Ten Year Anniversary: Probably scans_daily's favorite Penguin story.

[lego_joker]

For my tenth anniversary post, I waffled back and forth on what I was going to post. The greatest Joker story ever told (not written by Chuck Dixon)? The two most depressing pages to ever be shown in a My Little Pony comic? The pilot chapter of the gory-yet-intriguing manga known as Detective Conan (AKA Case Closed), one of my favorites to this day?

Eventually, I decided that old Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot ought to get a little more of the limelight lately. But even here, there were choices aplenty. Would I post his debut story? His first team-up with the Joker? The time he disguised himself a nun? The magnificent three issues that chronicled his transformation from outright supervillain to shady racketeer?

I was going to go for that last one, but then I remembered that part of that story happened to be written by That Guy Whose Name Rhymes With Schmeter Schmavid. And without that part, the rest of the story doesn't have quite as much punch to it. So instead, we'll turn to a much shorter Penguin story that came out in 1987, smack-dab in the middle of the post-Miller era.

(This story was printed in Batman Annual #11, alongside Alan Moore's much more famous Clayface III story. It was written by Max Allan Collins, drawn by Norm Breyfogle, and ran for fifteen pages.)

So we begin with a pretty familiar setup: the Penguin's going straight, again. This trope had already been bled dry by 1987, what with the fact that pretty much every Penguin story on the Adam West show used it; and even before that, half the Penguin stories in the Golden and Silver Ages started with him out on parole.

But this time is slightly different. This time, the Penguin seems to genuinely mean it.

A certain Caped Crusader seems to disagree...





Naturally, the bleating of a few bureaucrats does absolutely nothing to dissuade Bruce. Meanwhile, the Penguin is indeed released, and immediately goes about sowing the seeds of his next dastardly plan!



Okay... never mind then.

The condition that Dovina gives is that Oswald legitimately give up his life of crime, since she wants to be "a mate, not an accomplice". Oswald is so smitten with her that he immediately agrees.

Time passes, and Oswald opens up an umbrella factory to provide himself with a legitimate income. Batman remains suspicious (even after a conversation with Dovina, which was both hilarious and heartwarming but sadly had to be cut for length), and eventually realizes that the staff at Penguin's factory are low-rent thugs from around Gotham.

You know what's coming next...



And one big fight scene later, Batman has the Penguin cornered. The portly ne'er-do-well threatens him with one of his trusty .357 bumbershooters, but then immediately admits that the thing is only an ordinary umbrella. He truly was serious about his reform.

But there's one little kink...



And finally, the aftermath:



Awww. And they lived happily and law-abidingly-wait, the Penguin's next appearance had him acting alone? And had him gloat over the fact that his latest nerve toxin only killed women and small children? Well, that's just dandy.

Thanks for nothing, Denny O'Neil.

Comments

[mrstatham]

I have to admit that as much as I'm most fond of the psychotic man-child take of the Penguin in Batman Returns - since that is such a change from the norm for the character but just about still sits - I do like takes like this that show him as being pretty aspirational and cunning, but given the chance to achieve something legitimately, he just might opt to do that instead of through utterly illegal means. I'm rather reminded of the BTAS episode Birds of a Feather, where he's inducted into high society via a rather cruel prank, but he actually avoids a life of crime entirely while he doesn't know the joke's on him, which says a lot about the character.

[kurenai_tenka]

Ahh I really like this one. :)

[icon_uk]

I do like this take on the Penguin, where he IS smart and IS capable of regular human emotion and he''s a criminal, rather than a completely psychotic monster.

Yes he looks silly and slightly comical and his gimmicks are absurd (tricked out umbrellas and/or bird training), but provided he's only interested in wealth and getting respect (even if only from criminals) then that works too.

Which is why I liked him more or less retiring from crime to run the Iceberg Lounge.

After a career as a gimmick villain, he finally has a place where he could lord it up, fleece the public legitimately AND have the respect of the masses (well, the glitterati and celebs at least, but as I said, he's not fussy about where the respect comes from). Plus of course, if an old friend were to drop by, and whilst buying scandalously overrpiced drinkies for everyone brought up a purely hypothetical scenario for a crime then he might, purely out of academic interest (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) offer a few amusing bon mots on the topics. Best of all, for the most part there'd be nothing that Batman could do to stop him.

The current darkening of him to where he runs the Lounge but is also a psychotic crimelord with anger management issues makes him just another generic bad guy. I prefer a bad guy who COULD genuinely fall in love, rather than one who sees everyone as a discardable pawn.

[janegray]

Motto.

[randyripoff]

Penguin has never made sense to me as any sort of psychotic monster. He is a criminal. He steals things. For personal gain. That may not be socially acceptable, but it makes sense.

I have to admit, I prefer the most recent incarnation of him as an underworld boss with legitimate business dealings. It makes him much more palatable as a villain.

[mrstatham]

The only reason I like the Batman Returns version as a complete monster is because I think it makes sense in the context of that universe, and presenting him as a parallel to Bruce/Batman. Otherwise, I very much agree; He presents an interesting alternative to the rest of the rogues gallery along with Selina, in that sense.

[damar148]

"You're just jealous because I'm a genuine freak and you have to wear a mask!"

[mrstatham]

And then you have to wonder how serious Batman is when he retorts "You might be right."

I do just like how crazy DeVito's Penguin is, though; Addressing a bunch of penguins like he's Patton before sending them off to kill everyone? Crazy-awesome.

[damar148]

And his death scene was the greatest.

"Sh*t, I picked the cute one!"

[grazzt]

I think my favourite part is the way they bookend the story with Robin's "That bad, huh?" It brings the whole piece together.

He should have been reading a magazine the second time, too.

[psylynce]

I too enjoyed Robin's response, but my favorite part was lego_joker's commentary at the end. "Thanks for nothing Denny O'Neil". ;)

[xarmyz]

Well, you could imagine that this story is the last appearance of The Penguin of pre-Crisis universe in order to keep the happy ending for him intact.