The Penguin #12 starts off strong. It continues both directly from the previous issue but also concurrently with intercut events leading up to the opening of the debut issue. Batman is coming to save Penguin as the bird’s sins are close to killing him. At the same time, Batman and Penguin are fleeing the scene in the Batmobile, two wounded animals side by side. The alternating panels, which refer to two different points in time, have enough distinctive colors and actions to not confuse readers, eventually converging in a single two-panel page. The captions conveying Batman’s thoughts in the past and further past also hit with the beat of the panels like music.
DC Comics
Later on, we finally get the answer to the first issue’s cliffhanger. Everyone (alive) who has shown up in the mini-series plays their respective parts and gets at least a page of resolution. Maiolo’s colors complement the scenes De Lattoro sets and the captions that King writes, bringing everyone to life in all their different ways. Each character, from The Help to Black Spider, is trying to justify their own actions and existence, both in the comic and in the reality of their world. However significant or slight their personal story and motivations, in the end, they all serve Penguin’s needs.
The fate of the siblings, the “antagonists” of this, does not faze the Penguin one bit. He never shows emotion in his face up til the final page, now that I think of it. Batman on the other hand is written angrier than usual, sometimes it’s as if this is set earlier in his career, whilst Penguin is the one more composed, which can feel out of character. Their forced partnership based on necessity is one wrong step away from crashing down, which could be a different story for DC to explore down the line, shifting the status quo. In terms of surprises, there are twists that recontextualize the previous issues, interesting bits of character drama, and overall the issue is a nice cap to the entire series.
The caption boxes and how they relate to the image continue to create an interesting polarity that is seldom explored this excitingly in comics. When all is said and done, Penguin even gets his own caption. As the tale wraps up, we finally get to see Penguin’s perspective and what the book is essentially about. Everyone in Gotham, and in life, is just trying to make sense of their own lives, justifying the part they chose to play in the overarching tapestry.
Just in time for a new Penguin mini-series in a different medium, this one comes to a close. The Penguin #12 and this book as a whole is unabashedly Tom King’s take on the character, from the non-linear time jumps, to how the characters speak. Personally, I’m a fan of it, but others who are looking for a more penguin Penguin may disagree. For those not having enough of the flightless bird, the HBO Penguin series will lay bare its beak soon enough, which seems to have the same feel as this comic, if not narratively, then thematically.
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