Summary
- The Penguin is a successful spinoff of The Batman, hinting at a potential full trilogy following its success.
- The show potentially introduces Victor Zsasz as a character, blending various elements from other abandoned projects.
- The Penguin operates in an Elseworlds setting, allowing for unique character origins and connections to other Batman villains.
The Penguin has gotten off to a fairly successful start on linear TV, and the audacious spinoff seems poised to bring one lesser-known Batman villain to the forefront with a whole new origin to better blend into Matt Reeves’ brilliant new take on Gotham.
The Batman was a masterstroke and stood out as an instant classic at a time when the mainline DCEU was burning in the background. With its gritty, grounded take on Batman and Gotham as a whole, the project was able to distance itself from the higher-level hijinks of the Justice League film. Despite initially being produced as a standalone project, filmmaker Matt Reeves would reveal that prior plans for a full trilogy were on the table following the success of the first film. In addition to plans for the sequel films, there were also quite a few spin-off projects in the works, but it was confirmed that Reeves had to shut many of them down to align with the executive vision for the franchise despite his projects being insular Elseworld fare.
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Thankfully, The Penguin survived the harrowing at Warner Bros. And made it to audiences at home, taking on and absorbing a lot of the elements of the other projects that didn’t make the cut in the process. One such potential inclusion is Victor Zsasz, a lesser-known Batman foe who has even appeared in some fans’ lists of potential villains for The Batman: Part II, who fans might have already met in The Penguin (according to a theory posited at comicbook). In the show’s very first episode, viewers are introduced to Victor Aguilar, a young wannabe criminal who finds himself on the wrong end of the titular character’s ire. Instead of giving Victor a rude awakening, Oz takes the young man under his (flightless) wing, starting him down a path that fans can’t quite put a finger to the end of just yet. While this character arc is likely going to be an interesting one, the more prominent feature is the possibility that this Victor is Zsasz.
Zsasz is one of the more mundane (relative) villains in the DC Universe, a normal human serial killer with intense levels of psychopathy and sadomasochism and no special abilities who enjoys committing murders and then mutilating himself as a reward. His original origin sees him go mad after losing his parents in an accident and then his entire family fortune to the Penguin after he developed a gambling habit as a coping mechanism for his depression. Attacked with a knife while already contemplating suicide, Zsasz snaps and fights back, making his first kill and taking on the villainous philosophy that defines him. While Zsasz isn’t usually seen as one of Batman's most evil villains in DC’s comic universe, this is more about the street-level nature of his crimes than his actual capacity for evil, as few others come close to the depraved mind of Zsasz even in Gotham.
Since The Penguin, like The Batman and its upcoming sequels, is an Elseworlds project not beholden to any greater canon or continuity other than The Batman and those sequels, the idea of retooling a character’s origins shouldn’t be too surprising. While the departure would be pretty severe, the name and connection to Penguin are reason enough to speculate that this Victor will turn out to be the villain from the comics. While the iconic name is noticeably missing, this can’t really be held up as a stopgap for a show that refused to refer to its main character by his comics-accurate name, opting instead for a shortened, understated version. While t he jury is still out on whether or not calling the Penguin ‘Oz Cobb’ is a big deal or not, that change makes the possibility of Mr. Aguilar becoming Mr. Zsasz a bit more plausible.
While there are a plethora of Batman villains that deserve their own TV show, the rogues gallery is just too big to work everyone into their own solo project. However, if Victor Aguilar can transform into Victor Zsasz in a convincing fashion, then Reeves might have hit the jackpot early on by finding a solid way to put all the promising DC chess pieces on the board for his grand Batman-led franchise. Fans can only wait and see how this plays out for now, but they could do much worse for something to have to follow than The Penguin.
The Penguin is available to stream on Max, with new episodes set to release every Sunday on HBO.
The Penguin
- Genre
- Crime
- Studio
- HBO
Set in Matt Reeves' Batman Universe, one week after the events of The Batman, this is the origin story of Oswald Cobb, AKA The Penguin, one of Gotham City's most notorious crime bosses. Presented by HBO Max. Starring Colin Farrell.
Checkbox: control the expandable behavior of the extra infoSource: Comicbook