The Penguin's Fine-Feathered Finks

As we did recently for the Joker, I want to compose a gang for the Penguin. I suppose it's more of a mob, really; after all, the Penguin has substantial organized crime interests to be maintained, along with legitimate businesses.

The Penguin is fairly unique among Batman enemies. For one thing, he's sane! He's been everything from a JLA- battlin' supervillian to an unscrupulous but legitimate businessman. I've seen him fight Firestorm to a standstill yet get beaten up by Harvey Bullock. I've seen him kiss babies as a mayoral candidate and sell them into slavery as a crimelord. The Penguin is a renaissance villain. Unless, you're in Vertigo or the 3oth century, there's always a way you could fit him in your story if you wanted to.

So, the Penguin needs lieutenants of the same ilk, not just a bunch of superpowered nutcases with bird names. And they need to have specific roles in his criminal empire, like so...

• Killer Moth (the protection racket)
• The Monocle (weaponization)
• The Cavalier (fencing operations; c'mon, you know it works...!)
• Mr. Freeze (R&D)
• Killer Shark (smuggling)
• Firefly (arson and insurance fraud)
• Count Vertigo (international acquisitions)
• Brutale (enforcement)

Most of these guys could pass in legitimate society; Killer Moth, the Monocle, the Cavalier, and Count Vertigo are rather high society, in fact, and just the kind of people the pretentious Penguin would want to surround himself with.

Killer Moth's original role was a protector ... of criminals. Working for the Penguin, he could run the protection rackets the keep small businesses from interference by criminals and small criminals from interference by police.

The Monocle, back from Limbo thanks to Identity Crisis, need something to do. Anyone who can turn a friggin' monocle into a weapon is obviously an armament genius, so he's in charge of adapting weaponry for use or re-sale.

The Cavalier; okay, apart from the horrible pun, fencing does make sense for him. He's a high-class millionaire who knows where to get valuable items and who will pay for them. Besides -- who do you think taught the Penguin how to swordfight with an umbrella?

Mr. Freeze? Some may bristle at the idea of a villain as important as Mr. Freeze working for someone else. Just think of it as his dayjob; he's a subcontractor. Victor makes mayhem with the best of them, but his activities don't usually seem very profitable. Cold-suits ain't cheap, so someone's got to be paying his bills. Freeze was a brillaint scientist and I'm sure the Penguin could come up with projects for him. Besides, thematically, I love those two guys together.

Killer Shark you probably don't remember, but he's an Aquaman foe, a smuggler (dressed in a shark costume, of course). What a perfect choice to head up the Penguin's smuggling operations and cause some occasional conflict with Aquaman. It also allows for appearance by a host of sea-scavengers, including Black Jack, Orca the Whalewoman (you're welcome, Devon!), and THE AWESOME HUMAN FLYING FISH.

Someone should be putting Firefly's destructive talents to good use, and the Penguin is the man to do it. And who else is going to give a snooty foreign ex-con like Count Vertigo a job, huh? Headquartered now in Bludhaven, wouldn't the Penguin use a little local muscle as a bodyguard? So Nightwing's foe Brutale gets a job (as does any other killer, for a fun guest star).

Black Mask is cute and all, but having him "run the Gotham Underworld" when there are people like the Joker and the Penguin around seems, well, temporary at best. When Black Mask falls (if his latest drubbing by both the Joker AND Batman isn't already his end), something needs to replace him, and I think coalitions like the ones I've described for the Joker and the Penguin are just the thing. Think of them as mini-Secret Societies...