The Penguin on HBO doesn’t mention or use the Batman character, despite being a spinoff of Matt Reeves’ The Batman. And in terms of Batman comics Easter eggs, there aren’t a whole lot. Sofia Falcone is a comic book character, and some of the various mob families have names from the comics. But so far, that’s about it. However, one key aspect of The Penguin’s plot seems to be an homage to Batman lore. We’re talking about Oz Cobb’s relationship with his young protégé Victor “Vic” Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz) which draws from Batman’s mentorship of the second Robin, Jason Todd.
How Oz Cobb Meets Vic in The Penguin
In The Penguin, we meet Vic in the first episode. He’s a young teenage boy who lost his family in the Riddler’s engineered floods at the end of The Batman. Together with a gang of other street kids, also orphans of the flood, he tries to steal the rims off Oz’s fancy car. Oz shoots at the group of kids, and most escape, except for Vic. Although Oz was going to shoot him, he refrains. He feels compassion for Vic because Vic displays a stutter and Oz himself has a disability. He ends up taking Vic under his wing. At first, under threat of death, but later, he becomes genuinely fond of him. All of this echoes how Jason Todd met Batman. However, Jason’s first origin story was quite different from the one The Penguin used as inspiration.
Jason Todd’s First Robin Origin Story in DC Comics Was Different
In the DC Comics continuity, Dick Grayson was Batman’s partner Robin for the better part of 44 years. DC only allowed Dick to age very slowly, from about 12 to 18 years old in all that time. But as the team leader of the Teen Titans, he found new popularity with readers. So when DC decided to let him graduate to become the adult hero Nightwing, Batman needed a new Robin. That new Robin was a younger kid by the name of Jason Todd.
DC Comics introduced Jason Todd in 1983’s Batman #357. Like Dick, he was originally the child of murdered circus acrobats, who Bruce Wayne takes in as his new ward. He had red hair instead of black, dying it only when he took over the Robin persona. Like with Dick Grayson, Batman trains Jason in martial arts. However, all of this was way too similar to Dick’s backstory. Via the Crisis on Infinite Earths reboot of the DCU, Jason received a new origin story four years later.
Jason Todd’s Second Origin Changed The Character’s History
In his new origin story, Jason Todd is a street kid in Gotham’s most downtrodden neighborhood, Park Row, a.k.a. Crime Alley—the very same Crime Alley where Bruce Wayne lost his parents. An orphan, Jason Todd lost his mother to drug addiction, and his father vanished after working as a hired muscle for Two-Face. Batman finds him trying to steal the tires off the Batmobile. Impressed with his guts to attempt such a thing, and feeling kinship as a fellow orphan, Batman takes him in. Despite not having Dick Grayson’s acrobatic know-how, Batman gives Jason a six-month crash course in training, hoping he can channel his anger and rage into becoming his new partner to replace Dick.
In some ways, Batman sees more of himself in Jason than in Dick. Although both are orphans, Dick was never consumed by rage the way Bruce and Jason seemed to be. But Jason’s rage was ultimately not something he could control. In 1988, the readers were asked to vote if Jason should live or die, via a 1-900 number. This storyline was called “A Death in the Family,” even before Jason’s fate was even decided. And the fans chose death for poor Jason. He would eventually come back to life as the antihero Red Hood, but it took 17 years.
Oz Cobb and Vic Is a Darker Version of Bruce Wayne and Jason Todd
In The Penguin, Oz Cobb meets Vic more or less the same way. He sees himself in Vic, and even admires his bravado for attempting to steal his rims. Their relationship becomes very similar to Batman and Jason Todd’s in the comics. Of course, there’s a key difference here. The Penguin is a sociopathic villain. His empathy only goes so far, and he wants to channel Vic’s rage and suffering over his own losses into becoming another version of himself. Batman genuinely wanted to help Jason (while also making him a child soldier, but hey, that’s comics).
It should also be noted that Vic in general seems to have come from a much healthier and stable family before he lost them to the floods. He has a sweetness and good-natured quality about him that Jason Todd never had, at least after his origin story’s post-Crisis revision. Can Vic become the hardened criminal that the Penguin is under his guidance? Right now, the answer is unclear. While Jason Todd became a better person by the influence of Batman, we can’t imagine the Penguin’s influence on Vic will ever lead to anything good.
