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Penguin: Pain and Prejudice #1 – Review

Oswald Cobblepot has always been one of those villains I never gave much thought. He was always just sort of there. Clearly the Penguin is one of the iconic villains in Batman’s rogues gallery, though I never bought much stock in the character. Maybe it’s because I always think about Danny DeVito portraying the character in Batman Returns. If not the main reason, that memory certainly doesn’t help. Whatever the cause of my disinterest, apparently I was wrong. In Penguin: Pain and Prejudice, Gregg Hurwitz and Szymon Kudranski have presented a side of the crime lord I had never seen before. Sympathetic, loving, tortured, heartless – Oswald is all of these things at once, and Hurwitz balances these aspects perfectly.


The issue starts with Cobblepot’s birth. Disfigured and frail, his father is horrified, dropping the newborn to the floor. This becomes the theme of Oswald’s life – rejection and loathing from others. He begins to feed off the hate of others, and uses it to his advantage. The flash backs are coupled with the Penguin we know today. He’s still disfigured, and he’s still frail, though everyone in the room fears and respects him as their superior. Penguin bumps into a man who then calls him a fat ass, not realizing the man he just insulted was Mr. Cobblepot. Though Penguin tells him not to worry, the following pages show otherwise, and the feeling of sympathy the flashbacks give the reader immediately vanish.

That’s what is so great about Hurwitz’s writing. I became sympathetic towards Cobblepot, but a few pages later and I was reminded that I’m reading about a heartless villain. This emotional ambiguity persists throughout the comic, with Kudranski’s art matching the mood perfectly.

Penguin: Pain and Prejudice #1 is a great start, and really pulls you into a character you may not have been interested in before. Though a little slow moving and lacking action, the pace is precise and the comic demands your attention the entire issue. And then the last page hits, and you’ll be wishing that this wasn’t just a five issue mini-series. 

Rating
8.5

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