Oswald Cobblepot is a psychopathic, low level assistant to Gotham mob boss Fish Mooney. He is portrayed by Robin Lord Taylor, who went to receive praise for his performance as the soon to be Penguin. He appears as one of the main antagonists throughout the entire series and the archenemy of Jim Gordon, although the pair of them do occasionally put their differences aside to deal with deadlier threats in Gotham.
History
Rise to the top
At some point, Oswald Cobblepot entered the criminal underworld through Fish Mooney and her gang. He received the nickname "Penguin", which he despises.
Oswald Cobblepot was tired of being a lackey of Fish Mooney. He quickly sold her out to Crispus Allen and Renee Montoya of his own free will. Fish soon finds out, and James Gordon is assigned by Carmine Falcone to dispose of the traitor. Gordon tricks Harvey Bullock by pretending to kill Cobblepot, who drops into the river. He resurfaces once the cops are gone, however, and proceeds to murder a fisherman for his sandwich.
Later, he appears once more in the countryside after walking for a while, and he attempts to hitch-hike his way back to Gotham City. He is picked up by two jocks in an SUV, and is grateful for their help. However, they make fun of him and ask him if anyone has ever told him that he walked like a penguin; infuriated, Cobblepot broke a beer bottle and stabbed the man in the passenger seat before taking over the SUV. Hiding the bodies in a garbage bag, Cobblepot drove to a small trailer park and rented a small trailer for $100 a week. He attempts to call the surviving kid's mother to get $10,000 in exchange for his release, but she does not believe him, and he, in turn, confronts the hostage once she hangs up.
Cobblepot returns to Gotham City, and quickly runs into a thug who tries to sell him out to Fish. Cobblepot stabs the man before ordering a tuna sandwich and pursuing a job. He is soon hired at an Italian restaurant after mysteriously confronting a man who shares his shoe size. While working in the restaurant, he overhears gangster Sal Maroni talking to an associate about their plans to overthrow Falcone. Maroni realizes that Cobblepot was listening and pays him to keep the conversation a secret. Later, Jim Gordon is shocked to discover Cobblepot, dressed in a tuxedo and a grin, at his front door.
Gordon leads Cobblepot to an alley and attacks him, but stops when Cobblepot offers to be Gordon's "secret agent" in the mob. Later, Cobblepot is promoted from dishwasher to restaurant manager at Maroni's Italian restaurant because he protected a bag of money when the restaurant was attacked by men who supposedly worked for Falcone. In order to prove that Gordon can trust him, Cobblepot warns him of an upcoming assassination attempt on one of Maroni's foes (Gordon realizes that the target is Gotham City's Mayor). Cobblepot is then revealed to have planned the attack on the restaurant. He visits the men who assisted him and gives them free cannoli, which turns out to be poisoned.
- More to be added.
Following Falcone's retirement and leaving for Miami, Penguin took over as the "King of Gotham" after killing Fish Mooney by pushing her into the Gotham river. He appointed lieutenants from both Falcone and Maroni's gangs to form the Cobblepot crime family, where they followed Penguin out of fear due to his unpredictable nature.
War with Theo Galavan
The Penguin had a meeting with newly arrived billionaire and philanthropist Theo Galavan, who unveiled his ambitions to redevelop the poorer areas of Gotham City. Galavan wished to recruit the famous "King of Gotham" to help him out in his schemes, although Penguin turned down the offer to work with him. Galavan revealed that he has Penguin's mother Gertrud captive, which forces Penguin to comply. Penguin begins engineering criminal acts in order to help Galavan gain the respect of the people of the city for his mayoral campaign. These schemes cause Penguin to be in the firing line for GCPD, with newly appointed Captain Nathaniel Barnes wanting to bring him to justice.
Penguin enlists Butch Gilzean to operate undercover with the Galavans in order to find out Gertrud's appearance. Unknown to Penguin, Butch is exposed and Galavan's sister Tabitha Galavan removes the brainwashing. Butch returns and takes Penguin to Gertrud's location, although this is revealed to be a set up as Theo and Tabitha arrive. Despite Penguin's pleads for them to release his mother, Theo and Tabitha double cross him when the latter stabs Gertrud and kills her. Theo prepares to execute an enraged Penguin, who manages to cut Theo with a knife and escape out a nearby window. Theo teams up with District Attorney Harvey Dent and Captain Barnes and deceives them to put out an arrest warrant on Penguin.
Season 2-Season 5
Penguin would eventually become the crime lord of Gotham. Theo Galavan, the mayor of Gotham and "self-religious" fanatic, would kidnap Penguin's mother Gertrud and end up ordering his sister Tabitha to kill her in front of him. After that, Penguin became obsessed with killing Galavan and avenging his mother. He ultimately managed to do so in a team up with Gordon. He even saved Gordon as well as Bruce Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth from a revived Galavan in the process, by having his right hand Butch Gilzean fire a rocket launcher at him (as Galavan, due to experiments he was subjected to after being killed earlier, was left invulnerable to most attacks), although not before giving a hint to Gordon to "always bring a bigger weapon" to deal with people like Theo as well as sarcastically telling Theo that he'll see him in hell in reference to his mother's murder at Theo's hands.
Trivia
- Robin Lord Taylor cited Danny DeVito's depiction of the character from the 1992 film Batman Returns as inspiration for his version of the character.[1]
- Several forms of Batman media have seemingly adopted elements of Penguin from Gotham into their works.
- Batman: The Telltale Series depicted the Penguin as thin in appearance, something the character has rarely been shown as prior to Gotham's version.
- Following DC's Rebirth Initiative, the 2017 Batman storyline Batman: The War of Jokes and Riddles showed a younger Penguin as an enforcer for the Falcone Crime Family.
- Similar to the above, the 2022 Matt Reeves film The Batman showed Penguin being part of the Falcone Crime Syndicate prior to becoming his own boss. The planned 2024 spin-off miniseries The Penguin will seemingly depict Penguin rivalling with Sofia Falcone and Sal Maroni, something he previously had done in live-action in Gotham.
Appearances
Gotham
- "Pilot"
- "Selina Kyle"
- "The Balloonman"
- "Arkham"
Gallery
Reception
Robin Lord-Taylor's performance has been praised by several past actors who have played huge Batman villains, as well as numerous fans.