Penguin (character)

The Penguin (Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot) is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly as an adversary of the superhero Batman. The character made his first appearance in Detective Comics #58 (December 1941) and was created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger. The Penguin is one of Batman's most enduring enemies and belongs to the collective of adversaries that make up Batman's rogues gallery.

The Penguin is a Gotham City mobster who fancies himself the "Gentleman of Crime". He is most often seen wearing a monocle, top hat, and tuxedo while carrying his signature umbrella. The character appears most times as a short, obese man with a long nose. Penguin uses high-tech umbrellas as different tools. His umbrellas have been used as guns, gas guns, swords/knives, a mini-helicopter and many other unconventional tools. The Penguin owns and runs a nightclub called the Iceberg Lounge which provides a cover for his criminal activity. Batman sometimes uses the nightclub as a source of criminal underworld information.

Unlike most of Batman's rogues gallery, the Penguin is completely sane and in full control of his actions, giving him a unique relationship with Batman. According to his creator Bob Kane, the character was inspired by the advertising mascot of Kool cigarettes in the 1940s; a penguin with a top hat and cane. Co-creator Bill Finger thought that the image of high-society gentlemen in tuxedos was reminiscent of emperor penguins.

The Penguin has repeatedly been named one of the best Batman villains and one of the greatest villains in comics. Penguin was ranked #51 in IGN's list of the Top 100 Comic Book Villains of All Time. The character has been featured in various media adaptations, including feature films, television series, and video games. For example, The Penguin has been voiced by Paul Williams and David Ogden Stiers in the DC animated universe, Tom Kenny in The Batman, and Nolan North in the Batman: Arkham video game series. His live-action portrayals include Burgess Meredith in the 1960s Batman television series and its spin-off film, Danny DeVito in Batman Returns, Robin Lord Taylor in the television series Gotham, and Colin Farrell in the upcoming film The Batman.

Publication history
The Penguin made his first appearance in Detective Comics #58 (December 1941) and was created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger.

Backstory
Born Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot, the Penguin was bullied as a child for his short stature, weight, way of walking, and beak-like nose. Several stories relate that he was forced, as a child, to always carry an umbrella by his overprotective mother due to his father dying of bronchial pneumonia from refusing to take one while going out in the rain. His parents owned a bird shop, where Cobblepot spent most of his time with the birds, seeing them as his only friends, and lavishing them with attention. His love of birds would eventually lead him to study ornithology in college – only to find out that he knew more about birds than most of his professors did. In some versions, Cobblepot turns to crime after his mother dies and the bird shop, along with all of her birds, is repossessed to pay her debts. In others, he is an outcast in his high-society family and their rejection drives him to become a criminal. In keeping with his aristocratic origins, the Penguin pursues his criminal career while wearing formal attire such as a top hat, monocle, and tuxedo, especially of the "white-tie-and-tails" design. He is one of the relatively few villains in Batman's rogues gallery who is sane and in full control of his actions, although still ruthless and capable of extreme violence. He is also highly intelligent and can even match wits with Batman, in some cases using his access to information and business connections to assist the vigilante. Batman once admitted the Penguin is smarter than he is.

Pre-Crisis
Originally known only by his alias, the Penguin first appeared in Gotham City as a skilled thief, sneaking a pair of priceless paintings (valued at $250,000 in 1941 dollars) out of an art museum by hiding the rolled-up canvases in the handle of his umbrella. The Penguin later used the stolen paintings as proof of his underworld acumen to a local mob boss, who allowed him to join his crime family. With the Penguin's planning, the mob pulled off a string of ingenious heists. The "be-monocled bird" and the mobster eventually fell out, leading Cobblepot to kill him with his umbrella gun. The Penguin became the leader of the mob and attempted to neutralize Batman by framing him for the theft of a statue which Penguin, himself, had stolen. As part of the plot, Penguin actually already owned the statue and was framing Batman and Robin to commit insurance fraud. The Penguin's plans were eventually prevented, but the bandit himself escaped.

The Penguin was a persistent nemesis for Batman and Robin throughout the Golden and Silver Ages, pulling off ploy after ploy, such as teaming up with the Joker, attempting to extort money from a shipping company by pretending to flash-freeze a member of its board of directors, and participating in Hugo Strange's auction of Batman's secret identity.

The Penguin made his last appearance during the last appearance of the Earth-One Batman. After he and a multitude of Batman's enemies are broken out of Arkham Asylum and Gotham State Penitentiary by Ra's al Ghul, the Penguin carries out Ra's' plans to kidnap Batman's friends and allies. The Penguin, along with the Joker, the Mad Hatter, the Cavalier, Deadshot and Killer Moth, lay siege to Gotham City Police Headquarters, but are infuriated when the Joker sabotages their attempt at holding Commissioner James Gordon for ransom. A standoff ensues, with the Joker on one side and the Penguin and the Mad Hatter on the other. The Joker quickly subdues both with a burst of laughing gas from one of his many gadgets.

Post-Crisis
Following the Crisis rebooting the history of the DC Universe, the Penguin was relegated to sporadic appearances, until writer Alan Grant (who had earlier penned the Penguin origin story "The Killing Peck" in Secret Origins Special #1) and artist Norm Breyfogle brought him back, deadlier than ever. During their run, the Penguin forms a brief partnership with hypnotist Mortimer Kadaver, who helps him fake his own death as a ploy to strike an unsuspecting Gotham. The Penguin later kills Kadaver, after plugging his own ears with toilet paper so that the hypnotist no longer has power over him.

After Batman foils this particular endeavor, the Penguin embarks on one of his grandest schemes ever in the three-part story "The Penguin Affair". Finding Harold Allnut being tormented by two gang members, the Penguin takes in the technologically gifted hunchback, showing him kindness in exchange for services. Harold builds a gadget that allows the Penguin to control flocks of birds from miles away, which the Penguin utilizes to destroy radio communications in Gotham and crash a passenger plane. This endeavor, too, is foiled by Batman, who hires Harold as his mechanic.

The Penguin resurfaces during Jean Paul Valley's tenure as Batman and is one of the few people to deduce that Valley is not the original Caped Crusader. To confirm his theory, he kidnaps Sarah Essen Gordon, places her in a death trap set to go off at midnight, and turns himself in, utilizing the opportunity to mock her husband Commissioner Gordon as midnight approaches. An increasingly infuriated Gordon is nearly driven to throw him off the police headquarters roof before Valley rescues Sarah moments before midnight. As Valley leaves, he says, "There's nothing the Penguin can throw at me that I haven't encountered before." The Penguin reluctantly agrees with this sentiment, accepting that he has become passé.

Subsequently, the Penguin turns his attentions to a new modus operandi, operating behind the front of a legitimate restaurant and casino he calls "The Iceberg Lounge", which Batman sometimes uses as a source of criminal underworld information. Though he is arrested for criminal activities several times during the course of his "reform", he always manages to secure a release from prison thanks to his high-priced lawyers.

In the storyline "No Man's Land", Gotham City is nearly leveled by an earthquake. The Penguin stays behind when the U.S. government blockades the city. He becomes one of the major players in the lawless city, using his connections to profit by trading the money that nobody else in Gotham could use for goods through his contacts outside the city. One of these connections is discovered to be Lex Luthor and his company LexCorp. The Penguin's information helps Luthor to gain control of Gotham's property records, but Luthor dismisses him when the Penguin attempts to blackmail Luthor.

The Penguin has swept up in the events of Infinite Crisis. In the seventh issue, he is briefly seen as part of the Battle of Metropolis, a multi-character brawl started by the Secret Society of Super Villains. The Penguin, along with several other villains, is bowled over at the surprise appearance of Bart Allen.

One Year Later while the Penguin is away from Gotham City, the Great White Shark and the Tally Man kill many of the villains who had worked for him, and frame the reformed Harvey Dent. The Great White Shark had planned to take over Gotham's criminal syndicate and eliminate the competition, the Penguin included. Upon his return to Gotham, the Penguin continues to claim that he has gone straight, and reopens the Iceberg, selling overpriced Penguin merchandise. He urges the Riddler to avoid crime, as their new shady but legal lifestyle is more lucrative.

The Penguin was featured as a prominent figure in the Gotham Underground tie-in to the series Countdown. He fights a gang war against Tobias Whale, Intergang and the New Rogues, while supposedly running an "underground railroad" for criminals. In the end, Batman convinces the Penguin to become his informant.

The Penguin later loses Batman's support after the latter's mysterious disappearance and Intergang's exploitation of the return of the Apokoliptan Gods. He appears in Battle for the Cowl: The Underground, which depicts the effects of Batman's disappearance on his enemies.

The Penguin's mob is absorbed by Black Mask II, who controls his criminal activities. The Penguin, with the aid of the Mad Hatter, abducts Batman and brainwashes him to assassinate Black Mask.

During the events of Brightest Day, the Birds of Prey discover the Penguin beaten and stabbed at the feet of the White Canary. The Birds rescue him and flee to the Iceberg. While recovering, the Penguin expresses his attraction to the Dove. Eventually, the Penguin reveals that his injury had been a ruse and that he is working with the White Canary in exchange for valuable computer files on the superhero community. He betrays the Birds and seriously injures both Lady Blackhawk and the Hawk before the Huntress defeats him. The Huntress tapes him up with the intention of taking him with her, only to be informed by Oracle that she has to let him go due to a police manhunt for the Birds. The Huntress considers killing him with her crossbow, but ultimately leaves him bound and gagged in an alley with the promise that she would exact her vengeance on him later.

The Penguin is eventually attacked by the Secret Six, who kill many of his guards in an ambush at his mansion. Bane informs him that he needs information on Batman's partners, as he plans on killing Red Robin, Batgirl, Catwoman, and Azrael. The Penguin soon betrays the team's location, which results in the Justice League, the Teen Titans, the Birds of Prey, the Justice Society, and various other heroes hunting down and capturing the criminals.

Around this time, a new supervillain, who calls himself the Architect, plants a bomb in the Iceberg Lounge as revenge for crimes committed by the Penguin's ancestor. Though Blackbat and Robin are able to evacuate the building, the Lounge is destroyed in the ensuing explosion.

The New 52
In The New 52 (a 2011 reboot of the DC Comics universe), the Penguin is a client of a criminal named Raju who was sent to offer gold to the Dollmaker for Batman's release. While in his Iceberg Casino, the Penguin views a disguised Charlotte Rivers on his surveillance cameras and tells his henchwoman Lark to make sure Rivers gets "a story to die for". During the Death of the Family crossover, the Penguin puts his right-hand man Ignatius Ogilvy in charge of his operations in his temporary absence. Ogilvy, however, uses the Penguin's absence to declare him dead, taking over his gang and killing those loyal to him. Under the alias "Emperor Penguin", Ogilvy takes over the Penguin's operations. Upon the Joker's defeat, Batman unsuccessfully attempts to imprison the Penguin in Blackgate Penitentiary, only to be forced to release him later. Upon learning of Ogilvy's betrayal, the Penguin attacks his former henchman's new empire, but Batman intervenes and arrests him. The Penguin is found not guilty, however, thanks to the machinations of his ally Mr. Combustible. Meanwhile, Ogilvy releases Kirk Langstrom's Man-Bat serum on Gotham City, turning many of the citizens into the creatures. Langstrom discovers a cure, returning the citizens to normal. Ogilvy then takes the serum himself, along with additions made by Poison Ivy. Emperor Penguin then challenges Batman openly to a fight, defeating the masked vigilante with his newfound prowess, and leaving him to be rescued by the Penguin. The pair forge a temporary alliance, and defeat Ogilvy.

The Penguin also played a role in the Black Canary's rebooted origin. In Birds of Prey (vol. 4) #0, Dinah sought to land a job at the Iceberg Lounge, knowing that a lead on the Basilisk organization which she was pursuing would soon spring up there. Unfortunately, the Penguin was not in the habit of taking job applications, so she decided to prove her worth by infiltrating the outfit by herself. When she arrived in the Penguin's bathroom, he was unimpressed. To prove her worth, she demonstrated her special ability: a sonic scream that could shake down the roof, if it were intense enough. Naturally, the scream alerted the Penguin's henchmen, and she made short work of them with her martial arts skills. Finally impressed, the Penguin hired her, and dubbed her the Black Canary in keeping with the ornithological theme.

During the "Forever Evil" storyline, the Penguin is among the villains recruited by the Crime Syndicate of America to join the Secret Society of Super Villains. With the heroes gone, the Penguin becomes the Mayor of Gotham City and divides the different territories among the inmates of Arkham Asylum. Bane retrieves Ignatius Ogilvy (now calling himself "Emperor Blackgate") for the Penguin as part of their agreement. When he brings him to the Penguin, he tells Emperor Blackgate that the Arkham fighters are not scared of Bane, as he does not instill fear as Batman did.

DC Rebirth
In the Watchmen sequel Doomsday Clock, the Penguin is among the villains that attend the underground meeting held by the Riddler that talks about the Superman Theory. When the Penguin suggests that they hand Moonbow and Typhoon over to the government that supposedly created them, Typhoon attacks Penguin until the Comedian crashes the meeting.

Skills and abilities
The Penguin is a master criminal who aspires to be wealthy, powerful and respected (or at least feared) by Gotham's high society. The Penguin's wealth gives him access to better resources than most other Batman villains, and he is able to mix with Gotham's elite, especially those he plans to target in his future crimes. He is also capable of returning to his luxurious lifestyle very easily despite his violent criminal history and prison record. He has even attempted multiple times to enter the political world, even launching expensive election campaigns. The Penguin also has strong connections with other criminal kingpins across Gotham, allowing him to hire their assassins and workers to spy on them easily. The Penguin relies on cunning, wit, and intimidation to exploit his surroundings for profit, and despite his short temper, he is normally depicted as being more rational and sane than other Batman villains, or at least relatively so.

Although he often delegates the dirty work to his henchmen, he is not above taking aggressive and lethal actions on his own, especially when provoked or insulted. In spite of his appearance and stature, he is a dangerous hand-to-hand combatant with enough developed skills in judo, fencing, ninjutsu and bare-knuckle boxing to overwhelm attackers many times his size and physical bearing. The Penguin is usually portrayed as a capable physical combatant when he feels the situation calls for it, but his level of skill varies widely depending on the author; the character has been written both as a physical match for Batman and as someone the masked vigilante is capable of defeating with a solid punch. His crimes often revolve around stealing valuable bird-related items and his car and other vehicles often have an avian theme.

Equipment
The Penguin utilizes an assortment of umbrellas, particularly the Bulgarian umbrella. These usually contain weapons such as machine guns, sword tips, missiles, lasers, flamethrowers, and acid or poison gas spraying devices fired from the ferrule (however, the Penguin is able to weaponize his umbrellas in an almost unlimited variety of ways). Depending on the writer, some of his umbrellas can carry multiple weapons at once. He often carries an umbrella that can transform its canopy into a series of spinning blades: this can be used as a miniature helicopter or as an offensive weapon; he often uses this to escape a threatening situation. The canopy of the umbrella is sometimes depicted as being a bullet resistant shield, and some are patterned in different ways from a spiral capable of hypnotizing opponents to flashy signs. He can also call upon his flying birds to attack and confuse his enemies in battle.

Relationships
The idea of the Penguin and the Joker as a team is one that is decades old, as the two villains, pop-culture wise, are arguably Batman's two most famous enemies. Their first team-up took place fairly early in Batman's career, in "Knights of Knavery". Since then, the two have teamed up countless times throughout the Golden and Silver Ages. This carried over into the 1960s television series as well; both appeared together as a team numerous times. They have even shown affection towards each other on more than one occasion; in one story, "Only Angels Have Wings", the Joker actually cries when it appears that the Penguin has been murdered, and vows to avenge the Penguin's death.

Reception
The character of the Penguin, particularly as portrayed by Burgess Meredith, has often been used as a theme to mock public figures that supposedly resemble him. Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show, has made numerous references comparing former Vice President Dick Cheney with the Penguin, including a laugh similar to the one heard in the 1960s Batman series.

In May 2006, a Republican-led PR firm, DCI Group, created an astroturfing YouTube video satirizing Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth. The video portrayed Gore as the Penguin using one of his trick umbrellas to hypnotize a flock of penguins into believing in the existence of global warming and climate change.

Roger Stone has also been likened to Penguin due to his manner of dress.

Joker
The Penguin (mockingly referred to as "Abner" by the Joker) appeared in Joker, a graphic novel by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo. This incarnation operates the Iceberg Lounge, handles most of Joker's personal investments and deals with revenues from boxing matches.

Elseworlds
In the Elseworlds story Batman: Crimson Mist, the third part in a trilogy that turned Batman into a vampire, the Penguin is the first of many criminals to be killed by the vampiric Batman after he surrenders to his darker instincts. As the book begins, the Penguin has just escaped from Arkham again, and has apparently developed a reputation as a cop-killer. As the Penguin lures a group of cops into a trap, he impales one in the head with his umbrella, but Batman arrives in the form of a monstrous bat before the Penguin's men can claim more victims. Batman brutally tears the Penguin's throat out as he drinks his blood and subsequently kills his enemy, proceeding to kill the rest of the Penguin's gang and tear off their heads to stop them from returning as vampires.

In Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham, an Elseworlds setting based on the works of H. P. Lovecraft, Bruce Wayne is the leader of an expedition to Antarctica of which there is only one survivor. The rescue team finds no trace of him, but it is revealed to the reader that the now half-insane Cobblepot has abandoned his humanity, and joined the albino penguins of the Elder Things' city.

Superman/Batman
In Superman/Batman, an amalgamation of the Penguin and Metallo, called Penguello, appears among the mercenaries recruited into Lex Joker's Brotherhood of Injustice. Thanks to Terranado, who had gone undercover within the Justice Titans, they were able to attack the Justice Tower.

Flashpoint
In the alternative timeline of Flashpoint, Oswald Cobblepot works as the security chief of Wayne Casinos, providing information about his clients and the criminal underworld to that universe's Batman, Thomas Wayne.

Earth One
In Batman: Earth One by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank, Oswald Cobblepot is the corrupt mayor of Gotham City. He attempts to have Thomas Wayne, the opposing mayoral candidate, killed, but Wayne, along with his wife, are instead killed in a random mugging on election night. Cobblepot runs Gotham with an iron fist, controlling all the power centers of the city and using a hired killer named "Birthday Boy". He almost kills Batman with his umbrella (which conceals a blade) once he discovers Batman's secret identity, but Alfred Pennyworth shoots and kills him just in time. It is also implied that Cobblepot had James Gordon's wife murdered when the detective got too close to finding out Cobblepot's involvement with the Waynes' murder. He tries to do the same thing to Gordon's daughter Barbara by "sending" her to Birthday Boy, but she is saved by Batman, Gordon, and Harvey Bullock.

The Further Adventures of Batman Volume 2 featuring the Penguin
In the short story "Vulture: A Tale of the Penguin", by Steve Rasnic, the Penguin loses weight to the point of emaciation and becomes a vigilante, calling himself the Vulture.

Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
In the Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover, the Penguin is first seen at the docks with the Shredder, selling him a WayneTech Resonance Engine, but the Shredder betrays him and reveals he has already taken care of most of his men and plans on taking the engine himself. The Shredder is then about to kill the Penguin, but the Penguin offers to provide him weapons and money for his plan in order to save himself. The Shredder decides to spare the Penguin, calling him "Bird Man." The Shredder then uses the Iceberg Lounge as his base, where the Penguin has engineers working on the resonance engine to power his machine. The Shredder then reveals that he plans on bringing an army through the dimensional portal and take over Gotham City. The Penguin objects, but the Shredder threatens to kill him and tells him that he belongs to the Foot Clan. As the Shredder gets ready to open the portal, Batman and the Ninja Turtles arrive to stop them, but the Shredder destroys the portal and escapes with Ra's al Ghul. During the battle, the Penguin escapes as well. The Penguin then visits Batman, the Ninja Turtles, and Commissioner Gordon and tells them about the Shredder's plans, betraying him. The Penguin, though, does not agree with the Shredder's plans and reveals that the Shredder and the Foot Clan are now working with Ra's al Ghul and the League of Assassins. Later, Robin and Casey Jones reveal that the League and the Foot are using Arkham Asylum as their base. When Batman and Robin arrive, they are greeted by the Penguin, who has been mutated into a mutant penguin as punishment for betraying the Shredder, along with the Joker, Two-Face, the Riddler, Harley Quinn, Mr. Freeze, the Mad Hatter, Bane, the Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, and the Ventriloquist, who have all been mutated into animals and attack Batman and Robin. Batman is captured, but Robin manages to escape. The Ninja Turtles and Splinter then arrive, where Splinter defeats the mutated villains, while Batman uses his new Intimidator Armor to defeat the Shredder and the Turtles defeat Ra's. Later, Gordon tells Batman that the police scientists have managed to turn all of the inmates at Arkham back to normal and are currently in A.R.G.U.S. custody.

Batman: White Knight
The Penguin has a minor appearance in the 2017 series Batman: White Knight. The Penguin, along with several other Batman villains, is tricked by Jack Napier (who in this reality was a Joker who had been force-fed an overdose of pills by Batman which temporarily cured him of his insanity) into drinking drinks that had been laced with particles from Clayface's body. This was done so that Napier, who was using the Mad Hatter's technology to control Clayface, could also control the villains by way of Clayface's ability to control parts of his body that had been separated from him. The Penguin and the other villains are then used to attack a library which Napier himself was instrumental in building in one of Gotham City's poorer districts. Later on in the story, the control hat is stolen by the Neo-Joker (the second Harley Quinn, who felt that Jack Napier was a pathetic abnormality while the Joker was the true, beautiful personality), in an effort to get Napier into releasing the Joker persona.

The Batman Who Laughs
In The Batman Who Laughs, the Penguin is depicted as having been killed by the Joker during his penultimate act of terror against the Batman.

Harley Quinn
For over a year in Harley Quinn Rebirth the Penguin had been running a superhero sex club in New York City. He has been engaged in serious plans to take over Coney Island to turn it into a private resort (based on himself, of course). Unfortunately for him, Harley Quinn had been beating him up and otherwise threatening his plans in that direction. So to get her out of the way, he made an agreement with Gotham's underworld. After the death of her friend Mason at the hands of New York's corrupt mayor, Professor Hugo Strange and False Face dosed her with truth serum to increase her depression and separate her from her friends. Then when she left, Penguin kept her and all of her friends busy with various Batman villains while he threatened the land owners to give over their property and used two kaiju penguins to kill off 90% of the crimelords in New York. When Harley finally figured it out, she came back and gathered all of her friends, including Poison Ivy (who used a giant daffodil to fight the giant penguins in what was described at 'The worst kaiju battle ever!"), her Gang of Harleys, Power Girl, Killer Croc and Scarface (who switched sides), Captain Strong, her Roller Derby team, her stalkers/friends Harley Sinn and Red Tool, and various other characters for a huge showdown with pretty much every Batman villain ranging from Batzarro to the Zebra-Man. Harley eventually made her way up to the Penguin while her friends eventually beat up his collected allies and, while beating him up, revealed she suspected it was all really about her turning down his perverted advances. In the end after the bad guys on Penguin's side were all rounded up, he was revealed to have extorted the land from everyone and the owners all got their places back so they could rebuild.