The Penguin #9 tells the story of Oswald Cobblepot’s return to Gotham with a bang. It delivers on illustrating his mastery of pulling other people’s strings, even Batman, to suit his needs. Here, he finally pushes all the buttons of the team he’s gathered over the comic’s run, and the reader gets to see what led to the bloodbath of the previous issue. Built on the back of the two flashback issues beforehand, the tension of Batman and Penguin’s relationship is also heightened. Striking back at his twin children, the Penguin reins control of his criminal empire back from his own blood.
Tom King’s script continues its bold commitment to having each page contain different inner monologues that come from the various characters in the story. The continuous switching of captions and characters’ perspectives is definitely ambitious, even by King’s standards. Paired with the dense text, it may take more time to read the story, but with the benefit of having great art marinate between the prose, it is a worthwhile effort.
Another highlight is showing Batman’s detective work and how he uses his deduction to reach an understandable conclusion. This is presented opposite Penguin planting and manipulating the facts to foil Batman’s attempts at finding out the truth. This dichotomy pits the two longtime forces in a unique way, making readers wonder who is really in control. However, King’s swearing agent character that was previously introduced in Batman: Killing Time may grind on some readers’ gears with the way her speech bubbles work. To complement the writing, Rafael de Latorre’s art is sufficiently dark and clear in conveying all the various players and how they differ from one another.
Nothing beats a good old Batman punching smug bad guys in the face
Credit: DC Comics
There’s fun classic comic booking here too, like a good old-fashioned Batman and Gordon scene, Bruce Wayne at a ball, but all framed around King’s confidently scripted plot with intricate inner monologues. These captions show how different people are thinking, making it easy to distinguish which point of view each page comes from. With a lot of characters with differing motivations being wrapped up willingly or unwillingly in a familial war, this intermingling of people each gets their own designated stage to shine.
The Penguin #9 is an important piece of the overarching puzzle portraying the avian-themed villain’s return to power. The different captions used turn the whole issue into a unique collage of personal and subjective interpretations of events. The interplay between Batman and Penguin is a classic turned on its head. The art by Rafael de Latorre paints a dark and desperate Gotham on the verge of war. And by the end, as most good Tom King story does, it comments about love.
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