As the star of the smash hit series The Penguin on HBO, Batman’s second-most notorious nemesis has never had more buzz than he does right now. Who is this strange man that loves suicide slushees, air fresheners, the discography of Dolly Parton and won’t hesitate to shoot anyone who laughs at him? We’re not going to tell you about the birds or the umbrellas. We’re all DC fans here, we respect your time. Today, we’re going deep with twenty things you may not already know about the flippered felon who rose to become pit boss of Gotham’s underworld.
1) The Penguin isn’t the first TV series to make some changes to Oswald Cobblepot’s last name. He may be “Oz Cobb” in the current series, but on TV’s Gotham, his family went by another name before changing it when emigrating from Hungary to the United States—the Kapelputs.
2) Second only to the Joker, the Penguin appeared on more golden age Batman covers than any other villain. He’s also tied with the Joker for the most appearances of any villain in the 1960s Batman TV show.
3) The Penguin’s very first “umbrella gimmick” dates back to his first appearance in 1941’s Detective Comics #58—where Batman discovers a hollow handle to his bumbershoots, storing stolen valuable works of art.
4) “My name is not Oswald! It’s Penguin! I am not a human being! I am an animal!” This memorable line by Danny DeVito as the Penguin in Batman Returns was directly inspired by David Lynch’s 1980 film The Elephant Man, where its lead, the deformed Charles Merrick, declares, “I am not an animal! I am a human being! I am a man!”
5) Burgess Meredith, who starred as the Penguin in the 1960s Batman TV series, made one uncredited cameo outside of the show for a completely different series, on an entirely different network, clad in his familiar Penguin attire as an audience member in an episode of The Monkees, watching the titular musical act with his trademark bemusement.
6) Remember Harold Allnut, the Batcave mechanic who turns on Batman at the climax of Batman: Hush? Before working for Batman, he was an employee of the Penguin, in the 1990 storyline “The Penguin Affair.”
7) When you really think about it, a penguin is kind of the opposite of a bat. One is a bird that can’t fly, and the other is a mammal that can. Dude.
8) Vic Aguilar isn’t Oswald’s first young sidekick. The first two issues of the Super Friends tie-in comics from the ’70s featured a young bespectacled boy named “Chick” who answered to the Penguin’s orders. Could The Penguin really be the story of the long lost Chick’s secret origin?
9) The heavily prosthetic design transforming Colin Farrell into an unrecognizable Penguin wasn’t director Matt Reeves’ idea. Originally, Reeves wanted Farrell to play the role with minimal prosthetics. Reeves credits prosthetics designer Mike Marino for selling him on the dramatic transformation, based on Marino’s own original designs.
10) Batman co-creator Bob Kane cites the original inspiration for the Penguin as the 1940s mascot of Kool Cigarettes, a cartoon penguin with a top hat, a cane and a cigarette in its beak.
11) Tom King’s recent The Penguin twelve-issue series revealed the shocking truth behind Oswald Cobblepot—all this time, Batman has looked the other way on most of the Penguin’s crimes in exchange for his services as a confidential informant. Even more startling, the Penguin learned of the Batman’s secret identity as Bruce Wayne some time ago.
12) Before it was used in the comics themselves, the Penguin’s real name first appeared in the Batman newspaper strips of 1946, written by Alvin Schwartz. The Cobblepot name would carry over to the comics soon after.
13) What does Danny DeVito’s Penguin in Batman Returns have in common with Robin Lord Taylor’s Penguin on TV’s Gotham? They both have the same father. The late actor and comedian Paul Reubens played Oswald Cobblepot’s father in both works. You may know him better as Batman: The Brave and the Bold’s Bat-Mite…or, as Pee Wee Herman.
14) One of the Penguin’s pet causes: getting the penguin recognized as the official state bird. In Batman #58, the Penguin terrorizes Gotham City’s Bird Lovers’ Society when they fail to support his campaign.
15) The Penguin’s political aspirations can be traced back to the 1960s Batman television episode “Hizzoner, the Penguin,” where Cobblepot runs for mayor for the first time. That mayoral campaign would go on to inspire storylines in Batman Returns, the Batman: Earth One graphic novel, TV’s Gotham, Forever Evil, Batman Adventures—and even an appearance as President of the United States in the alternate timeline of Tom King and Tony Daniel’s Batman: The Gift.
16) Oswald’s pretenses as being a “legitimate businessman” are nearly as old as the character himself. His first company, “Penguin Umbrellas Inc,” was founded in 1952’s Batman #70, and operated until Batman discovered the magnets embedded in his products designed to help him steal the city’s valuables.
17) Thriving at the Iceberg Lounge today, Penguin’s gambling empire is even older—operating a Floridian casino by his third caper in 1942’s Batman #11.
18) The Iceberg Lounge itself, on the other hand, is relatively new. In fact, it wasn’t even around when the Penguin appeared in Batman Returns, hence its conspicuous absence from the film. Penguin’s signature roost debuted in 1995’s Detective Comics #683, a creation of Chuck Dixon and Graham Nolan. That’s why you’ll never find it in 1992’s Batman: The Animated Series, but Penguin rarely strays from the lounge in the 1997 New Batman Adventures revival.
19) Although not typically what one might consider a “front line” villain, the Penguin was actually one of the first recruits to Amanda Waller’s Suicide Squad, joining the team for a mission to Moscow in 1987’s Suicide Squad #5-7. After only Deadshot himself and a very brief, fatal tenure by the original Blockbuster, Penguin was the third member of Batman’s rogues gallery to be part of the team. (A role he’d reprise in 2024’s Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.)
20) The Penguin, as it turns out, is not without his progeny. In 2022’s Batman #125, we learn that Oswald Cobblepot has no fewer than ten unclaimed offspring, each with a personal stake in Cobblepot’s empire after he frames Batman for his own staged murder. Perhaps the most industrious of his children, Ethan Cobblepot, styled himself as “Blacksun,” a nemesis to Barbara Gordon in the 2016 Batgirl comics. Ethan is currently comatose, with the rest of his children presumed dead in the power struggle following his own disappearance.
Forgive us in advance, but we can’t resist. As you get to know the Penguin, you’ll discover that all this…is just the tip of the iceberg. Maybe we’ll get to the bottom of Oz Cobb together by the end of The Penguin, airing on HBO and streaming on Max every Sunday.
The Penguin, starring Colin Farrell, is now streaming on Max.
Alex Jaffe is the author of our monthly "Ask the Question" column and writes about TV, movies, comics and superhero history for DC.com. Follow him on Bluesky at @AlexJaffe and find him in the DC Official Discord server as HubCityQuestion.
