The Penguin in “Bullies” Villains month one shot.
Tieri and Fernandez do a bang up job on the Penguin in this one shot short story. Not a bad tale at all. This is a well written dark Penguin story with no direct tie-ins to the “Forever Evil” title. I have never been a huge advocate of the Penguin, to be honest he boors me. This is not a life changing tale but, it did draw me in to the Penguin and kept me interested.
As an artist and a student of psychology I tend to look first at the art then focus on the psychology of the characters, with this story the Penguin definitely has a Soprano kind of vibe. Though, I am not a huge fan of Fernandez’s art style he did a fantastic job keeping the tone eerie and beautifully dark.
Tieri gives us a well crafted and disturbing story of bullies, blackmail and desperation. Between Tieri’s script and Fernandez’s page work the reader is bereft of hope and can easily sympathize with the helplessness that the characters experience.
All in all I thought this was a very effective Penguin tale that unlike the propensity of other “Villain” issues omits the origin tale and instead tells a brief school story to elaborate on a present situation. If you are looking for a good Penguin one-shot story to pass the time I would recommend this book.
Batman #23.3:
Reviewed by Joe Palazzolo