The month-long Joker’s Asylum series continues this week with a story about Oswald Cobblepot, also known as The Penguin.

We begin in Arkham with The Joker talking to us through the window in the door of his cell. This is definitely more of a “funny” Joker, exercising by smashing his head against the door and telling the interrupting Two-Face to “mind your own damn business.” Humor does play a part in this issue, but Joker’s tale about the Penguin is also one of the darkest, most violent stories ever told about Batman’s tuxedo-wearing foe. With Joker telling the story, would you expect anything less?

Over the years, Penguin has typically been portrayed as one of the more harmless villains in the Batman mythos. He’s certainly never been as scary as The Joker, Two-Face, or Ra’s Al Ghul. This story, written by Jason Aaron, creates a frightening, but also faithful version of Oswald Cobblepot. In this issue, we see a more vengeful side of Penguin. We see the wrath he thrusts upon those who’ve laughed at him. At the same time, however, we are shown his sensitive side and all of the insecurities that fuel his hatred.

Keeping in line with Paul Dini’s stories in DETECTIVE COMICS, Penguin is a “legitimate” businessman, enjoying the spoils of all his hard work. While attending an auction for goods of questionable legality, Penguin buys a young woman, Violet, out of slavery without expecting anything in return. Oswald was just doing a rare good deed, but the woman was so moved by Penguin’s generosity that she began to fall for him. For the first time, Penguin experienced a woman seeing past his appearance and loving him or who she thought he really was. Oswald was smitten and told Batman so while The Dark Knight was beating his thugs during a weekly checkup to make sure that Penguin was still clean.

Things are going well until Penguin and Violet are out to dinner and Oswald spots a chef out of the corner of his eye who might have been laughing at him. Violet calms Oswald down and he appears to let it go, but the next brilliantly written sequence explains how Penguin spared no expense in taking apart the chef’s life piece by piece until he read of the man’s suicide in the obituaries. As Violet will soon learn this is not the first time Penguin has sought sadistic vengeance from someone who’s made a joke out of him. From the girl who laughed in his face when he asked her to the high school dance to one of his pet birds who bit him, all of them have had to learn a brutal lesson about humiliating Oswald Cobblepot. Violet loved Penguin for who he was until she found out who he really was. Her rejection of Penguin led to perhaps the coldest, most disgusting act of all.

The story is great in and of itself, but Jason Pearson's artwork really brings it to life. His Penguin is especially diminutive in stature to emphasize the character’s Napoleon complex. Pearson also does an amazing job of conveying a wide range of emotions for Penguin from joyful, to enraged, to downright callous. All the other characters are wonderfully drawn as well.

Aaron and Pearson’s take on the Penguin in this issue should go down as one of the best stories ever told about the character. Penguin is just as sophisticated and debonair as ever, but is also given a level of depth that has not often been emphasized in previous comics. Penguin will never be physically imposing, but he is truly frightening in this story. He possesses the power, the resources, and the will to destroy the life of any man, woman, or animal that rubs him the wrong way. He is more than just a gimmick or a pun in this story.

He is a true villain in every sense of the word