The Penguin #1 was a surprise, as Tom King and Rafael De Latorre took a different tactic with a solo-character book. Instead of delivering every thought he had via captions, he was silent, all captions detailing what others thought of him. It’s an amazing idea as it fuels who Penguin is: A feared man. What better way to prove that than with outsiders looking in? In The Penguin #2, our villain protagonist has a mission, and he’ll stop at nothing to get what he wants.
What he wants becomes abundantly clear early, as Penguin visits The Help. An essential character in Batman: Killing Time, we know he’s a skilled fighter and a butler. Now retired from all that, he lives a life of luxury, but Penguin calls him out on this fake lifestyle. He knows it’s all a facade, and something he repeats repeatedly becomes a kind of threat: “This isn’t you.” At first, this sentence seems like an opinion, but throughout the issue, we see Penguin reiterate it as he does more and more awful things. As we learn, if Penguin had a superpower, he would get whatever he wanted.
Due to etiquette, and maybe even The Help’s proclivity to respect leaders like Penguin, he allows the character to linger on his grounds. Part of me wondered how logical that was, especially after Penguin points a gun at The Help, but it does make sense when you consider Penguin has been rather milquetoast up until this issue. Why fear a man who has lost his mojo, so to speak?
These two live in a world of decorum, but The Help doesn’t realize Penguin has none.
Credit: DC Comics
I wonder if this battle between The Help and Penguin could have played out over two issues instead of one. By the end, it makes sense The Help makes the decision he does considering what Penguin did to his workers, but it seems he changed his mind too easily. We don’t see The Help go through any turmoil or hard decision-making. He’s brought to heel, and that’s that.
Visually, this issue is frigid, and you feel it right in your bones. De Latorre and colorist Marcelo Maiolo capture a frigid quality at the start, and it only seems to get colder and darker inside The Help’s residence. In a key scene where the two go hunting, the art team creates a foggy chill with green hues and outdoor spaces that seem too absent for their own good. The use of shadow indoors creates a sense of evil darkness only apparent to the reader. It’s almost as if the house is haunted and Penguin is its ghost.
Ultimately, this issue reveals how genuinely frightening and evil Penguin is when he has his mind set on something. He’s quite small and can’t fight, but he’s as dangerous as they come. So far, King and De Latorre are establishing a level of danger Penguin exudes, first from an outside perspective and in this issue through his sheer act of willpower and tenaciousness. The Penguin isn’t just a Batman villain but a force to be feared.
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