Noteworthy Issues: Batman–One Bad Day: Penguin #1 (October, 2022)

I have a policy of not reading the next issue of something until I have written up a write-up here.  Now, I don’t review every series I read on different comic apps on Gabbing Geek, but you can imagine how I was a wee bit frustrated what with how I had to put some series on hold for the past week or so.

Fortunately, I have a lot of issues that need write-ups.  Let’s start with this Penguin one-shot from the One Bad Day quasi-storyline.

Issue:  Batman–One Bad Day: Penguin #1, October 2022

Writer:  John Ridley

Artists:  Giuseppe Camuncoli and Cam Smith

The Plot:  The Penguin needs to retake his lost empire.

Commentary:  While I have found many of these “One Bad Day” one-shots a bit hit or miss, I think the Penguin’s book is more hit than miss.  It’s not the best of this storyarc (that’s the Riddler’s for me with Ra’s al-Ghul’s a close second), but this one does do something right by examining the Penguin’s role in Gotham City and why he thinks he matters.  And, within the context of this issue, he might even be right.

Apparently, at some point before the issue started, Oswald “the Penguin” Cobblepot lost his criminal empire to someone known only as the Umbrella Man, a young man who used to hold Oswald’s umbrellas for him.  The Penguin opens the issue looking out over the city he used to run, but he then buys a cheap pistol from a kid, getting a single bullet to go with him.  That and his wits are pretty much all he has to retake his empire within a single night.  The thing is, Oswald is good at a number of things, like reading opponents and spotting talent.  Oh, and Batman doesn’t scare him.

There’s a reason for that.  When Oswald ran Gotham’s underworld, there were standards.  He kept the crime somewhat under control–if I remember right, he points out during his tenure, Gotham had a lower violent crime rate than Metropolis–and the Umbrella Man doesn’t really care, meaning both Batman and the police are running themselves ragged because there’s violent crime pretty much everywhere.  Even Batman can only stop so much, flying over the city in the Batwing and basically being unable to do much of anything about anything.  For all that the Penguin is a criminal, he’s a criminal with standards.  The Umbrella Man is just a violent jackass with delusions of grandeur.  That’s actually something the Penguin can use.

In a way, this issue makes a nice contrast to the Riddler one-shot.  The Riddler took over the entire city and made things worse for everyone.  Here, the implication seems to be that the Penguin’s takeover could make the city better.  He just needs to remember the people who helped him on the way back up, and they are a colorful bunch.  So, this is the issue if you ever wanted to see what a truly crime-ridden Gotham City might look like, all while suggesting the real hero of the city might be the Penguin when it comes to keeping the bad guys in line.  Solid stuff.

Grade:  B+