DC SUPER VILLAINS: PENGUIN
Here is a series dedicated to the kid in me. All things super hero. To this day I still have my comic book collection, each placed in plastic bags and boxed in my closet. With this summer being the Summer of Super Heroes in the movies, I thought this might be a fun series to put together. PLEASE NOTE: This is an industrial park and can be muggle heavy at times. Weekends would be the easiest time to gather the caches, though anytime would be fine. Parking should not be an issue and the critter factor should be low. I hope you enjoy this series.
The Penguin is a fictional character, a DC Comics supervillain who is one of Batman's oldest and most persistent enemies. Artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger introduced himdebut in Detective Comics #58 (December 1941). The Penguin is a short, rotund man known for his love of birds and his specialized high-tech umbrellas. A mobster and thief, he fancies himself a "gentleman of crime"; his nightclub business provides a cover for low-level criminal activity, which Batman tolerates as a source of criminal underworld information. According to Kane the character was inspired from the then advertising mascot of Kool cigarettes — a penguin with a top hat and cane. Finger thought the image of high-society gentlemen in tuxedos was reminiscent of emperor penguins.
Burgess Meredith portrayed the Penguin in the 1960s Batman television series, perhaps the character's most well-known incarnation. Danny DeVito played a darker, more grotesque version in the 1992 film Batman Returns. Subsequent Batman animated series featured the Penguin in depictions that alternate between deformed outcast and high-profile aristocrat. The former interpretation appeared in comics, most notably in the miniseries Batman: The Long Halloween and its sequel Dark Victory. He made a cameo appearance at the end of the Long Halloween with no lines. He had a slightly more notable role in Dark Victory — this incarnation included elements of Meredith's interpretation. Paradoxically, the Penguin has repeatedly been named among the worst and best Batman villains.
Unlike most of Batman's rogues gallery, the Penguin is in control of his own actions and perfectly sane, features that help him maintain a unique relationship with Batman. His latest characterization has him ceasing his direct involvement in crime, instead running a nightclub that is popular with the underworld; on one occasion he temporarily returned to active crime for the thrill of it, aware that Batman would learn about his actions but also secure in the knowledge that the Dark Knight couldn't testify in court without revealing his identity. Batman comes to tolerate his operations so long as the Penguin is one of his informants. However, the entrepreneurial Penguin often fences stolen property or arranges early prison furloughs — for a hefty fee, of course.
Born Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot, the Penguin was bullied as a child for his short stature, weight and beak-like nose. In some media, his fingers are fused, resulting in flipper-like hands. Several stories relate that he was forced as a child to always carry an umbrella by his overprotective mother, due to his father's death from pneumonia after a drenching. His mother owns pet birds that Cobblepot lavishes with attention, his only friends. In some versions, Cobblepot turns to crime after his mother dies and the birds are repossessed to pay his mother's 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 origins, the Penguin pursues his criminal career with class. He prefers formal wear such as a top hat, monocle, and tuxedo while he steals.
The Penguin's alias first came from a childhood taunt over his grotesque appearance and love of birds. In an early account, when Cobblepot first attempted to join a gang, he was belittled as a "penguin" and mocked for his umbrella before being literally kicked from the crime den. Outraged at the rejection, he resolved to make "the Penguin" a name to fear and the umbrella a fearsome weapon. He returned to the den and killed the crime boss with "the world's first .45 caliber umbrella", then claimed leadership of the now-terrified criminals. Some later stories suggest that he tried to abandon the nickname, which he hated.