#gotham really went all the way and was as outlandish as the comics can be

[endiness]

the thing that is always so tragique to me about gotham being cancelled is that the chances of any other live action willing to be as deranged as it was in its storylines and adaptions of the comics is, like, 0%.

[maxwell-grant]

Who's your favorite Batman villain?

The Penguin. Was gonna put off this ask for a bit but I got surprised today with an incredible rendition of him, so now the dastardly bumbershoot waddled and squawked his way into my thoughts again and I gotta talk about him.

Penguin's not just my favorite Batman villain, he's my favorite DC character and comic book supervillain, the main reason I even want to write a Batman story someday.

I love the imagery that surrounds him, the trick umbrellas and the birds he so lovely dotes after and the WAKs and the Iceberg Lounge, which has become maligned in recent years as a sign of his downfall, but I very much appreciate as a concept in general still. I love a lot of the performances and actors who've taken him over the years. Burgess Meredith and Danny DeVito are some of my favorite performers of all time, Paul Williams has a wonderful voice and starred in my favorite film of all time. Tom Kenny, David Ogden Stiers, Robin Lord Taylor, Penguin's just had such great, terrific performances and adaptations. Batman Returns is my favorite Batman film by far and it was what got me to start paying more attention to Oswald.

I love the roles he can play in any given Batman story and how he's managed to endure all of his falls from grace by becoming an indispensable part of Batman's worldbuilding. I love his varied dynamics with Batman and Riddler and Catwoman and Gordon and his henchmen and those who get close to him. I love his style and the way he conducts himself when he's allowed to be more than just a generic mob boss. Penguin's design has, by simply staying unchanged over the decades, gone from "common rich person wear draped over a funny cartoon gangster" to "he is so out of touch and desperate for respectability that he dresses like an 1930s capitalist caricature, like a little kid's idea of what a rich and respectable man looks like, and Penguin's still stuck in that mindset". I love how absurd and plausible he is.

I like that Penguin can very easily fit just about any kind of Batman story, from the campy supervillain plots to the gritty urban crime ones. You can tell stories about Penguin falling in love, pretending to be legit because he doesn't want his aunt to learn he's a criminal, and opening up a comedy act with a talking penguin, or stories about Penguin terrorizing the city with giant robots and guided missiles and driving people to suicide. I like that he's a character who both relishes in his lifestyles of supervillain and crimelord alike, and yet is perpetually restless because the minute he acquires what he wants, he immediately starts wanting something else. He could have Batman and the Batfamily and all other supervillains wiped out and have Gotham in his pocket and maybe even become President of the United States, and he'd still want more. Because Oswald is nothing but wants, the wants of a traumatized manchild in a funny costume throwing money and toys and brute force and tantrums at the world until it makes sense, which only makes him far too fitting as a Batman villain.

Everyone forgets that Penguin was canonically the first villain to ever successfully escape Batman at the end of a story, completely bypassing the usual "villain swears revenge behind bars" ending to instead escape scot-free, and went on to establish himself as one of his biggest, most inventive and most cunning villains, second only, if not equal, to Joker. I love that he's ruthless and inventive and classy and cunning and brutal and how his main trick is using the fact that everyone underestimates the short fat man to his advantage. He's taken traits that got many of us in real life relentlessly tormented for them, and he uses them to pull the wool over those who think they are better than him.

It'ss a trick that works because even in real life people can't stop looking at this weird and silly little man and think "that guy's too silly for a Batman villain, he's not a murder clown or musclebound monster, what's he gonna do" and, yeah, that's the point, that's been the point from day one, he doesn't look scary or intimidating or even that evil, and he's the guy who pulls the rug under supergenius fighting machine Batman and becomes the top crimelord of Gotham City, a city ruled by terrors and manias and monsters infinitely bigger and scarier and stronger than he is, and he STILL made it to the top and he STILL maintains it, time and time again even when newer and flashier and scarier villains come and go. Batman is, at it's core, a fundamentally absurd character, and Penguin acts as a reminder of that. Because the minute we accept a man can terraform himself with training and money into a living legend on the level of gods, there's no reason why a tiny fat man with similar drive and resources can't likewise throw his weight with monsters and warriors far above his station.

Despite how ridiculously often he's disrespected by writers and fans alike, how far he's fallen off his former position in Batman's Rogues Gallery, and how often he's used as just a punching bag for assorted Bat-people, Penguin never goes away. He's the biggest survivor of all of Batman's villains, more so than the genuinely immortal ones, because he's the cockroach that won't go away no matter how many times you flush it.

Because once you get past the piles of money and the lounge fortresses and the armies of goons and the piles of cartoony gadget toys not too dissimilar from Batman's own, what the Penguin has is brains, and spite and hatred on a scale no other Batman villain has. He hates Batman, because Batman is nothing but yet another bully who thinks he can push Oswald around just because he's bigger and stronger. He hates the lower class for it's unsophisticated brutes and boors that made his childhood hell. He hates the upper class that's rejected and also tormented him since infancy, that he desperately spent so long trying to be a part of. He hates the monsters and supervillains he works with and has to associate with to stay alive. He hates the city that he fights to rule over tooth and nail.

And although he may never admit it, he hates himself, because he'a short paunchy man with a beakish nose who's brutal and immoral not just because those are the cards life dealt him, but because he likes what it affords him too much to give it away. Because he's never going to have the love and acceptance he desperately craves, he will never be able to accept it or keep it. Because he can never fully be a gentleman, or a monster, but instead a sad mix who belongs in neither of their worlds. Because at the end, he doesn't look like anyone else. He looks like one of him.

And still, I like Penguin because he's a Gentleman Villain. The one Gentleman Villain of Batman's rogues gallery, even if that's faded from a lot of his recent appearences that pushed the crimelord aspects to the forefront. He dresses like a gentleman thief, he's canonically a huge A.J Raffles fan, he's one of the most cunning brains of Gotham, he's got the money, resources, and adventurous spirit. Problem is, he's The Penguin. And suddenly, all that he has becomes overblown, outlandish, theatrical, and out of touch purely because it's him trying to do all those things. He's a gentleman adventurer gone rogue, the Count Fosco of the DCU, and that only makes it amusing, even endearing, when Penguin does engage in the swashbuckling antics he's so fond of.

When all his plans go to hell and so he starts fencing Batman, or when he commands henchmen with superflous fancy language, or even when Oswald gives the whole "hero" thing a shot and we see he's actually not bad at it, maybe he actually could have been one if it wasn't for the bile drowning his heart and the hellscape that warped innocent young Cobblepot into Gotham's Penguin, a name that immediately denotes something silly and ridiculous, and he carries it with pride, because he will make you respect that name.

And that's just a couple of reasons. I really, really love this character to the point of obsession and the main reason why I ever wanted to write stories for DC was to get to write Penguin and at least try to do the character a little more justice. But if nothing else, Penguin endures, regardless of what happens to him, in and out of universe. If nothing else, that's a very admirable quality in a supervillain. Oswald is the best.

[nightwingism]

New Comic Book Day!

October 11, 2017

Trying something new here, and i’m gonna start reviewing comics that I pick up at my local comic store, which may or not be Nightwing related. I figured this is something different, gives me something to do, and I just think it’d be fun. But enough about the why, let’s get into the comics!

Spoiler Alert

1. Action Comics #989

Part three of the Oz Effect! I figure this is gonna be weird starting a review right in the middle of so many comics, but recapping is a real thing. Anyways, this comic kept the action flowing, not so much of a one-on-one dialogue anymore, and we get to see Jor-El in action! The ending was a giant cliff-hanger and I can’t tell if they are supposed to be the LoSH or not. But this interaction between Jor-El and Jon, heck even with Lois are remarkable, and is something I never knew I wanted to see in a comic until now. Though, thus far this story-arc has been very dialogue heavy, and not very action packed. This biggest reveal isn't even the fact that Oz was Jor-El, but the fact that Oz wasn’t Ozymandias, which in retrospect was a little far-fetched and too on the nose. Anyways, I’m excited for the next issue, and excited for the ramifications of this story.

2. Wonder Woman #32

Part two of the Children of the Gods! The previous issue was mainly from Hercules point of view, serving as the primary narrator of the story, and of his death. This time around, Wonder Woman was front and center. I wasn’t expecting too much from his comic to be honest, ever since Rucka left my excitement has dwindled. But Robinson isn’t a bad writer, and I trust the guy to do these comics well. Jason was revealed at the end of the issue, which i was actually very surprised of, and I thought he was gonna be saved till later. But he’s here, very cut like David’s Michelangelo’s. I’m curious to see how his story unfolds, and what kind of role he’ll play in the future of Wonder Woman comics, if he survives this story that is.

3. Mister Miracle #3

This was probably my most excited new comic that came out this week. If you do not know, I love Tom King’s writing. It’s a slow burn type of writing that excels in large overarching stories, like a novel. The way this story is unfolding is getting me excited. Because you KNOW there is something more going on in the story than what is stated. The way it started, how quickly things went downhill, the way the characters talk to each other. Conspiracy theory is that whatever pills he took is actually making him hallucinate this whole thing. But I feel like that is too simple of an answer, and I feel like King will play into the Jesus = Mister Miracle symbolism, with Highfather = God and Darkseid = the Devil. The way Kirby intended it. I’ve also really enjoy the flow of the comic, with the action sequences and the more down-time. In this kind of comic, it’s strange, which plays perfectly with the outlandish nature of the Fourth World. I’m really excited for the next issue, and the rest of the series.

4. Detective Comics #966

Part two of A Lonely Place of Living! I honestly did not see this comic unraveling the way it did, and I’m actually really excited for it. It’s a mix of the Geoff Johns “Titans of Tomorrow” storyline with a Back to the Future kind of vibe. The reveal of “Who the hell is Conner” was so heartbreaking. I’ve wrote a dream pitch for how I’d bring Conner, and the rest of the Young Justice team, back into the mainstay DC Universe, and thus far, it can still go through. Future Tim plays into Present Tim’s thoughts, and addresses them how Tim would probably address himself. I love when time paradoxes play out in the “I know what you’re thinking, because I thought the same things when I was you listening to me.” way. It gives the audience the idea that time is a fixed predetermined path that can’t be wavered from. But we all know that not to be true. We know Present Tim will somehow find a way to beat himself, even though Past-Future Tim couldn’t beat Future Tim. That didn’t make sense. Oh well. I’ve enjoyed this story, and series really so far, and I’m glad Tynion is on this series, being the 90s fan he is, bringing in all those fascinating characters back into the fold, arguably the best time to be a Batman Fan.

5. Red Hood and the Outlaws #15

Part two of Bizarro Reborn! So I haven’t actually read the first part of this comic, with the last RHatO comic I read, besides the annual, was issue 11. So I’m behind. But I can extrapolate the idea that Bizarro came back due to Lex Luther, granting him super intelligence, much to the dismay of his teammates. But it seems to be a temporary thing. I don’t know why the Belfry team thought it was some kind of an attack, or why they are fighting Red Hood at all, but they are. I would have thought Bruce would have told everyone that Jason was on their side. But I just remembered that Jason has to work outside the family on a normal basis, to “infiltrate the bad guys” for Bruce. I think Jason is the last member of Batman Inc, which is very ironic. Artemis is in the story, still great chemistry with the team, and I still really like the idea of this Dark Trinity, it’s execution has been so awesome since day one, and I can’t believe I’m actually excited for the next issue.

6. Batgirls and the Birds of Prey #15

Part one of Manslaughter! Finally a comic that is just beginning it’s story arc. Whew. The Benson sisters have been doing a great job in this comic thus far, giving us great characterization for the main three, and most of their guest stars. This story serves as a “gathering of the troops” setup. We address the problem, identify it, and then gather some people to counter it. The problem is that there is some disease that can potentially kill all the men, which is something, as a man myself, find hilarious and fitting for this comic. Every character has their own reason for trying to fight the disease, with Dinah having Ollie, Babs having her Dad, Helena with Dick, Selina with Bruce, Harley with the Joker (so she can kill him herself), and Poison Ivy just because she wanted to (basically), the rest of the Gotham squad, which includes Batwoman, Spoiler, Orphan and Gotham Girl (whom I’m glad is getting screen time), and last but not least Wonder Woman herself. I think this story is going to be a fun girl-power story, and I’m curious to see who is behind this dastardly attack, and what their motive is.

7. Dark Knights: Metal #3

If Mister Miracle was my most excited story, this is my second. Metal and all of it’s tie ins have been such a treat. It’s a Batman centric story, without shoving in a Bat-God into our face. The threats are on the planetary level, and it’s gonna take everyone to save the world, even bringing in people who haven't been seen in comics in ages. Dick, Clark and Damian have a moment together, that is very in character for everyone, something I respect Snyder for doing so far. The subtly in this comic is mind boggling , how many hints were left behind in Snyder’s past comics, and just in the series alone. I don’t really care too much about the other Batmen though, and am only really curious about what the heck The Batman Who Laughs deal is. Snyder and Capullo are literal Rock-stars in this series, and I’m cheering for an encore -- which may come when this is all over.

8. The Amazing Spider-Man #789

The Fall of Parker! Spinning out from Marvel Legacy and Secret Empire is a more status quo Spider-Man, but with a twist. People love Spider-Man, as much as New Yorkers can, but hate Peter Parker. It’s an interesting twist on such a simple and main staple in the Spider-Man mythos. I’ve always been a fan of the “Down on his luck, penny to his name” Parker, who was street level but with the drive and passion for the big league. With the previous run, I felt like it was just Ironman with a Spider-Man costume on, but now this is some good old fashion comics. I like his relationship with Bobbi, and I think the two are cute together, but I hope Harry and MJ make their return to the supporting cast. The art is also phenomenal, but what can you expect when Stuart Immonen is providing. Even though there wasn’t much of a villain, or a story being told. It kind of seemed like a one-shot to me, with dangling threads that can be picked up later.

9. Daredevil #27

Part two of the Land of the Blind! Not get caught up with Marvel Legacy, Charles Soule continues his fantastic run of Daredevil. Last we saw, Matt was tracking down his once partner, once blinded and once friend, Blindspot. It was all a trap! This story serves as a “secret origins” of Blindspot, as we see his transition from the farm lifestyle in China, to moving to the city, to the United States. This story takes place over days, weeks, and we can see the passage of time from the look on Matt’s face, and his ever growing beard. I really like this twist, and that it was Charles himself to do the twist, and I’m very curious to know if this was his plan all along, or if it was just something he came up with in recent times. Whatever it is, the main thing I can say about this comic is that I love that the red costume is back, and the fact that Ron Garney is providing art. His style compliments the story of daredevil so well, I’d love to see him do a Nightwing book. I’m hoping that Charles continues this fantastic run when he makes the transition to the Legacy side of Marvel.

10.  Runaways #2

When they announced that they were making a show about the runaways, I was very curious on many things. One of the things though, was not who the hell are the runaways. I actually read the original series, and I was up to the moon when they announced that this series was coming back. The story, thus far, has been very dialogue heavy, with action sequences being either in flashbacks or just not present. I don’t mind it too much, since they really have to explain a lot to all the new readers who are jumping on due to the announcement of the show, I just hope it picks up soon with the action, and it seems it will with the glowy cat eyes following Molly. And I was a little curious on why we didn’t get a shot of Molly’s grandma, maybe there is something up with that too. Whatever the case is, I’m enjoying this series so far, and hope the next issue fills the action void that I crave.

11. Defenders #6

Part One of Kingpins of New York! Technically this is part of Marvel Legacy, but it’s weird since Matt is still wearing his black suit, when he has already switched to the red one in his main series, which takes place before Daredevil legacy does. But this issue itself is really just the end of the previous arc, so it doesn’t really seem like the beginning of a new arc. I enjoyed the court scene, and the banter between Daredevil and Luke Cage, especially Luke’s comment that “he knows a thing or two about the law” to DD. I hope he reveals his identity to the team again soon, as I think it gives the team a much more grounded approach. Less flashy superheroes, and more of just street vigilantes. Men and women. I don’t really know why Black Cat is so heavily featured, when I feel like she doesn’t serve too much to the story, but she’s there. I just think BMB likes writing her ever since his Superior Spider-Man run. But that can be brushed aside with his characterization of the main team, something I look at with these team books. I like the idea of the Kingpin being a “Defenders” bad guy, with the addition to Spider-Man of course. Maybe in season 2 of the Defenders? Anyone? Anyone?