#allen o'neil

[thesilliestrovingalive]

Updated: November 22, 2024

Reworked Character #13: Allen O'Neil

POTENTIAL TRIGGER WARNING: Viewer discretion is advised due to references to death, drug addiction, crime, and torture.

Real name: Alister Titus O’Neil Sr.

Esper title: Avatar of Peak Physicality, Cheating Death, and Assimilation

Aliases: Immortal Cacodemon and Iron Cavalryman from Hell

Occupation: Sergeant of the Rebel Army, right-hand man of General Morden, Lance Corporal of the Marine Corps (formerly), and a high-ranking peacekeeping troop of the Regular Army (formerly)

Retirement plans: Open up an animal shelter and live the rest of his days in the countryside

Special skills: Armed and close quarters combat, crisis management, defensive tactics, and brainwashing

Esper abilities: He possesses superhuman strength, endurance, and stamina, demonstrated by his ability to effortlessly lift the main combat vehicles of the Rebel Army, withstand extreme physical stress, and carry the Jupiter King without its tracks and other exceptionally heavy weapons without displaying any visible signs of exhaustion. His body is physically resilient to lesser gunfire and a single grenade or pipe bomb explosion. Additionally, he boasts quick reflexes and agile movements. His body contains a silver-hued regenerative agent that rapidly repairs damaged cells and tissues, giving his blood a metallic grey sheen. When wrath consumes him, his skin erupts into a fiery crimson, radiating intense heat and morphing into a semi-scaly texture.

With a single, sweeping gesture across a person's forehead, he can consume their individuality, leaving an emptiness that makes them susceptible to mental reprogramming and emotional manipulation. Additionally, he can acquire any language and its distinct dialect through physical contact with a person's tongue and neck, granting him instant linguistic mastery. Through an unflinching, soul-penetrating stare, he can tap into the mental landscapes of those around him, syphoning their thoughts, memories, and experiences to expand his own understanding and refine his critical thinking abilities. He possesses a precognitive instinct that alerts him to impending dangers a full 20 seconds before they strike.

He possesses two unique, blubber-coated, kidney-shaped organs in his thighs, which are a pale pink streaked with bronze. These organs are connected to his esophagus by two trachea-like purplish-grey tubes. The kidney-shaped organs secrete a blood-streaked, sticky substance similar to intravascular and seminal fluids that gives birth to earwig-like pale brown creatures, approximately the length of a human arm. Each creature features bronze and crimson streaks, forest green antennae, and black centipede-like legs and forceps. The trachea-like tubes are lined with resilient, mucus-coated hair follicles, providing the creatures with a moderate layer of protection against blades and enhancing their ability to adhere to hosts. These creatures serve as vectors for mental assimilation, allowing him to recruit individuals to his cause. To achieve this, they inject neuroactive agents into a host's bloodstream by biting into a major vein. Once established, the creatures transmit electrical signals to the brain, inducing brainwashing and instilling an unwavering sense of loyalty.

He's virtually immortal due to a biological self-resurrection process, which allows him to fully restore his psyche and physical body to optimal health. Upon death, his regenerative agents kick into overdrive, rapidly repairing minor and major wounds, replenishing energy in his blood, and revitalising his white blood cells to sustain their viability. His brain remains active, sending electrical impulses that stimulate cellular regeneration, tissue reorganisation, maintain blood circulation, reverse organ failure, and induce wakefulness. It can even correct genetic damage, reactivate dormant cellular functions through epigenetic reprogramming, reboot the immune system to eliminate pathogens and cancer cells, and restore cognitive function and memory. After each resurrection, his memories of his previous death are foggy, and his once-healed injuries leave lingering stiffness for a few days.

Hobbies: Whittling, extreme off-roading, messing around with the Rebel Gigant, and hanging out with his family whenever he has the time to do so

Likes: Social justice, blowing stuff up, insulting his adversaries, and frequenting pet shops

Dislikes: Ridicule directed at him, his family, General Morden, and the Armitage twins, being viewed as weak, the Regular Army, and insubordination

Favourite food: Pompano en papillote and bread pudding with vanilla whiskey sauce

Favourite drink: Cognac

Sexuality: Heterosexual

Gender: Male

Age: 38 (in 2022), 44 (in 2028), 46 (in 2030), 48 (in 2032), 50 (in 2034), 57 (in 2041), 59 (in 2043), 60 (in 2044), and 63 (in 2047)

Blood type: B+

Weight: 254 lbs. (115 kg)

Design: He’s a 6’ 7” (200.66 cm) American mesomorph of Creole and Scottish descent with an inverted triangle build, rippling muscles, and sloping shoulders. He has honey-hued skin and striking asymmetrical eyes—amber on the right with a luxor gold pupil and mahogany on the left with a foggy white glaze. His face features subtle wrinkles, including forehead lines, frown lines, and nasolabial folds. Allen has pointed ears droop slightly, razor-sharp canines, a shaved head, and a full dark chocolate beard.

He has a tattoo on his left upper arm of a pygmy rattlesnake coiled around the base of a human skull with sparkling rubies embedded in the eye sockets. He has a few battle scars: one that starts from the centre of his right cheek to the side of his forehead, resembling a fiery comet flying upwards; three healed bullet wounds on his left deltoid; half of his left ring finger is missing; and a large, blotchy patch of scarred flesh on the right side of his abdomen.

His outfit consists of gunmetal grey wristbands, a burnt sienna armband displaying the Rebel Army insignia, and mud- and blood-stained laurel green army cargo pants tucked into spike-soled silver-white combat boots. He carries an old, cherished photograph of himself, his wife, their two children, and their two chestnut-fronted macaws securely tucked away in the right pocket of his army cargo pants. Allen wears a gold-buckled rifle green belt, complemented by a sheath for his Bowie knife and a gunmetal grey waist pack secured at the back, containing pipe bombs and a sprig of heather for good luck. He wears three black bandoliers, two forming an X-shape across his chest and one draped above his belt, holding ammunition for his M240 Bravo Machine Gun. He wears a burgundy cord necklace, showcasing a shark tooth as its centrepiece. The shark tooth is flanked by two canine teeth with three circular blue garnet beads positioned between each canine tooth.

He owns a personal Di-Cokka, twice the size of the original, its greenish-brown coat bearing battle scars—dented and scratched from a few bullet impacts. Besides transportation, he also uses it for storage, keeping portable ammo boxes and two extra weapons on hand: a M202 FLASH and a Mossberg 500 shotgun.

Super Devil form: He’s a 21’ 3” (647.7 cm) humanoid with an exaggerated musculature and smooth, rock hard rifle green skin. His head, marked by a pronounced underbite, has a canine-like appearance, with the skin tightly stretched over his skull. A wet gunmetal grey nose, reminiscent of a bear's, protrudes prominently, while his beard has grown into an unruly goatee that cascades down to the centre of his chest. He has twitching muscles, gleaming golden claws and talons, and six arms covered in decaying flesh and bulging veins, each ending in heavily scarred hands with only three fingers. He has the same eyes, ears, razor-sharp canines, and scars as the original, but his armpits and back are covered in coarse dark chocolate hair.

Two rows of stalagmite-like ruby red spikes run along his back, while two lengthy, glistening tentacles—each spanning the height of two adult males—protrude from the back of his deltoids. These tentacles boast a blue garnet hue and are adorned with mucus-coated, laurel green feelers on their underside. Allen’s tail is that of a pygmy rattlesnake, while his waist is encircled by partially protruding yellow-stained, shark-toothed human skulls with an alternating pattern of ruby and blue garnet eyes. His legs are feathered in a plumage that transitions from reddish-brown to burnt sienna, culminating in powerful silver-white ostrich feet.

Character summary: Allen is a proud and charismatic leader, renowned for his persistence in battle and unshakeable loyalty to those he holds dear, including his family, closest comrades, and General Morden. He passionately advocates against political corruption and systemic injustices, fearlessly standing up for what's right and recognizing it as his social responsibility to create a better world. He can be somewhat forgetful, particularly when recalling complex instructions or distinguishing between appropriate and inappropriate times to use bladed weapons, such as when preparing food.

He derives great satisfaction from catching his foes off guard or disrupting their plans, gaining a strategic upper hand on the battlefield. He's ruthless and pragmatic, revelling in the suffering he inflicts on those who work for corrupt organisations and/or oppose General Morden. He relishes battling his enemies, particularly his arch-rivals, the Peregrine Falcons Squad and the S.P.A.R.R.O.W.S. His passion for frontline combat is why he chooses to remain a Sergeant, the highest rank that allows him to engage in daily battles. He displays subtle admiration for individuals who demonstrate impressive tactical expertise and skillful combat abilities.

He often rushes into battle with reckless abandon, yet occasionally takes a more measured and calculated approach. He frequently taunts his enemies, using psychological warfare to erode their resolve and sow seeds of self-doubt. He skillfully cultivates loyalty among Morden's followers by subtly undermining their critical thinking and independence, making them receptive to indoctrination. Through this manipulation, Allen implants new thoughts, reshapes attitudes, and alters values and beliefs to align with Morden's ideology. Occasionally, he spares new recruits from brainwashing if he detects genuine sympathy for Morden's cause or notices that they don't see the point in questioning the ideology and practices of the Rebel Army.

His phenomenal physicality and combat skills are matched only by the size of his ego, as he frequently disparages those he doesn’t trust and makes crass, demoralising, and dehumanising remarks about his adversaries. While Allen’s superiority complex often gets the better of him, he’s an adept soldier who can endure more physical and mental punishment than his weaker comrades. However, he doesn’t view himself as superior to his family, close friends, most trusted comrades, General Morden, and the law. Besides his strength, stubbornness, and gusty courage, the only thing that keeps him alive is his devotion and unrelenting will to return home to his loving wife, Henrietta, and their children, Nancy and Allen Jr.

He deeply loves Henrietta and cherishes every moment with her, yet he can't help but find her intimidating due to her stern demeanour and piercing gaze. He loves Allen Jr. deeply, but their relationship is strained by his son's blunt criticism of his shortcomings and, more painfully, his alliance with the Rebel Army's sworn enemy. He recognizes that Allen Jr. views his actions as morally misguided, driven by an unwavering loyalty to General Morden. Additionally, he's aware that his son is troubled by his own superiority complex and impulsive decisions on the battlefield, which have repeatedly put his life at risk and led to past fatalities.

He shares a cordial relationship with General Morden, often bonding over drinks and swapping stories, especially after missions. Beneath Morden's tough exterior, he recognizes his struggles with alcoholism and the emotional toll of losing his family, and genuinely empathises with him. He finds it amusing how General Morden skillfully exploited Madoka's vulnerabilities, leveraging her unwavering loyalty to her younger sister, Rumi, and the Regular Army, to recruit her as a double agent.

He’s a good friend of Sagan, admiring her independence, resilience, and exceptional leadership abilities, which rival General Morden's in terms of tactical expertise and charisma. He treats her with the same respect he has for Morden, acknowledging her superior military rank and significant contributions to the Rebel Army's tactical prowess. He views Logan as somewhat infuriating and intimidating at times, yet treats him with equal respect alongside Sagan and Morden, recognizing his senior rank and crucial role in the Rebel Army's strategic planning and financial management. He admires Logan's easy-going attitude and willingness to offer him valuable advice on navigating more difficult tactical situations.

Backstory: Alister Titus O’Neil Sr. was born on November 17, 1984 in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. He doesn’t remember his parents very well, as he didn’t spend much time with them, but he can recall his father being an Scottish-American chef and his Creole mother working as a construction worker. His parents instilled in him the importance of loyalty to loved ones and friends as well as the confidence to embrace his unique capabilities without shame. Tragically, at just 7 years old, his world was shattered when his mother was killed during a devastating robbery at a local convenience store. The loss proved too much for his father, who abandoned him, leaving him alone and frightened in a neighbourhood plagued by crime and bad influences.

Luckily for him, he was taken in by his uncle who, despite struggling with a fentanyl addiction and deep-seated feelings about systemic injustices, selflessly took him in. His uncle went above and beyond to raise him like the son he never had, teaching him essential school subjects and instilling in him a strong sense of social responsibility and courage to stand up against injustices. After his uncle's tragic death from a fentanyl overdose when Allen was just 13, he faced a harsh new reality and this pivotal event awakened his esper abilities. With no support system, he turned to a local gang for protection and began carrying blades for self-defence. As he gained more experience on the streets and honed his fighting skills, he gradually moved to firearms, progressively handling smaller weapons before moving on to larger ones. Following his revelation dream at 15, he dedicated himself to mastering his esper abilities.

At 16, Allen faced legal consequences for aggravated assault and burglary, leading to time in a juvenile detention centre. The Regular Army, recognizing his esper status, quickly intervened and offered guidance, aiming to mould him into a skilled soldier. The Regular Army offered him a stable home in a secure area of Scotland, aiming to provide a safer environment that would steer him away from a life of crime. With their therapeutic and parental support, he made a decision to turn his life around. Allen volunteered for social justice initiatives and animal welfare organisations to improve himself and give back to the community.

At 19, while working at an animal shelter, he met his future wife, Henrietta. A brief conversation about their future aspirations sparked a romance between them. As they went on multiple dates, their connection grew stronger. A year later, Allen proposed, and to his delight, she accepted. Soon after getting married, they welcomed their daughter, Nancy. He began his military career at 22, joining the Regular Army as a peacekeeping troop. After two years, he joined the Marine Corps. At 25, he and Henrietta celebrated the birth of their son, Allen Jr. Their family grew again four years later with the adoption of two chestnut-fronted macaws, Shirley and Kingsley.

Allen's life took a dramatic turn when Donald Morden rescued him from a near-fatal confrontation with a notorious gang of terrorists and high-risk criminals, who had collaborated with pirates, in a volatile region of South Africa. Grateful for Morden's heroism, he offered his support and loyalty, forming a strong bond as a trusted friend and ally. A year later, following a successful mission against a dangerous criminal organisation bent on destabilising government authorities, Morden introduced Allen to Sagan and Logan. He formed strong bonds with Sagan and Logan, but their demanding schedules rarely allowed for downtime together.

He rose through the ranks to become a high-ranking peacekeeping troop in the Regular Army under Donald Morden's command, while also serving as a Lance Corporal in the Marine Corps. Renowned for his exceptional combat skills, toughness, and devotion to family, he was once known for his cool attitude. As Morden's most trusted soldier and the only esper under his command, he frequently received the most complex missions, which he executed with great success and enthusiasm. He always enjoyed fighting for Morden, just as he enjoyed unwinding with Henrietta, Nancy, and Allen Jr. after a tough day.

He played a crucial role in the Arms Deal Barrage, fighting as a soldier against the remnants of the Serapion Fellowship. Alongside fellow combatants, including Morden, Sagan, and Logan, he discovered the harsh reality of corruption within the Regular Army, a truth carefully concealed from the public. A small part of him yearned to defy them for their corruption, but Morden and Tequila cautioned against it, warning he'd land on their hit list. He faced off against 1st Lieutenant Wired in a fierce battle, alone and unsupported, yet he developed a hint of mutual respect for his opponent's tactical prowess and proficiency in grenades and armed combat.

After Morden defected from the Regular Army, Allen followed him out of loyalty and disappeared from public view for several years. During this period, Allen played a crucial role in building the Rebel Army's forces by brainwashing and training new recruits alongside Morden. He also contributed to the development of tactical plans with Logan and Morden and collaborated with Sagan on clandestine missions to raid weapon facilities and acquire advanced Tuatha Dé Danann technology.

When General Morden reemerged as the founding leader of the Rebel Army and launched his coup d'état, he stood by him, playing a pivotal role in the insurgency. Tasked with defending the supply warehouse at the summit of Käthehirt Valley, Allen single-handedly annihilated the troops brave enough to tackle the treacherous mountain. However, when Marco, Tarma, Tequila, Gimlet, and Red Eye ascended the mountain, they encountered Allen and were forced to engage him in battle. Gimlet and Red Eye managed to press onward, choosing to confront the Rebel Infantry instead of fighting their former comrade. After being burned alive and shot in the head for good measure, Allen was presumed dead.

Nevertheless, he would later be revived through his biological self-resurrection process and participate in the ambush on the Regular Army, Peregrine Falcons Squad, and S.P.A.R.R.O.W.S. troops. Under Morden's command, he brutally tortured and executed many of Marco’s and Tarma's comrades and friends. He played a major role in Tarma's torture, verbally exploiting his emotional sensitivity and insecurities about his academic intelligence. He also carried out General Morden's order to sever Marco's left arm.

Allen resurfaced in a secret Rebel Army base hidden in the Siberian frozen tundra, where he once again aided Morden in his plans for global conquest, this time in alliance with the Pipovulaj Army. When Regular Army troops infiltrated the base, Allen attempted to eliminate them but was ultimately defeated by Marco, Eri, Tarma, and Fio. In the heat of combat, Allen unleashed a ferocious strike, brutally severing Tarma's right forearm. His lifeless body plummeted down a snowy cliff and was devoured by a giant orca. However, Pipovulaj troops recovered his newly resurrected remains after Marco's team departed to confront General Morden.

After the Extraterrestrial Alliance Clash, Allen, Sagan, Logan, and some Rebel Infantry and cadets, along with a few Morden sympathisers, hatched a plan for a revenge attack on the South Pacific training island owned by the Peregrine Falcons Squad. Their aim was to install and house the earthquake-causing weapon, the Cabracan, which was jointly built by the Rebel Army, Pipovulaj Army, and Amadeus Syndicate, in their new base. This was necessary as their previous bases had been raided. To achieve this, Allen and Sagan disguised themselves as drill instructors and led a group of Regular Army and Peregrine Falcons Squad cadets to a remote island in the South Pacific. Unbeknownst to the cadets, Allen had secretly brainwashed them, implanting a false sense of security and focusing their minds solely on training. Their sinister intention was to use the cadets and any Intelligence Agency agents on the island as hostages and test subjects for the experimental simian and mantis transformation serums developed by Doctor Amadeus.

Once Division 6 and the uncaptured cadets infiltrated the main base, he and his platoon of land troops would engage in a fierce clash with Allen Jr., Walter, and Dilovar. He would discover that he had joined the archenemy of the Rebel Army, a revelation that had been previously kept secret from him. Before he could escape, Walter and Dilovar took his life in a furious act of retribution for their fallen comrades. Fortunately, Sagan was able to recover his body, which was undergoing a biological self-resurrection process.

[one-odd-ood]

BEHOLD! The 90’s TV Dad Molecule

Seven actors all connected together in three movies or less, without using John Ratzenberger (who connects three of them via Pixar).

I also discovered afterward that John Goodman, Jon Lithgow, and Joan Cusack (who was also in Toy Story 4) were all in Confessions of a Shopaholic together, but I didn’t know that at the time, so it doesn’t count. I did it without it.

[daily-tim-drake]

[wanderingmind867]

I really have been sold on the original Justice League lineup. Superman, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), The Flash (Barry Allen), Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Aquaman and Silver Age (specifically Silver Age) Batman are a pretty good team. But my hang-ups will forever lie in the handling of the Justice League post-Gardner Fox. Did Denny O'Neil have to write out Wonder Woman when she gave up her superpowers? No. Did he have to ditch Martian Manhunter? No. Did he have to kill Larry Lance and make Green Arrow a preachy jerk!? No!! None of this stuff was necessary, and it's forever going to annoy me that he was allowed to ruin the JLA like this!

The Avengers took 141 issues before I got annoyed with their writing choices! The JLA takes around 74 issues (71 if we're discounting the three debut stories in The Brave and The Bold)! That says something, I think! And whatever it says certainly isn't very positive! It says that the JLA deserved so much better than what they got, and that it's inexcusable that Gardner Fox was disrespected in so, so many ways! I hate it!

And I want to just ignore it, and cherry pick the comics I want to read. But that's hard. Because if we're cherry picking, I'd ideally skip every Justice League comic from Issue #71 to Issue #80 or so! But there's so much stupid change within those 10 issues! You can't skip them without losing important story context! And I hate that! I hate it so, so much!

[erstwhile-punk-guerito]

[unscapedgoat]

I love to take a moment to appreciate the dynamic between Donnie and Honeycutt in idw.

It almost feels like they're family with the amount of times Donnie brings up Honeycutt, whenever there's a looming threat going on with Krang or any other thing to do Donnie always prioritises it. It's not just Honeycutt, he also loves Harold a whole bunch and it's as if it's this whole scientist family.

Ever since Honeycutt made an appearance I'm really happy that he's never been sidelined, and even in the barnhouse arc Donnie has been attempting to stop Krang by reading and understanding Honeycutt's journal.

Even throughout Splinter attempting to attack the Foot in an attempts for revenge (I want to discuss him later), Donnie has been keeping constant contact with Harold and Honeycutt trying to scheme through everything. Donnie took Krang's threat the most seriously amongst his brothers and absolutely did NOT make it sound like a joke at all.

This care is reciprocated too; when Donnie was Metalhead, Honeycutt guided him and helped him through acceptance of his robotic body and as well as getting used to it because he KNOWS personally how hard it was to be stuck in a robot body due to the destruction of his original body.

And even during that time, Honeycutt took care of Donnie's original body and rebuilding Donnie's prosthetic carapace was most definitely one of his main priorities at that time. So much so, that he even risked his life by agreeing to Leatherhead's deal even if he knows the risks of doing such a thing.

Hell, even after that, when Honeycutt was torn to pieces by Leatherhead, the Utroms repeatedly referring to him as "the robot" and using mechanical terms on him such as "is he functional?" Donnie repeatedly corrects them and makes sure they're aware that Honeycutt is a person and not just a robot. And chances are, he's deriving that from experience as robo-Donnie, and the way he felt towards his robot body. He quite possibly understands how Honeycutt feels, and doesn't want to be seen as (and I quote 2012 Honeycutt) "just a machine."

When talking with April after the war with the Foot via Kitsune's mind control, he actually wanted to look for Harold to check in on him and Honeycutt's progress. Their work is always Donnie's priority and I honestly love that.

[jus-morbo]

[toastedclownery]

Memes with my friends' OCs

@awwkie @themischievousronster @adizzyrandomking @bluestarlights

[ambersadventuresinwonderland]

Today's finds!!! 🖤⚡🦇🃏

[devotioncrater]

it's endlessly funny 2 me when celebrities put a restaurant on blast by posting a negative teardown on instagram or twitter. yelp? they've never heard of it. also they don't have thousands/millions of followers on there. they had an alleged bad time at an eatery and now they have to make it everyone's problem

[comicbooksaregood]

Justice League of America

Volume: 1

Issue: 69

A Matter of Menace

Writer: Dennis O'Neil

Penciler: Dick Dillin

Inker: Sid Greene

Cover: Dick Dillin

DC

[dirtyriver]

They met for an interview published in the February 28th, 1974 issue of Rolling Stone (available here).

Burroughs: Your lyrics are quite perceptive.

Bowie: They’re a bit middle class, but that’s all right, ’cause I’m middle class.

Burroughs: It is rather surprising that they are such complicated lyrics, that can go down with a mass audience. The content of most pop lyrics is practically zero, like “Power to the People.”

Bowie: I’m quite certain that the audience that I’ve got for my stuff don’t listen to the lyrics.

Burroughs: That’s what I’m interested in hearing about… do they understand them?

Bowie: Well, it comes over more as a media thing and it’s only after they sit down and bother to look. On what level they are reading them, they do understand them, because they will send me back their own kind of write-ups of what I’m talking about, which is great for me because sometimes I don’t know.

And, of course, the pictures Terry O'Neill took on that occasion are legendary.

genuinely can’t stop thinking about allen ginsberg saying that bowie looks like the wife of a cia agent

[daily-tim-drake]

[maxwell-grant]

The Penguin Episode 7: "Top Hat" Breakdown

There’s a constant referencing of stunted childhood about Mr. Cobblepot – a baby grown enormous, grotesque and as needy as he ever was. The Hugh Hefner of crime. But the Penguin’s sublimated the desire for the tit for a desire for cash, power and empire. And this is why he’s Gotham’s greatest – and most outlandish – gangboss - TheMindlessOnes

The Penguin is the greatest Batman villain for the simple reason that he's the meanest. What the Penguin has that no one else has is a simple abundance of pure, unadulterated spite. In Batman's world there's madness, obsession, will and strength - but ultimately it all comes back to crime, pure and simple. The Penguin's motivations are pure because he simply resents the whole damn world and will not rest until he gets his. The Penguin is a criminal, nothing more and nothing less, with avarice in his heart and hatred in his eye. - Tegan O'Neil

(Episode 1) (Episode 2) (Episode 3) (Episode 4) (Episode 5) (Episode 6) (Episode 8)

VLADIMIR CVETKO: We wanted Francis to never allow Oz to use his disability as a crutch, and to always have him be strong and move past it and use it to his benefit. But it is isolating. Like, it is. And so he'll never be the same as his brothers. And so there's an inherent jealousy of just his situation that's there - The Penguin Podcast Episode 7

RYDER ALLEN: He loves his brothers, but he loves his mom way more.

COLIN FARRELL: I think he probably all his life feels a little bit broken, and so he's constantly, constantly, looking for his mother's approval and her love. I think he's seen very up close and personal how his mother has toiled to provide for him and his brothers, and wants to give her a better life - Inside Episode 7

Massive props to all the actors here but especially to Ryder Allen, who is absolutely incredible as young Oz. It would be so, so easy to let this take on Colin Farrell's Penguin slip into pantomine but he makes it work brilliantly without feeling at all like an impression. He is so believable he even makes the adult version more believable. Like, that is the same guy, give or take decades of grime and grit and scars, but that's still the same little turd, just before he was truly practiced in hiding his simmering resentment, but already fast learning.

"My big strong bull of a boy", words that in Episode 01 embody such a dark aspect to their relationship began all the way here with Francis simply encouraging her sad little kid with a bum leg. I said as much in prior entries that it's Francis who lights the fire under him, that she is the force that pushed him from mere self-preservation into city-conquering ambition for her sake, and we see the most innocent form of that motivation here. Just a disabled kid whose mom loved him and wanted him to love himself more.

So the previous episodes had already given us small glimpses of what Jack and Benny were like when they were still alive - that Jack was presumably the older sibling and a baseball player and the de-facto "man of the house", given how readily Francis accepted the idea that he had gone downtown on his own to get the power back, and that Benny was presumably younger and more innocent or sweet, given she mistakes Victor for Benny and asks him to dance with her. The opening scene very much confirms and expands on these traits and already raises up Ozzie having a resentment for them, and where does that come from. That cocktail of self-preservation and insecurity and spite and overcompensating that defines him.

Because it's not even just that his mom loves them and he wants her to love just him, it's not pure greed, it also comes back to how little he thinks of himself, and how he's hyper aware of every advantage others have over him - He can't be the upstanding man Jack is, and he can't be the pure innocent source of joy that Benny is. He can't be trusted to talk to Rex like Jack, and he can't successfully drag her away from work to have fun like Benny. He can't go out and be relied on to take care of his mom like good and strong old Jack, and he can't run around the house like sweet and happy little Benny, can't join the three of them when they play and instead has to sit there and stew in rejection over all this love and affection he can't have.

I didn't think we'd get a glimpse of Rex, but the one we get is so fucking perfect. What we see so far shows he was basically just a piece of shit gangster, a cartoonishly evil Greaser extra with nothing special about him, he was just a guy Oz projected hardcore into because he got stuff done for Ma (and he wasn't even great for his mom, he underpaid her! Same shit Victor complained about with his own dad). Oswald stares at his money and his cigar and his attitude and already wants to be chummy with the guy while Rex doesn't even look at him, he talks to Jack only, and Francis doesn't want Oswald to be involved with him. But even so, he's the closest Ozzie has to an older male role model he looks up to.

And so it doesn't matter that Rex Calabrese's car wasn't actually made of gold,, because Oswald will grow up to tell his next little brother, the next Benny, about the gold cadillac of the man who blessed his block. It doesn't matter that Alberto Falcone was 100% right about Rex Calabrese being just a small-time asshole, because Oz elevated him into a post-mortem myth.

Really, he's doing the same thing Sofia does and that Bruce did, elevating paternal figures into personal saints and guiding lights on their great life missions, with Bruce shattered when he learned about Thomas' mistakes and how said failings shaped everything currently wrong with the city, and Sofia describing her abused scared but loving mother as "a force too great for the Falcones to handle")

I think, way more than the murder, this is the part that most speaks to me about this guy being fated to become The Penguin, that on some level beyond explanation this is just what he was going to be, that he can already think of nothing else but wanting to be this guy. Dude came out of the womb wanting to be a criminal.

Crucially important to where this is going is the fact that there was real love between these brothers. They play flashlight tag instead of regular tag so that Ozzie can be included. Jack is constantly trying to protect him, always shielding him from Rex, warning him that he's a bad guy, taking the two in the tunnels to protect them from the rain, telling them that Ma deserves way better than what Mr.Calabrese plays them. Benny wants to play zombies with Ozzie, wants them to go to the arcade and play Double Dragon forever, puts him up first at tag. And even if all Ozzie wants is to stay and help Ma, even if all his brothers do is get in the way of the only thing he wants, he also wants to play with them, he wants for Benny to think that Rex's car is cool, he is proud to tell Jack that he knows about Rex being a gangster, he wants them to like the things he likes and he wants to be involved when they play.

Just as important is the extent to which Oz was genuinely hurt by what they did at the tunnel - that to him, they pretended to include him in a fair game that was actively unfair, they broke the rules by leaving the area and then broke them further by hiding somewhere he couldn't physically get to and cheating at what they agreed to and laughed all the while, and that's why Ozzie angrily closes the door on them at first, to punish them for doing this to him.

Everything they do here, even Oz's decision to lock the door on them, is childish, because they're just kids playing around. Jack and Benny even apologize and say they'll start over, but then, what will become the pattern of his entire life begins. Naturally, we hear a rendition of his theme when this happens.

KEVIN BRAY: I don't think that Oz had an intention of taking his brothers out in that moment. We've all known that child as a child. We've known the child that just strikes too hard or hits somebody with something and never thought the consequences would cut them open and they'd have to go get stitches. And he didn't have the impulse control, you know, to think this through. - The Penguin Podcast Episode 7

LAUREN LEFRANC: In his mind, they go down the ladder into a deeper part of the tunnel because they know it's hard for him to get down there. That's not true, but that's what he thinks, because he personalizes things. And this is reflective of what we see from Oz in 101 with Alberto. Alberto demeans him, and Oz impulsively shoots him. As the water begins to rise and he knows the rain is coming down and he has every opportunity to stop it, he lets that impulsive act become permanent. It's not that he actively kills his brothers. It's that he actively does nothing to stop it. - Inside Episode 7

Penguin with the Iceberg Lounge built atop the 44 Below where the fucked up shit he's covering up happens / Penguin with the Underground Railroad built atop the foundation of his original moiders he's covering up

Thinking about a description that stuck with me from the podcast, that Francis sent him like a stealth bomber into the world. So stealthy that he even bombed her life and she didn't notice

"They're your boys, and they're freezing" For the entire show this has haunted Francis again and again, even right in front of Oz

I kinda expected, given the Pain and Prejudice mention, that Oswald was going to be indirectly or directly responsible for killing his brothers, and that this was going to have a vastly better idea for that concept, and that it did. I've seen lots of people describe this as the show asserting he was ontologically evil from birth and that's, well that's just dumb, and that would be too easy, that attributes foresight and planning to Oz's decision that simply wasn't there, and wildly misunderstands much of the point of the show. Oswald is not beyond reason or empathy or humanity or feeling, precisely the opposite - he is all too painfully human, all too painfully real, in the atrocities he does and the ones he does nothing to stop.

He just is fearless, and I think it has to do with his empathy. You’re going to go, “God, I hate this guy, but I see where that comes from and that does not make it okay.” There’s a sense of tragedy within all of that. -Matt Reeves

Oswald's decision to lock his brothers in a fit of cruel and stupid spite after they insulted him (even if by accident) mirrors his decision to shoot Alberto after he's insulted and his decision to rat out Sofia after being insulted. Oswald walking home and deciding to do nothing while telling a different story, because it ultimately benefits him to do so, mirrors his decade of silence over Sofia's imprisonment and his complicity in Carmine Falcone's murders while telling Eve a different story. It is, indeed, the worst thing Oz has done yet, but nothing about it is fundamentally different than the patterns by which he's acted since Episode 1.

It wasn't that his brothers were mean, not intentionally anyway, or even Oswald was always planning to kill them, he very clearly wasn't. But A: They did something that really hurt and upset and offended him, and so were the first to find out what happens when you do that to Oz. And B: They were the first people to be in the way of something Oz wanted, the only thing he ever really wanted which is his mother's love, and so it's good they had to go. Not a premedidated crime, not even something he actively wanted, but it was a happy acident turned chance, and he wound up taking it and doubling down on it.

It's evil and fucked up to the degree I think works best for Penguin being evil and fucked up: Not sadistic and over-the-top cruel, not the Joker or any of that fetishistically elaborate revenge bullshit he's had since Joker's Asylum, but as someone who profoundly does not care about what he has to do or who gets crushed along the way for him to get what he needs. Does not go out of his way to murder for the sake of it, but will not blink at whatever body count happens to get him what he wants, more indifferent than actively malicious and that doesn't actually make it a lot better.

I believe Oz to this day still loves his brothers. I believe he means it when he says "I lost em too", it's just he doesn't think about the contradiction involved.

As someone who never liked the hypothermia/forced into always going out with an umbrella origin (always thought the latter one was real forced and dumb as far as justifications for the umbrella-theme went), it's cool they actually did incorporate that classic Penguin origin element so strongly here. In the broadest strokes possible, they managed to work in "Penguin's mother lost her family due to hypothermia and so her smothering concerns for Oswald pushed him into situations where he was frequently belittled and mistreated until he became more and more insecure and spiteful and twisted"

That's the cornerstone around which everything is built, the rest of his life. And it certainly is the foundation, or the springboard upon which he is launched into the world, that decision that he makes as a child in that moment, and the reasons why he does it – so that he can have the isolation of his mother's love directed solely towards him." I think he washes his hands of it totally, and has convinced himself that it didn't happen the way it did. It's that grave. But it's in there somewhere – the darkness. - Colin Farrell

Something I should bring up is also the Portuguese title given to this episode: instead of translating Top Hat (which would be Cartola), they called it Manda-Chuva. Manda-chuva is a conjoined slang term for boss, big shot, head honcho, that kind of thing, but it translates more literally to "Rain sender/commander" (Manda = order/sender, Chuva = rain). Like you're the guy who makes it rain in the village, you command the rain and everything else. Fucking excellently horrible name choice here, like it better than the original title.

To quote @book--wyrm

the juxtaposition of the tapdancing and the raindrops and the slamming and the shooting and then the hum of the TV and the buzz of the streetlights (get back home when those go on) and the rushing of the water into the grillthat shot of the jar outside the window, all filled up with water, two toys floating in themthe highest point in his life. when his mom is still happy and whole and he doesnt' have to share her untainted love and he doesnt' have to think about the consequences of what he's done while his brothers are drowning in a sewer under the city

him literally turning away from the camera after the shot of his brothers screaming underwater, turning away from who he might have been—the steady, honest man, and the bright, innocent child as they drown horrifically, to stare at a glitzed and glamoured version of who he will eventually become

Oswald's first crime, the first time he learns he can get what he wants by skipping the line. That he actually can have everything if he just does things a certain way. It's the first time he won, the first time he managed to take out his enemies/competitors and won what he wanted for it, pushing his brothers out of the nest so he could hog mama all to himself.

Nobody has to know, nothing that could be done, they hurt me first, it didn't happen like that, I deserve this, I'm making her happy, I can take care of her.

"The city took them."

All he was doing was punishing them for playing a mean hurtful prank on him. And then he went home. And then at some point realized they were not going to come back, but he kept going. Isn't it warm here, with Ma? Isn't it everything he ever wanted? Look at the tv, the man with the top hat dancing away the night. Isn't it cool when he shoots down everyone in the back? Isn't it cool, this larger-than-life thing he will map his life around, showing him how much it rules to be like this? His very own Mask of Zorro, in Fred Astaire shooting his back-up dancers, The Gentleman Criminal taking form as he commits the most horrific despicable betrayal of his life. The fantasy he will spent the rest of his life grasping for and projecting on pieces of shit like Rex Calabrese and Carmine Falcone in the hopes of one day taking their place, while he at every turn works to destroy and undermine it.

It sprung from a very base animal selfishness, resulting from a perfectly understandable childish impulse, carried to unimaginably horrific proportions set to define the rest of his life. Ozzie Cobb never wanted to murder his brothers, but he got away with it, because The Penguin can get away with anything.

Oswald commits his first spiteful horrific childish self-serving murder, on the same day a sharp-dressed backstabbing criminal in a top hat dances before him and his adoring mother. He's seeing his future, the reward he gets for his first crime, and he likes it very much.

LAUREN LEFRANC: Without it sounding cheesy, love matters to him, and that doing right by whatever the (mafia) family traditionally would do isn't the most important to him. And that there's a brazenness to it, that he can do what he wants, and he can be with who he wants, and he'll make his family a mixed family. And that there's strength in that as well. That makes him a different man than we may have seen in different iterations of Salvatore Maroni -The Penguin Podcast Episode 7

"Fuck your guilt, just bring me an army" - That singlemindedness that makes Oz such a piece of shit, while also making him someone that you can follow and even look up to, a guy who can plausibly sell himself as Da Good Boss. He doesn't give Victor shit for what happened to his Ma, won't hear excuses and he doesn't care for them, we gotta get this done now. Like at the grave scene in Ep3, he doesn't want Victor's apologies, he wants him to get his shit together if he's gonna stick around (by what he thinks is entirely Victor's choice). He has no time for guilt or second-guessing or a conscience, not his nor anyone else's.

"Gentleman" is a term that's only been brought up once in some episodes and in the most bitterly ironic tones possible, here turned against Oswald by Sal berating him for having betrayed his gentleman's promise and thus now he'll get the same deal, which helped put something in perspective: Sal Maroni is right, he is a gentleman. In fact, if anyone in the entire show, if anyone in Gotham, could be described as a "gentleman criminal" the way Oz so desperately aspires to be, it would be Salvatore. And not only does he fail partially because of that, but Oz has nothing but contempt for him, only sees him as a sentimental preening idiot (exactly the way Carmine did) and not only that, he will spend the remainder of the episode dragging him down to his level and causing him to die for it.

I love that Oz tries twice to turn Sal against Sofia and it never works, not even a little. Zero pretense that she's not in control and Sal is fine with it, he just wants Oz dead more than anything else.

Definitely a good time to bring up that, the first time the name Oswald Cobblepot was ever introduced was in the Batman Sunday Classics newspaper strip, issue #119 in 1946, in a story about The Penguin's aunt who raised him, Miranda Cobblepot, coming to visit him after ten years, and him begging Batman to not reveal to her that he's a crook and hold off on arresting him until she's out of town. It's the first time we were also shown anything about Oswald's background and a maternal figure in his life, here seen as comically overbearing as well as completely oblivious to his criminal life, helping fight off mobsters and leaving while telling him to help his good friend Batman take these hoodlums to jail.

Miranda never really showed up again outside of this strip, but some of these ideas eventually carried over to mainline depictions of Penguin's mom, namely his dutifulness towards her and her control over him and her total obliviousness to his criminal deeds, which has always defined her. I bring this up because, while we've obviously seen before that Francis is his confidant and knows and encourages her son's brutality, dancing in giddyness when she hears about the Falcones being killed by him, it's a brutal contrast to her telling Sofia here that yes, she knows full well about the worst thing he had done up until the opening of this episode, she knows he burned alive a mother hugging her son, and she couldn't be prouder. Even now, she is the ultimate force in Oswald's life, the only authority he answers to and his guiding motivation, even as we learn now she was his greatest victim.

Francis burns with such eternal undying spite and hatred, the force that turned her boy from simple self-loathing self-preservation into city-conquering ambition, and she burns so strongly she trounces The Hangman in a verbal boxing match and cracks the façade that will be later shattered in the episode. Francis is tragic and sympathetic and loving only because she is interrupted with bouts of crushing despair and guilt and delude love brought on by her illness literally forcing these feelings on her, because otherwise she would be as good as, if not better, han her son at this. At steamrolling everything and everyone fueled by hatred, and hers still burns strongly at everything and everyone, except the person who most ruined her life.

Dr.Rush subtly but very clearly suggesting having Gia killed, lmao. I think it's good to have just one total pathosless bastard in the proceedings, when every other character has so much tragedy and history and whatnot. He has 100% wholly sublimated his guilt over the Arkham atrocities he was a part of into a drive to help his victim Sofia no matter what, and not actually improve as a person or rectify the problems he was a part of, thus becoming someone who can justify any atrocity because he's doing it in the name of someone else he must avenge and do right by.

A thing that @davidmann95 brought up for last episode that became extremely relevant for this one

this ep also illuminated Oz's true power for me: he understands more than anyone else the power of This Fuckin' Guy, and thus builds all his rhetorical swerves and master plans around painting someone else as that

he can't make people stop hating him, but he can make anyone the person you hate slightly more

His power is hate and spite, as is true of the Penguin, as he gets from his Ma. The one that fuels him, and the one he can stoke on others. Every reason they gave on that meeting as to why he's the most hated crook in town was twisted into an additional reason why they should hate the people he's up against more. Here, Oz tries to turn Sal against Sofia, and it doesn't work, so he buys a distraction by reinforcing his status as That Fucking Guy. Sal has him dead to rights in every sense, and Oz stokes up so much hatred that the guy actually fucking dies from it.

Hey Vic, don't you hate that your parents died over nothing? Don't you hate that the Falcones get everything and you get nothing? Hey Sofia, don't you hate how these old bastards treat you? Don't you hate how our friend Alberto got killed? Hey Crown Point, don't you hate how you've been abandoned? Don't you wish there was someone helping you get back at the bastards that left you to rot? Hey Gangs of Gotham, don't you hate those bastards up town wiping you out even more than you hate me and each other? Hey Sal Maroni, don't you hate ME? Let me remind you of why you fucking hate me so badly your heart's gonna explode.

Brought this gentleman Salvatore down to his level so hard that he made classic Sal Maroni, the seething vengeful bastard who will burn your face off if it's the last thing he does, into existence.

CLANCY BROWN: Oz is an American. He wants to win, and he wants to win on his terms, and he wants everybody to know it. That's why he throws the body out, you know. He throws the body out, for crying out loud. That couldn't have been easy. He throws the body out where everyone can see it.

LAUREN LEFRANC: No one is seeing this happen, so that then you sense Oz's delusion, right? He's talking to a dead man, and then he shoots him anyway, because he wanted to shoot him because he wanted to. And so, he got what he wanted, and he made it happen, even though it's not actually the way he imagined it. And then, what Clancy's saying, he throws the body out and then takes credit, like, "I killed him. I did it." And from that point on, in Oz's mind, he killed Sal Maroni. There is no other alternative. No one else is going to know that Sal died on his own. This is part of Oz's constructed narrative. - The Penguin Podcast Episode 7

I love how Clancy Brown put it, that Sal was all heart and passion and rage and so eventually it just had to go out. Perfect death. He is not the guy who can burn himself forever in the name of vengeance, he is not Oz and Sofia, he is not a Batman villain - he's the guy who dies to make way for them, and here, he dies denying Oz the satisfaction of taking him out. C'mahn man, twice already the big bad bosses of Gotham die before he gets to actually kill them, first Carmine and now this. Popping punk scrub bitch Alberto just wasn't that satisfying, and Sofia's just making everything too weird. With the Falcones gone, this was the guy he wanted to genuinely brag about killing to his mom, and now it's just gonna be another lie and delusion that Oz spins into reality.

Also further contextualizes why Oz is gonna be the guy who picks fights with Mr Vengeance. All he wants is to prove himself, but all his biggest opponents so far died on him before he could get satisfaction. He's happy to profit from the ring and from taking credit for killing Sal, and he may even rewrite his memory so as to delusionally believe he actually killed Sal, but the truth of that moment was personally wildly unsatisfying. He needs to be the big shot who clawed his way up there, he needs to be alone at the top, and he needs to push everyone out of the nest, like he did his brothers.

The station coin he pulls out of the car attached to his lie that the city took his brothers, and the ring he pulls out of the same car with the lie that he killed Sal Maroni

Just once in his life, he wants to say "I got you, I FUCKING GOT YOU!" to a big bastard who thinks they're better than him and died by his hand, and to actually mean it and have it stick, no asterisks attached.

Rules that even before we can fully understand how deep in Batman Villain territory she is, Sofia is dressing up in wild hair and black furs and heavy eye to visit Gia. It is still visibly her covering up and dressing more conservatively than her past outfits, but she is so inseparable from her trademarks at this point that she goes to a children's mental hospital looking like she's hunting down the Baudelaire orphans for their inheritance money.

Sofia fully replicating the same attitude that was weaponized against her to cover up her mother's murder, and then when she sees the scars and realizes the degree to which she's created another Sofia, pivots instead to embracing her while telling her as openly as possible that yeah, I killed your mom and dad, you should be happy I did, they were scum, please be happy I murdered your family, you're free now like me. She won't accept becoming the same monster that they were to her, so instead she opts to become a different one.

As much as Eve was wrong about Sofia being the Hangman, she was right that she thinks in black and white: her worldview is based around compartmentalizing everyone between Victims and Victimizers. She very much placed Eve in the latter category at first and everything she was doing in that conversation at first, prodding her about performing for men, about her relationship with Oz, about her shallow lies to men, about being good at saying what people want to hear, seeing her as an extension of Oz, everything was to confirm and strengthen her already existing bias and intent to kill her, until The Hangman came and in part she realized that killing Eve would firmly make her a Victimizer.

Everyone she has killed up until this point? Victimizer. Alberto, who was very much complicit and aware of the fucked up shit Carmine did? Victim, because maybe he couldn't have known, he fought to keep her alive and get her out, she loved him, and he was killed by a Victimizer. The Crown Point followers of Oz she'll bomb later in the episode? Victimizers. Julian Rush? Victimizer, but he knows his place. Sal Maroni? Victimizer turned Victim. Oswald? Victim turned Victimizer a decade ago. Francis shook her up, but she can still justify doing horrific things to a mentally ill woman because she raised the monster who did all of this to her and is proud to have done so, ergo, Victimizer. But in Gia, her comic book view of morality shatters, because she's confronted with a Victim who is so because Sofia was her Victimizer and this is not fixable.

And to her detriment, Sofia has enough of a conscience to be aware that she created another Sofia, and so she speedruns self-awareness and reverts to the old Sofia, which causes her to start dying on the spot under the weight of everything that has happened to her and she's become. And so it falls to Dr.Rush to actually do what he should have always done for her and save her, as well as put her back on tracks to do the most fucked up thing she has ever done, steering her back into the mindset she needs to survive this.

She wants two wildly contradictory things, she wants to be free from it all and she wants her eternal revenge on her nemesis and she will forsake the former in pursuit of the latter. Her most sincere desire is freedom and peace away from this fucked up world her dad created for her, but she will never make it if she stops, and the only way she will make it is if she buries the part of her father's legacy that is still actively around and ruining her life. All she wants is to be free and she never will be until she kills him, until she kills everything he embodies in her life, and in her quest to kill him, she will most likely throw it all away.

As @book--wyrm put it, "Oswald is pursuing his dreams, and Sofia is running away from a nightmare". Sofia dreams of Arkham, of the yellow wallpaper, of Magpie chanting Haaangman inside endless dark metal walls. She dreams of her mother's corpse, of being hanged and murdered in her place, of Alberto's murder, and everything that causes her to scratch and tear at herself until she wakes up. Oswald? He dreams of Fred Astaire tap dancing and shooting his back-up dancers, and to even think of anything else is unthinkable. Nothing else matters.

But in spite of struggling with a conscience and an understanding of morality that Oz fundamentally lacks, I also like that Sofia is more imaginative in her cruelty than he is. She is sadistic to a careful, measured, elaborate extent Oz hasn't really learned to be yet. Even the burning of Nadia and Taj, as horrible and sadistic and premeditated as it is, was still rooted in self-preservation and a failsafe in case they backed out on the deal and petty revenge for stealing his shit and ruining his deal. But Sofia took the time to have Dr.Rush hypnotize Francis so they could learn the most thematically appropriate location to torture and kill the two and then engineered an outcome just to psychologically torture him before blowing him up, knowing he'd find a way to survive even that and setting this up just to flush him out of hiding.

For those keeping score at home, in this episode, Sofia Gigante attacked his sidekick with a crowbar, sicced her goons to beat him up and steal his shit, kidnapped his mom and had her sidekick, the Arkham doctor who begged to be her Harley Quinn, do hypnotic mental torture on her, baited Oz into a trap within a trap within a fake surrender and with an accompanying speech about how the old game is gone and she is playing new ones, bombed his Batcave and his loyal army, banked on him surviving that so she could send someone to pick him off as he escaped, and is now taking him and his mom to a showdown at a deeply and thematically important place for them, which is also a fucking theater by the way. I've been raving about her being the real Batman Villain of the show since Episode 03 but at this point, she is more Joker than the actual Joker in this saga. She's fully thrown herself into happily and merrily pulling a grand horrible caper on him and his entire life and everything he cares about with little practical consideration to her own criminal empire but extensive thought given into the panache and thematic meaning of what she's doing, it's amazing.

Fun thing to think about, whether Oz would have left Victor to die down there along with everyone else, or really just if he would have bothered to warn him before he bolted to the hole made just for him. We've already seen Oz quickly sell out one of Victor's friends out to die, someone who could have been Victor himself if he had gotten away. We've already seen in the burning of Taj and Nadia how monstrous Oz can be without Victor around. And now here we see how quickly and efficiently Oz can ditch all "the good people of Crown Point", the people who actively put themselves in danger to save him from Sal, to die at a moment's notice.

Credit to @book--wyrm for pointing how the bottom two rungs of the ladder he climbs are broken. The first two bodies he ever climbed over to get what he wants.

And thus we see by their last scene together how Oswald and Francis's present relationship began. The moment he transformed into the amalgamate of everything she lost and needed in her life, when he needed to step and be everything that Jack and Benny and dad and Rex had to be for her, because it's just the two of them now and forever, Kids raised by financially struggling single mothers often very much have to pull double or triple duty and work to compensate for much of what a husband or uncle or support network are supposed to do (speaking from personal experience here), and so from an early age Oswald already had to transform into the character he'd play as an adult.

He has to be the replacement man of the house who leaves her to get shit done for her, and he has to be her sweet boy who tends to her emotional needs, and he has to be her big strong bull of a boy who survived and stuck around and now grounds her in reality so she won't lose herself, and he has to be the provider and caretaker that her husband failed to be, and he has to be her Rex Calabrese who won't take shit from anyone and make sure she gets what she asks for even if it's by illegal underhanded means, and it's too much. Following his first crime and his first victory, we thus get the first moment that Oz began to spin far too many plates to keep his life in one piece and avoid consequences for the shit he put himself and someone else in.

He broke her due to his need for her love, and she broke him due to her need for his love. He turned her selfish and cruel and broken like him, and she turned him into someone who would never, ever grow up and change past this. Oswald's maturity and Francis' hopes died with the two and now, as Oz said to Benny 2 back in Episode 3, "there is just this - survival".

So obviously the climax of the show / Oz's relationship with his mom is gonna happen in a theater club, of course. Of course it's the same place that he swore as a child his eternal mission to do right by her.

Though he lacks the money and the umbrella gadgets and bird armies and supervillain resources, they've managed to firmly establish what the Penguin has in extreme abundance, the superpowers in his soul that allowed him to make his way through the world and win.

Ozzie's failings are human failings, Ozzie's attitudes are human attitudes, everything done in the flashback, even the closing of the door, was fixable. But The Penguin is unmatched at getting away, with an almost preternatural ability to fuck people over to get ahead, to slip from a catastrophe and land right into another one. This is a guy who is, in his own way, every bit the absurd uncanny freak that any other version of Oswald Cobblepot has ever been, and if his lack of evening wear and verbosity makes him distinct from classically-flavored Penguins, everything that matters to the character is and always has been there.

This is a guy who is better than anyone at "the wiley schemes and the quick, last minute escapes, who always has a trap door, an unbrellachute, some other trick up his sleeve to thwart and evade his dark nemesis at the eleventh hour". This is a guy deep in unshakeable childish delusion and devotion to the hustle, who burns a bottomless black hole of ambition in his gut and who was born with cigarette ash for blood and a top hat instead of a heart. He may not have been born evil, but he was born ready. Ready to be the embodiment of Gotham's criminal element, to be a child's idea of a master criminal in much the same way Batman is a child's idea of crimefighter, born ready to do this shit forever and ever.

[wanderingmind867]

I feel like DC did really well with creating pairs of heroes. By which I mean, there's 10 members of the Justice League under Gardner Fox (11 if we also count Snapper Carr). Of those 10, I can make nice pairings, two by two for each of them. Don't believe me? Let me show you my pairings, my duo acts:

Batman and Superman: In the 50s and 60s, I bet this was great. Afterwards, as Batman got darker and darker...not so much. But the campy Adam West style Batman of the 50s and 60s makes a great partner for Superman. They were big enough sellers to have their world's finest team up book back then, after all.

Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) and The Flash (Barry Allen): Hal and Barry. A clear team. Both written primarily by the same guy (John Broome), these two had like 10 team-ups in the 60s. They're a good team. And since I hate Denny O'Neil's Green Lantern stuff, I'm not currently acknowledging Green Lantern and Green Arrow. No, instead it's Green Lantern and Flash.

The Atom (Ray Palmer) and Hawkman (Katar Hol): They don't have a whole lot in common powerwise, but Gardner Fox wrote both of them (and thus always found a way to have them team-up). They even shared a book for a while, for gods sakes! So these three duos I've mentioned so far are clear double acts. But I want to now mention my two more tenuous pairs:

Green Arrow and Martian Manhunter: They had one team-up in the 60s (the first team ever featured in The Brave and The Bold), and they've got a lot of thematic parraells to Batman and Superman. If Batman, Robin and Superman were World's Finest, then Green Arrow, Martian Manhunter and Speedy should've been the stars of The Brave and The Bold or something. There's parraells, and I would kill for a Silver age style Green Arrow/Martian Manhunter team-up series.

Wonder Woman and Aquaman: Okay, there's less here than there is for every other pairing. But to me, they do have one connection: mythology. Aquaman and Wonder Woman might have been the only characters on the original league with any major basis in mythology. Aquaman's stories have featured Poseidon and stuff. And Wonder Woman has pretty much met a who's who of greek mythologies finest heroes and villians. So these two have mythology ties.

So now you see what I mean when I say the original ten Justice Leaguers can all be split into nice groups of two. And to cap this off, i'll just add that Snapper Carr would work with any of the 5 groupings I've listed here.

[batmanonthecover]

Justice League of America #72 - June 1969 (DC Comics - USA)

Cover Art: Joe Kubert

13 DAYS TO DOOM

Script: Denny O'Neil

Art: Dick Dillin  (Pencils), Sid Greene (Inks)

Characters: Justice League of America [Atom [Ray Palmer]; Batman [Bruce Wayne]; Flash [Barry Allen]; Green Arrow [Oliver Queen]; Green Lantern [Hal Jordan]; Hawkman [Katar Hol; Carter Hall]; Superman [Clark Kent; Kal-El]]; Red Tornado; Hawkgirl [Shayera Hol; Shiera Hall]; Martian Manhunter [J'onn J'onzz] (statue); Marmaduke Mantick; Chthonic demons (villain); Gruesome Ghouls Motorcycle Club (villains)

Synopsis: Hawkgirl brings the JLA news of several people in Midway City being turned to salt, including her husband Hawkman. The League must defeat the demons behind this transformation, which is eventually accomplished by a surprise ally.

Batman story #1,279

#comics#dc comics#justice league of america#batman#superman#martian manhunter#atom#the flash#green lantern#hawkman#green arrow#mike sekowsky#denny o'neil#dick dillin#sid greene#1969