• Why Two-Face not in here??

• Same here. Thumbs up for the cleverly understated way they give him "flippers" in the game! {g} (I didn't even notice until my second playthrough: he ends his part of the story with "flippers", although they might be only temporary. Or they might be permanent now...) ***SPOILER WARNING FOR THOSE WHO DIDN'T NOTICE AND/OR DON'T WANT PLOT POINTS SPOILED***** Bruce Wayne breaks his hand very early in the game, so Cobblepot spends most of the game with those fingers bandaged in a splint. In the final Penguin mission, his other hand is broken, too. So when the player visits where Batman incarcerates the Penguin, both hands can be seen with bandages on the appropriate fingers. Thus, flippers. In conclusion, Paul Dini is awesome. {g!}

• Not overly strange, as he's supposed to be the heir of a rogue medieval assassination group.

• Not overly strange, as he's supposed to be the heir of a rogue medieval assassination group.

• His costume doesn't have eye-holes when he goes into Batvision mode; it has white eyes like the comic book mask lenses. (A detail they picked up from Nolan's second movie.)

• Whose characterization was originally revised this way by Paul Dini in the first place back in B:TAS. NOW THE CIRCLE IS COMPLETE!! {g}

• The game story indicates that Cobblepot was forced to immigrate to London as a boy, and survived growing up there by becoming a ruthless criminal. That's why he has the accent.

• I'm pretty sure (after having played it twice and having listened to this scene) that Zsasz indicates he was the one who did it after he thought Cobblepot cheated him in a climactic poker game for the remaining Zsasz family fortune. To the Penguin he would just be some guy, of course. Whether this fits with the Penguin's version of the story, I don't recall clearly. It's possible the writers didn't quite keep up with notes between side stories; or it might be a delusion of Zsasz.

• The Riddler isn't as hard-core as Jigsaw in the AA/AC games, and the motives are pretty different. Nigma doesn't put people into deathtraps primarily to hurt them (much less to get them to hurt themselves), but to bet their lives against Batman's skill and ingenuity for the purpose of proving he's smarter than Batman. (The Riddler does keep prisoners in a very cruel deathtrap situation between "missions", but that's just his way of making sure they're too busy to try to escape. Plus he doesn't like cops. Or people associated with the cops, like city medical workers.) He's still a high-functioning egocentric sociopath who doesn't value other people's lives in the slightest, of course.

• ****SPOILERS!**** Mr. Zzasz was trying to gamble back his family's lost fortune, and thought (probably correctly) that the Penguin cheated him with cards. So he attacked the Penguin. That's how the bottle bottom got lodged around his eye. (The serial killer talks about this during his subplot.)

• His family was indeed from Gotham in the game, but he was forced as a child to immigrate to London, where he survived and flourished as a ruthless criminal. Thus explaining his grudge against the Wayne family, whom he blamed for the ruination of the Cobblepots. So, like Enishi from the Rurouni Kenshin "Revenge" arc. Except shorter. {g}

• I have a theory that this is exactly why DC shut down the DCAU series: fans were starting to treat the Timm/Diniverse canon as being the official canon. Now they're regulated to one-shot projects (usually based on official DC canon product), or to series that couldn't possibly be construed as competitive canon. Paul and Rocksteady had better watch out.

• Perhaps Penguin had a British nanny or some other childhood figure, and he picked up the accent from them?

• Gotta admit tho, this is the first time the new(er) Azrael looked any good. I think I read one arc of his comic that wasn't off-putting and it involved Batman (Dick) and some kind of...stuff happened? I think. Having not played the games tho, what happened with the Penguin's eye?

• I was calling for a movie Riddler somewhat like Jigsaw before the Saw movies ever existed. Then they made Saw, and I gave up, figuring that they made a great new character that hit all the points I always saw as necessary for a psychotic, murderous movie Riddler.  And now you're saying they went full circle and made the Riddler like that?  I need to play AC, I guess. 

• I still totally hate that Batman's cowl has eye-holes. When you see Bruce's eyes, it takes away a lot of the "inspire fear" and "I am the night" that is The Batman. 

• I haven't played Arkham City yet, but that's really how Azrael looks? Like the lead from Assassin's Creed? Strange choice.

• Where's Talia? I know she's not the most popular character, but she played a big role in Arkham City. They're going to make a Joker Thug but not Talia? Sigh. I'm hoping she hasn't been thrown under the bus. Again.

• Thank you good sir. I am glad I inserted my motto: "I reserve the right to be wrong, always."

• Catwoman & Riddler are in wave 2.

•  I find I look better when you don't point out my oversights.

• I am totally with you on the designs. Rather than take the absurd, totally 're-imagined' route the movies have been taking, they nailed (most) of the character designs perfectly. I LOVE Batman - I think he looks perfect. Still like a comic book hero, but updated enough to fit modern times. Catwoman is damn sexy too. And I'm glad they blended the Joker with comic Joker, cartoon Joker, and movie Joker. The only person I really don't like is The Riddler. He looks like a hobo, or like one of those sad clown paintings without make up. Riddler is supposed to be highly refined and intelligent, I doubt he would dress as disheveled as he appears in the game.

• Love the way they did Mr.Freeze my fav Batman villian.

• I've only played some of Arkham city, so maybe this doesn't make as much sense if you play the whole thing through, but I always saw the bottle eye as a situation where, in all the craziness of Gotham going to hell, Penguin lost his proper monocle in a fight perhaps and made due with the bottle end while in a mad rage or something since monocles can't be all that common to find in Gotham. But that's just a guess!

• Sweet King Wenceslas, that's a lot of posts. Sorry 'bout that, folks.

• yeah but they tried to reimagine Penguin as a legitimate gangster who is NOT TO BE LAUGHED AT and is IN NO WAY FUNNY OR CAMPY GRRR. Rocksteady embraced the character's silliness. Their Penguin is just as ridiculous as the old Penguin but at the same time he's a proper threat and an interesting character. He can be both, you know. 

• Penguin tried to throw a guy out of his casino, I think, then the guy stabbed him. It was just some guy though, not Zsasz, and he was swiftly dealt with by Penguin's men. 

• Harley was already released-- this is one of the later waves of figures...

• Penguin tried to throw a guy out of his casino, I think, then the guy stabbed him. It was just some guy though, not Zsasz, and he was swiftly dealt with by Penguin's men. 

• yeah but they tried to reimagine Penguin as a legitimate gangster who is NOT TO BE LAUGHED AT and is IN NO WAY FUNNY OR CAMPY GRRR. Rocksteady embraced the character's silliness. Their Penguin is just as ridiculous as the old Penguin but at the same time he's a proper threat and an interesting character. He can be both, you know. 

• yeah but they tried to reimagine Penguin as a legitimate gangster who is NOT TO BE LAUGHED AT and is IN NO WAY FUNNY OR CAMPY GRRR. Rocksteady embraced the character's silliness. Their Penguin is just as ridiculous as the old Penguin but at the same time he's a proper threat and an interesting character. He can be both, you know. 

•  With as much prominence as they had in the game, not seeing Catwoman, Harley, Riddler or Hugo Strange there is... Strange. Something for the second wave, I guess.

• Rocksteady's Penguin is perfect. His levels in AC were probably my favourite parts of the whole game. I still think the regular, silly Penguin can be a great character, but I honestly wouldn't mind if the Arkhamverse version was just brought into the mainstream. 

• Read the comics mini-series Penguin: Pain and Prejudice. I feel it's a really thoughtful look into the motivations and average life of the Penguin not just as a foil to The Batman, but as the "businessman" he tries to operate as. Four out of the five issues are currently out, with the final coming on Feb. 8th. I can't wait.* * I know this sounded like an ad, but as a comics guy who got severely turned off from the Batman line due to Batman Incorporated, This was a great and thoroughly welcome change to an introspective writing style I enjoy.

• If I remember correctly, according to the game, it was Victor Zsasz gave hime the Coke bottle monocle. I reserve the right to be wrong, always.

• The only way I can see the bottle in the eye as a monocle working is if one of the other gangs in Arkham City did that to Penguin.  The whole Arkham City storyline is very reminiscent of No Man's Land, which is awesome.

• I'm gonna have to agree to disagree. I'm all for adding detail and a bit of grit for the game, but I haaaaaate most of the Arkham City designs.  I think many of them betray the original characters. Okay, Penguin isn't as horrible as Burton's, but it makes no damn sense for him to 'ave a 'ockney accent, 'uvnah.  Cobblepot is from an old Gotham family just like Wayne.  Hell, right now there's a big story in the Batman comics that's going all Illuminati conspiracy with the old Gotham families likethe Waynes, the Cobblepots, and the Elliots.  My friends and I were trying to figure out how PEnguin being all British works with him also being old Gotham blood, and it just doesn't work in any simple way.  And a damn bottle in his eye as a monocle?  Even Burton wasn't that hard on for making things dark. And turning Riddler into Jigsaw is just lazy.  Riddler was fine being a non-lethal rouge.  No reason to up him by making him a character from a separate movie franchise.   They kinda went a bit overboard in some cases in making things grim and gritty like a bad 90s comic. Now a number of others like Batman himself and Freeze are fine.  Yet some of them the design ran away with no consideration for the character. And I'm not going to even touch Suicide Girl Juggalo Harley Quinn.  Though DC's New 52 actually took it a few steps further, so..

• All of the characters are awesome, except for Batman. WTF? It's like they blew their wad on everyone else, and just outsourced Batman. Ra's is awesome, and, yeah, Azrael kicks ass. Killer Crock is something to fear, but Batman just kind of sits in the back going, "yeah, I'm here, too."

• Some nice details on them, they almost look straight plucked from the game, my only gripe is no Hugo Strange figure and the fact that look like they have terrible articulation.

• A penguin figure that looks THAT good?  DO WANT.  NOW.  GIVE ME.  NOW.  I DONT CARE HOW MUCH IT IS.  I WANT IT.

• "I kind of hope he makes it to the new-52, although I'm not really expecting it. Anyone else with me on this?" There's an entire miniseries about the Penguin going on right now, and it certainly doesn't match the AC interpretation.  Basically just reiterating the iteration that existed pre-reboot.  That said, I like black-market, untouchable Penguin, and think the miniseries has been pretty good, though the latest issue seemed to go off the rails.  It's called "Penguin: Pain and Prejudice."  If beer-bottle-monocle, cockney accented Penguin is what you're looking for, you probably won't like it much.  Deals mostly with how he became the way he is in the reactions to his childhood.

• ...That clown thug's face is kind of unsettling.

• I burned my way through Arkham City when it came out, so it's been a few months now, but I'm pretty sure that I remember reading something about Penguin's backstory in the game that he's somehow still from Gotham, despite his accent.

• I have yet to play Arkham City, but loved the designs in Arkham Asylum, so I am not surprised to see Azrael look so......so......badass. Sadly, I WAS a fan of him during Knightfall. What can I say? I was young and easily amused. I would rather forget Titan Joker over having it immortalized in my game room though, hated that part of Arkham Asylum.

• "anybody else with me on this" YES....a million times yes!!!! I'm a lifelong Bat-fan and I can honestly say these games are the best thing to happen to Bats since the animated series. I LOVE the updated/punk Harley Quinn,cockney Penguin,dinosaur-Killer Croc.....I honestly wish THIS were the new Batman universe instead of whatever the hell it is Grant Morrison is doing. Paul Dini should just be made Godfather-for-life of the Bat-Universe!

• Of all the villains in Arkham City, Penguin was the most frightening (to me anyway). He was so sadistic and f-ed up, I think he gave Joker a run for his money.

• Agreed; Arkham City Penguin is awesome. I did like the TAS handling of Penguin, mind - they didn't dwell on the "deformed sewer freak" motif Batman Returns kinda forced them to include all that much. And my understanding is modern comics Penguin (at least before the reboot; dunno about now) has had him as a "legit" nightclub owner who deals arms under the table. (So basically the Arkham City character, only pre-Arkham City)

• I second the <i>Arkham City</i> Penguin being the best, with the Coke bottle monocle/scar being the cherry on top. It's just one forced accessory, but it just says a lot about him & his character. Well, not counting the times when it says "God, this f***ing hurts."

• Yup, the Arkham City Penguin is my favourite version too.

• WANT IT. NOW. GIMME GIMME GIMME. Yeah, despite the name I'm more of a Batman fan than anything else- it actually a Norse myth nod, rather than a Marvel one. (Even if his latest incarnation is rather *fine*...)

• I'm not much into action figures (other than those DC Direct Batman ones...holy wtf and awesome at the same time), but these are pretty neat. I'll probably end up getting a few. And I agree, Azrael looks totally badass and I don't even know the character.

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