Mini Mania! - Penguin: Pain & Prejudice

I've remarked before that the defining model of DC Villainy is childhood trauma. This is boring to me mostly because of its sheer repetition. However, Pain and Prejudice finds a way to spice up this narrative by introducing a creepy childhood sexuality ingredient into the brain stew. Thus, the Penguin became a weirdo-eccentric crime boss because he’s plagued with an insatiable Oedipal complex. Which all starts when baby Penguin watches mommy and daddy fuck. That is scary!

As is with most babies, watching dad bone mom makes baby feel inadequate. In the first few pages of issue 1, Penguin lays in compliance as on mom and dad dongle the dirty deed. He’s too young to freak out, so instead watches and gets scarred. Really, it’s the parents fault when you fuck in front of a baby (I personally believe you should fuck no where near a baby, definitely not in the same room). Seeing this stirred the first major Oedipal conflict in Penguin.

He claims he identifies with his mother, and therefore rejects bullies, like his father. This is further heightened by the fact that children at school mock the Penguin’s physical deformities (of course they would, he’s penguin-like!). Later in life, he sees Batman as a continuation with his struggle against bullies. Batman is the ultimate bully of all, subjecting his will on all those he deems a challenge to his authority.

But contradictions arise as the Penguin becomes his father in his avarice for money, pussy, and power. This too is aggravated by an over-baring mother, who gives Penguin all the attention and affection he could ever need. “Always carry an umbrella with you” his mother says. While Penguin later pretends to want to be asexual to himself, he immediately pursues a blind prophetess the moment he meets her. Of course, Penguin becomes his father: he’s a tyrant who’s lust for control impedes his every facet of life. But, he can’t sense that because...well, the unconscious is hidden and all that muck.

The first two issues set this psychological conflict up really well, but the last three meander. The story especially handles Batman poorly, as he occasionally shows up for no clear reason. Penguin does a bunch of crime things, like steal expensive jewels, then when Batman hears wind to it, Penguin suddenly ends up back in Arkham on the last two pages. Batman hardly needed to be in this book at all, he could have just stayed in the shadows--another ghost haunting the Penguin’s unconscious. And tritely ending the series with the Penguin in Arkham doesn't gel with anything the book already set up--a dude with a hyper-Odepial complex and a bird fascination is not insane-psycho-crazy like the Joker. Maybe I’m being picky. I didn't like the art either. It was too digital and abstract for me.

This book brings up some promotes Penguin points, but lacks strong narrative.