Penguin: Pain and Prejudice #2 – Review

By: Gregg Hurwitz (writer), Szymon Kudranski (artist), John Kalisz (colorist)

The Story: You’d have to be crazy to accuse him of having an Oedipus complex.

The Review: One thing you have to reflect on is that the Joker, Scarecrow, Riddler, and all the other crazies of Arkham make only a portion of Gotham’s darkness.  They serve as recognizable bogeymen, ones who break out and create panic for a while before getting shut up again.  But Gotham’s true darkness comes from the endless population of garden-variety thugs, crooks, and killers roaming the streets, which all of the Bat-family’s efforts put together can’t lock up.

We’ve seen just how far Penguin’s reach stretches across this world of low-lives.  Under his orders, he may be responsible for most of the day-to-day grimness that plagues the city.  He can use his minions to commit the most blatant, savage (to steal Commish Gordon’s words) acts, like stealing a pair of priceless earrings by ripping them right from the owner’s ears in front of a crowd of her young admirers.  In that sense, he may be, more than any of his lunatic brethren in Batman’s rogues gallery, Gotham’s true ruler.

Speaking of the Bat, seeing the dynamic between him and Penguin is intense, even thrilling.  Granted, Penguin may be one of the few people who can look Batman in the eye and tell a flat-out lie without flinching, but regardless, the Dark Knight exudes a powerful presence that simply overwhelms any “regard, a façade” Penguin can induce.  The villain seethes under Batman’s impudence: “You’re gonna come into my club and tell me what to do?”  “No.  I already did.”

No wonder Penguin sees Batman as “The masked bully.”  In Batman, he sees the very things he can never acquire, no matter how much wealth and power he gets.  Without ever saying as much, he clearly expresses the frustration, jealousy, and fantasy of those doomed never to be the most impressive figure in the crowd.  From his stunted vantage point, we can see why he harbors such a deep-seated resentment, and how it plays into the life he lives now.

Like most people’s problems, his have their origins in childhood.  His tormentors, unsatisfied with torturing him personally, went after the few things in the word he loved.  And we’re not talking about just the birds.  You have no doubt as to why he adores his mother so; the feeling is mutual (“Oh, beautiful boy!  You’re amazing.”).  We’re talking about a woman who seems to have love to spare, which means no matter what, Oswald Cobblepot can only get so much of it.

So perhaps the horrific acts he commits as a child aren’t so much motivated by vengeance (though they undoubtedly play a large role in his dysfunction) as a desire to get all that love to himself—but honestly, you can go on and on with all the analysis and material Hurwitz packs into this issue.  His writing is simply masterful; the flow of his words and the timing of his scenes gives almost every panel import and impact, making the story gripping as a whole.

Best of all, he has no need to overwrite thanks to Kudranski’s cinematic choices in art.  His kind of cinema isn’t your typical action-thriller, however; it has more of the highly-crafted pedigree of Oscar-winning movies.  You can just tell there is intent and subtext behind why every panel looks the way it does.  Just to take one example, look at the scene of Oswald as a boy unleashing his birds against his would-be attackers.  The glare of the moon behind him, the shadows obscuring his face, the sight of winged animals taking flight from his outstretched arms—anyone should see the parallels at work here.  Kudranski gives the whole issue this level of depth.

Conclusion: Who knew that a series starring the Penguin could turn out to be one of the most harrowing, compelling stories of the year?  Of course, we’ve had many minis start out strong and peter out, but I have a good feeling about this one.  Definitely worth a look.

Grade: A

– Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: – Nothing tickles and disgusts your curiosity more than the Joker, dressed in bra, tutu, heart-patterned boxes, using a feather duster to tickle the feet of a young goat he’s strung upside-down on an unlit spit.