“Guys like us, we gotta stick together.” That’s what Oz Cobb tells Victor Aguilar at the end of the first episode of The Penguin, officially setting up what is already shaping up to be one of the most special dynamics in Matt Reeves’ Batman universe.
When he catches him and his friends trying to steal the rims off his stylish plum-colored Maserati, Oz decides to spare Victor, or “Vic” as the crime boss affectionately calls him, after realizing the teen suffers from a stutter. He empathizes because he, too, lives every day with a disability, causing him to limp.
For The Penguin showrunner Lauren LeFranc, it was important to dive deeper into that side of the character after his introduction in The Batman. Explaining why he limps and waddles, giving him a distinct penguin-like gait, was crucial in establishing why The Penguin is more than just a moniker for this iteration of the legacy DC Comics villain. In truth, the name pokes fun at something that causes him extreme pain. “In the movie, you’re not quite sure why he limps, and I wanted to firmly establish why and to show the level of pain that he puts himself through, but doesn’t speak about it, LeFranc told IGN.
What is Oz Cobb’s disability in The Penguin?
Also in the show’s first episode, we see Oz’s clubfoot as he massages it after a full day of standing on his feet. This is a condition that one is usually born with and that affects the bones, muscles and tendons of the foot. Per STEPS, “in clubfoot, the bones of the foot are abnormally shaped and the Achilles tendon (the large tendon at the back of the heel) is tight.”
Oz wears a brace for his deformed foot, but in reality, fixing this condition is relatively simple and can be achieved with physical therapy and a cast, avoiding surgery. LeFranc, however, envisioned a universe where it would demand surgical intervention and an expensive one at that — and Oz’s mom, to whom he is very attached, wasn’t interested. “His mother didn’t decide to spend the money on a surgery like that. Also, because she doesn’t see it as a disability. She doesn’t see it as a problem. She sees it as a way for him to strengthen himself,” the writer explained.
A simple disability reveals so much about the character at the center of The Penguin and informs his relationship with the people — namely, his mother and Victor — and the world around him. Matt Reeves and co. decided to give the club owner a limp in the 2022 movie, but LeFranc thought the spin-off miniseries was a great opportunity to dissect that connection between physical (and mental) impairments and villains in comic book tradition.
“For me, it was important to show that Oz, psychologically, is a damaged person. Who he is inside is what informs the choices and the darker choices he makes. It’s not because he has a disability. It’s not based on the way that he looks.”
After just one episode, it’s clear that The Penguin is sure to provide more context for Oz’s motivations and develop his relationship with his disability and the way people perceive him because of it. To Oz, giving a guy with a stutter a chance to climb the ranks of power, however corrupted and violent his world may be, is probably restorative justice. But we’ll have to see how the rest of the season plays out and whether LeFranc succeeds at exploring all these nuances.
New episodes of The Penguin come out every Sunday on Max, starting Sept. 29.