Warning! This article contains minor spoilers for The Penguin episodes 1 and 2.
The Penguinis allowing Matt Reeves’The Batmanuniverse to repeat a trick from a DC project of years past by making a popular villain even more iconic. One of the strengths ofThe Penguinis undoubtedly the tone it depicts. The show is more akin to its sister movieThe Batmanin terms of its depiction of Gotham, its characters, and DC’s otherworldly elements, as was evident by the time ofThe Penguinepisode 2’s ending.
Although this does not stopThe Penguin’s DC Easter eggsfrom shining through, it establishes a world much closer to reality than the exaggeratedBatmanadaptations of the 20th century. This will undoubtedly continue withThe Batman - Part II’s story, allowing this section of the Caped Crusader’s live-action universe to have significant strengths. Interestingly,The Penguin’s influence onupcomingBatmanmovies and shows, specifically giving characters more grounded, sympathetic motivations, is nothing new for iterations of the iconic DC Comics world and its infamous villains.
The Penguin Makes The DC Icon A Lot More Human
Oz Cobb Is Much More Human Than DC Comic’s Oswald Cobblepot Often Is
Overall,The Batmanuniverse is fleshing out Oswald Cobb into a much more human character than has been shown in previous iterations.The Penguin’s new origin storyfor the titular character makes some changes to that of DC Comics, with these alterations being the primary way he is shown as a more realistic character than the overtly bloodthirsty villain from the source material. In the comics, Oswald Cobblepot begins to use the moniker of The Penguin after murdering his brothers and father.
The men of Oswald’s family relentlessly bullied him for his appearance, with only his mother showing him a loving connection. One day, Oswald killed his brothers and father to gain his mother’s attention, subsequently discovering he had a thirst for murder with his love of birds influencing his supervillain identity from that point on. While some semblance of sympathetic motivation is outlined in these stories,DC Comics have, well, comic book elements that make him more of a mustache-twirling villain who embraces a specific moniker than Colin Farrell’s versioninThe Penguin’s cast of characters.
The Penguin Show Cast & DC Character Guide
Set to release in 2024, The Penguin will continue to flesh out Matt Reeves' Gotham with Colin Farrell set to reprise his role as Oz Cobb.
Overall, Oz Cobb is presented as much more human than his DC Comics counterpart.His different familial history, poorer upbringing, wants, desires, dreams, and flaws all give Oz a sense of realismthat the source material only shows in glimpses. While there will always be a place for a more exaggerated version of The Penguin and this is not to say DC Comics' iteration does not work,The Penguin’s depiction not only makes him a compelling lead character but one who repeats a trick from an older DC TV show that makes him infinitely more sympathetic.
The Penguin Copies 1 Trick From Batman: The Animated Series' Mr. Freeze Story
Oz Cobb’s Familial Connections Give Him Similarities To Mr. Freeze
As alluded to, this depiction of the titular character inThe Penguintakes cues from a prior TV show centering around the world of Gotham -Batman: The Animated Series.Batman: The Animated Seriesis one of the more iconic iterations of Gotham’s Dark Knight, with some creative decisions of the show becoming so popular that they leaked over into DC Comics to rewrite decades of character history. One of the main examples of this came with one ofBatman: The Animated Series’main villains, Mr. Freeze.
Mr. Freeze’s backstory was minimal in DC Comics beforeBatman: The Animated Series, which soon changed. The show introduced an entire backstory for Mr. Freeze that revolved around family and gave the character overly sympathetic motivations. These character changes were so well-received that DC Comics began to retcon the villain’s backstory, establishing him as an iconic rogue of Batman from then on. InThe Penguin, this change has been somewhat emulated by the introduction of Frances Cobb, Oz’s mother.
Oz’s connection with his mother is detailed more in episode 2, withThe Penguin’s soundtracktying strongly to the duo and rooting their relationship in even more humanity.
One of the reasons behindThe Penguin’s strong reviewsis its cast of characters, with Farrell’s Oz leading the way. The aforementioned sense of humanity imbued in Oz would not be as strong without the relationship with his mother. Frances gives Oz a lot of motivation for his actions, grounded in something many can relate to. Overall,The Penguin’s familial connections make the titular villain much more than that, just asBatman: The Animated Seriesdid for Mr. Freeze.
How Batman: TAS Reinvented Mr. Freeze
Victor Fries Became An Iconic Villain Thanks To Batman: The Animated Series
InBatman: The Animated Series, Mr. Freeze was written as Victor Fries. Fries was a man experimenting with cryotechnology as a means of saving his terminally ill wife. However, Fries' life took a turn for the worse when the CEO of GothCorp, Fries' employer, ordered him to shut down his projects. Fries begged for the life of his wife, yet the pleas fell on the deaf ears of Ferris Boyle. Eventually, Boyle broke into Fries' lab and destroyed his work, kicking the latter into a batch of chemicals and leaving him to die.
Mr. Freeze then turned to a life of crime in order to regain his frozen wife and continue finding a cure for her…
This explains how Fries became Mr. Freeze, with the chemicals meaning he could not survive at above-zero temperatures. Mr. Freeze then turned to a life of crime in order to regain his frozen wife and continue finding a cure for her. Eventually, Freeze implores Batman to help save his wife and, when she is healed and begins a new life, Freeze retires from his life of crime in solitary at the North Pole. Just asBatman: The Animated Seriescompletely reinvented a DC villain to become iconic,The Penguinis doing the same via the familial connections of the humans beneath the monikers.
The Penguin
Cast
Created by Lauren LeFranc, The Penguin is a crime-drama spin-off television series of 2022’s film The Batman. Set shortly after the events of The Batman, Oz Cobb, A.K.A. the Penguin, begins his rise in the underworld of Gotham City as he contends with the daughter of his late boss, Carmine Falcone, for control of the crime family’s empire.
