Ugly Man
This is an amazing book, well written, and makes you care for this monster of a man even more than last time. We continue where we left off from the last issue and we see Oswald's breaking point. He tries so very hard to be loved and even by the one who loves him most he finds betrayal and hatred from those that should love him. We also get to see that when he looks in the mirror he imagines himself to as what he thinks Batman must be under the costume and from that you can begin to see a part of his psychology of why he does what he does even when faced with the fact that now in his position of power he can see that there are people working to be good to everyone, even the most down trodden... He must believe that Batman and all those who do good are not truly doing good because they are good, but because they want to hold other down by saying "Look how great we are"
The ending while not as great as the first issue's ending in so far as a good draw back for next month, but a very interesting ending which is as great if not greater in generating emotion. At first you feel like "ha, serves the right for treating Oswald like that" because you never suspect the ending then you find out the ending and you feel... confused, because you understand where young Oswald is coming from and think those guys deserved it, but at the same time does that justify murder? Does having no escape justify any means necessary... To some yes, but other no...I think the book is asking you that question so I won't answer myself in here ^.^
To go further though this series illustrates that Penguin had almost no other choice but to go down that path he took. After the events revealed in this issue do you think he could just put it behind him with society still treating him badly and with the fact that he got away with it? I can't blame him nor can I say he's nuts because I think that what he became is natural given the conditions he was put through.
Of note, in continuity, Penguin doesn't have mechanical engineering skills so for him to have them here is somewhat weird, but that's forgiven because it is such an excellent book and I think this will become Penguin's definitive book much like The killing Joke and Long Halloween is for Joker
