Fans are decrying changes made to the Penguin for Batman: Caped Crusader. Why not? Tim Burton got to do it.
In the weeks since Batman: Caped Crusader premiered on Prime Video, one of the recurring criticisms has been the new, gender-swapped Penguin. While many support the creative teams’ choices and champion their creation, there is a vocal faction of the fan community that condemns her, and these range from those who dislike the change of a classic character to incels who hate the show for being “woke.” Somehow, the presence of an Oswalda Cobblepot prevents them from fully enjoying the show.
As if this wasn’t bad enough, a recent Bruce Timm interview has surfaced where the following exchange occurred:
REPORTER: I literally clapped when I saw the Penguin was a woman and heard Minnie Driver doing her voice. It was an unexpected and wonderful surprise. Why did you make that choice?
BRUCE TIMM: James [Tucker] and I were talking about the overview of the show, and we said, “One of the problems with Batman, as he is, is there’s a lack of good villains. You’ve got Catwoman, you’ve got Poison Ivy, you’ve got Harley Quinn. But it would be really good to have more female villains.” And off the top of my head, I said, “We never really could figure out exactly what to do with the Penguin, what the gimmick for the Penguin would be. What if we gender-flip the Penguin?” (qtd. in Champagne)
Timm has since walked back his statement, claiming in an August 12th post on the Anime Superhero message boards that he misspoke:
I wish I could just throw the Emmys writer under the bus and say she misquoted me, but I really don’t think that was the case here. I have an unfortunate tendency to ramble a bit and talk too fast when doing interviews, and my mouth sometimes gets a little ahead of my brain (especially when we do three or four [interviews] back-to-back-to-back, as often happened in the lead-up to the Caped Crusader premiere). I probably misspoke. So, that’s on me.
But yes, Batman has just about the best Rogues’ Gallery in all of comics. Obviously, I mean to say “lack of good female villains” even though that’s not entirely true either. But as [another poster] said up yonder, once you get past the “Sirens” [Catwoman, Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn] and Talia (I don’t usually think of [Lady] Shiva as a villain), you come to the “B” and “C” list pretty quick. And yes, we certainly could make an effort to come up with new takes on some of those characters before we really need to start gender-bending traditionally male villains willy-nilly. Like we said in the interview, the Penguin thing started as an almost off-the-cuff suggestion, but the minute I saw James [Tucker’s] designs, I was all “we are definitely doing that.” (b.t.)
Now, even with the error in the above statement, the context is still pretty solid: Timm was responding to the reporter’s question about the female Penguin, and then he immediately followed it up with “it would be really good to have more female villains.” But the damage was done, and now social media is flooded with people deliberately misinterpreting the message to slam both Bruce Timm and the new Penguin.
Look, is this really a big deal? Has the Penguin really been set in stone since his debut in Detective Comics #58 (December 1941)? In fact, I can think of at least one other incident over thirty years ago that not only made significant changes to the Penguin, but it also impeded Timm’s first attempt to adapt the character for Batman: The Animated Series.
Bird on a Garrote Wire
For much of the character’s history, the Penguin’s appearance was consistent: he was short, often rotund man with an elongated nose who dressed in a top hat and tuxedo with a cigarette holder in his teeth. Originally a deadly criminal in his initial Golden Age appearances, his character softened into more comedic one interested in birds and umbrellas, which cemented in the public imagination via the campy 1960s Batman, where he was portrayed by Burgess Meredith. In a 1992 interview, co-creator Bob Kane recollected that “[w]hen I created the Penguin in the comic strip, I thought he was comical looking. He looked so unvillainous” (qtd. in “Exclusive”). However, his traditional look would change drastically, thanks to film auteur Tim Burton, in the 1990s.
LEFT: Andy Kubert sketch interpreting artist Jack Burnley’s classic Penguin design. RIGHT: Tim Burton’s Penguin concept art for Batman Returns.
Fresh off of the 1989 blockbuster hit Batman—which reintroduced the mainstream world to the concept of Batman as something other than an ironic kitsch figure—Warner Bros. was eager for a sequel. However, the director, Tim Burton, was notably less so, said writer Sam Hamm, who wrote the initial draft of the first Batman screenplay and received a “story by” credit for Batman Returns:
Tim and I had several kind of loose conversations about where the movie would go, with input from the studio. They really wanted the Penguin because they sort of saw the Penguin as the number two Batman villain. We wanted to do Catwoman, so we wound up doing Penguin and Catwoman.
And I did two drafts; it was a deal where the studio was now at the point where they wanted to proceed with the movie. They said, “Tim, Tim, c’mon, you gotta do it. You gonna do it or not gonna do it?” And Tim was very adverse, at the end of the day, to the idea of coming in and doing a sequel because he thought he’d kind of … you know, “Look, I’ve shot my wad on Batman. I’ve said what I had to say about Batman. I don’t really know if I really want to do this.” And he was very reluctant to get involved.
And, finally, the way that they kind of got to him was to say, “Well, what if the second movie is really just a Tim Burton movie?” And that kind of got his attention—got him thinking about what he could do with it again. You know, how extreme could you go with the Penguin? How extreme could you go with Catwoman? What if you didn’t have to worry about, you know, sort of the fidelity to the mythology? All of that kind of stuff like that. (qtd. in “Batman”)
With the studio’s blessing to make the sequel “a Tim Burton movie,” the director turned his attention to the Penguin, a character he struggled with adapting. In a 1992 interview, he said how, “[i]n the comics, I thought that that was one of the characters that had the least amount of a foundation, psychologically—he was more just a funny-looking man, as far as I could tell” (qtd. in “Exclusive”) and, in the 2005 documentary Shadows of the Bat: The Cinematic Saga of the Dark Knight, he elaborated further on his previous statement:
You could find the psychological profile of Batman, Catwoman, Joker, but the Penguin was just this guy with a cigarette and a top hat. […] What is he? So, with him, I started thinking about, you know, Catwoman, Batman, as sort of these animal people with the Penguin, and started thinking about him, trying to find a profile for him, and so it was fun to kind of come up with a sort of “bad freak” … you know, again, that duality of somebody who’s been sort of wronged and, you know, has that sort of split … not like dark, but sort of human animal, you know, and sort of using the animal motif as a strong image for the film. And then I started getting excited about it. (qtd. in “Batman”)
Thus the classic gentleman thief was transformed into a feral, mutant monster, with his hands literal flippers caused by the medical condition syndactyly. Abandoned by his wealthy parents by dropping him into the Gotham City sewers, it was implied that he was raised around penguins at the Gotham City Zoo and, later, joined the Red Triangle Circus as part of their freak show before returning to Gotham’s sewers to plot his revenge. He also ate raw fish and drooled a “black saliva” that star Danny DeVito created with the makeup and special effects crew (Burton). When asked about the character’s film adaption in a 1992 Fangoria interview, writer Daniel Waters had this to say:
The Penguin was a more difficult character to develop. In the first draft, I messed up in that I catered too much to Danny DeVito’s own character by making him your typical rude gangster type. But, as Tim and I discussed it, we agreed that for the Penguin to work he had to come across as more animalistic. […] The Penguin is a deformed creature whose actions and attitudes are more beastly than human. There’s a line where the Penguin screams, “I am not a human being, I am an animal,” that will send chills up your spine. (qtd. in Shapiro 32; “Darker”).
Later, when asked about honoring and adapting the character from the original comic books, Waters said the following in a 2005 interview:
Tim and I never had a conversation about, like, “Hmm, what are the fans of the comic book going to think? What are the people going to think? What are the sponsors who, you know, have promotions connected to the movie going to think of this movie?” We never had those conversations. We never thought about them. We were really just about the art. (qtd. in “Batman”)
Officially signing on as director for Batman Returns in January 1991 (Puig) with a release date of June 1992, the production of the film coincided with the production of the other major Batman project, which began two months prior (Garcia, “Animated” 75).
A Wish for Wings That Work
Owing its initial existence due to the success of the original Tim Burton Batman film, production on Batman: The Animated Series was well under way in 1991, as the creative team sought to build the “Dark Deco” world and its cast … including the Penguin. Intending to adapt the classic, Jack Burnley design of the character (Miller 20), the following is the character’s biography written for the November 1990 version of the Series Bible:
Starting life as a sheltered, overprotected mama’s boy, young Oswald Cobblepot was treated cruelly by the other kids in the neighborhood. His short, round body, waddling gait, and beak-like nose were easy targets for bullies, and they gave little Oswald the nickname “Penguin.” His only safe haven was his mother’s exotic pet store, where he could spend time with his doting mother and the birds he loved.
But even there, peace was fleeting for Oswald. Though he was in his late twenties, he was still the object of scorn by local gang members. They jeered him for his funny looks, his obsessions with birds, opera and classical literature, and cruelest of all, for the fact he still lived at home with his mother. The breaking point came when several members of the gang broke into the pet shop and destroyed the birds as a “prank.” Oswald’s mother suffered a massive stroke when she discovered the atrocity, and her son was driven mad with grief. Deciding then and there to fight the punks with their own methods, the Penguin used the shop’s insurance money to hire his own gang and exacted his terrible revenge on the neighborhood punks. With the local bullies crushed, the Penguin took over their neighborhood shakedown operations, and in no time parlayed it into one of the most profitable criminal gangs in Gotham.
In our series, the Penguin will have his fingers in every illicit element in Gotham’s underworld. Smuggling, gangs, gambling, fencing rights—the evil bird will have a piece of it all. Still, he will be very careful to present himself as a gentleman to the cities’ upper crust. This is important for two reasons, the first being he actually considers himself to be a debonair, sophisticated man about town. He dresses in an old-style cutaway coat and top hit, a look [that] he, at least, considers high-class. He is also fond of quoting classic writers, particularly Shakespeare, though, to add a beat of comedy to his character, he will rarely get the quote right. The Penguin is more concerned with the appearance of being educated, rather than actually getting his quotes right. The second reason the Penguin wants to pass himself off as a gentleman is that he doesn’t want his mother to learn of his criminal misdeeds. Mrs. Cobblepot genuinely loves her son and Penguin fears that if she ever knew the truth about him it would kill her.
Though he is often seen in the company of beautiful women (usually rentals), most human relationships mean nothing to the Penguin. People are troublesome but necessary objects to be bought, sold, and discarded at his whim. Any affection he might have is reserved for his mother and his precious birds.
Even as a child, the Penguin had an almost psychic bond with birds. Throughout his lonely teen years and into adulthood, birds were his only companion. They obeyed the young Cobblepot’s every command, and when he started his career as the Penguin, he often used them in, or as the object of, his bizarre crimes. It should be noted that despite his pretensions to sophistication, the Penguin is legitimately acknowledged as one of the world’s leading authorities on birds. In fact, he’s written several highly acclaimed papers on ornithology during his various stretches in prison (when he’s sent away for a crime, Penguin will tell his mother he’s going on a lecturing tour for a while, or make up some other convenient, bird-related excuse).
Penguin’s signature props are his trick umbrellas. He has a vast collection of baneful bumbershoots, each equipped with a deadly function. Some shoot bullets or knockout gas while others deliver an electric shock or conceal a hidden blade. Penguin’s most advanced umbrellas can be used as hand-held helicopters for quick escapes. And, of course, he has one or two designed for nothing more than keeping the rain off him. Penguin’s father died of pneumonia, and Mrs. Cobblepot has always been insistent that her ”little Oswald” carry an umbrella with him whenever he goes out. Consequently, this has turned Penguin into something of a hypochondriac.
As far as Batman’s concerned, the Penguin mainly wants to see him dead. There’s little of the ongoing match of wits between the two adversaries as there is between Batman and the Joker or the Riddler. Penguin considers Batman to be a muscle-headed nuisance, not much different from the buffed-up goons who used to bully him when he was a kid. Therefore, Penguin tends to underestimate the Dark Knight’s detective abilities, which trip him up every time.
Unfortunately for the creative team, this was not to be, as the studio mandated that both the Penguin and Catwoman (whom we’ve previously discussed) were to resemble their Batman Returns counterparts (Miller 21; Nolen-Weathington 39). As security on the movie set was tight and photos were prohibited (Daly), Timm and Eric Radomski were admitted onto the set to meet with Burton and DeVito and bring sketchpads during costume tests to sketch the designs (Fischer). Later, in the interest of marketing and corporate synergy, Timm took his finished designs for Catwoman, Penguin, and the Batmobile back to Burton for approval:
He could only spare us a few minutes. He sat down and said, “Oh, yeah, yeah. They’re fine.” It was good that he comes from an animation background because he knows that you can’t put all that detail on the characters and the vehicles. (Alvarez and Gore 59-60)
From this collaboration came a Penguin that was neither fish nor fowl. He possessed a simplified Batman Returns design with the long hair and the flippered hands, but he retained a refined presentation and gait that corresponded with his comic book roots. However, as a consequence, the creative team effectively scrubbed their Penguin’s backstory, as revealed in a character summary from the Summer 1993 issue of Animato! magazine:
The Penguin’s past remains a mystery. He is one of Batman’s most persistent foes. He combines a strangely cultured manner with his weird bird-like features. (Dobbs)
And again, this time in a 1993 special edition of Hero Magazine:
A mutant bird-like man with a mysterious past, the Penguin resides in the underbelly of Gotham. He’s a ruthless, flamboyant, grandiose character, spouting bad Shakespeare with dreams of riches and status. (Funk)
Note how the “mysterious past” appears in both. It is worth noting here that, like the Joker, neither the Penguin’s origin story or his debut as a criminal were ever addressed in Batman: The Animated Series or The New Batman Adventures. Like the Clown Prince of Crime, the Penguin was just there.
PICTURED LEFT TO RIGHT: Aron Kincaid (voice of Killer Croc), Mark Hamill (voice of the Joker), Diane Pershing (voice of Poison Ivy), Richard Moll (voice of Two-Face), Paul Williams (voice of the Penguin), Arleen Sorkin (voice of Harley Quinn), and Kevin Conroy (voice of Batman).
Fortunately for the character, the Penguin did have one advantage in his new interpretation, as he was voiced by singer, songwriter, and actor Paul Williams, who provided Oswald Cobblepot with a polished, stentorian voice that allowed the mutant bird man a greater dignity. In a 2024 post on the Anime Superhero message boards, Timm reflected how “[a]t this late date, I honestly don’t remember who first came up with the idea to cast Paul as the Penguin. It might have been me, but if it wasn’t, I’m sure I didn’t hesitate to second the motion with gusto” (b.t.). And in a 1993 interview with Hero Magazine, Williams reflected on his casting:
Doing the Penguin is strange. I didn’t read for it—they just decided they wanted me to come in and do it—and I’m very grateful for that. If they called had and said they wanted me to read for it, I would have said no. There’s no way in the world I could ever do this part, based on having heard Burgess Meredith’s Penguin, so I didn’t think I could do this. When I think of the Penguin, I think of Meredith.
I do him a little more erudite. He still has the caustic cynical tone, but he’s also kind of sophisticated. I don’t think it’s so much the way I play him but the way he’s written. (qtd. in “Sounds” 74).
In the end, it’s fitting that Paul Williams voiced the character, as it was later revealed that, in a way, he and the Penguin may have been kindred spirits. In a 2024 Cracked interview with Muppet puppeteer Dave Goelz, he was asked about the significance of the song “I’m Going to Go Back There Someday,” which was written by the diminutive performer (Williams is 5’2”; McKenna) for the Great Gonzo to sing in 1979’s The Muppet Movie. Asked about the significance of the song in relation to the Muppet, Goelz replied, “I’ll tell you what Paul says. He identified with Gonzo as a flightless bird, and because of Paul’s stature, he said he always felt like that. He identified with that sort of predicament in life” (qtd. in VanHooker). I cannot help but wonder if the singer related to the Batman villain in a similar fashion.
Despite his vocal pedigree, the Penguin’s tenure on BTAS was mixed. Though he made a formidable adversary in episodes such as “Blind as a Bat,” “Almost Got ‘Im,” and “Birds of a Feather”; he sadly also appeared in the lesser-appreciated ones as well, such as “I’ve Got Batman in My Basement” and “The Mechanic”. In a 1994 interview with Wizard Magazine, Timm reflected on the character as the series wound down, saying, “I don’t think we did justice to certain characters. I don’t think we ever did a really good Penguin story, and a lot of that was because we were restricted to following the movie look of the character” (qtd. in Shapiro; “Clipped”). However, the dirty bird would soon get a chance to molt his old look on a new network with a new series.
Fly Like an Eagle
September 1997 saw the debut of The New Batman Adventures, a sequel series to BTAS that was paired up with Superman: The Animated Series on Kids’ WB! It maintained continuity with the earlier show, but the art style became more streamlined and angular. With the new series came the option to rethink and redesign their cast, and one of the more radical redesigns was the Penguin. With Batman Returns in the rearview mirror, the creative team was now able to revert Cobblepot to his classic, original design. Also, taking advantage of the debut of the Iceberg Lounge in Detective Comics #683 (March 1995), they gave the Penguin something to do other than attempt to steal birds and bird-related baubles. In a 1997 interview with Animation Arena, writer and producer Paul Dini expanded on the new Penguin:
Penguin is going to be returning to the series in a big way. We are actually taking a cue from something they've done in the comics which I really liked, where Penguin is running a nightclub in the current DC Comics continuity. He runs a nightclub called the Iceberg Lounge, and he's supposedly legit now. I thought that's a really nice thing to do with him, because here's this guy who always wanted to be looked up to. He wanted to be welcomed into high society, and he always thought that was his place in life. That's why he's always worn that little ridiculous tuxedo and acted like a gentleman.
What he's done in the series is he opened this nightclub and he doesn't allow anybody in. [Because of] the fact that it's an exclusive club, you have to be famous to get in, and it's run by an ex-super criminal, everybody in town wants to go there. That's just human nature. If O.J. Simpson opened a nightclub, half of humanity would be disgusted, and the other half would want to go. It's like, "What's he got in there? Hey, I wanna go see. I wanna hang out." Penguin takes stock of all this and does it, and he's laughing his ass off, going, "I should have done this years ago. What was I thinking messing around with those birds and robbing banks? This is great." He has everybody in town just waiting outside, begging to get inside, and he's making money.
He's still a criminal because, out of the backroom, he's like the Kingpin in Marvel Comics or Sidney Greenstreet in The Maltese Falcon or Casablanca. Everybody comes to him and offers him information. He still has as much criminal activity running out of the backroom [as before], but he's got this thin veneer of respectability now, so quite often, Batman will have to go and bargain with him for something that he wants, and Penguin will just make him eat it until Batman threatens to wreak the place and Penguin has to give up information. But it adds a new element of tension to their relationship because Penguin sits behind his desk with a couple of big killer birds on either side of him, and Batman has to come in and play by his rules now. Penguin just loves it, that Batman can't reach over the table and smash him in the face. Well, he can, and he frequently will, but he's just not going to go to jail. It just adds a new dynamic to their relationship. It's kind of our way to do something with a formerly ho-hum character.
Now that we're able to write the character this way, all the writers have really enjoyed him a lot. I think you'll be seeing a lot more of him. [This is] sort of the way Lex Luthor pops up in Superman. Even when he's not doing anything evil, he's one of the citizens of Metropolis that you see from time to time. Now, Penguin will be seen occasionally because he has become a member of the Gotham social set, at least for the time being. (qtd. in Aquino)
While no official explanation for the drastic change in appearance was given on TNBA, in the Batman: The Adventures Continue comic book series (2020-2023), writers Paul Dini and Alan Burnett (both DCAU alumni) explained it as the result of surgeries obtained after a particularly violent encounter with the Bat-Family. However, in a 2006 interview with Wizard Magazine, Bruce Timm offered a simpler explanation:
We just knew we were going to carry on our continuity. Even though a lot of the characters looked drastically different than they did in the previous show, for the most part we just figured they were the same character, and we didn’t want to go into the whole big explanation of why Penguin suddenly doesn’t have webbed fingers anymore. It’s being drawn by a different artist now. It’s like John Romita drew the last issue, now Carlos Meglia’s drawing it. (qtd. in Phegley)
Despite the Sturm und Drang related to this change, the Penguin’s presence in the Kids’ WB! era was light compared to his BTAS appearances, as he appeared only in supporting roles in four episodes of TNBA and one episode of STAS. He did, however, play a major role in the 2003 direct-to-video film Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman, but it came at a cost, as the voice actor for Penguin was recast. According to co-writer and supervising producer Alan Burnett, “[w]e wanted to experiment a little and bring in a little more ‘big boss’ element to it,” and he chose to cast David Ogden Stiers in Williams’ place (qtd. in Allstetter). When asked about the switch, Bruce Timm—who was not involved with the movie—made the following statement in a 2004 interview with The World’s Finest:
Well, I probably wouldn’t have re-cast the Penguin myself, as I always thought Paul was perfect for the part. Also, I’ve been a fan of his songwriting for decades, especially his Phantom of the Paradise score and songs, so the fanboy / geek in me was always delighted to be working with him. But I wasn’t involved in MOTB in any way, so it wasn’t my decision to make. David Ogden Stiers was fine as a replacement; he’s a terrific actor and a swell guy, but it is a bit weird to not hear Paul’s voice coming out of Pengy’s mouth. Then again, I’ve been guilty of “unnecessarily” re-casting parts myself, for various reasons, so I stand by Alan Burnett’s right to re-cast as he saw fit. (qtd. in Harvey)
And that was the end of Timm’s first go-around with the Penguin. In regard to his original adaptation, the producer and co-creator of BTAS and TNBA had this to say in a 2024 post on Anime Superhero:
Personally, I think the casting and subsequent vocal performance of the great Paul Williams was the best thing about the BTAS Penguin. But otherwise, I think he kinda came off like a watered-down version of Tim Burton’s super-grotesque Penguin (which I wasn’t a big fan of in the first place). To me, he just wasn’t in the same league as the BTAS versions of Two-Face, Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, Clayface, and Joker.
I did like him better in TNBA—I think he was generally written better in that series, and we finally got to make him look like his glorious, Golden Age self. (b.t.)
With his mixed views about the character he shepherded for over a decade, Bruce Timm probably did not expect to get another shot at the Penguin. But fate—along with money, nostalgia, and corporate synergy—have a funny way of providing second chances.
This Bird Has Flown
As previously discussed, Batman: Caped Crusader came about when Warner Bros. approached Bruce Timm to create more episodes of Batman: The Animated Series for their soon-to-launch streaming service. At first uninterested, the creator came around after consulting with James Tucker, who suggested that they could do a series as a reimagining rather than a reboot, creating something new that they couldn’t back in the days of Fox Kids or Kids’ WB! Later, after getting the greenlight, they began rethinking their cast for the first season, and the Penguin inevitably came up. As stated above, Timm said to Tucker, “We never really could figure out exactly what to do with the Penguin, what the gimmick for the Penguin would be. What if we gender-flip the Penguin?” (qtd. in Champagne), to which Tucker had the following revelation:
When he said, “Maybe we could gender-flip the Penguin,” I just got this flood of ideas. I was thinking of Marlene Dietrich in her tuxedo and Cabaret the musical and the art from of cabaret, and I just started drawing. I instantly got a flood of ideas. Also, I was thinking a little bit of Harvey Fierstein and Hairspray and Divine. It just was like I knew instantly what it could be. (qtd. in Champagne)
Free to put their own stamp on the character without studio pressure to fall in line with a movie franchise, this new Penguin honors what came before while striking her own path in the Dark Deco landscape. In fact, so strong was their faith in this reimagining that they made her the main villain of the pilot episode. In a recent interview with Collider, the voice actor for the Penguin, Minnie Driver, had this to say about her character:
The Penguin that Bruce has imagined for me is properly evil. She skims the depths of human depravity in what she does. She’s also a rather larger-than-life kind of burlesque cabaret singer in her spare time, which I think is always good for a villain. Her alter ego is a kind of Mae West-type burlesque singer. It’s strange and beautiful and oddly fitting.
[…] The Penguin is iconic, and I think this about Batman as well. I am the first female Penguin. The Penguin is an essence in the way that Batman is an essence, in the way that Doctor Who is an essence. They constantly regenerate and are voiced and acted by lots of different people. What they’ve done is cast good, strong, interesting actors, as the Batman franchise really always seems to do. I hope that that’s what the fans will engage with and love, that the essence of these characters is true, even if I am some mad cabaret-singing evil version of the Penguin. (qtd. in Butt and Weintraub)
Towards the end of the above comment, I believe that Minnie Driver really touches on something notable—the idea that these characters are timeless and wear many faces, have many voices, and each incarnation evolves and regenerates in differing ways. The Penguin that is the Silver Age gentleman thief is different from the mutant bird man who eats raw fish, and both of these are different from the cabaret crime boss who murders her son when she suspects that he’s not loyal to her empire. And let’s not forget Colin Farrell’s recent Tony Soprano-inspired version from Michael Reeves’ The Batman (2022), who’s getting his own streaming series in September 2024. All are valid representations of the Penguin. They may look different and act differently from each other, but they share the same framework under the skin.
It's also worth noting that, even after their moments in the sun, each of these incarnations of the character find new life over and over again. The “gentleman thief” Penguin shows up frequently in the Batman comics (notably during Paul Dini’s stints on Detective Comics and Batman: Streets of Gotham) and in multiple animated shows, including Batman: The Brave and the Bold and Justice League Action. Also, the criminal bird took on some of Danny DeVito’s more grotesque features in the “New 52” DC Comics until recently, when he received cosmetic surgery in Batman #127 (November 2022), which made him more resemble his Colin Farrell incarnation (Zachary). The mutant Penguin has also shown up in other media, such as the kid-friendly Batman Unlimited direct-to-video animated films (2015-2016) and the more adult-oriented Batman: Assault on Arkham animated movie (2014). In the upcoming decades, I’d be interested to see if Minnie Driver’s Penguin enjoys similar renewals in the larger Batman mythos as well.
Heroism’s for the Birds
Before we conclude this essay, I must circle back to the original Bruce Timm statement; the one that perpetuated all this bother in the first place. The notion that Batman stories suffer from a lack of good female villains these days. As much as it pains the fan community to hear it, he’s right. Batman’s famed Rogues’ Gallery is lacking in female adversaries for one simple reason: to use a professional wrestling term, too many of them are making baby face turns.
Consider: with a few exceptions (Batman: Caped Crusader being one of them), Catwoman turned from her original jewel thief roots to antiheroism decades ago (considering how she and Batman almost got married recently, she’s practically in his camp these days). Harley Quinn has turned antihero as well, and so has Poison Ivy in most recent stories. And Talia—aside from a heel turn as the head of Leviathan in Grant Morrison’s Batman Incorporated series (2010-2013)—largely serves as a sympathetic character torn between her father and her baby Bat-daddy. The sad fact is that, as these complex characters have grown in popularity, there is pressure to make them likeable, which often results in them forsaking their criminal plots and turning hero.
(And once you get past this quartet, what’s left? Magpie? Jane Doe? Orca? Punchline? “C” and “D” listers all.)
Look, there is no problem with creative teams exploring the gray areas with their characters, regardless of gender, and there’s no problem with gender-swapping characters to try new ways of interpreting them. I can think of at least two instances in recent memory of Joker characters that were women (Bianca Steeplechase in Batman: Thrillkiller [1997] and Martha Wayne in Flashpoint: Batman—Knight of Vengeance [2011]). Paul Dini tried out a female Ventriloquist during his Detective Comics run. And it's not like Oswalda Cobblepot is erasing or replacing the male Penguin in other media. Colin Farrell isn’t being recast for Minnie Driver in Max's The Penguin series. Give it a rest, people.
And frankly, with so many of Batman's female villains jumping ship, he could use some more adversaries like Oswalda Cobblepot filling the void left by Catwoman, Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn. Based on her performance in “In Treacherous Waters,” this bird can sing a siren song just as well as the Gotham City Sirens can.
Works Cited
Allstetter, Rob. “Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman Update.” Comics Continuum. Comics Continuum. 24 Jul. 2003. Web. 3 Jan. 2023. <http://www.comicscontinuum.com/stories/0307/24/index.htm>.
Alvarez, Gabriel and Chris Gore. “Batman Reanimated.” Wild Cartoon Kingdom. 1993. 52-65. Print.
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Images courtesy of Warner Bros. Discovery, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, DC Comics, Tim Burton, and James Tucker.
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