Danny DeVito Will Write A New Penguin Comic For DC
Penguin commandos, you've got your marching orders. Or is it waddling orders? Never mind. Your orders involve reading a Penguin comic book story written by none other than Danny DeVito.
DC Comics (via ScreenRant) has announced that Danny DeVito will pen a Penguin-centered tale in the upcoming Gotham City Villains Anniversary Giant #1 anthology. There's no word yet on who will draw this story, but superstar artist Frank Quitely has already penciled a variant cover for the issue, which you can see below.
Here's the official outline for Gotham City Villains Anniversary Giant #1:
Gotham City may be protected by the Dark Knight, but this major metropolitan destination is also plagued by some of the deadliest, most nefarious villains in the DC Universe! In this oversize anniversary giant, DC Comics proudly presents tales of Batman's deadliest foes written and drawn by some of the biggest, most exciting names in comics! 2021 marks an anniversary year for the Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, Ra's al Ghul, Talia al Ghul, the Mad Hatter, Killer Moth, and the original Red Hood, and Gotham City Villains Anniversary Giant #1 brings these baddies to life in some big ways! Also featuring the anniversary celebration of the Penguin, written by none other than the man who brought Oswald Cobblepot to life in Batman Returns, star of the silver screen Danny DeVito!
"You Don't Really Think You'll Win, Do You?"
It's been almost thirty years since DeVito portrayed the Penguin in Tim Burton's Batman Returns. Prior to that, the most famous live-action Penguin was the one with the purple top hat, monocle, and cigarette holder, played by Burgess Meredith in Batman: The Movie and the '60s Batman television series. Burton reimagined the character as a grotesque sewer monster in long johns who duped the citizens of Gotham City into electing him as Mayor.
As we all know, in the real world, no one would ever elect a sewer monster to office. That was just a silly comic book movie!
Next year, we'll see Colin Farrell in a fat suit as the Penguin in The Batman, but he's said that he's only in the movie "for five or six scenes." Maybe Farrell's Penguin has DeVito feeling territorial about the character and that's why he's making his comic-writing debut.
Michael Keaton's Batman will return again in The Flash movie, and this week, DC also released the first issue of a Batman '89 sequel comic. When talking about Christopher Nolan's Batman movies (for which he professed admiration), DeVito once said, "You can't out-Fellini [Federico] Fellini and you can't out-Burton Burton, so it's good they're taking another tact."
Farrell seems to be taking another tact with his version of Penguin, but in the future, we can probably look forward to some spirited debates about who is the better Penguin: him, DeVito, or Meredith. Just remember what DeVito's Penguin said to the Caped Crusader in Batman Returns: "You don't really think you'll win, do you?"
Gotham City Villains Anniversary Giant #1 hits shelves on November 30, 2021.