Summary
The Penguinhas been a runaway success as a pulp-filled spinoff from Matt Reeves’The Batman,but the latest episode of the hit show harkens even further back to one of the character’s most celebrated appearances with a brief cameo.
The Penguinhad a lot to live up to during development, as the strategy chosen by DC Studios and Warner Bros. Discovery meant that Reeves had to scrap plans for multiple planned spin-offs of his 2022 hitThe Batman,leaving the one surviving show with all the burden of world building to bridge the first mainline Reeves film with its upcoming sequelThe Batman-Part II.Despite this heavy responsibility, the show was developed with confidence behind the scenes and got an upgrade from a streaming-only affair to a full-on linear TV show on HBO. This would pay off with strong viewership, andThe Penguin’sstreaming premiere would even beatHouse of the Dragon’sdebuton Max.
While it’s still early goings over at DC Studios, it’s already pretty clear thatThe Penguinis by far the best reinvention of aBatmanvillain, and the show has given fans another reason to smile in its latest episode. As highlighted byComicBookin a recent story, the fourth episode ofThe Penguinfeatures a plethora of flashbacks showing viewers the events behind Sofia Falcone’s incarceration, including the now-released inmate being approached by a reporter about her father’s shady dealings before she subsequently becomes the next victim on The Hangman’s list. This reporter, a short-lived cameo brought to life by Nadine Malouf, is identified as none other than Summer Gleeson, a familiar name to longtime fans of Batman as a mainstay of the highly-laudedBatman: The Animated Series.
Gleeson was created forBatman: TASand was a reporter and celebrity in that continuity, standing in for Vicky Vale in many regards. Beyond a few comics directly related to the animated series’ continuity or Elsewold material, she’s never really been a fixture of Batman canon, making this inclusion pretty intentional on the part of the creative team. At this pointThe Penguinhas likely exceeded all expectations, including with how little the series has leaned onThe Batmanand its titular hero to further its own narrative. With almost half the season done,mentions of the Dark Knight have been noticeably absent fromThe Penguin,and rightfully so. This, coupled with the series setting out to present a reimagined Oz Cobb and Gotham, means that the project could have become successful at the expense of its connection to the wider narrative, but this one small cameo and the episode as a whole does quite a bit to thematically and literally linkThe Penguinto Batman.
The Penguinis doing the shared universe idea right, and paying homage to previous works in subtle ways like this is certainly a great way to go without derailing the show’s tone and narrative. This sort of maneuvering with existing characters and concepts is exaclty what the Elseworlds label is meant to enable. While tons of newer fans won’t look twice at the character and can still follow the story perfectly, those that know will appreciate the addition, making it a masterstroke of a callback.
The Penguinis available to stream on Max and on linear TV every Sunday on HBO.
The Penguin
Created by Lauren LeFranc and starring Colin Farrell, The Penguin builds on 2022’s The Batman. The Max series chronicles the eponymous villain’s attempt to reach Gotham’s criminal peak, rising through the underworld in the middle of a power struggle.
