Stories I Wish I Could Remake: Matt Wagner's BATMAN: FACES

[thehefner]

Few things bug me quite like missed opportunities. Stories that could have been brilliant, but due to a flaw or two, are rendered merely mediocre.

Ever read a story you wish you could rewrite? A story with awesome potential that's undone by fatal flaws? I have a couple. GANGS OF NEW YORK, for example, should have been purely about the struggle between Bill (Daniel Day-Lewis) and Priest (Liam Neeson), who was far more interesting in five minutes than DiCaprio and Diaz were the whole film.

But have you ever read a story that could have been vastly improved if they used a different character?

Here's what I mean. Take Matt Wagner's BATMAN: FACES for example:





In this story, a strangely theatrical and purple-prosed Two-Face kills off plastic surgeons, gets together a gang of circus freaks, and steals a blimp to take them all to a private island where disfigured people can have their own utopia.

Yeah. Doesn't really sound like the sort of thing Harvey would pull, does it? But imagine if Wagner used this guy instead:




Holy hell, not only would that have fit so much better, but it could have given poor Ozzie Cobblepot a much-needed awesome story! Because the Penguin is one of the most iconic Batman villains, and yet nobody seems to know what to do with him! Name me a brilliant Penguin story. It's hard, isn't it? That's not because he's a bad character by any stretch, as many fools mistakenly think.

The problem is, no one seems to write him consistently. Too many make him an ugly thug, a crass, nasty little wannabe Kingpin, when at best, the Penguin should be a master manipulator, a grandly theatrical criminal, capable of incredible cruelty but never losing his impeccable dapperness. But underneath it all is a deeply insecure little man who still burns with rage at the "slings and arrows of outrageous youth," one who would dearly love to strike back at the "beauty merchants" (as Two-Face called the in FACES) and create a place of peace for people like him.

Because Harvey's insecurity and vanity doesn't run nearly so deep as the Penguin's. And what a tragedy it would be for poor Ozzie, to say those climactic last lines to one of the disfigured men: "You cannot have a normal life! You're a freak! A freak!!!"

And how cutting it would be for him to simply hear, "But I am not a monster."

See? Would've been brilliant. But no, instead you have a story that wastes both Two-Face in a misused role and deprives the Penguin from an unusually fine story. Sigh.

Comments

[mellifluous-ink.livejournal.com]

I wish I could offer my services as an artist, but I'm afraid that would be way plagaristic even though our intentions would be good.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

We could start an underground movement: pirate comic book improvers!

[mellifluous-ink.livejournal.com]

I would only participate if it meant I could feed my family better, unfortunately. Comicking ain't easy.

[surrealname.livejournal.com]

Ya know, other than that one story in the strange apparitions trade, I don't think I've ever read a story that focuses on Ozzy and Ozzy alone. I have a great many stories where he appears as a supporting character, and I'm always happy about what his presence can add to as story. He and the Joker's mutual admiration society has always been something that brings me great joy. I kind of like to think of Pengers as being a sort of intermediary between the loonies from arkham and the regular mafia types in Gotham. Like, no one wants to have to deal with the Joker or 2 face because they would just as soon shoot you as look at you, so the mafia types have to go to Pengers to talk to the nut bars for them, and the nut bars have to use Pengers to talk to the regular mafia types when they need supplies. Goons and guns and the like. And in my moments of boring, grim and gritty, I sort of assume that the Penguin would be THE guy for Cocaine in Gotham. Like, you want snow? Pengers is the guy who imports it, refines it, and distributes it in Gotham. I'm not sure you could ever write him that way in canon, but, it's an idea I like playing around with in my head when I'm thinking about "My" gotham.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Only three Penguin-centric stories come to mind: PENGUIN TRIUMPHANT (the tie-in for BATMAN RETURNS), that two-part story by Moench and Jones (fifteen times ugh), and that Brubaker/McDaniel issue for THIS ISSUE: BATMAN DIES! which was okay. Of the three, I feel like I simply must track down the first and reread it. I recall Joe Stanton art, which really can ruin an experience if one's not prepared to appreciate its merits, but I think it was written by Ostrander. That, right there, would earn a reexamination.

box_in_the_box has a most intriguing idea that when they cast Danny DeVito as the Penguin, they should have gone with the DiVito from OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY, and have him be Bruce Wayne's arch-nemesis.

[kitewithfish.livejournal.com]

Aha, I was just going to ask you for some good Penguin-centric reading, and here it sits, waiting for me.

Having just watched BATMAN RETURNS, I could see Cobblepot being a very fun nemesis for Wayne. The problem this is of course, that I don't think those older films read like loveletters to the villains. Catwoman is far more interesting a character to me than Batman, even if we try and correct for my general bias toward women who kick ass. They would have to invest a lot more attention to Bruce Wayne to make it even plausible for him to have an nemesis in that scenario.

It would, however, be highly plausible in the context of the Nolan!verse films- hell, they practically did it already in THE DARK KNIGHT. They would just have to up the parody factor a little. I wonder if it would ever get into the script...

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Also, I recommend finding the 18-issue run of BATMAN ADVENTURES from 2003ish, the fourth and final DCAU-setting BATMAN comic. For the first twelve or so issues, there's a whole subplot of the Penguin being elected Mayor of Gotham, and it's excellent.

[lego-joker.livejournal.com]

Blasphemy! Moench and Jones' Penguin story was awesome!

I admit that Moench trips and stumbles with a lot of the Bat-Villains (ESPECIALLY Joker - Alan Grant writes a funnier Joker than Moench!), but when it comes to the Penguin, Moench's corny dialogue and simplistic plots are a perfect fit.

And I dunno why, but Kelley Jones' dark yet cartoony art also fits Ozzy perfectly. It's like Moench described Pengers back in Batman #400: "Almost a cartoon of a man..."

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

I read that recently, and rather liked it, but was too distracted by Jones' art for the most part. The only time I've ever liked Kelley Jones was in BATMAN/DRACULA: RED RAIN, where he was inked by Malcolm Jones III (I think it was?). He enhanced Jones' strengths while toning down some of his more grotesque exaggerations. The Penguin's Joker chin was one such example in that story you cite. He's absurd looking enough. That's just overkill.

Nonetheless, yeah, it is a good story, and worth noting as it has modern Penguin going back to his roots, if only temporarily. That's a story well worth remembering for modern writers, and it deserves a place in the greatest Penguin stories of all time (unlike the lousy Moench/Jones Two-Face story, which WAS included in a recent Two-Face collection, for some reason!).

But it still pales before Ostrander's work, as well as the fantasy Wagner "Faces" with Penguin that exists only in my own head. ;p

[surrealname.livejournal.com]

So, this one got real, real REAL long, and i turned it into an e-mail to save everyone my adderall induced rambling.

gotham manipulator

[rangerkom]

Looking at this article now, and looking at the way penguin is conveyed in Gotham tv series now and looking back,it becomes clear how he has always been a master manipulator. Even the tv penguin from the 60s was manipulative of batman and other villains. Devito's penguin was manipulative of the whole city making himself to be a hero and almost voted mayor.