Huntress #1 and Penguin: Pain and Prejudice #1

Huntress is back in the DCnU with this limited series, and she's beating down thugs and not bothering to take names as always. She seems to be a little less bloodthirsty than in the previous incarnation, but she's still fairly brutal. Not much of a change to her costume, but it's the little things in a costume redesign that impress me. If something's not broke don't fix it is a motto in field service where I've worked for years, and it stands true here. There wasn't really anything with Huntress's costume, so why give it a major redesign for modernization. They've added some armor bits that make sense and given it a more streamlined appearance with the armor, but overall, it's still her costume.
The story in this issue was pretty cool too. Not your typical superhero after supervillain story here. It's a tale from real life of bad guys who are trafficking guns and women they've kidnapped into slavery as prostitutes or whatever else they choose to do with them. And it makes sense for Huntress to be taking care of this type of crime. She's a normal person after all with just the right skills and attitude to tackle these kinds of issues. Paul Levits did a wonderful job reintroducing Huntress to the DCnU, and I love it. Previously Huntress was the daughter of the Batman and Catwoman of Earth-2 (a parallel Earth tot he main DC Universe Earth, commonly referred to as Earth Prime) who had ended up on Earth Prime. They haven't revealed if that's still true for the Huntress yet, but she's definitely fits those lines still with the attitude.
Marcus To, who's work I have always loved (going back to when he was working on Soulfire with Aspen) does an amazing job in this book. I actually have an original pencil by Marcus To that he did for me at San Diego ComicCon one year early on when he was with Aspen. His pencils have only gotten better as time has progressed in my opinion, and I thought he was really good back then. The details he puts into a face to show expression is awesome, like the seriousness of the driver who drops Helena (Huntress) off at the hotel to the bellman who gives her a little smile and tip of his hat with an eyebrow raised as she enters the hotel.
Pick up this comic if you like Huntress, it's classy and gritty all at the same time, which is no surprise given a girl from Gotham who is familiar with Batman travelling to Italy to stop criminals from smuggling more problems into Gotham.

Ahh, the Penguin, the squat, ugly little rogue of Batman that no one really likes. I think Danny Devito did the best Penguin possible in Batman Returns. He was hideous and callous and Tim Burton's directing just made it creepy. This first issue of a 5 issue limited series really shows us this side of the Penguin. He's a creepy little man with no real superpowers, but who takes vengeance to whole new levels of pettiness. This first issue gives us a fresh glimpes into the origins of the Penguin and how he ended up the way he did. Born wiht a hideous nose that marked him as the man he would become, the Penguin was a child that only a mother could love and she was the only one that ever did according to this comic, so she's the only person he has any affection for in a reveal within this comic.
As to the revenge aspect of the Penguin, Gregg Hurwitz (the writer) is a man I would not want to offend in any major way given the revenge cycle he writes out for the Penguin for a man who bumps into the Penguin in the Penguin's club and before realizing it's the Penguin starts to tell him to watch where he's going. The man quickly realizes his mistake and apologizes...the Penguin laughts it off at this point, but that's not the end of it. Towards the end in a series of panels, the man is brought before the Penguin, and he tries to apologize again. Penguin laughs it off as if it is no big deal and then explains all the things that he has done to ruin this man's life since the incident earlier...including framing him for embezzlement, burning down his apartment complex with one of the man's good friends locked inside, cuts the brakes on his parents' car so they go over a cliff, and infects his girlfriend with an incurable disease that we are left to imagine will eventually kill her in some horrible method of suffering. Don't aggravate the Penguin is the moral, and for anyone close to Hurwitz, I would say don't aggravate him either; he may not be the Penguin, but you never know what a man with that kind of imagination might do to your cat. ;)
Artist, Szymon Kudranski, does an excellent job on the book too. The book's moody dark tones and colors by John Kalisz only add ot the pencils by Kudranski. Everyone around the Penguin is accentuated with various expressions of joy or barely perceptible smiles that they give only to keep their jobs and lives as they move around the Penguin. Crime never looked as evil as Kudranski makes it in this book. While the Joker may be the Clown Prince of Crime and stories with him, you expect to be full of insanity and violence, the world of the Penguin is a world of violence surrounded by darkness and melancholy, and that is the world depicted in this comic. If Gotham is a place of darkness and grime where the insanest of villains ply their illicit activities, the corner the Penguin is in is one of the darkest areas in the city.
If you like stories from the villain's perspective without them being turned into heroes (or anti-heroes as the case may be), then this book is one you should pick up and read. In the background story for why the Penguin is the way he is interspersed throughout the main story, you feel some sympathy for the Penguin, but then when you see how it has truly molded and shaped him, you realize that he has gone much further than his life has led him in how evil he has become.

Two Bat-family books that truly give you insight into two great characters from the family and its enemies. Huntress is as gritty as the Batman ever was even if it is against the cultured backdrop of Italy, while the Penguin shows why Batman is the way he is given the rogues gallery that he has to go up against.

Thanks for reading.