre stage in the animated TV shows and Arkham City game. And I think it's about time the character was restored to his former status as a major villain in the comics.

Anyway, sorry for the rant. Hopefully the remaining issues in this series will introduce some new elements to Oswald's back story (the brother sounds like an intriguing addition) that will shift him back into the limelight.

[Paul (ral)]

You call it a rant? All I see is another great analysis! 

I agree with you on several points. I also see Hurwitz's point of trying to humanize a bit (doing away with some of the "meta-human" qualities you mentioned.

I think something like PaP can only be a good thing in presenting a formidable Penguin to readers, but I wish deformity was a greater influence on his character (if a hook nose was his only issue and he's ashamed of it then why not have corrective surgery/).

[BatmAngelus]

It's interesting Hurwitz cites Jason Aaron as an influence. The scene in P:P&P #1 where Oswald punishes someone for insulting him is clearly inspired by a similar scene from Joker's Asylum. In Joker's Asylum it's a chef who laughs while looking in Cobblepot's direction.

Aha!  I knew that seemed familiar...

Great character analysis, Silver Nemesis.

[Silver Nemesis]

if a hook nose was his only issue and he's ashamed of it then why not have corrective surgery

Exactly. And why doesn't he do something about his weight problem too? Surely he could afford liposuction or a personal trainer. In 'The Killing Peck' it showed Oswald working out, yet somehow retaining his rotund frame.



So there really should be a medical explanation to justify his appearance and 'Penguin' moniker.

The character badly needs updating IMO. Exploring his deformity would be an interesting way of doing it.

[BatmAngelus]

To continue the Penguin discussion, I found a couple interesting op-eds regarding how The Penguin may be the most underrated villain in the Rogue's Gallery:
http://about-faces.livejournal.com/61772.html
http://about-faces.tumblr.com/post/13280518130/you-dont-like-arkham-city-penguin-apart-from-his

[Silver Nemesis]

Thanks for the links, BatmAngelus. Sorry I haven't gotten round to commenting on them until now.

I heartily agree with the sentiment of Penguin being the most underrated villain in Batman's gallery of rogues. There are a few others who I feel have been unfairly underused, but none more so than Cobblepot.

I quite liked the version in Arkham City, though there were aspects of the interpretation I wasn't keen on (for instance, the glass bottle being permanently lodged in his face). But overall I felt it worked well enough. And I was just happy to see a mainstream Batman story place Cobblepot back in the limelight where he belongs. Here's hoping the comics follow suit.