The Penguin (Arkhamverse) | Batman Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia
―The Penguin [src]
With the criminal underworld in disarray with the emergence of the Joker and the subsequent reveal of the massive amount of conspiracy and corruption within Gotham's infrastructure to the general public, Penguin realizes that he needs a game changer to remain within his power base against the more outlandish villains suddenly emerging and the more sufficient police force. With his other competitors, namely Black Mask and the Falcones, crippled in power due to Joker's actions, Penguin plans to capitalize on his remaining influence to become a leading power within the criminal underworld. To this end, on New Years Eve, the Penguin sets up a meeting with a mysterious armored man requesting his assistance, known only as Mr. Freeze , a former scientist who cannot survive outside sub-zero temperatures due to a lab accident and is thirsty for revenge. Freeze offers Penguin cryogenic weaponry manufactured at his previous employer, GothCorp, and in exchange, they ally with him to capture the GothCorp CEO Ferris Boyle .
With Freeze supplying Penguin and his gang various cyrogenic weapons, Penguin plans to use his upgraded artillery to unleash another crime wave on Gotham and perform daring heists, while also selling some of their new weapons to the black market. Penguin and his men use the weapons to freeze over entire sections of South Gotham, along with many officers, preventing police forces from stopping the crime wave, and take control of the 'My Alibi' night club, formally shutdown after Joker's capture. Penguin converts the club into a secondary base of operations, where he stores some of his newly acquired cryogenic weapons to be sold to interested parties on the streets. 
Freeze and Penguin's gang eventually track Boyle's location at Wayne Manor, as he was being presented with the Humanitarian of the Year award by Bruce Wayne's foundation. This presents Penguin yet another unique opportunity as the crime lord harbors a deep rooted hatred of the Waynes, blaming them for ruining his family's legacy. Penguin instructs his men to aid Mr. Freeze in abducting Boyle and to additionally take anything of value, torch the mansion, and kill Bruce Wayne to obtain his revenge over the Wayne legacy.
However, with the gang not knowing that Bruce Wayne and Batman are one in the same, Bruce is able to fight off his attackers, rescues Alfred and his guests, and prevents his mansion from being engulfed in the fires, despite Penguin's men successfully abducting Boyle. Meanwhile, some of Penguin's men also use their cryoweapons to conduct a burglary at one of Gotham's banks, although this operation is foiled by Batman, who had at that time been following a trail of cryogenic chemicals from one of the Penguin's arms dealers to find the dealer and get Freeze and Boyle's destination.  
Upon his men successfully retrieving Boyle, Penguin and Freeze then proceed to attack and seize complete control over GothCorp, freezing entire sections of the building and holding the staff hostage. Using security codes given to him by Freeze, Penguin has Boyle brought to the Propellant Research Wing of GothCorp HQ, also telling the guards to keep a lookout for anyone trying to rescue the CEO. Penguin eventually turns on Freeze when he learns that the villain had wanted Boyle for security codes that would grant him access to what Penguin assumed to be a massive weapon and plans to procure the weapon for himself. 
The reality of the situation however, is that Boyle had been holding Freeze's wife, Nora Fries , at his corporation for his own personal gain after stealing her from the former scientist once Boyle learns Fries had been continuing to use company resources without his knowledge in an attempt to cure Nora and neglecting his orders to advance GothCorp's secret weapons manufacturing project. 
Penguin then attacks Batman after he reveals himself, but ends up frozen by Mr. Freeze, eventually ending up trapped in a thick wall of ice by Freeze after overloading some cryogenic equipment. Penguin then proceeds to tell Batman about the existence of a cryodrill that Freeze had supplied them, citing its location at the "My Alibi" club. However, Penguin had ordered for the drill to be separated into pieces to be sold to external parties, and its fuel was still at the weapons lab where Freeze, then known as Victor Fries, experienced his accident.
Despite this, Batman manages to retrieve the parts from Penguin's men, discovers Freeze's tragic origins and Boyle's crimes, and completes the drill to make a path to the center of GothCorp in order to apprehend Freeze and Boyle and ensure Nora's safety. As Penguin's gang attempt to thaw their boss out of the ice, the frozen crime lord threatens them to hurry up and get him out, even implying that he'll drown his men in a hot bath made by Candy as soon as he got out. Batman, after defeating his men, decides to leave the Penguin trapped in the wall.
While trapped, Penguin reflected on the Joker's hiring of eight assassins and how Batman managed to live despite that, viewing the caped crusader as being "like a bad joke." Penguin is eventually and finally arrested, alongside Freeze and Boyle (with the latter's crimes being exposed), and was presumably freed from his icy tomb in the process, being placed into Blackgate Penitentiary.
Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate
It is implied that Penguin continued to remain locked up in Blackgate, even if he could bribe his way out, as he initially thought that the prospect of running his criminal empire from within the prison might be an ideal method to recruit other criminals and keep himself safe from Batman as he was already locked up and in relative comfort thanks to at least twelve guards on his payroll. Using gardening equipment, Penguin would also dig several tunnels beneath the prison and monitor all guard movements so he could effectively run Blackgate when an opportunity presented itself and even escape if he wanted to. However, three months later, a massive explosion within the prison commences a riot that allows Black Mask, The Joker, and the Penguin to seize complete control of the facility and carve up a portion of it for themselves and advance their own, individual agendas.
Believing the carnage to be much more complex than just a simple prison riot and takeover, Batman arrives at the penitentiary to investigate the situation further, allowing the Penguin and his fellow criminals a chance of ultimate revenge against their hated enemy. Destroying all the cameras throughout the cell block, using fragments of a broken bathroom mirror to reflect sensor lasers, and a blowtorch and spade to destroy security boxes, Penguin breaks into several weapon caches and claims the weaponry for himself and his gang. The crime lord would even go as far as to create makeshift electrical fences throughout the cell block to incapacitate first responding guards and use them as human shields for successive officers.
Penguin would additionally use the riots as an opportunity to recruit the prisoners for members of his gang, also using the opportunity to stage fights between various prisoners. Taking the prison yard guard hostage, Penguin has his men string the man's neck in a noose and hang him, only to be rescued at the last second by Ben Turner, aka, Bronze Tiger . Wanting to teach the man a lesson, Penguin gave Tiger the title of "champion" and forces him into fighting various guards and prisoners to the death, until he decides to join his army. After Batman refuses to kill Bronze Tiger upon defeating him, Penguin demands that the prisoners beat up Batman, but Bronze Tiger grazes Penguin with bullets, forcing Penguin to escape, although not before ordering several of his men to attack both as revenge.
During this time, Penguin also tries to steal the armory inside Blackgate and smuggle them. His plans are once again thwarted by Batman in the Cell Blocks, and is left to hang. However, he previously struck a deal with Catwoman to rig the place with explosives and hold hostages as ensurance to his escape, which forces Batman to diffuse them or else it would completely destroy Blackgate (this development varies between which of the three main bosses Batman defeats last). Catwoman did not care either way, as she only wants to smuggle Bane out of the prison. While Cobblepot is again apprehended, he is able to escape thanks to a Blackgate guard on his payroll, who is almost immediately murdered by Penguin after the criminal was freed of his restraints and gave him back his umbrella from police lockup, although not before learning that there were 120 criminals under Penguin's employ outside the prison.
Not long after this event, Penguin would take up residence within the Cyrus Pinkney Museum in the Bowery of Old Gotham, having purchased it several months prior, and convert it into his new base of operations, constructing the Iceberg themed restaurant on the other side of the structure.
Before Assault on Arkham
Cobblepot eventually used his ill-conceived fortune to purchase large sections of Old Gotham, including the Cyrus Pinkney's Institute for Natural History, which was in the process of being shutdown due to its position in a dilapidating part of Gotham City. Oswald saw the museum as the perfect base operations and converted both the museum and the attached restaurant he constructed, the Iceberg Lounge, into his main criminal quarters. Reestablishing the Iceberg Lounge into one of the finest restaurants in Gotham, Cobblepot gained the attention of the wealthy and criminal citizens of Gotham with a den of booze, drugs, gambling, and beautiful women.
On the opening night for the Iceberg Lounge, Oswald felt proud to have finally gained respect. He invited the Joker and Harley Quinn and offered them a free drink. When a waitress arrived, she tripped and accidentally spilled the drink on the Joker. Joker then sprayed acid on her face with his flower. Joker and Harley then trashed the club and fled. Enraged at Joker for ruining his party, killing his waitress, and tarnishing his reputation, Penguin developed a deep hatred of the clown.
On the outside, Oswald was a legitimate business tycoon, but truly made a living off of the black market in Gotham, having shipments of drugs and firearms arrive in Gotham each week, which he then sold to Gotham's criminals, while also performing his own scores and heists with his gang. Penguin gained a reputation for sadistic torture and mass murder, particularly on those he caught cheating in his casino. Within the museum, Penguin created a gladiator pit where he would select various criminals from Gotham's streets to partake in illegal fights to the death. The winners would become part of Penguin's growing gang while those that died would be put on display in various cases or fed to his shark, Tiny, originally part of the museum's underwater attractions.
Penguin also added a torture chamber to punish those who stood against him or were caught cheating in his gambling activities and additionally added a war room to plan his criminal operations, and a weapons cache to store his own personal shipments of weapons for his gang's use or to be sold to the black market. Gambling ran rampant through the Lounge and those who couldn't pay were either put into a private torture room or were killed.
With one such client that couldn't pay a bar room brawl broke out resulting in a broken beer bottle being lodged in Penguin's face, a favor which Cobblepot repaid by taking both the client's eyes, as well as leaving the client wandering blindly through the freeway at rush hour. After seeing the finest doctors it was determined that the removal of the bottle would result in death.
Penguin became content with it, believing that it made him look "unique." In addition, due to his hatred of the Waynes, he never stops laughing about their deaths at the hands of a mugger as well as Bruce Wayne's status as an orphan as a result upon learning about their deaths, even going as far to state that it "couldn't have happened to nicer people."
Batman: Assault on Arkham
At some point prior to the events of the film, Penguin's feud with the the Joker and Harley Quinn , initially sparked when the Joker murdered one of his waitresses at the Iceberg Lounge, would intensify when the murderous couple lit fire to a delivery truck, containing cigarettes and contraband meant to be sold onto the streets, and dumped it into the river. As this act was committed by the Joker simply for a laugh at the cost of the crime boss, along with a considerable amount of expenses, Penguin's hatred of the Joker and Harley was renewed. He also held a lot of respect for Deadshot for his reputation of being among the best assassins out in the criminal underworld, having worked with the assassin several years prior by supplying him with various artillery and weaponry for a hit he was hired to embark on in Gotham City on Christmas Eve.
He was eventually contacted by Amanda Waller with supplying the Suicide Squad with a way into Arkham Asylum, and supplied them with a file allowing access into the Asylum. However, when he saw that Harley Quinn was among the group, he attempted to gun her and the others down in his rage against her for her earlier ruining of one of his operations. However, he was eventually talked out of it by Deadshot when the latter pointed out that him killing his clients would reflect badly on him and allowed them to leave, although under the condition that they not appear in his sight again, especially with Harley Quinn.
An advertisement featuring the Penguin in Batman: Arkham Asylum .
While the Penguin does not appear in Batman: Arkham Asylum, his top hat and a collection of his trademark umbrellas can be seen behind glass at the South Corridor of the Arkham Mansion. An advertisement for his club, the Iceberg Lounge , can also be seen in the Intensive Treatment Center in William North 's office. His name also appears on the party list.
Arkham City's Construction and Hugo Strange's Plans
The Penguin
When Arkham City was developed, Penguin ended up trapped within the city because of his refusal to abandon the Iceberg Lounge, as he didn't wish to let his base get caught at the hands of some of the thugs. Ordering his men to open fire on the police force that was sent to evacuate the museum, Penguin's forces murdered three officers and finally revealed his criminal status to the people of Gotham. Now officially branded as a criminal once again,  Dr. Hugo Strange has the perimeter wall that would encompass Arkham City still undergo construction as scheduled, leaving Penguin as another inmate.
Now situated within the newly christened Arkham City, Penguin quickly adapted to his new environment, seeing fresh opportunities to conquer the criminal underworld and eliminate his competitors. After Joker escaped from Arkham Asylum and arrived at Arkham City, Cobblepot briefly met with the clown prince attempting to make peace with Oswald, to which he reminded Joker that he hadn't forgiven him for ruining the Iceberg's Lounge's opening, thus beginning the war between the two anew during the events of the game.
In order to survive Arkham City's violent environment, Penguin starts his own gang, hoping to seize complete control over the rest of the facility for his own ends. He ends up meeting Lester Kurtz , who wished to join the gang after fleeing the Joker's. Unlike Joker, Penguin didn't want to put Kurtz through any initiation and just told him to follow orders and he'll be paid. He then turns to another thug named Grisby, revealing a picture showing him double-crossing Penguin by giving information to Harley Quinn . He then sends a panicked Grisby to "tell the man downstairs" and sends him down a trapdoor.
Kurtz asks him what's down there and Penguin simply replies "Pray you never have to find out." Since Grisby told the Joker about the raid on the Security Armory planned by the Penguin, he tells his thugs they will have to get the weapons before they get to the armory. Due to the unexpected appearance of the Joker's goons, Kurtz had to destroy the guns infuriating Penguin, but Kurtz was able to talk his way out of being sent "downstairs" and instead cuts his pay in half and makes him lead a strike on the weakened Joker's hideout the next day.
To be sure he doesn't escape, Penguin tells his men to lock Kurtz up for the night, but he escapes anyway by knocking out the goons, a little later. Penguin never realized that Kurtz was a new alias of his mortal enemy, Batman. Presumably because of Kurtz' earlier actions, the Penguin instigated an initiation process where he would handpick any "horrible psychopaths" who wished to join who proved themselves to be the best, the exact initiation process being different each day.
Eventually, Penguin was taken to Hugo Strange by TYGER operatives to begin taped interview sessions, as much of the rest of the super-criminals had to do as well. There, Strange began to diagnose Penguin, much to the villain's annoyance, and even struck an alliance with the gang lord as part of his own plans for power. At the Penguin's request, Strange purchased and delivered a wide variety of military grade weaponry, ammunition, and technology to his base of operations, telling Penguin that Arkham City is merely an experiment to observe the actions of the criminal populace it houses when Penguin questioned his motives for the alliance.
With Penguin's new and incredible artillery in conjunction with all the resources he had at his disposal to begin with at his museum, Penguin took the compound by storm, killing all who opposed him and recruited hundreds of individuals to build up a massive gang. Throughout the months, Penguin's men would go on recruitment missions, assembling large groups of potential gang members and other inmates to be locked up in the gladiator arena within the Iceberg Lounge to eventually undergo duels to the death to determine who is worthy of joining Penguin's gang.
Penguin would remain in contact with Strange, who would continue to supply him with weapons and even hand over victims of his inhumane experiments to be used as target practice. Strange eventually informed Penguin that his rival, the Joker, was indeed sick and dying, but has blackmailed Mr. Freeze into developing a potential cure for his Titan illness. Strange reveals that Freeze has already been captured and locked up in one of his holding cells and offers to hand him and his various freeze equipment over to Penguin in order impede Joker's progress on a cure and cement his fate.
Penguin agreed and has several of his men take Freeze away to be locked up in one his display cases in his museum, cruelly choosing the one that it ventilated with extreme heat. As one last string to pull, Strange revealed to Cobblepot that ten inmates that work within his gang are actually inside agents for the Gotham City Police Department for Commissioner Gordon, trusting Penguin to dispose of them. Penguin wasted no time when he returned to his museum and has all ten of the undercover cops abducted, beaten, and locked away in his torture chamber for eventual death.
Robin posed as a street thug to investigate a fight club Penguin was running beneath the museum. Penguin claims that they are in a fight to the death and whoever wins will join his gang. As the fight goes on, Penguin decides to speed things up by adding a Titan henchman. Robin escaped once Bane arrived for Penguin's supply of Titan. Bane demanded the Titan be handed over to him, but he was met with Solomon Grundy, who's brute strength and near immortal power forced him to retreat
Penguin appeared as a juror in Two-Face's trial against the Joker and voted guilty for all the trouble Joker caused him over the years. Later, Penguin made a deal with Black Mask to blow the steel mill sky-high to kill the Joker, due to their mutual hatred of the clown. Black Mask instead decided to use the explosives given to him by Penguin to escape Arkham City.