The Penguin Shows Marvel How To End a Series

Now that the first (or only) season of The Penguin is over, it’s time to take stock of just how good it was, what it accomplished, and what fans of the show can expect now. Obviously, at least some of the action from the HBO Max series is going to carry over to The Batman Part 2. For instance, Oz Cobb is now the kingpin of crime in Gotham. He’s the big boss. That’s changed from The Batman when Carmine Falcone was the godfather. The Penguin is now the man who controls the underworld in the city and that change in his status will be reflected in the next movie, even if he isn’t the villain who is central to the plot.

While some of the action and the characters will carry over to The Batman Part 2, even if no one knows how yet, there is one thing that The Penguin did well that Marvel should note for its next MCU installment. In a lot of ways, both the DCU and MCU live by the same rules. The shows are meant to color in the lines a bit of what was sketched in the movies. They’re meant to give fans better look at specific characters. So why does James Gunn’s DCU doing it so much better right now?

DC Is Doing It Right

Just what the DCU is doing right with its stand-alone series has shown up in both of the standalone series so far. The Penguin and Peacemaker are very, very different in terms of tone and plot. However, they have one big thing in common. Peacemaker is set in more of a comic book world where aliens are trying to take over the world and heroes and villains can use devices that allow them to shoot booms and even levitate. The Penguin is all about being as realistic as possible.

So what ties these shows together? What’s the thing that Marvel needs to take note of before it releases another series? Both shows make it so that the audiences are perfectly happy with the characters that are actually in the show. There isn’t any kind of sitting around and hoping that some big hero or villain is going to show up. For The Penguin, Matt Reeves and showrunner Lauren LeFranc made it very clear that Batman wasn’t showing up in the program. And yet, there was no hit to viewership numbers. And the quality of the show was better because the audience wasn’t watching, just counting down until The Dark Knight popped up.

Even when the big heroes did arrive in Peacemaker, it was a gag, rather than something anyone really expected or were waiting for. And that’s important. It allows the audience to be in the moments they’re watching. They can just focus on the story. They aren’t looking at the clock and wondering if someone more interesting will show up before the episode is over. And even when there are some hints that someone might be coming, The Penguin is more interesting because they don’t.

The Penguin Is The Roadmap For Future Projects

It doesn’t feel that way when talking about MCU television shows. In fact, most of those shows feel like every story is built so that the audience is always waiting for the big reveal. For the big cameo. Even in shows like Wandavision that had some pretty hefty star power with Wanda and the Vision, the big twists in the show involved familiar faces (Quicksilver) showing up. That’s especially the case when it came to Agatha All Along.

The entire series seemed to be set up to see if Mephisto would ever make an appearance, since the show was based on magic and demonic or evil power. There was also quite a bit of excitement around the “wait and see” of whether the entity, Death would reveal itself. And when it did, it felt as though it was somehow less exciting than it should have been because it was something everyone thought the show was ramping up to.

When Death was finally introduced, it was a quick shot and then moving on, despite rumors and whispers and buildup. And when Mephisto never appeared at all, the show somehow felt like it let everyone down.

Marvel needs to find a way to not just have the show that is all about waiting for bigger characters or introduce characters that are going to get shown off more in the movies. The MCU needs more shows that are self contained. This is one of the reasons Hawkeye might be one of the best MCU series’ out there. It’s just Hawkeye being Hawkeye while he tries to get home for Christmas. It’s the closest thing to The Penguin in that it’s a truly self contained story that isn’t all about what’s next. Marvel should do more, not less of that kind of story. Even if there were some analytics that showed it was less popular with its fan base, Kevin Feige and company can show them how wrong they are by repeating the approach until it takes hold.

Created by Lauren LeFranc and starring Colin Farrell, The Penguin builds on 2022’s The Batman. The Max series chronicles the eponymous villain’s attempt to reach Gotham’s criminal peak, rising through the underworld in the middle of a power struggle.

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