What Are Friends For?
Yep still here with Villain's Month starting week three. This time around we dive right into one of my favorite Batman villains who gets a bad rap, the Penguin. Just looking at him you won't get the degree of villain he is. It's not until you crack the shell do you see the true deviousness of this character. Lucky for us that is exactly what this issue does. Let's dive right in.
At the Iceberg Casino a couple of street magicians are cheating the Penguin out of his hard earned money. That's something you don't want to do. Ever since the Emperor Penguin story arc in Detective Comics people have been seeing the Penguin as someone that can't hold on to what's his. So obviously he has something to prove. When one of the card hustlers disrespects Penguin in his place, Penguin simply lets them leave. No goons, no guns, no nothing. So what do we get? Weaponized Umbrella. Penguin slaughters the David Blaines, and then makes sure to put a hit out on all their families. The Penguin is back!
But when the bodies are discovered in front of GCPD, it causes the Governor Carter Winston to say no more. He plans on shutting down the Iceberg Casino and giving Gotham back to the decent people that live there. But the Penguin isn't worried, turns out that him and Carter were friends back in prep school, and Carter even got the bullies off his back. Carter informs the Penguin that the threat was real, and that he's gone to far, so the Penguin does the only reasonable thing. He drugs Carter and frames him for the murder of his assistant. But it will all go away as long as Carter realizes that Gotham is the Penguin's city. Damn right.
Later Carter Winston goes in front of a press conference and blows his brains out. His last words were "Sometimes the bullies get it right." So badass. In the end we see the Penguin pull out a year book. Next to the pictures of the boys that bullied him are newspaper clippings. All the bullies came to a bad end. The last page is Carter and Oswald, arm around one another, and smiling. Never underestimate the Penguin.
For those of you boys and girls out there, that don't think The Penguin is a proper villain, than this issue is for you. No kidding by the end of this issue if you don't have chills then your probably dead, or Mr. Freeze, either way it leaves you feeling frightened by the Penguin, and what he might do in the future to secure his empire since the Emperor Penguin story line in Detective. The artwork wasn't spectacular, but I feel it really worked for this story, and this character. Also guess what. No origin story, woo! But if your looking for a Gotham that should be ravaged by power outages, and street crime, and a wide open insane asylum, well sadly you won't find it here. I don't really know what that means as for timeline, but I won't let it hold me back from enjoying this issue, and neither should you. Check it out.
8.5/10
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