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The Penguin (Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot), is a DC Comics supervillain and an enemy of Batman. Created by artist Bill Finger (although Batman creator Bob Kane is credited by DC), he first appeared in Detective Comics #58 (December 1941).
In most incarnations, the Penguin is a short, chubby man who wears a tuxedo and top hat. A mobster-type criminal, he fancies himself a "gentleman of crime." Unlike most Batman villains, he does not theme his crimes around a psychotic obsession and his intelligence and aristocratic personality starkly contrast against demented Batman villains, such as the Joker.
The Penguin does however possess a few eccentricities. He is known for his love of birds and his high-tech umbrellas that serve some specialized function, such as hang-gliding and weaponry. He also keeps beautiful women around him; perhaps to remind others of his monetary power or to compensate for his own grotesqueness.
Burgess Meredith popularized the Penguin in the 1960s Batman television series, partially because of his signature squawking laughter. Danny DeVito played a much darker version of the character in the 1992 film Batman Returns. This version was not just an unattractive criminal but a physically deformed megalomaniac. Subsequent Batman animated series have alternatively featured the deformed Penguin and a more traditional version.
The deformed version of the character has also appeared in comics, most notably in the miniseries, The Long Halloween, and its sequel, Dark Victory. He only appears for a minor cameo at the end of the Long Halloween, and has no lines. He plays a slightly more notable role in Dark Victory, when Batman goes to him for information. This incarnation also added elements of the 1966 TV series character, as he shouted the well known "waugh waugh" while talking.
Character history
Born Oswald Cobblepot, the Penguin was teased very much in childhood due to his short stature, obesity, and bird-like nose. These traits made him an outcast in his rich, debutante family. Their rejection drove him to become a violent criminal. One story claims the Penguin and his mother owned a pet shop, and he became a criminal after neighborhood bullies murdered all the animals in the shop, including his beloved birds. In keeping with his family's tradition of wealth, the Penguin lives a life of crime and evil, yet executes it with his own self proclaimed high society class and style. He commits crimes with the theme of the various birds he loves.
Unlike most of the Batman villains, the Penguin is a gentleman villain, in control of his own actions and perfectly sane, features that serve to maintain a unique relationship with his archenemy, Batman. This has extended into the current situation with the Penguin ceasing his direct involvement in crime, instead running a nightclub that is popular with the underworld. As such, he is an excellent source of information on crime and Batman grudgingly tolerates his operations because of that. However, the entrepreneurial Penguin is often fencing stolen property or arranging early furloughs for incarcerated former criminal associates - for a hefty fee, of course - on the side. During the period when Gotham City was leveled by an earthquake, he was one of the major players in the mostly-abandoned and lawless city, using his connections (one was eventually discovered to be tied to Lex Luthor and his company) to sell necessities at outrageous prices (See also: No Man's Land).
The Penguin's trademarks are the various deadly umbrellas he uses to execute his evil plans. Several stories affirm that he was forced as a child to always carry an umbrella by his over-protective mother, due to his father dying of pneumonia after being drenched in a downpour. In keeping with his pretensions of being a refined gentleman, he also prefers to wear formal wear such as a top hat and tuxedo during his jobs.
The Penguin received his alias from a childhood nickname, bestowed by his peers, who teased him because of his grotesque appearance and love of birds (retellings of his origin suggest he also suffered from some sort of hip ailment, which caused him to waddle when he walked. The Penguin shows no signs of suffering from this affliction today). Some comics suggest that he tried to abandon the nickname, which he hates, but it has been permanently brought into popularity by his high-profile criminal career. He has cashed in on its popularity with his "Iceberg Lounge" night club.
In the 1960's TV Batman series, the only available information on his early life is that he was once an actor. A frequent expression of Penguin on Batman was "Great Thundering Icebergs". Although called a "Pompous waddling master of foul play", Penguin thinks of himself as an "Aristocrat of Crime". On one episode, when Penguin tried to get himself taken back into prison by committing obvious crimes as part of a greater plan, he is extremely furious when the Batman has him locked up in the city jail as a "common criminal" for violating a Gotham City ordnance. Penguin's thugs wear black bowlers with dark clothing with names of various animals of prey being either birds ("Hawk") or fish ("Shark").
Penguin has not been seen so far during the One Year Later stories, though it is known that he is not in Gotham City at the present. He is also connected with the group that Harvey Dent is believed to have murdered. His involvement with these events is unclear- however, when Tally Man assaulted Jason Bard over the investigation, he wore a black and white suit, colors associated with the Penguin, possibly hinting at some deeper connection.
In other media
The Penguin was played by Burgess Meredith in the Batman television series of the 1960s and the spin-off movie. A largely campy interpretation, Meredith's performance is perhaps best remembered through his signature laughter, meant to mimic the squawk of a penguin.Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show, frequently uses Meredith's Penguin laugh in his imitations of U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney. One cause of it was the smoke from the cigarettes Meredith had to smoke for the role, which irritated his throat (he was a non-smoker in real life). It should be noted that the basic plot of Batman Returns, involving the Penguin running for mayor, is most likely inspired by an episode of the show, which follows the same premise. A notable scene involves Penguin having Batman and Robin dangled over a pit of acid while he runs to "get help" as both a ploy to remove his enemies and gain some positive press as a good Samaritan.
Penguin also appeared in the final season of Super Friends, where he gained Superman's superpowers by accident when Felix Faust tried to get them for himself. Ironically, Batman was not featured in the episode. This version of the Penguin was voiced by Frank Welker. Penguin was also one of the villains in the two-part Scooby-Doo Meets Batman cartoon.
In Batman Returns, the Penguin was portrayed by Danny DeVito. In this movie, Tim Burton re-imagined the character not as an eloquent, sophisticated, short and fat man (as had been traditionally done before), but rather as a physically deformed psychopath. While this Penguin retained a number of trademarks, particularly the variety of trick umbrellas and the use of a monocle in two scenes, he was given a huge visual makeover. His hands were now flippers, with a thumb and index finger, and the remaining three fingers as a large fused flipper-like mass. His hair was redone as well. Whereas the comic counterpart had varied between a full head of hair and varying degrees of thinning, this Penguin was bald, with his remaining length of hair long and stringy. Instead of a tuxedo, he often wore a more gothic, victorian style outfit, with a ribbon-like bow as opposed to a bow tie. Other instances show him in black boots, a bib-like cloth around his neck, and something akin to a child's blanket sleeper, or the old long john style underwear of the 1800s. The reason for this outfit was likely due to the fact that, when combined with his long dark coat/robe, the full white front of the bodysuit gives him an even more penguin-like appearance. One visual aspect that remained fairly intact in this re-imaginging was the familiar top hat. Another new touch was his large yellow duck vehicle, which had the triple functionality of being a boat, a car, and an elevator like lift. Although a number of Batman fans hold the second film in high regard, many were unhappy with Burton's interpretation of the Penguin, feeling that he missed the entire point of the character and, odds are, some parents of children in the audience would have preferred the Penguin's more traditional gentleman-villain personality.
At the beginning of the movie The Penguin's origin story was retold. While he was still born disfigured his wealthy parents (whos hatred for their child was kept from the comics)tried to get rid of their horrible, repulsive offspring. However, the Cobblepot child survived and, after floating down Gotham's sewers and under the city zoo, he was taken in by a group of penguins. He then developed a partnership with Max Shrek and affections to Catwoman (when he saw Catwoman hated him, he hated her back and had her presumably killed when she fell into a planthouse, in which she survived). The Penguin became a hero to Gotham City when he rescued the Mayor's baby. He then ran for Mayor and framed Batman, being responsible for a murder and several car crashes. Batman then had Gotham realize the Penguin was the real villain and he ran off back to the sewers to plan to kill every first-born son in Gotham. However, the plan was foiled by Batman and the penguin decided to kill everyone in the world using missiles and his own penguins to do so. But Batman foiled that plan too and got into a short battle against Penguin. When Penguin decided to use the redirected missiles to kill Batman, even if it means himself included dead, a whole group of bats emerged from Batman's watership and attacked Penguin. He crashed through glass and back into the waters of his sewer home. After Max Shrek died in Catwoman's hands and Catwoman herself went missing, Penguin rose from the water and died moments later. All of his fellow penguins lined up and slowly slid his corpse down back into the sewer water, having it sunk down for his funeral.
In the fall of that year, when The Animated Series debuted, he was voiced by Paul Williams. This choice in casting was rumoured to be an in-joke amoung producers, as Williams himself is short and stocky, almost resembling the Penguin with blonde hair. Due to the close relation in time between the movie and the animated series, the freakish look of the deformed Penguin remained, though toned down some. While the deformed style remains largely intact, the Penguin returned to the gentleman of crime of the comics, fancying himself a high society elite. In the 1997's follow-up to the original animated series, The New Batman Adventures, the Penguin lost his deformed appearance, regaining his five-fingered hands and losing his hunched back (although, like the other changes characters underwent, this was not a story point, but merely a new artistic interpretation of the character). His new appearance also saw him return to a role more similar to the one in the comic books: a "legitimate" businessman and mob boss that ran a night club called the "Iceberg Lounge". He also appeared in Mystery of the Batwoman, this time voiced by David Ogden Stiers because he provided a more menacing tone to Penguin's voice.
The character has also appeared on The Batman, voiced by Tom Kenny, restored again to his deformed look. However, despite his long sharp nose, fangs and flipper hands, no comments are ever passed by other characters about his appearance, as if there was nothing unusual about him. Some say he's the youngest incarnation of the Penguin yet. In this continuity, the Penguin is primarily concerned with reestablishing the Cobblepot family name in society by stealing from the citizens of Gotham to rebuild his wealth. He is sometimes aided by two henchwomen: a pair of masked concubines called the Kabuki Twins (although their names have never been mentioned in the show). In addition, it is clear that he also knows some form of Kung Fu, and is athletic enough to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the Batman. He also seems to be in a rivalry with the Joker for the title of Gotham's most dangerous criminal. This Penguin also regards Bruce Wayne as a personal enemy and has held him hostage on multiple occasions (though he is unaware of Wayne's alter ego). Unused concept art from the show, however, indicates that a more classic version of the Penguin was, at one point, going to be used. *
The Penguin has also appeared as a boss in several Batman video games. They are Batman: The Caped Crusader, the various video game adaptations of the movie Batman Returns, Batman: The Animated Series and The Adventures of Batman & Robin for the Super NES. At one point he was planned to appear as a boss in The Adventures of Batman & Robin for the Sega CD, in which he would try to kidnap Summer Gleeson. The Penguin was cut from the game for unknown reasons, but the storyboards for his animated cutscene are displayed in Paul Dini's book, Batman: Animated.
Notes
Bibliography
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