Penguin in 'Batman: The Telltale Series' Is Not That Dweeb You Remember

Telltale Games knocked it out of the park when the developer reimagined Batman into one of their signature, narrative video games. Batman: The Telltale Series is already one of the most original and exciting Batman stories currently available, and new screenshots of Episode 2 reveals the story will reinvent the classic Batman villain, Penguin.

Batman: The Telltale Series is another early career story about Bruce Wayne first starting out as Batman. Before he encountered his most famous villains like the Joker, Batman was waging a war against organized crime led by the Falcone family. The game differentiates itself by heavily exploring Bruce Wayne outside of his Batman identity. Wayne, without the cowl, maneuvers Gotham’s political and criminal society with smooth talk and bold actions. However, these things could be ineffective against Oswald Cobblepot, aka Penguin, who in this story is a childhood friend of Bruce’s.

The Penguin has been getting a lot of new interpretations lately. Fox’s Gotham has featured a young version of the Penguin as an up-and-coming gangster in Gotham’s criminal underground. Telltale chose to portray Cobblepot as a former scion like Wayne, only he lost his entire family and fortune. As a result, Cobblepot has become homeless, making a living in Gotham’s underground boxing circuit. The first episode featured Cobblepot warning Wayne about a coming revolution, and judging from the photos of Episode 2, he’ll waste no time in trying to earn back his fortune by whatever means.

Unlike the typical Penguin look, who is squat, bald, and birdlike, Telltale’s Penguin was given a new, roguish look and his name could derive from the plague doctor mask he’s wearing in the new screenshots. Telltale’s Batman series will be five episodes long, and hopefully, the new Penguin will get a full arc to become the famous Batman villain that he is.