The Penguin was one of the best shows of 2024 and its greatness goes beyond it being a good superhero project. The acting in it was on another level, earning star Colin Farrell a Golden Globe win and Sofia Falcone a nomination (although she deserved the win too). The program itself was nominated for Best Miniseries or Television Film and although it may have lost to Baby Reindeer (and Milioti to Jodie Foster for True Detective season 4), being nominated is still a victory.
As much as fans loved the HBO series, one question kept coming up. To quote Jack Nicholson in the 1989 film Batman: “And where is the Batman?” The funny thing is he could have been at home washing his tights, right?
The real answer, however, is a bit more realistic than doing his laundry, but you know that could have been a part of it because you know not everyone can be everywhere at once.
Why Batman isn't in The Penguin
Throughout the eight-episode run of The Penguin, DC fans were wondering where the Dark Knight was during Oz Cobb's treacherous rise to the top of Gotham City's criminal empire. The show is designed to bridge the gap between Matt Reeves' The Batman and its 2027 sequel, but the Caped Crusader was nowhere to be seen. The real reason for that was simply down to the fact that he's one man in a very large city.
As reported by ComicBook.com, showrunner Lauren LeFranc opened up about this when speaking to Empire Magazine, simply explaining: "Batman can’t be everywhere."
"He doesn’t have a Spidey-sense that tingles. But just because we don’t see Batman in our show doesn’t mean he’s unaware or uncaring."
It may have seemed odd that The Dark Knight was nowhere to be found during the gang war between Sofia Gigante and Oz Cobb but LeFranc said that Matt Reeves told her early on that Gotham is “a big city and Batman can’t be everywhere.” He's 100% right.
Let’s call it like it is. Batman isn’t a superhero. Yes, he’s a hero on a universal scale, but he doesn’t have super-strength or superspeed and can’t yell “Flame On!” and burst into fire. Bruce Wayne a genius with billions of dollars and a creative mind that makes others look like children playing with Legos. But no matter how much we’d like to believe that he should have been around during the violence, he’s not the Multiple Man. When things were going crazy in The Penguin, he was probably somewhere in Gotham that needed him more.
It might have been hard to believe prior to the show's release, but not having Batman in the show helped both it and the future of comic book spinoff projects. The Penguin had to rely on an amazing creative team, actors, and production designers to keep fans interested. Not only did they succeed, they overachieved. The triumph proved that a project with Batman characters doesn’t need the Caped Crusader to be successful and profitable. Titans and Gotham may have done well with the concept before, but The Penguin took it to a whole new level.
Going forward, we could see more comic book villains getting solo TV shows and movies. There's already a horror-style Clayface film being developed by the director and writer of Fall of the House of Usher, Mike Flanagan. If Clayface does well, there could be more opportunities for innovative creators to bring their style to DC Universe characters like Ra’s al Ghul, Mr. Freeze, and more. Stay tuned to Bam Smack Pow to see if that happens.
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