10 Things DC Wants You To Forget About The Penguin

10. He Was Originally Called Mr. Boniface

Unlike a lot of villains, the Penguin is still fairly similar to how he was introduced in Detective Comics #58. However, there have been a few things that have been altered from his first appearance.

The Penguin was first introduced as an art thief. He snuck into a art-gallery that Bruce Wayne was attending and stole a painting by rolling it up and hiding it in his umbrella (one tragic downside of modern security systems is that art-theft is far less whimsical now.) He then took the painting to a local mob as proof of his criminal genius and they let him join.

Eventually he fell out with the mob boss though when he called him a "be-monocled bird". Penguin responded by shooting him with an umbrella gun and taking over the gang. He then insisted that his underlings refer to him as Mr. Boniface instead of the Penguin.

Like most of Batman's enemies of the time, Penguin only went by his codename in later appearances and so Mr Boniface was left as his presumed real name for years until it was changed to Oswald Cobblepot.

Although, the story that revealed that name is probably something else DC would like you to forget.