Arkham Asylum: Patient Files

The Penguin

FULL NAME
Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot

OCCUPATION
Restaurateur
Racketeer
Arms Dealer
Gunrunner

BASE OF OPERATIONS
Iceberg Lounge, Gotham City

AFFILIATIONS
Hugo Strange
Solomon Grundy
Sickle
Candy
Tracey Buxton

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

HAIR
Black
Bald (Arkham Knight)

EYES
Blue

HEIGHT
4' 10" (1.47 m)

WEIGHT
175 lbs (79 kg)

A brutal and sadistic crime lord, Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot was known in the Gotham City Underworld as The Penguin who funded much of its criminal operations as one of its biggest black market manufactures. Directing his affairs from a dilapidated ship, the Final Offer, Oswald was seen as a reputable business man to the people of Gotham, but in reality, was a sadistic, mass murdering gang leader.

Cobblepot began to accumulate his power within Gotham City's criminal underworld, and began to build up his own forces to carve up a piece of the black market for his own profits and purposes. After he formed an alliance with Black Mask, the most powerful and sadistic crime lord in the entire city, who had put a $50 million bounty on Batman himself, the Penguin sought to crumble his competition, particularly the Falcone Crime Family and aid in killing the Dark Knight in order to consolidate his own power over the city.

Biography

Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot was born into one of Gotham's wealthiest families; a dynasty of generals, mayors, and industrialists. The Cobblepots were among the founding fathers of the city, however, a long-standing rivalry with the Wayne Family led to them encountering financial difficulties, and had them neglect their successful newspaper business in favor of a hotel chain. As a result of those difficulties, Oswald's father, Tucker Cobblepot, neglected his son, and packed him off to boarding school in London. Feeling abandoned, and ostracized by his fellow students for his grotesque appearance, Oswald skipped more and more classes, and preferred to associate with the criminal elements and other unsavory types outside of school.

Eventually, the family businesses, and Penguin's father along with them, went bankrupt, which gave Oswald a lifelong grudge against the Wayne Family, in particular the last member, Bruce Wayne, who Oswald saw as nothing more than a spoiled little rich boy. By that stage, Oswald had abandoned his education altogether, and preferred to educate himself into a criminal lifestyle in order to rebuild his family fortune.

Personality

Penguin was known for his extravagance and brutality, and his brilliant and unorthodox mind naturally lead him to positions of power and respect. He demanded things done his way, and had an intense love of money. In his own words, he 'takes only the best' -- that went for weapons, equipment, assassins, and the like. That said, he felt the need to overcompensate for his shortcomings and comical stature through material wealth and violent outbursts. Penguin also takes pride in his aristocratic status and the influence and power on his family name in Gotham, speaking about it as if it were still happening despite the Cobblepots having lost most if not all of their influence. This also shows why he enjoys the very best; having lived a life of privilege, luxury and entitlement, it was simply a thing he got used to in his childhood and seeks to regain the power and wealth he lost through his crime empire. Though this makes his personality slightly sophisticated it does not hide who he is; a person who enjoys the suffering of others. His hedonistic desire for self-pleasure was displayed by how throughout the series he makes sexual advances on female characters, such as both of his female assistants Candy and Tracey Buxton, and an imprisoned League of Assassins Ninja in his display case.

The one thing Penguin craves above all else was the subjugation of everyone and power over everything, something which he could only achieve through fear and total control as to overcompensate his insecurities regarding his stature. This can be attributed due to his megalomania and Napoleon Complex and, being helpless for most of his life towards his father's abuse has caused his one and only desire to dominate over others, forcing them to be helpless so he can feel powerful. This can cause him to act extremely aggressive, over dominative and ruthless towards everyone which leads him to flippantly shout out or even kill his own men over betrayal or irritations. He controlled his empire and men with fear, either intimidating them with an exaggerated cockney accent or brutal torture. His overly ruthless ways were such that at least one thug even called Penguin an "animal" when discussing Penguin and Joker's attempts at running Gotham, the implication being that he's even more brutal than the Clown Prince of Crime. Though he appears menacing and powerful, when faced with a truly powerful opponent, such as Catwoman or Batman, Penguin reveals that which he is; a groveling coward. Despite this he has at times been defiant. A notable example is right when his final weapons cache had been destroyed, although he was being pinned down by Batman he managed to find the courage to angrily threaten to kill him and even provoked Batman to kill Penguin himself, or he would kill the Dark Knight, though it's unknown if he was serious regarding this. It should be noted however, that he reverted to his more cowardly mannerisms shortly thereafter, when Batman, while under the influence of the Joker infection, threatened to kill him out of irritation (though this only occurred if Batman still had traces of the Joker in him; otherwise, Penguin will remain defiant in large part due to his now knowing that Batman and Bruce Wayne were one and the same due to Scarecrow's news reveal and Batman being cured of the infection). Riddler when interacting with Penguin in jail even refers to the latter as among other things a bully, referring to his need to feel powerful yet a coward at heart. Similarly, he chose to confront Batman in person after the latter defeated Solomon Grundy, even though he could have easily fled. Although massively sadistic in his own right, he apparently has some limits, as he was noticeably disturbed at the carnage inflicted at Lacey Towers after the murder that occurred there, and in a recording for what was intended to be Joker's "exhibit", he admitted he didn't find the Joker's antics at all funny.

Living a troubled childhood has seemed to have an effect on him. Behind his intimidating demeanour, Penguin is actually terrified of the dark, as apparently he lived inside of a closet when he was a boy, and was extremely uneasy when while breaking out of GCPD, became trapped in an elevator which brought back "bad memories.' This fear of the dark was severe enough that when forced to endure an elevator with no lights late into the GCPD Lockdown incident, Penguin even considered being locked back up in GCPD a preferable alternative to being stuck in the dark. He is also shown to be very coarse, often using various curse words of British origin. He also is shown to be misogynistic and potentially homophobic (and also overall very offensive to various groups), as evidenced by his repeatedly referring to Catwoman and Harley Quinn by various terms as 'bitch' and 'harlot,' and also refers to his own forces as 'ponces' and also referred to Nightwing derogatorily as a 'fairy' twice, he also refers to the Arkham Lunatics as 'dribbling monkeys' in a discussion with Hugo Strange relating to his using them as target practice.

Penguin was also demonstrated to have a somewhat sarcastic demeanor, especially during the time of Scarecrow's attack. His sarcasm had been demonstrated twice: The first time was around the time where Batman is pursuing the third North Refrigeration truck and coaxing them into going to the third weapons cache, where Penguin when being called and apologized to by his minions as they're trying to flee Batman, he proceeded to "forgive" them just for saying sorry. The second time was while escaping from the GCPD, as, when his thugs are inquiring about his status inside the blacked out elevator, Penguin claimed that he was "having the time of his life" being trapped in the elevator. Both times, the thugs asked him if he meant it with a puzzled tone, only for him to scream what he actually meant (that he lost two weapons caches already, and threatening to castrate them if it goes up to three; and declaring that being locked in the elevator brings back very bad memories, respectively).