7 Worst Things The Penguin Has Ever Done

2. Everything He Did In Earth One

Geoff Johns and Gary Frank's Batman: Earth One was a somewhat controversial retelling of Batman's origin, focussing on a younger, inexperienced Batman as he comes to grips with his desire to fight crime with the assistance of Alfred who, in this universe, is also a former Royal Marine.

There were some fun deviations from the classic bat-lore however, with Johns having opted to make Penguin the main antagonist of the series as a vicious political operator and as the man responsible for the murders of Thomas and Martha Wayne. That instantly makes him one of the most villainous interpretations of the character thus far - not that he had much longer to leave an impact, with Alfred having killed the brute in the comic's third act.

Penguin is at his most snivelling in the comic, exuding a kind of smarminess few other Bat-villains could dare match. He was also one of the more realistic interpretations of the character to have emerged in recent years, and though with Batman it's often the more outlandish characters that terrify the most, the Oswald of Earth One unnerves because he's the opposite.